The Art Sol Feeds Creativity With New Gallery and Podcast, Dinner With Artists

Jeff Puckett Images Studio Gallery, which will showcase the spiritual helicopter pilot/Colorado photographer's work alongside others, has its grand opening on Thursday, August 10. But there's more to the gallery than just art: It's also home to the Art Sol, a "nomadic gallery with traditional roots" that educates collectors and connects them to artists through art shows, a blog, a podcast, and events where patrons can dine with artists.

Founders Rose Fredrick and Olive Witwer have already been using the space to host their Art Sol event/podcast Dinner With Artists, a night of fine dining in which prospective collectors converse with a featured artist. A conversation between Fredrick and the artist is recorded during the dinner and released as a podcast episode (past episodes can be found on all streaming platforms).

“Making art is not my calling; writing and telling stories is,” says Fredrick, adding that telling artists' stories, in particular, makes her "so happy.”

After graduating with a business degree from California Polytechnical Institute, Fredrick curated exhibits throughout Denver, including shows at the PACE Center and the Carole Siple Gallery, and the Coors Western Art Exhibit, where she met Witwer. Witwer is a graduate of CU Boulder and received a master's degree in museum studies from the University of Leicester.

“I’ve always had a clear vision of where and what I wanted to do with my career," Witwer says, "and while I am not an artist, unless you’re looking for a fantastic stick-figure portrait, I have always loved art and the stories that [it] can tell you."

The duo wants the Art Sol to use those stories to bridge the gap between collectors and artists, as well as provide artists a platform to explain the narratives in their work. Fredrick notes that the Art Sol is "traditional in the sense that we really want to support our artists' visibility and advance their careers and help them get museum shows and into bigger and bigger events. But then we also want to support our collectors."

Dinner With Artists is a way to support both. For the podcast, the Art Sol hosts a select group of collectors to wine and dine with a gallery artist, all with the goal of lowering inhibitions and unlocking the emotional background of artists’ work. “I explained to artists, 'Collectors don't want to learn to paint. They want to know what's behind it,'” Fredrick recalls.

Fredrick ensures that the exchange of ideas is profound and flowing. She establishes a theme or set of topics to address and implements other strategies — not the least of which is wine — to get everyone talking. “We started doing this kind of musical chairs thing, where we make everybody switch places so that you have to talk to somebody different, so the artist gets to move and meet with everyone,” she explains.

At the dinner, guests are treated to a meal from a renowned local chef who creates a menu based on the featured artist's work. Past chefs include Johnny Depierro of Señor Bear and Sabrina Pereira. The Art Sol has hosted three dinners so far. The premiere episode, which aired in July, includes Jill Soukup, Sophy Brown, Amy Laugesen and Stephanie Hartshorn. Denver artist Ron Hicks is in the second episode, and the third episode showcases mixed-media artist Michael Blessing, who currently lives in Alaska. In Blessing's episode, he and Fredrick discuss the spaghetti Westerns that inspire his gritty yet vibrant neon-lit portraits of cowboys, as well as his 25-year past as a musician. Dinners are held once a month, with episodes released in the following weeks.

Next up, the Art Sol will host Wheat Ridge artist Jim Stevens, who lost his sight as a result of combat wounds suffered during service with the U.S. Army, alongside chef Michael Gropper, who served as a food service specialist in the Army for eight years before settling in Denver as the owner of Full Battle Rattle Deli and Catering. Tickets to the event, which takes place on Wednesday, August 23, are $100.

Behind the scenes, Fredrick also coaches artists on how to interact with collectors according to their best interests. And through the podcast and blog, the Art Sol endeavors to educate collectors on how to display, take care of and expand their accumulations, so that whether they are new to collecting or veterans, they can become connoisseurs of the art they are interested in. Dinner With Artists aims to humanize both parties, finding the empathetic draw at the essence of art appreciation.

“I think there's a big intimidation factor when it comes to buying art. You know, people don't want to look stupid, because they're not,” Fredrick says. “But they're intimidated by it, so we want to break that apart.”

At the very least, Witwer and Fredrick's work will give artists a full belly, as long as they take a break from chewing to share their stories, because, as the two stewards realize, stories sell.

“We’re gonna give [collectors] the information that they’re craving, and we're gonna put it in a way that we know they will really enjoy, which is over a slow dinner that's so tasty,” says Fredricks. “And someone else is going to do the dishes at the end of the night.”

The Art Sol/Jeff Puckett Studio grand opening, 5-8 p.m. Thursday, August 10, 1738 Blake Street; register here. More information can be found at theartsol.com. Tickets to the next Dinner With Artists (Jim Stevens) are $100.