SoNo Sidewalk Gallery To Close After 5 Years In Norwalk

NORWALK, CT — After five years of providing people passing by with beautiful art to enjoy, South Norwalk's Sidewalk Gallery is set to close this summer. The gallery, located at 18 S Main Street, is owned and run by the husband and wife team of William Gramigna and Jennifer Hunter.

The gallery is located behind 11 windows that run along the curve of the building in front of a 50-foot white wall, behind which Gramigna runs Press Proof Studio, which will also be closing after five years in Norwalk and 33 years in business.

According to Hunter, Press Proof Studio was previously located in a large office building in Westchester County, which was "like its own planet." Gramigna began looking for a location that would shorten his commute and get them closer to the sidewalk and other people. When they finally discovered the unique Norwalk location, Gramigna and Hunter fell in love with it.

"The gallery was a spontaneous result of seeing the space," Hunter said. "We saw that the building was curved with 11 windows, which is very cool. You could just walk right up to the window and see what’s in there."

Preferring not to be on display themselves while at work every day, Gramigna and Hunter decided to take advantage of the windows and create the Sidewalk Gallery, where they could showcase artists they knew or admired and exhibit their work for those who passed by the building.

The gallery has hosted nearly 30 exhibits since its inception, some of which were the first for a local artist while others featured artists whose work has been on display in New York and Paris. The gallery's 29th and final exhibit was revealed on May 3.

"We’ve had some very great artists; a very broad variety," Hunter said. "Any artist gets a boost. Each of those 28 exhibits were for a different reason...every single time we had a different artist, I’d be learning things."

While Hunter and Gramigna have loved being a part of the South Norwalk community for half a decade, they have decided to close due to the stress of the job and a desire to indulge in other pleasures, such as traveling and music. Still the decision to close in June was "heartbreaking," according to Hunter.

"It really is hard," Hunter said. "It’s a hard change, because you’re also removing your relevance to others. If somebody said ‘we’ll pay the rent and you stay in here and do these gallery shows’, we would do it."

Though they have loved offering the gallery to the public, it has come with some challenges.

"We see people walk by with their heads down and it’s pretty sad," Hunter said. "It’s a sad social commentary that people have been in such turmoil they can’t even look up."

Hunter agreed it also speaks to the way people often will walk around a community and fail to notice or fully appreciate all the beauty around them, something artists are able to capture so well and something the gallery has put on display for anyone walking along the sidewalk to stop and enjoy.

It is one of the reasons closing the gallery was such a hard decision.

"Press Proof Studio is what feeds us," Hunter said. "The gallery feeds our souls."