The James L. and Shirley W. Dodwell Art Gallery was dedicated at the Long Island Library on Saturday, July 10 with three generations of the Dodwell family present and dozens more family friends and onlookers in the audience.
Shirley Dodwell moved through the crowd, expressing her appreciation of this recognition of her family’s Long Island-inspired art. Quipped her son Peter, “you go to a Picasso opening and he is not present, but Long Island delivers.” The opening featured a number of gold leaf tray paintings that Shirley created throughout her life as well as many Long Island scenes painted by Jim Dodwell.
Shirley’s husband, artist Jim Dodwell, was the son of Portland’s chief of police. He grew up on Munjoy hill in Portland and came to Long Island most of his life. Jim Dodwell’s experiences on Long Island are reflected in his oil paintings of Long Island’s east and west ends, where the Dodwell family still resides.
Following the dedication, longtime family friends Richard and Helen Kay entertained with a piano and cello duet and arioso by J.S. Bach, while onlookers toured the completed gallery and the soon-to-be-complete theater and library.
Nancy Jordan, chair of the library committee, and Barb Smith coordinated the event. The library plans to host its grand opening event next summer.