Every day on fast-paced Route 250 between the towns of Ivy and Crozet, countless drivers may pass The Barn Swallow without even noticing. Only a small sign points it out. Shielded by a line of thick bamboo and tucked into a barn by a trickling creek, the boutique artisan gallery is an oasis from hurry next to the busy road.
Those who pull in to the gravel parking lot follow a path through a dense garden under a thriving apple tree. By the time they reach the broad porch with climbing akebia vines, the highway has already vanished, and the rush is replaced with rest.
Owners Mary Ann Burke and Janice Arone say that the grounded, nature-oriented atmosphere is something they’ve tried to cultivate as curators.
“We had a vision about the antiquity of the barn.” Arone says. “It’s pre-Civil War and it just has this beautiful essence to it, so we try to comply with that.”
In November 2000, the pair acquired the barn from former owner Bob Leiby, who had built it into an artisan space called The Crafter’s Gallery. Both Burke and Arone showed pottery there. When Leiby decided to move on, they bought the barn and set to work on its next iteration.
“We’re bringing the outside of nature in,” says Arone about their aesthetic. That has been their general rubric for filling the gallery. Both potters make earthenware with watery or wooden textures and incorporate the figures of birds or leaves.
Slowly, one by one, they started to gather the pieces of their nest. “John Grant was one of the first photographers,” says Burke. “And jewelers like Elizabeth Haines.” The curators always kept their eyes open for the qualities that fit their Barn Swallow ethos.
“Once the artists come in, they tend to stay,” Burke says of the makers they show.
More than 20 years later, some of the original contributors are still there, but the gallery has grown to have more than 75 artists on display. There is more than the eye can take in. The tall barn room with exposed tin roof is packed tight with canvases and images that seem to call back to the hay and animals that once occupied the space. Behind a partition wall, more crafts spread out on a landing, and down the stairs there is a stone and cement basement where the original foundation can be seen. Patrons can rummage endlessly and find unexpected treasures.
The artists are all local and regional; The Barn Swallow is a rare venue for people to find their work. There are somber drawings from Charlottesville illustrator Tim O’Kane. There are morel-shaped candles, encaustics, and dyed fabric. Crozet-based painter Leslie Banta shows her skyward-looking paintings in which vast clouds dwarf tiny buildings.
Laurie Gundersen is a folk artist whose bark-based creations can be found in the gallery. The vases made from cherry or poplar bark and handbags made from white pine have a rough, rustic, and raw appeal that opens new doors in how we use natural materials.
Anne Scarpa McCauley’s intricate, hand-woven baskets hang on the wall. The tightly woven honeysuckle vines trained into astounding, sculptural patterns that can seem alive reveal why the award-winning artist is also displayed in the Smithsonian and nationally.
Grant’s sublimation photography also hangs on the walls. The large, botanical arrangements are printed onto dark metal with dark tones that subvert the bright blush normally attributed to all things floral.
The barn has hosted artists for Crozet’s Second Saturday exhibitions, workshops, and talks. Events can be a great way to interact with the space and its exhibitions. As much as the barn has to offer in the numerous pieces in the shop, it also has at least as much to offer as a place to be. The owners hope to open up the creekside meadow to events when it is safer to gather.
Most people who visit The Barn Swallow have heard about it before and travel to see it. But some customers passing by come in off the road, and there is also an online store. But the gallery is really a destination venue. The barn and gardens are a joy to explore and you never know what you’re going to find tucked away as you browse the displays.
As The Barn Swallow has grown, Burke and Arone have also grown in their craft. Like their barn, clay has the flexibility to be shaped into what you need it to be.
“It’s so versatile, you could make a spoon out of clay or you could make a 6-foot sculpture out of clay,” Arone says. It fills the room in various forms. Pitchers, plates, bowels, vases, and teacups line the walls of the shop on shelves, each with an expressive personality.
After two decades, Burke and Arone can look back over what they’ve made. The natural aesthetic of their shop makes it feel like a growing thing. Every year, The Barn Swallow has a little more within its walls, more artists, more work, more flowers in the garden. Every year, it comes back fuller, like a tree with more blossoms on its branches.
