Original can be found at: http://www.columbuscityscene.org/a_creative_calling.html

Renee Kropat: A Creative Calling

Gallery director is living her artistic ambitions

By: Kate Seegraves

Like bedtime stories and favorite stuffed animals, many kids outgrow the dreams of their childhood.

But not Renee Kropat. The executive director of Gallery 202, Partners in Art, Inc. always knew she wanted to be an artist.

She distinctly remembers the projects of her childhood, from designing Barbie outfits to sketching people she saw on television.

"I remember trying to draw Richard Nixon, of all people," she says.

Today, Kropat surrounds herself with art-her own and work by other people-at Gallery 202. The space is part gallery, part classroom, part consignment shop: as a non-profit organization, however, its primary function is to educate and encourage the creation of art within the Westerville community.

It's a cause to which the Westerville resident is utterly devoted. She works with artists represented at the gallery. She has orchestrated five murals throughout Westerville, several of which brighten up the walls of Uptown Westerville buildings.

She also welcomes guests the moment they ascend the stairs to the gallery's second floor space, offering fresh coffee and passing out program information.

Perhaps part of her devotion stems from her long path to reaching this goal. Before claiming art as her profession, Kropat was an occupational therapist for 20 years, part time and within Central Ohio school systems. She and her husband Tony also raised a family: the couple has two sons, Tony (27) and Andrew (23).

But when Kropat was in her 30s, with her young sons at home and her husband traveling for work, Kropat says she finally realized her life needed something more.

"My parents suggested strongly that I become an OT, because at that point I would have a job, I would earn money and art was not always a stable field," she says. "I always wanted be an artist, but I got the OT degree because it would give me a job. I enjoyed doing OT, but I finally one day I just thought one day, 'No, I need to be an artist."

Kropat enrolled at the Columbus College of Art and Design, working as an occupational therapist part time and attending night school to earn her degree. It took her nine years, she says, but she graduated in 1995.

After art school, Kropat spent several years trying various artistic projects: she opened and closed a gallery within a business she ran and painted her first mural in Westerville.

It took her a long time to acknowledge art as her true passion, she says. "I worked as an OT and as an artist for years and didn't tell people I was an artist," she says. "Then one day I thought, 'I'm done.' I need to be creative."

Kropat opened Gallery 2002 in April 2005 as a non-profit organization. The gallery serves many purposes, she says. Local artists can display and sell their work at Gallery 202-Kropat sometimes exhibits her own creations, such as bowls and wreaths made from recycled glass bottles.The gallery is also part consignment shop, with jewelry and other items for resale as a method of funding the gallery.

Gallery 202 is busiest in the summer, Kropat says, when it hosts 10 weeks of summer art camps for kids and provides workshop space for Central Ohio arts organizations (Columbus Children's Theatre, for example). Throughout the year, the gallery hosts art classes no cost to students. The classes are paid for by fundraising events such as "Wild Women Wander Westerville," a night on the town for local women. Other events in which the gallery is involved includes the Saturday Market, Fourth Fridays, The Uptown Farmer's Market and more.

For Kropat, the involvement stems from a desire to teach people about the arts or get them involved. What's more, she says, she encourages people to embrace their creativity. "It's important to me for people to come up (to the gallery) and feel comfortable in a situation they think they don't know what to do," she says.

"What amazes me is how many people don't know they're creative. Some people come up here and say, 'I'm not an artist. I just take photographs.' And then you look at their photographs and say, 'Oh my God, you've got a great eye.'

A lot of times we have made the word 'art' an elitist term. The reality is that it's a continuum. We're encouraging people to take their first step into the art world."

At times, Kropat says her goals and personality are synonymous with those of the gallery. She puts plenty of time into her efforts there, she says, mostly because she believes so strongly in the gallery's mission and the effect it can have.

"It's so cool when you see somebody grin for the first time or say, 'I get it,'" she says.

Now that Kropat makes art a priority in her life, she says she has no plans to let it go again. For better or for worse, she says, she is the artist she always wanted to become, and Gallery 202 is the best place for her to embrace that.

"I have to remain busy in that creative, artistic way," she says. "It's fun to talk to different people about where they are and what they want to do in their life. Maybe they buy something from the gallery, maybe they don't. Maybe they come to an event, maybe they don't. People need to be connected with people right now, and I can (help them) do that."

Kate Seegraves is editor of Westerville Magazine.