SETAUKET, NY – Recently, Assemblyman Steve Englebright joined members of Gallery North and the Reboli Center to celebrate the two cultural arts centers’ latest collaboration, which comes in the form of the permanent gift of Joseph Reboli’s Bellport Gate painting from Gallery North to the Reboli Center for Arts and History. The acquisition of the painting dates back to 2007. When it came up for sale, a fundraiser was organized to secure its purchase. Through the efforts of New York State Assemblyman Steve Englebright, the State contributed $10,000. Lois Reboli, wife of Joseph Reboli, made a personal donation of $5,000 and the remaining balance was secured through generous donations from 100 friends, community members, and neighbors of Joseph Reboli, who each contributed $100 and were nicknamed the Reboli 100 Fund. After the purchase, Gallery North became the steward of the painting with the intention of it being used as a center piece of an eventual Reboli Center to celebrate the life and work of Joseph Reboli.
“I am pleased that the Assembly could be a part of this story and supply matching funds for the purchase of the Bellport Gate painting,” said Assemblyman Englebright. “Here’s a painting that is the most magnificent expression of “Welcome” that I have ever seen. Gallery North and the community mobilized to save the painting and provided the mechanism for salvaging this part of Long Island heritage and history that Joe was an important recorder of. I think it’s wonderful that the two major art centers of our community are cooperating, collaborating and coming together.”
“I am extremely grateful to Assemblyman Steve Englebright for helping to purchase the painting, then facilitating the transfer of the Reboli Bellport Gate painting from Gallery North to the Reboli Center, for all of the people who donated to the Reboli 100 Fund and of course to Gallery North, said Lois Reboli, Founder and President of The Reboli Center for Arts and History. “We look forward to exhibiting the Bellport Gate during the majority of each year and continuing to thank all of the people who have made the acquisition possible.”
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“On behalf of Gallery North, it is always a pleasure working with Lois and everyone at the Reboli Center,” said Ned Puchner, Executive Director for Gallery North. “Gallery North is dedicated to being at the heart of the art community and provide a showcase for living artists and artists that have come before. We see the arts community as a family, and we want everyone to work together. And as the title of this painting suggests, we are hoping that this opens the gate to more collaboration within the arts community moving forward.”
“We at Gallery North are happy to help the Reboli Center, our partner in community, by making this donation. It is a symbol of our increasing collaboration,” said Nancy Goroff, President of the Gallery North Board of Trustees.
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“In an institutional sense, this is the parent and child relationship in the positive sense. What we are really seeing is an expression of affection and respect between these two art centers that have been brought together by the legacy of Joe Reboli,” said Assemblyman Englebright.
A Port Jefferson and Stony Brook native, Joseph Reboli began painting during his childhood. His first supporter was his aunt, Anna Reboli, who would arrange for his art to be shown at the bank in Stony Brook where she worked. Unbeknownst to Joe, his aunt would purchase all of his paintings following each showing. Family and friends have shared that this secret show of support is what gave Joe the push and confidence to continuing painting and taking artistic risks.
Following his schooling at the Paier School of Art in New Haven, Joseph Reboli had his first solo art exhibition at Gallery North in Setauket in 1971. Gallery North, a nonprofit gallery founded in 1965, whose mission is to present exhibitions of contemporary artists and stimulate interest in the arts by presenting innovative and educational programs, was the very first gallery to showcase Joe Reboli’s work.
As a featured artist at Gallery North for many years, Joe Reboli became the inspiration for the Joseph Reboli Wet Paint Festival, which is a plein air painting event held by the gallery each year. He later served as a trustee on the board at Gallery North and was instrumental to the organization’s artistic and cultural contributions to the community. Tragically, the community lost Joe Reboli in the summer of 2004 following his battle with lung cancer.
As a testament both to his successful career, and his well-regarded contributions to the cultural and artistic sense of place of the community, Lois Reboli founded and established the Reboli Center in Stony Brook, which had its official opening in 2016. As an offshoot to Gallery North, the Reboli Center was in search of a permanent home in the community. In an amazing stroke of good luck, the former bank in historic Stony Brook Village, where Joseph Reboli’s aunt had once displayed his artwork, was announced for sale. The founders of the Reboli Center immediately recognized that it would be the perfect place to showcase Joseph Reboli’s work. Assemblyman Englebright provided a $1.3 million grant toward the purchase of the center, which now provides public access to Joseph Reboli’s work as well as artistic and historical programs for people of all ages.
The famous Bellport Gate painting, that will now be viewable at the Reboli Center, features a white garden gate in Bellport, whose unique wrought iron hardware was originally crafted sometime in the 1800s by blacksmith Joseph Merritt Shaw. As the Bellport-Brookhaven Historical Society reports, Shaw, whose blacksmith shop was originally located behind the Shaw house in Bellport, not only made the hardware for the “Bellport Gate” design, but also made the ironwork on the ships being built in Bellport at that time. The “Bellport Gate” design featured in Joe Reboli’s painting can still be seen in front of many houses throughout parts of Bellport and Brookhaven. (Source https://www.bbhsmuseum.com/buildings-grounds/the-blacksmith-shop).
When asked about what the inspiration for the painting was, Lois Reboli shared, “Joe found a lot of different things interesting. I think he liked that there was a lot of depth to it. He just loved the composition, the colors, and the light.” Nancy Goroff added that, “One of the characteristics of Joe Reboli’s paintings is the attention to light and finding interesting light. You see that very well here in this painting.”
The two organizations agreed that the painting was something special. Lois Reboli shared, “When I first saw the painting when it came back from Chicago, I cried. It was hanging on the wall in Gallery North and when I saw it… I almost felt like I could see Joe in front of it. I felt like it was something that we really needed to keep in the community. We are very grateful that Gallery North had it and now we’re going to be able to have it. We plan on keeping it on display most of the time. It is a testament to Gallery North where Joe had his first art shows.”
“Our community is an arts destination in part because of the legacy of Joe Reboli. The symbolism for all practical purposes means that this community is enhanced still, even though Joe Reboli is no longer with us. He continues to be a gift to the community, just as this is a gift from Gallery North to the Reboli Center. I am very grateful to all who are involved. This is very heartening and beckons us into a direction of additional benefits to our common public moving forward,” said Assemblyman Englebright.
The Bellport Gate painting will be available to be viewed by the public beginning in October. For more information about the partner organizations and their upcoming events, please visit them at their websites, Gallery North: www.gallerynorth.org and The Reboli Center: www.rebolicenter.org
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