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The Gallery Owners Gallery Director Mike Tischleder and Gallery Principal Walter Petersen were inspired to open Amazwi by two good friends from Chicago. Leila Green, a native of South Africa who has lived in Chicago for 30 years and is the former chair of the African Wildlife Foundation, and Nancy McDaniel, a former co-worker of Green’s and Petersen’s at the Leo Burnett Advertising Agency, share a passion for Africa. Having visited many times, they were impressed by the quality of art they saw, and they began selling paintings at two exhibitions each year in Chicago. Petersen and Tischleder immediately became enthusiastic patrons. In the fall of 2003 they purchased the first lot of work for their future Saugatuck gallery -- nearly 150 paintings from South Africa and Zimbabwe. Determined to experience the wonders of Africa first-hand and to meet several of the artists whose work they admire, in March 2004 Tischleder and Petersen completed a conservation safari in Tanzania and a buying trip to Kenya where they added more than 100 paintings to their inventory in preparation for the gallery's official opening on May 1, 2004. Since then Tischleder and Petersen have traveled to such places as Johannesburg , Cape Town , and Kwazulu Natal in South Africa; Harare and Bulawayo in Zimbabwe; Accra in Ghana; Nairobi in Kenya; Arusha in Tanzania; Lusaka in Zambia; and Kampala in Uganda, always on the lookout for wonderful new work. The two are certain that even more exciting -- and artful -- destinations await them. |
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