Peninsula Gallery Shutters After Flouting Shelter Orders: Report

MENLO PARK, CA — Art is essential to the human spirit, but it’s a no-go during a pandemic.

That’s the conclusion a Peninsula art gallery owner finally came to after initially flouting shelter-in-place orders.

Katherina Powers has agreed to shut down Art Ventures Gallery on Santa Cruz Avenue in Menlo Park after repeated warnings from police that her business was operating in violation of San Mateo County’s shelter orders, The San Jose Mercury News reports.

She shuttered the gallery a day after reopening it on Wednesday, the report said.

Powers said Menlo Park Police Sgt. Jeff Cooley gave her a written copy of the order Wednesday, according to the Mercury report. That was after police Commander William Dixon warned her verbally.

Powers told the Mercury “I obeyed” orders to shutter her gallery, noting that she didn’t want to risk a fine or jail time.

Powers had previously said she opened the gallery at the request of local residents who encouraged her to do so, according to the Mercury report. She said her decision to open the gallery wasn’t intended to be a “challenge against Governor (Gavin) Newsom and the threat of COVID-19.”

Read more in The San Jose Mercury News