When you think about American heroes, who comes to mind?  Police, fire rescuers, soldiers?  All are definitely in a position to do heroic things, but what about the unsung heroes, the people whose passion may not save lives but may very well save spirits? Susan Lorenti, an art gallery director, is one of those people. Known in the community for her excellence as a frame maker, for years she dreamed about running her own art gallery.  In 2010, she made her passion a reality.  She rented a space near her friend, glass artist Carolyn Austin, another hero and the owner of Unique Glass Art, and with Carolyn’s help put out a call for artists.

In an economy that has definitely not supported the arts, Susan created the Artists Association of Jupiter (AAoJ) and brought together a community of artists.  In June 2010 an art collective, A Unique Art Gallery, opened its doors.  Though acting as the director of the gallery and tirelessly working long hours, her plan has been for artists to sell their work without paying any commissions to the gallery.

In the year and a half since Susan made her vision a reality, she has nurtured greatness in each of her artists and has achieved her goal of promoting art and art education to the community.  One of the results of her emphasis on education has been that the artists have learned to promote themselves and run the gallery.  “If not for Susan I probably wouldn’t be teaching classes,” said Han a painter whose watercolor and oil painting classes now have a following.  “A number of my students hadn’t done artwork for years, and I really enjoy seeing them express themselves.”  Susan encouraged him to teach as she did Maxine Schreiber, who used her skills as a retired therapist to provide Unleashing Creativity workshops.  She also mentored Chris Oakes who recently completed his internship for his Savannah School of Art and Design Masters program and created the exciting current gallery exhibit, “Sign of the Times.”

Ms. Lorenti has a knack for attracting and motivating the most talented artists who she encourages to be their best.  This past year, the members of AAoJ  have won innumerable awards in exhibits around the county.  David Willison alone has won several in Lighthouse ArtCenter juried shows.  Carolyn Austin, Bill Jones, Norm Gitzen, Chris Oakes, and John Rachell have each won awards there as well.  Last month Barbara Bailey won Second Placein an exhibit at Palm Beach Gardens City Hall, and last week Randy Grabo won Honorable Mention in the Loxahatchee Visions Contest.

The excellence of the work in the gallery and Susan’s enthusiasm about it led to invitations to exhibit in other venues.  Last Spring AAoJ had its own exhibit, “Pieces of an Artist’s Mind” in the Student Resources Building at Florida Atlantic University.  This led to invitations for solo shows for two of the artist members (Rachell and Schreiber) and opportunities for the other members, as did the invitation to be in "The Art of Association" at the Lighthouse ArtCenter in June.

She also initiated calls for artists for two juried shows in the gallery, Small Spaces: Big Ideas in February and The Gray Area in August thus giving non-member local artists an opportunity to show their work in the gallery.  The exhibits were judged by well-known artists (painter, writer JB Berkow the former and art photographer Barry Seidman the latter), raised funds for the gallery, and brought attention as well as new members to the Association. 

A cancer survivor and psoriasis sufferer who has to deal with chronic pain from psoriatic arthritis, Susan is always thinking about doing good for others.  She has been unstinting in putting together monthly opening receptions, most which have benefited local charitable organizations.  Adopt-a-Platoon, the Audubon Society of the Everglades, the Cancer Alliance of Help and Hope, the Mental Health Association of Palm Beach County, and Busch Wildlife Sanctuary have been among the many recipients of proceeds of sales and raffles from Ms. Lorenti’s generous nature. 

Recently Susan was invited to be a judge for a poster contest at Jupiter’s El Sol, a resource center for the Hispanic community.  She said of the winning poster that it expressed the idea of “building a community one brick at a time.”  She would know about that because her passion and strength of character have built a powerful artistic community.

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***© 2011 all rights reserved Maxine Schreiber