OK, I’ll admit it, I still have my Christmas tree up and my biggest dilemma of the week is whether to take it down or to remove the balls, throw some hearts on and call it a Valentine’s Day bush?
It seems that I should get with the program and get on the Love Day bandwagon. As it swiftly descends on us, there’s no shortage of events to get your heart on. On Feb. 8, you can celebrate with Brittany Lynn during Valentine’s Drag Brunch at Bake N’ Bacon or try your luck at Countdown to Valentine’s Day GayBINGO! On Feb. 12, you can play Singles Bingo at The Cauldron or meet me at the BVlicious “Love is in the Air” party at the Da Vinci Art Alliance on Feb. 13. The Da Vinci Art Alliance is a beautiful little gallery just across (and down a few) from the Fleisher Art Memorial. I had a chance to catch up with Samantha M. Connors, the executive director of Da Vinci Art Alliance, to learn more about their creative life in the world of art. Some responses have been edited for length or clarity.
Well, let’s get started by learning where you were first created?
My family and I are originally from Long Island, but moved first to the Poconos and then I moved to Philadelphia when I was 17 for school.
So do you or the folks in the family say “Lawn GUYland”?
[Laughing] My accent only comes out when I’m really angry. So it’s pretty rare for people to hear it. My parents were both born and raised there so their accents are still pretty thick even after living here for over 20 years. My sister is one of those people who absorbs it from whoever we’re around. So if we visit family, for about a month afterward, she’s like, “Can yew let the dawgs out?”
Yeah, I have a lot of family up north and I always laugh when my cousin says, “We’re gonna have cawfee at huh house.” So back to you, tell me about the fam? Do you get your artistic bent from them?
No. [Laughs] No, I don’t. Though my father does carpentry and he’s really talented. He would not call himself an artist but there are things in the room with me right now that he made. The reason that we moved to the Poconos was that my dad became disabled. He was an electrician by trade — shoutout to Local 20 in NY — and he actually met my mom through work. She worked at a real-estate company and she said she walked into the office and he was in there doing some electrical work. All she could see was the bottom half of his torso and she thought, “Woah, that guy has a sick ass!” When he stepped down, apparently he liked what he saw and they started dating and then got married about nine months later.
After my sister and I were born, she became a stay-at-home mom until my father got sick. It was a tough time because my mom was unemployed and then my dad was unemployed. Disability takes a long time to kick in — years of paperwork — so we couldn’t afford to live in NY anymore. The move to the Poconos was supposed to be just temporary, but they’re still there!
Are you OK with sharing what happened?
He had ulcerative colitis and then had an incident at work when, well, it’s complicated, but my understanding is that he was working on a panel, and one of his co-workers hit a sewage line, causing all the sewage to spill onto my dad’s face and into his mouth. Combined with the ulcerative colitis, he actually died and came back to life on the operating table. After that, he was permanently disabled. It was bad. I remember being at home and asking why is grandma here?
Yikes. OK, let’s try something brighter! What’s a family tradition?
[Laughs] Every time someone asks that, I’m tempted to say “yelling.” But no, before my grandpa died, we used to rotate and would do either Christmas Day or Christmas Eve at my grandparent’s house. It was fun to do our own immediate family Christmas and then get together with the whole extended family.
What was your role in the family? Were you the good kid or the wild child?
Neither? My sister was the wild child. I was kind of a floater. I never had just one friend group. I had a lot of friends but never that one close circle that other people seemed to have, which made me feel a little like an outsider but now I appreciate it. It’s probably why I do the job the way I do it, working to bring people together. My parents were really religious, which was part of my upbringing. I grew up in a megachurch community and I would go to church multiple times a week with my dad. I wasn’t allowed to sleep over at my friends’ homes which probably contributed to me not having close friends.
What were the pros and cons of being raised in a megachurch?
I’m really grateful for the aspects that I took away, it was a crash course in why I don’t believe in organized religion but also why I have a strong faith system. I can see the value of having a place where you can find your people in one place. In Philly, there are a hundred places to find friends or community, but it’s harder to find those points of connection in rural areas. My parents moved to Wilkes-Barre a few years ago and even though he doesn’t believe in organized religion anymore, he recently went to church because he missed being around people.
What changed him about the church originally?
My dad was studying to be a pastor at the megachurch, which got him into the inner circle where he found a lot of corruption. There was fraud and embezzlement. The pastor was cheating on his wife. His son was a convicted pedophile but was in charge of the ministry — all this crazy stuff.
Glad he got out. So did you know what you wanted to be when you grew up?
That’s a trick question! Yes and no. I have an elementary-age yearbook where they asked us and I said “art teacher.” I always wanted to work in an art gallery but my parents wanted me to do something that realistically would make money so I studied fashion design at Moore College of Art & Design. I felt it could lead to a corporate job with good money.
Were all your extracurricular endeavors in the arts?
I was in band. I played the clarinet for eight years. I was in marching band, concert band and pep band, which was the basketball version of marching band. [Laughing] My dad is a 9/11 conspiracy truther and I’ve always been angry about politics. I graduated high school in 2010, and my dad was really hyped about the Libertarian movement, which was big during those years. I was in JSA, which was the Junior State of America group — a bunch of teams sitting around talking about our views on politics. I was also a member of Key Club which was a student-led service organization. I was in chorus, not that I can sing. I pretty much did anything to stay after school.
And then to college at Moore…
Yes, I’m a Moore dropout. I dropped out during my junior year. I’m still passionate about fashion design, but I don’t do anything with it except to look at pretty things. Actually, that’s not true. I’m heavily into sustainability, especially in the fashion realm, which I started there and I have good friends from Moore. But for me, the degree was too focused on the business aspects of art. So I switched to Temple, where I got my BFA in fiber and material studies.
What was your first job after graduating?
I was working in retail throughout my time in school so I kept doing that for a bit, but my first real, real job was apprenticing for [fiber artist] Dianne Koppisch Hricko. I still work for her. At this point, she can raise an eyebrow in another room and I’ll know exactly what she needs. She’s like a bonus mom to me. It basically set up my career. Her husband, Richard, was the head of printmaking and she had just had a hip operation so she needed someone to do everything from walking the dog to prepping dyes, or cutting fabric. I classify her as a printmaker who paints and works with dye. She taught me everything I know. Dianne and Richard and their daughter are a second family to me. And funnily enough, I learned the business side by working with them. I now do everything from her website and inventory, communicating with other stores that carry her work — all aspects of managing the studio.
How did you end up at Da Vinci?
My friend was dropping a hip-hop album and curated a show around it at the gallery. I became a member mostly to get a CV line because my resume was looking a little thin at the time. I got invited to join the exhibition team and thought, “Well that sounds like a fun way to add another CV line.” Then I became the co-chair of the committee and helped expand a lot of the other programming. When the person who was running things stepped down, I put my name in thinking no one would select me, but to my surprise, I got the job and was like, “Fuck! Now I have to be the one to do things instead of just being critical about it.” I started on May 4, 2021, so we were out of COVID lockdown, but people were still wary of going out. We were the first paid staff after 84 years of operation! It was interesting. We were open by appointment only but it gave us a chance to test run ideas. I got a lot of time, which most new executive directors don’t get, to get acclimated and figure things out. I was able to meet one-on-one with a lot of the members and see what they wanted from the gallery.
For anyone who isn’t familiar with the gallery, give me the elevator pitch.
So, the gallery has been around since 1931 and we are an intergenerational community space and art gallery with the core goal of “Building Community Through Art.” Our mission is rooted in using art as a tool of collective resilience. We create exhibitions and programs in our space and in collaborations around the whole city. We use art as conversation starters to engage people. The building itself is in a historic three-floor row home in the Bella Vista neighborhood of Philadelphia. All of our exhibitions are free to visit and all of our programs are free or suggested donation. Unfortunately, we’re not wheelchair accessible but we’re working to become ADA-accessible by 2027.
You said something about memberships?
Yes, we have artist memberships, which allow the artists to share their artwork, build community, and connect with other artists and the people who come to the gallery and you get discounts at other places and organizations. We have all sorts of workshops and programs too. I think we have 280 members currently. We’re non-hierarchical, which means that everyone has equal power in the space.
And I know firsthand that you also make the space available for people and organizations to rent and use. The Women’s Film Festival had a wonderful fundraiser there — an evening of wine tasting with expert Susan Lynham from Sumptuous Tastings. And I understand that Dirk Allen is holding one of the BVlicious (@bvlicious on Instagram) queer parties there at the gallery with a Valentine’s Day theme.
Yes, they’re going to be here the night before Valentine’s Day, Thursday the 13th. And it’s a free event that everyone is welcome to come to.
I actually learned about the gallery from going to the BVlicious block party. They always have a great group of people at their events. [Laughing] Speaking of queer things, how was it out in rural PA?
It’s funny. I think I’ve had an easier time than most people. I mean it’s not perfect. My mom just refuses to believe it, but she’s like that about everything. For instance, I’m bipolar and she’s like, “No, it’s just Lyme’s disease.” So being Irish Catholic, she copes by just not talking or thinking about certain things. My dad is very chill, which was the opposite of what I thought. He’s been very intentional about my pronouns, and will self-correct. If he slips and says, “my daughter” or something, he’ll stop and say, “I mean, my child…”
Also, on my dad’s side, his uncle was gay but in the closet until he died. But it was pretty obvious since he lived with his roommate who he’d been best friends with since they were 13. After he died, his roommate, Uncle Chuck, came out. He said that he was finally allowed to be open. He’s been in the closet because my dad’s uncle was afraid to come out even though we all knew. And my dad’s cousin, Linda, got married in Connecticut as soon as it was legal.
[Laughing] I think my dad was just happy I wasn’t super butch. And I’m an artist, so it feels like everyone in my world is gay. The only place it gets tricky is with dating sometimes as a nonbinary person. I’m also bi and it seems that women and other nonbinary people get it, but cis dudes are like, “I’m a straight man” and I’m like, “Well you’re not because you’re dating me and I’m nonbinary.” But I’ve been with my partner for five years, so I don’t have to worry about that now. I just get to exist. [Laughing] If we ever broke up, I’d probably just…um…
Become a nun?
No! Nothing that extreme! I’d just stop dating. It’s hard dating in Philly. I think you have to be a West Philly gay or a drag queen gay and I’m neither. I’m a queer insurrectionist [chuckles]. My love language would be burning a cop car. I won’t go to a drag show because, just like in comedy clubs, I’m terrified the performer will look me in the eye and pull me into the show somehow.
OK, random questions, what’s something you want to learn how to do?
I want to learn how to whittle! I want to make a spoon out of a piece of wood.
Who do you find surprisingly attractive?
Elijah Wood. I feel like he might be a freak. He’s not visually attractive but he seems weird. He runs a horror company or something. Like who is this weird little Hobbit man? I just want to pick his brain.
Worst clothing disaster?
This goes back to not having any friends. I used to have theme weeks for my clothing and one time, I wore a tutu to school and got in trouble for it. It was American flag-themed, left over from ballet when I was young.
Three sounds that disturb you?
People cracking their fingers or bones. Dripping faucets make me really anxious and something that usually disturbs other people but that I like are the sounds of the cars drag racing on the street.
What would you eat if you needed to gain 20 pounds?
I’m allergic to everything, but if I wasn’t allergic to glutton, it would be a good old NY pizza.
A favorite quote?
“None of us are free until we’re all free.” Different versions of it are attributed to a lot of people including Maya Angelou, Emma Lazarus and Fannie Lou Hamer, so I don’t know the origin, but it drives all of the work that I do.
For more information on Da Vinci Art Alliance, visit davinciartalliance.org.