Paul and Harriet Gratz have chosen the Jonathan D. Krist Foundation as the recipient of a portion of the proceeds generated by this year’s anniversary celebration and exhibition. Profits from every painting purchased during the exhibition will directly benefit the foundation through a single contribution by the gallery to the foundation. Following the death of their nineteen year-old child in 2006, Bob and Peggy Krist of New Hope, along with their sons Matthew and Brian, established the foundation to celebrate and honor the memory and charitable deeds of the young, local New Hope musician who lived a too-brief, but a caring and enthusiastic life. The Jonathan D. Krist Foundation promotes the study of music, the humanities, and the environment by awarding scholarships and grants to persons who have shown individuality in their creative pursuits.
Students from the New Hope – Solebury High School have become involved in the foundation in a variety of ways, including by its participation in the “Box of New Hope” program. Working with the high school business club as a sales force, the foundation produces notecards featuring photos of New Hope. The proceeds are used to send boxes of items to people in need. Recipients have included local troops in Iraq and KIPP charter schools. These notecards, featuring local shots taken by Jonathan’s father, Bob – an international award-winning photographer and a contributing editor at National Geographic Traveler and Outdoor Photographer -- will be available for purchase at the gallery throughout the exhibition.
The exhibition, 19th & 20th Century American Paintings, featured oils and watercolors by a variety of American artists, highlighting many Pennsylvania artists, such as Fern Coppedge, Daniel Garber, Arthur Meltzer, M. E. Price, Edward Redfield, Harry Leith-Ross and many others. An annual tradition at Gratz Gallery, the fall exhibition features a collection of paintings spanning over two centuries of works by American painters, from Thomas Sully, William Trost Richards, Hugh Breckenridge, Rosamond Lombard Smith Bouve and William Sonntag to Emile Gruppe, Robert Spencer, Antonio Martino and Leon Kelly.