HomeMy Public PortalAboutTOL PR 2014-06-11 Settle-Dean Cabin Painting Dedication
Town of Leesburg
News Release
For Immediate Release
Dedication Ceremony for Slave Quarters Painting Donated to
Thomas Balch Library to be Held on June 23, 2014
Leesburg, VA (June 11, 2014) – The Black History
Committee of Friends of the Thomas Balch Library
and the Thomas Balch Library will hold a dedication
ceremony at 11:00 am on Monday, June 23, 2014
for the “Settle-Dean Cabin” painting by the late
Sherry Zvares Sanabria. The ceremony will be held
in the library’s lower level meeting room.
Ms. Sanabria’s husband, Robert Sanabria, and her
children, Jessica Kasten and Alex Kasten, have
donated the “Settle-Dean Cabin” painting to the
Thomas Balch Library as a memorial to the Loudoun
artist, who was also a member of the Black History
Committee. The painting is part of Ms. Sanabria’s
22-painting series of Slave Quarters and other
African American sites from venues in the Carolinas,
Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, and Virginia. The
Settle-Dean Cabin was originally located in the Village of Conklin in eastern Loudoun County.
Today, the restored cabin is located on Loudoun County Parkway, near the intersection with
Braddock Road in Chantilly. The painting of the cabin will become part of the Thomas Balch
Library’s permanent collection and will be on display in the library’s microfilm room.
“It is such an honor to receive this painting from Sherry’s family,” commented Alexandra
Gressitt, director of the Thomas Balch Library. “Sherry’s artistic voice was a quiet and
compassionate one portraying matters and scenes of conscience. Through her paintings, she
has left an indelible mark, gently pushing society to better ideals. It is a privilege to have known
her.”
An internationally respected master of her art, Ms. Sanabria leaves a legacy of paintings that
are much more than objects of great beauty. For most of her career, the theme of her luminous
paintings was, in her own words, those spaces and locales where people experienced profound
moments in their lives, places that seemed to hold the spirits of those who inhabited them.
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TOL PR 2014-06-11 Settle-Dean Cabin Painting Dedication
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Born in Washington, DC, she was a graduate of The George Washington University and The
American University. During her professional life, she had 30 one-person exhibitions at public
and private spaces, including the Phillips Collection, the American Institute of Architects, the
Ellis Island Immigration Museum and the Washington County (MD) Museum of Fine Arts, as
well as at galleries in Washington DC, Virginia, Georgia, New Jersey, and New York. Ms.
Sanabria’s works were also exhibited in over 40 group exhibitions in this country and abroad.
Her paintings are included in the permanent collections of museums or other public spaces, as
well as in numerous corporate and private collections, both nationally and in Europe.
Contact:
Betsy Fields
Research & Communications Manager
bfields@leesburgva.gov
703-771-2734
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