Claire Guarniere first came to Puerto Vallarta in 1982 to teach English in a language school. In her spare time, she made desserts for local restaurants. It was in one of these restaurants that she met her future husband Joe, a Michigan native who had been in the restaurant business his entire life. Claire and Joe decided to settle in Vallarta permanently, and their first venture here was an extremely successful mom-and-pop restaurant called “Pizza Joe’s.” During the seven years it was open, the couple began collecting art from Italy, Greece, and Mexico, and decorating the restaurant. Claire and Joe received such positive feedback about the artwork that they decided to get out of the restaurant business and open an art gallery.
Inspired by the story of Dante and Beatrice, Claire and Joe opened Galleria Dante in 1995. In the beginning, most of the gallery’s pieces were classical, but over the years it has expanded. Today, Galleria Dante is the largest and most eclectic in PV, hosting 100 contemporary painters and sculptors that work in a wide range of styles: abstract, surreal, realism, photo-realism, and of course, classical. The countless pieces are arranged in the European salon style throughout the massive gallery’s eight rooms, including a beautiful open-air courtyard.
Claire told us that the most rewarding part of running the gallery is seeing young people become interested in art, like the young collectors who make their first purchase, or children whose parents bring them to the gallery to teach them about art. She reminisced about how her and Joe’s own daughters used to save their allowance money to buy art.
The couple’s plans for the future include adding an upstairs wine bar in the summer of 2010, and continuing to promote Puerto Vallarta’s growing art scene.
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