Olive Willis;  

                     Fine Art Oil Painter, Pastel, Drawing

Olive  became a member of the WAA in the mid 80's and very quickly was asked to be the chairperson of the festival. A year later she was asked to become the President. Being asked to be in these position's came as a complete surprise to her each time. But her memories of those years are full of laughter, inspiration and teamwork. Back in those days they used to meet in a back room of the old Baptist church and Olive would move the tables to one side of the room and each artist that brought their work in would speak about it to the rest of them before the meeting began. It quickly was apparent to Olive that they needed a building of their own- a place to cultivate art and encourage artists and art lovers alike. Once the idea was born in her heart and mind she went after it with gusto. 

Olive and the building committee chairperson she had appointed, Bob Brown met with a young architect named Gerald R. Brothers in Providence who graciously agreed to her proposal and offered to create the plans for the gallery free of charge. Next came the convincing of the Town of North Kingstown to help them find a place to put the gallery. There were a few sad offers, including Goat Island until one day they were walking and talking on the beach and she was offered a place to build which to seemed to Olive would be susceptible to being destroyed by a storm. Olive looked around and walked right to a nice safer spot on the landscape and said, "There, how about right there?" You guessed it, "there" is where we are located today, on that very spot now considered 36 Beach Street. After 4 years of her presidency and feeling as though she had accomplished what she set out to do she passed the baton on to the next president she had recruited herself.