Aeqai Mourns Lily Mulberry

April 26th, 2014  |  Published in *, April 2014, Features

by Daniel Brown

We are deeply saddened to let our readers know of the untimely death of Lily Mulberry, who invented and ran a gallery in OTR called 1305 Main. That gallery showed some of the finest exhibitions, mainly of area talent, of any gallery in the region. Lily herself had a very fine eye for quality artwork at reasonable prices. Like most dealers she struggled to keep the gallery going, and did that by doing odd jobs like bartending at night, so that she could continue to afford the gallery. Imagine doing all of that while fighting cancer for at least the past four years.

I asked Lily to start writing for aeqai about eight months ago, and I remember her saying to me on the phone “what a perfect day for you to call.  I need some good news today, and this is it, and I can’t wait to start”.  She wrote a couple of excellent reviews early this year, but warned me that a time might come when her column didn’t come in, and if she didn’t answer my query, to assume the worst.

Her column on the current show at the Kennedy Heights Art Center did not come in.

Lily was a powerful woman, and she was smart and savvy and multi-talented. I loved her laugh, which was a kind of cross between a giggle and a chortle. I admired the way she came to the aeqai holiday party with a scarf wrapped around her head, bald as a berry from chemotherapy. I loved her dedication to the visual arts. I was looking forward to working with her more as an art critic; she was one of those writers who caught on unbelievably quickly, a sign of a very quick mind, which I know she had.

Lily was an obvious leader, and our entire community is thereby lessened by her death. Her courage was boundless.

Aeqai is reprinting a profile that Jane Durrell about Lily about three years ago, which includes some new thoughts about Lily’s death as its introduction. We will post ways that we can help, as we learn them.

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