For as long as I can remember, Brandy and Bruce have been an item. They seemed an ideal pair when I met them in 1982, running a well-respected art and antiques gallery in West Tisbury and known for their lavish Sunday-afternoon openings that set a standard for gallery openings that remains to this day.
Brandon Wight had grown up here summers in the old Cook house on Music Street in West Tisbury. He began a business, the Flea Market, in Edgartown in 1954 with his partner, George Bigelow. They moved to Main Street, Vineyard Haven, in 1960, hoping for a more year-round location. The Vineyard Haven incarnation of the Flea Market afforded the space to carry more art — Brandy’s love, as well as the antiques they were known for. Sadly, George died in 1964.
Meanwhile, Bruce Blackwell had moved to the Vineyard from Rhode Island to found the Vineyard Conservation Society (VCS) in 1965, becoming the organization’s first executive director.
In 1966, Brandy and Bruce met at the Ocean View. Bruce left VCS to join Brandy in the Flea Market, and soon they were ready to move out of town. In 1977 they found a barn in West Tisbury. It was truly a barn — it had housed animals before becoming a tack shop and ladies’ clothing store, and was still pretty rustic. The back part had heavy wire-mesh walls that were “easy to hang art on,” Bruce has said. So they did. They renamed the business the Red Barn and began exhibiting artists in the Granary Gallery. With longtime Island connections, welcoming personalities, and lots of space for both art and antiques, they were a success.
Chris Morse came to work for them in 1987 in a summer job that gradually afforded more responsibility. In 1996, Chris bought the gallery.
Last week, Brandy and Bruce were on the Island, visiting from their home in Gainesville, Fla., to celebrate
Brandy’s 100th birthday and the 50th anniversary of the founding of Vineyard Conservation Society. They were the guests of honor at the Red Barn/Granary Gallery Tuesday afternoon, August 4, as Chris and Sheila Morse and lots of Island friends gathered to welcome them and wish them well. Brandy wore a seersucker suit and a wild, wide psychedelic Peter Max tie.
West Tisbury selectmen have designated an official Proclamation for West Tisbury Centenarians. Brandon Wight will be the first recipient.