Old Jail to celebrate 40th anniversary
By Melinda L. Lucas
With a March 17 reser-vation deadline quickly approaching, local residents are being encouraged to secure their places at the Old Jail Art Center’s upcoming 40th anniversary celebration on Saturday, March 28 at 7:00 p.m.
With a theme of “Piano Bar & Supper Club,” the event will feature musical entertainment by Santa Fe’s Piano Man Doug Montgomery and New York City tenor John Tiranno, a meal catered by Perini Ranch, and several valuable auction items.
Space is limited to the first 300 reservations, according to membership and development coordinator Susan Montgomery, and anyone interested in attending the event should call the Old Jail or reserve online by next Tuesday.
40 Years of Excellence
In 1968, Princeton graduate Reilly Nail inherited the original two-story rock jail building built in 1877 from his uncle, Robert Nail.
Over the next decade, Reilly Nail and his cousin, artist Bill Bomar, both avid art collectors, decided to combine their collections of 20th century pieces and the Asian collections of both their mothers.
With these pieces as the starting point, the “Old Jail Foundation” opened in 1980, utilizing a small one-story addition and with a total of four small galleries.
Although the permanent collections now include works by such well-known artists as Pablo Picasso and Paul Klee, one of the main emphases over the last 40 years has been to collect and promote the works of more contemporary artists.
Ongoing growth over four decades brought about additions in 1984, 1996, 2009, and 2016.
Today, the OJAC encompasses some 17,000 square feet and is a thriving, widely-acclaimed art museum dedicated to the visual arts and preservation of regional history.
The Ruby Portfolio
Entitled “The Ruby Portfolio” because rubies are the symbol of a 40th anniversary, a selection of about 100 of the OJAC’s 2,400 works of art are part of the gala celebration.
Old Jail executive director Pat Kelly curated the exhibit, which he says is “thematically arranged to convey the diversity, depth, and quality of the museum’s holdings.”
Ranging from pieces by well-known American and European artists to those by emerging artists, the collection also includes ancient Chinese tomb figures and Pre-Columbian objects.
Other exhibits on display during the anniversary celebration are Deborah Butterfield’s “Three Sorrows” and Jo Ann Fleischhauer’s “Disquieted Beauty.”
Special Entertainment
Santa Fe’s Piano Man, Doug Montgomery, is making his first trip to Albany to provide musical entertainment for gala attendees.
Classically trained at Chicago’s Northwestern University and the famed Juilliard School in New York City, Montgomery has been the main attraction at one of Santa Fe’s premiere piano bars for the last 38 years, the result of a chance meeting while visiting a friend.
Vanessie is considered one of the best piano bars in the nation, and Montgomery’s talent is apparently a good part of the reason, since he was hired before the nightclub was even completed.
“I’m terribly excited to be coming to Albany, Texas and performing for all the people I will get to meet and entertain,” said Montgomery. “I’m looking forward to being part of this gala festival, and I am completely honored to be asked.”
Tenor John Tiranno has been called “ardent and mellifluous” as well as a “clear-voiced tenor” by The New York Times.
He has performed Handel’s Messiah with the Santa Fe Symphony, Berlioz’s Requiem with La Jolla Symphony & Chorus, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 and Paul Moravec’s The Blizzard Voices with the Oratorio Society of New York, and Richard Strauss’ Deutsche Motette with Musica Sacra, as well as a long list of other appearances and recitals.
To make reservations for the 40th anniversary event, call the OJAC at 325-762-2269 or visit the website at theojac.org.
