6ft Apart and Take What You Like - A Driveway Art Gallery
In a driveway on 33rd Street in Santa Monica, two young artists display their own artwork for patrons to enjoy, from a six foot social distance, with the option of taking home any pieces they like.
The two elementary school age visionaries are Elle Guggenheim,10, and Indy Guggenheim, 6. Elle and Indy are sisters, and while it was initially Elle's idea, the Guggenheim gallery (not to be confused with the big, white, dome-like museum in New York City) was a joint effort from the two in a limited one-day event. April 17, the last Friday of the spring break from distance learning for kids in the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD), the girls held the gallery from 1-3pm.
Crafting the art pieces during their week long break from SMMUSD’s home classroom virtual learning, kept the youths busy. The mother of the two, Jenna Guggenheim, commented about how her daughters are dealing with being stuck at home, saying they are “doing as well as I’d expect them to.” Though the Stay at Home order presents its own challenges, the Guggenheims aren’t letting it rob them of their inspiration, innovation, and desire to bring joy to others.
Elle explained, “We did this little art gallery for the public just for free because we thought, ‘hey we love making art and I know people like looking at art and not many people have stuff to do right now and we don’t have stuff to do right now so let’s make a public art gallery’.”
Elle and Indy Guggenheim, the two young artist behind the social distancing art gallery. (Rebecca Hogan / The Corsair)
The Guggenheim’s displayed approximately 16 pieces of their artwork. The pieces used a variety of mediums and styles like paint, modeling clay, crayons, markers, popsicle sticks, origami paper, and even a coffee filter. Each piece had its’ own title card typed up, printed, and decorated by the sisters themselves. Every little detail was their idea and executed impressively.
Jenna said she and her husband, Danny Guggenheim, had simply helped in the setting up of the displays and securing them so they wouldn’t fall over or fly away, while everything else was the sole product of the girls’ efforts.
“I was amazed. They had been talking about it and at first I didn’t know if they would really go through with it all the way. I was shocked. They worked really independently. I was proud of them,” beamed Jenna.
Members of the neighborhood, in addition to the Guggenheim’s family friends, stopped by to admire the exhibits at the Social Distancing Art Gallery. When the event was over the Guggenheim family delivered some of the featured art pieces to friends. All pieces were gifted except for a few favorites.
At Gallery’s end, Jenna said the whole family enjoyed being able to see people and the girls were very proud of their own artistic, independent effort during these trying times.
