Mitchell•Giddings

Petria Mitchell and Jim Giddings, co-owners of Mitchell-Giddings Fine Arts, have been steeped in the New England regional arts scene for over four decades. Both professional artists and affiliated with numerous arts organizations and nonprofits, the owners have developed broad knowledge and insights into the world of artmaking, artists and galleries. They have a passion to work with fellow artists and create novel ways to exhibit their artwork. Giddings suggests that his world view has been shaped by what he has looked at and looked for. Painting permits an investigation and a search for harmony in those looked-at things. Together, Mitchell and Giddings have mixed and matched painting, art handling, maintenance, art installation and teaching. Each point of focus affects everything else, and in what was a natural evolution, the creation of a fine art gallery provided the ideal opportunity to share the conversation among artists, collectors and lovers of the visible creative act.

These passions merged in 2013 with the purchase of a space, and after exhaustive renovations, a cutting edge gallery opened to the public September 18, 2014, in the heart of downtown Brattleboro. Celebrating the inaugural exhibition for Mitchell-Giddings Fine Arts, guest Wolf Kahn proclaimed. “You’ve brought Paris to Brattleboro!” In December, 2019, MGFA relocated upstairs to its present street level location. Extensive remodeling and architectural surprises are highlighted by a flood of natural light and an inviting storefront window on Main Street. The expanded gallery features spacious rooms and high ceilings to offer an unrivaled installation of large work. Together these changes reinforce MGFA’s mission to exhibit and promote artists who consciously engage with the myriad of challenges of personal expression within their chosen medium. Mitchell-Giddings Fine Arts curates a diverse collection of innovative works that stimulate the seasoned collector and aesthetic explorer.

“While singled out by Style Magazine as one of the nation’s top art towns, and Smithsonian Magazine as one of the best small towns to live in for the quality and number of its arts organizations and venues, Brattleboro has never had a gallery like Mitchell-Giddings Fine Arts. That is, a large commercial gallery with plenty of wall and floor space to show the kind of large-scale work favored by so many artists today.”

(Arlene Distler, ArtScope).