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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nBassett became known as someone who would buy from local artists, and eventually, his collection was exhibited for a month in the art gallery at Riverview. Bassett said the experience of having people come and look at it prompted him to ask the gallery\u2019s curator about hanging the art in human service organizations around town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt looked terrific. I mean, it was really exciting to me to have people come and look at it,\u201d Bassett said. \u201cI did some work with human services. I was kind of a community organizer, and I said, \u2018Maybe we can talk to these places and see if they would like to display some of this art collection.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, pieces of Bassett\u2019s local art collection can be found at Rush Homes, Roads to Recovery, Lynchburg Human Services, and Lynchburg\u2019s courthouse, as well as many other locations across the city \u2014 but it doesn\u2019t stop there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Much of Bassett\u2019s remaining local collection has been promised to Heritage High School, and Bassett wanted to\u00a0replace some of the art that would be going out. However, the local art was not taken as quickly as he had expected, and he ended up with several replica pieces on top of his local collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bassett said he didn\u2019t want to have a closet full of art, so he decided to start giving it away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s no point in having art stacked up where people can\u2019t see it,\u201d Bassett said. \u201cI had probably 50 or 60 people come and take away some.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bassett said the pay was for artists to know they sold something because someone liked it, and for people to be happy to get a painting when they thought they\u2019d never have one. Before, he had given art out to be hung in public spaces, but giving to individuals was different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGiving away stuff is a lot of fun, especially if it\u2019s art,\u201d Bassett said. \u201cI was really handing somebody something and saying, \u2018Take this home, this is yours forever, no strings attached,\u2019 and that was a marvelous experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite his love for art and his support of the artist community, Bassett said he is not an artist and doesn\u2019t even understand how artists go about filling a blank canvas. He said all he does is buy art and put it out in the community where it can be seen by people who may not usually get that experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt makes life more interesting and makes the world a more intriguing and interesting place to see,\u201d Bassett said. \u201cIt\u2019s just part of how we operate in the world, by putting up our signs of life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a direct benefit for artists, as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey have put out something that people are seeing,\u201d Bassett said. \u201cPeople are seeing it and maybe wondering what it means. Or maybe they\u2019re just marveling at the ability of somebody else doing that, and appreciating the effort of an artist whether you understand art or you don\u2019t, and appreciating the beauty and dynamic presence of something in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bassett said he thinks he is done buying, but he hopes others will think about supporting local artists and enjoy learning about art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think I\u2019ve done something that most people don\u2019t do, but I\u2019ve done something that most people can do a little bit of,\u201d Bassett said. \u201cLife is pretty exciting when you have art on your walls.\u201d GN<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cANY VACANT wall is an opportunity to put up art,\u201d collector Larry Bassett said. And while his home\u2019s walls are full of paintings, he has not stopped there. The results of his work can be seen throughout Lynchburg. It all started when he moved into Riverviews Artspace 20 years ago. Living next to artists and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":20368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/lynchburg-va\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2023\/10\/3-2-1024x683.png\")
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