Bert Gallery is a Providence-based gallery founded in 1985 to showcase and preserve the rich art tradition of Rhode Island and the region. The gallery concentrates on the rediscovery of historically significant artists reflecting major styles and movements in American Art. Bert Gallery offers rotating exhibits and an extensive inventory of paintings, drawings and prints from the late 19th century to present, with a strong emphasis from 1880 - 1950.
Catherine Little Bert, director and owner of Bert Gallery, has passionately researched and written on the subject of local artists since the gallery’s founding in 1985. The fertile artistic community of the late 19th century Providence has been a focal point of her research and exhibitions.
Bert has contributed to the 2008 publication Infinite Radius: Founding Rhode Island School of Design, Sketches, an art journal funded by the Rhode Island Committee for the Humanities and co-authored with LJ McElroy, includes research by Bert on the early Providence Art Club artists and the important Rhode Island women artists of the 19th century.
Recent lectures include - “Nancy E. Prophet; African American Sculptor” at the Providence Athenaeum, “Edward Bannister and Nancy E. Prophet Against the Odds” at the North Kingston Library, “Mary Coleman Wheeler: (1846 – 1920)” at the News Women Press Club, Washington, DC. In 2017 she will co-curate with Nancy Grinnell and exhibit on the founding women of the Providence Art Club in celebration of Women’s History Month.
Catherine Little Bert received a B.A. from Providence College and an M.A. from the University of Connecticut. She completed the course work for the Certificate in Appraisal Studies in Fine and Decorative Arts at New York University.
Bert is on the Board of Trustees at Providence College and on the National Advisory Board at the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in Washington, DC. In the past she has served as a Board of Trustee at the Rhode Island Historical Society, Co-President of Gallery Night Providence and Chair of the National Advisory Board at NMWA.
She has consulted at the American College of Greece, in Athens and on exhibitions at the Fall River Historical Society, Rhode Island Historical Society, Newport Art Museum and the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
Hugo Bert and Catherine Little Bert founded the gallery originally located in the historic Providence Biltmore Hotel. In 1992 the gallery relocated to the Corliss Landing Building along the Old Harbor waterfront in the Wickenden Street neighborhood. With this move, Catherine Little Bert became the sole proprietor expanding the exhibition schedule to include seven contemporary painters along with launching a series of exhibitions re-examining the origins of the Providence art community and its artists in the late 19th century within the context of the national American art scene.