ten years - or is it twenty-five?

We're celebrating 10 years at Lynden Gallery, having moved to the old Downtown Firehall at 117 South Market Street in 2000 from just down the street. Twelve years in our old Victorian were proceeded by four on Orange Street, in a 1939 Sears and Roebuck bungalow. And we did, literally, move many of our smaller household belongings transported on an old red wagon with two young children alongside! Remember our old Amish-made iron swingset? Hauled it down the street with a brother on each corner rather than take it apart. If finally ended up back at College Avenue at the house where I grew up - my brother is living there now, and Maya and Ian are enjoying this 1960's relic in it's new-found, modernist form - but that's a story for another day.

The house at 425 S. Market Street afforded me with two rooms in the front for a calligraphy studio - since 1985 with the birth of my first child, I'd been working in the corner of the dining room. The space quickly acquired a frame shop and I posted a sign out front - "Bedenbaugh Designs Studio and Framery, hours by chance or by appointment." The sign would periodically disaappear when student spring fever rose on the nearby college campus, but always seemed to magically reappear on the porch a few days later. Framing was often done with lego underfoot or a child on my back, but I loved the easy movement between household and work.

Once Jenna, Joe, Layne and Lynden were all off to school full days, I began to look for a Downtown location for my business. I pictured a frame shop/calligraphy studio/coffee shop combination, but instead found myself in partnership with Mike and Joyce Heberlein, combining our businesses and opening Lancaster Galleries West together. The gallery offered fine art, custom framing and a restoration studio with JD Wissler - Michael Allen managed the frame shop - both are accomplished painters whose work I continue to find inspiring.

Opening night, October 2000, brought a crowd of well-wishers and collectors to our new establishment for our first exhibit featuring four realists - Robert Heilman, Lynne Yancha, Amelia Rockwell Seton and Henry Libhart. In 2003, I went solo again as Lynden Gallery. The work inside the four walls continues to evolve with life. In 2007, I decided to combine work and home again, and moved to the second floor - once again achieving a certain balance and flexibility I value. Calligraphy has given way to the design business as I work toward completing my masters degree at Drexel University in Philadelphia.

Reflecting our desire to provide continued, customized service, we'll have new storefront hours starting October 1, 2010. Wednesday thru Friday, 10:00 to 5:00, and Saturday 10:00 to 3:00 - additional hours by chance or appointment. 717.367.9236.

It's time to celebrate at Lynden Gallery - call it ten years at the gallery, or twenty-five since incorporating as Bedenbaugh Designs, Inc. Lynden Gallery's Anniversary Opening will be held on October 8, 2010 from 5:00 to 8:00 pm, featuring the work of Gary Butson. The Brandon Hollinger Trio will provide Jazz for the evening and the front wall feature is Susan Davitti Darling - eat well and buy more art!

Art on this page by Susan Davitti Darling - top: The Move, 4 1/4" x 14 1/2" ink on paper, 2000; bottom: eat well and buy more art, 15" x 15" mixed media on rag panel, 2010. The photograph of 425 S. Market is by Robyn Smith.