{"id":808,"date":"2011-08-04T17:05:50","date_gmt":"2011-08-04T21:05:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=808"},"modified":"2011-08-04T17:58:49","modified_gmt":"2011-08-04T21:58:49","slug":"willow-on-state-street-a-haven-for-contemporary-artists-curious-patrons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=808","title":{"rendered":"Willow on State Street a haven for contemporary artists, curious patrons"},"content":{"rendered":"

The newly opened <\/em>Willow<\/em> on State offers vintage books, vinyl, and contemporary art to those interested in something different. <\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

By P.J. D’Annunzio<\/strong>, Staff Writer, KennettTimes.com<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Willow on State opened its doors on July 9, 2011.<\/p><\/div>\n

KENNETT SQUARE \u2014 \u201cCurious?\u201d reads the writing on the window of Willow on State, enticing inquisitive passersby to investigate the newest, and possibly most unique addition to Kennett\u2019s thoroughfare.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal is to unite people who like contemporary art and music\u2026to have a place for people who have common interests to hang out,\u201d Co-owner of Willow on State Sandy Mayer said, \u201cIf you\u2019ve ever had a favorite record store that went out of business and you felt sad about it, the reason you felt sad is not that you can\u2019t get that stuff somewhere else, you generally can, it\u2019s that there\u2019s something infused in that place that you can\u2019t find anywhere else.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s love in all of this work,\u201d Mayer said elaborating on the gallery\u2019s wide array of contemporary art interspersed between rows of records, handmade jewelry, knickknacks, and books, \u201cEvery artist sat there by themselves and worked on their own. It\u2019s a marvelous thing for them to come here and have people appreciate them. They don\u2019t have to buy it\u2026they can come here, hang out and listen to music and go \u2018hey, that\u2019s a really nice piece of art; that’s a payment for an artist. Everybody wants to be appreciated for whoever they are.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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A variety of handmade goods and contemporary art offered within the gallery.<\/p><\/div>\n

That appreciation extends to music as well with a dedicated section of the store devoted to vinyl records from The Doors and Queen to newer artists. Willow on State also operates as a small venue for local musicians, generally singer-songwriters, who are eager to showcase their talent in front of an audience of like-minded individuals. There have already been several performances at Willow to date and the number is expected to increase over time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Willow on State caters to readers and writers as well, offering an eclectic selection of rare and hard-to-find books. \u201cWe have cool, unusual, obscure titles\u2026a lot of them are old and out of print,\u201d said Mayer, \u201cWe are\u00a0open to showcasing local writers also, they\u2019re really, really important.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the major themes of the store is innovation: breaking with traditional forms of artistic genres and exposing patrons to new modes drawn from Kennett Square itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be a stage for emerging, local, community based art,\u201d Co-owner Hillary Sculthorpe said, \u201cWe want to be able to reach into the community and pull from it. We\u2019re in an area where there\u2019s a tradition of Old Master type art and we want to bring a new life, a new breath, sort of contemporary, into the art scene. We want to give you a really cool place to go where you don\u2019t have to go into the city.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Willow on State also doubles as a performance venue for local singer -songwriters and musicians.<\/p><\/div>\n

Local photographer Susan Curtis commented on the accessibility of Willow on State as a showcase for artists, \u201cThis is a place that many people can find a home for their work,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The owners and employees of the gallery have striven to make it accessible not only to artists of all strokes, but for people who are not necessarily artistically literate, or who are new to contemporary art.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think that we\u2019re giving people a chance to view art differently,\u201d said Sculthorpe, \u201cWhen you come in you\u2019re greeted with sort of very bold, visceral images. It\u2019s up to the viewer how they feel about that. It\u2019s my goal for somebody to come in and have a reaction to the art. If it\u2019s good or if it\u2019s bad, I mean, I\u2019m looking for them to have some sort of reaction. We\u2019re looking for artists that really push that emotional reaction.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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The newly opened Willow on State offers vintage books, vinyl, and contemporary art to those interested in something different. By P.J. D’Annunzio, Staff Writer, KennettTimes.com KENNETT SQUARE \u2014 \u201cCurious?\u201d reads the writing on the window of Willow on State, enticing inquisitive passersby to investigate the newest, and possibly most unique addition to Kennett\u2019s thoroughfare. \u201cMy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,4],"tags":[162,16,161],"class_list":["post-808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-featured","tag-artists","tag-kennett-square","tag-willow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}