You walk into the space and are immediately met with the warm lighting from the windows. You feel as if you can finally take a deep breath as the light you see is accompanied by physical beauty. It is a unique type of beauty that allows a space to feel warm and comfortable, and the variety of shapes and colors fill the room and tease the eye. The physical beauty of the space comprises art.
The Ann Connelly Fine Arts Gallery might as well be referred to as home because of the way it makes you feel.
This woman-owned gallery is truly unique. You can tell everyone who works there truly has a spark for art and loves what they do.
The gallery moved to its fifth location at 1670 Lobdell Ave. 11 years ago. Chelsea Norris, the creative sales leader of Ann Connelly Fine Arts Gallery, talked about this experience.
“The memory of making the move will be forever etched into my memory,” Norris said.
Together, the small group moved every bit of molding, artwork on paper, piece of furniture and sculpture for two weeks. Norris described how fun it was to see all the components of what makes up the business and to discover old pieces that were buried by time.
She mentioned how art and memories go hand in hand. Pieces hold memories and represent moments for many people.
“Really beautiful things are timeless, especially as it relates to artwork,” said Norris. “Hopefully, your artwork is that thing that maybe it’s not your favorite piece anymore, but it’s always going to have this moment in time.”
The gallery has a strong connection to LSU. One of the gallery’s Elise Morris paintings sits inside the Kappa Kappa Gamma house at LSU. Elise Morris is an emerging artist in the Bay area.
“Pretty much everyone here is a graduate of LSU, so it is a very LSU-centered business,” Norris said.
Norris went to LSU and studied mass communications and digital art. She came to work at the gallery as an LSU intern and never left. The gallery still brings in interns from LSU.
“I find that we have so much talent here,” said Norris. “Not just our physical talent here with our team, but the artistic talent that radiates out of just the South.” Norris said.
Not only does the gallery have strong ties to LSU, but it also has strong ties to Baton Rouge as a whole. Connelly started the business about 35 years ago. She attended University of Louisiana at Lafayette and studied painting and drawing. Afterward, she came to Baton Rouge.
Norris emphasized the importance of Baton Rouge for the company and how without the city, the gallery would not be where it is today.
“This gallery cannot exist anywhere else,” Norris said.
Baton Rouge allows the gallery to try new things through the way it harnesses culture and art. The Ann Connelly Fine Arts gallery is different from typical galleries. It has over 1,500 pieces of work physically in the building, does unique custom framing, and showcases 75 artists. The gallery is not exhibition driven.
“By being so different, it has allowed us to weather the storms along the way,” Norris said.
Though it is constantly changing, Norris talked about her favorite piece of art, Heidi Lanino’s piece “The Horses.” The piece is about the horse trade and the Paris markets at the turn of the century. She did a whole series on the Paris horse markets.
Norris likes the fashion-like sketch of the piece and says it reminds her of Picasso or Matisse.
“They’re just folding it and flattening it and flattening it,” Norris said. “So I feel like that’s kind of what she’s doing.”
She also highlights the uniqueness of the form of the piece and how it creates a female energy. As a woman owned gallery, this sticks out to her.
“I also love that she’s a female artist, because there’s an inherently female energy to it,” Norris said.
