The Martha Bennett Gallery serves as a place to mix art with community and showcase budding artists separate from a regular class at school. Additionally, it celebrates people in the community while simultaneously providing a space for political expression.
Sophia Wagner ’21 described it as “an essential hub in the school.”
Since The Martha Bennett Gallery is almost entirely student-run, it provides a unique experience to give students a room to showcase their work, and as stated on their website, “[b]ridges the cultural, intellectual, and aesthetic across Blake.” Their current show is focused on parent art. Their December show will be all about alumni art, building community between alumni and current students.
However, this sense of community has been hard to maintain throughout COVID-19. Reina Ackerberg ’22 notes, “[the gallery] has changed a lot…one of our team members created a website for us, which was really cool. We’re doing all our shows online, and we have an Instagram [account]. It’s been a lot harder to bring people into our shows, but I think that we’re doing a pretty good job going through COVID-19, but everything is hard through COVID-19.” Meanwhile, they remain busy curating shows online and staying active on their Instagram account. Currently, the gallery is serving as the theater classroom.
