Virginia (Ginnie) Chabre, an accomplished photographer, was urged by a friend to enter the Alameda on Camera. Her work was accepted and her life changed forever. Now, Ginnie frequently shows her work at the Frank Bette Center and is having her first one-woman show. In her words “Thank you, Frank, from the bottom of my heart, for giving us a place to make art happen.”

Virginia (Ginnie) Chabre is a wonderful writer, in addition to her many other talents. Here is her story in her own words.

I began taking pictures with the family Brownie over fifty years ago. For years (many, many years) my friends and family expressed great interest in what they called my “good eye” and were always eager to page through the mini-albums I put together to memorialize one of my trips or an event. In the process of creating my mini-albums, I threw away countless photos – probably 2/3 of everything I had printed went into the trash. As it turns out that “throwing away” process is what the professionals call “editing” and is a very important step in the creation of a body of photography artwork.

One of my friends who had participated in the first Frank Bette Alameda On Camera event in 2007 managed to convince me that if I were to submit some of my photos to the FB for their consideration to be included in the 2008 AOC I would have no problem being accepted into that show. I was wholly unconvinced that any such thing would happen, but at her urging, I poured over the hundreds of possible snapshots from which I could choose and tentatively sent in my top choices. Lo and behold: I was now a participating artist in my first-ever art show. I was not only using my “good eye” to take pictures, I was blowing these images up in size, matting them, framing them and hanging them on the wall. It felt very, very different from simply taking pictures.

Along with this amazing process of becoming an “artist”, I was also getting to know the Frank Bette. I was coming to truly appreciate the incredibly vital role it played in the community. It seemed to me as though the Frank Bette had created an open invitation to anyone who had a creative urge to express themselves in a nurturing atmosphere. Always encouraged by the Center, I have gone on to participate in several of their monthly thematic shows.

Recently, I worked up the nerve to present myself to the Blue Dot Café (a very artist-friendly business) as a bona fide artist. They appeared to have no problem with that concept and now, just a year and half after hanging my first piece of artwork on a wall at the Frank Bette, I have a whole roomful of my works hanging in my first solo art show.

Countless people have told me this same story with their own variation. People creating art in the closet have come out and shared their art – many of them for the first time in their lives - with our community. It’s energizing. It’s exciting. I believe that it’s necessary for the good health of a society. And we have the Frank Bette to thank for our newly-given freedom to express ourselves. Thank you, Frank, from the bottom of my heart, for giving us a place to make art happen.