Beloved gallery, one of Five Points’ oldest businesses, is closing

One of Five Points’ oldest businesses is closing.

After 39 years on Devine Street and Saluda Avenue, Portfolio Art Gallery will close at the end of February.

Judith Roberts’ late husband found the space for her to open the gallery in 1980, allowing her to take her artistic career in a new direction.

But after decades of curating an eclectic collection of paintings, jewelry, sculptures and knick-knacks, of talking art with customers and celebrating American artists, it’s simply time for the 77-year-old to retire, she said.

“If I had signed another lease, I would be over 80 when I would then be able to retire, and I would like to have those years” to enjoy herself, Roberts said. “But this is my life, and it’s like, oh, what am I going to do next?”

Portfolio has been a staple not just of the funky urban Five Points village, but of the South Carolina arts community. It is an award-winning art gallery — in 2006, it was voted one of the top 100 galleries in America in a poll by Niche magazine — and Roberts herself is a respected artist, teacher and art judge.

Even with the gallery’s closing just over a month away, Roberts said she’s ordered some new jewelry and gift items, knowing her customers would want them.

As news of Portfolio’s closing has begun to leak out, Roberts said loyal customers have come by to stock up on unique gifts to last for holidays and birthdays to come.

“My customers who are finding out about this say, ‘There’s no place like this that I know of, and it’s your taste that put it all together,’” Roberts said. “This gallery has taught me a lot of things. My customers have taught me a lot of things. And the artists have taught me a lot of things. You know, we work on it together to make something that somebody’s going to really want and love and cherish.”

Roberts reminisces fondly about her years watching Five Points grow and transform. She misses some of her old business neighbors — a bookstore, a tailor, an antiques store and a uniform supply shop, among others that have closed over the decades.

She remembers staying open late into the night for shoppers on Christmas Eve and hanging a banner for kids to paint on St. Patrick’s Day.

Roberts claims she was, by a fluke, one of the first waitresses at the original Goatfeather’s restaurant a few doors down. Soon after the restaurant opened, its owner, Jeff Helsley, had rushed over to the gallery and asked Roberts if she would take orders in a pinch for him, she said.

She did, but “I lasted one hour,” she remembered with a chuckle.

The neighborhood has changed a great deal, and not entirely for the better, Roberts said.

“It’s been so much focused on the bar businesses, and all that they’ve learned is that’s not really the best way to go about creating an atmosphere where you’re going to have people come and stay and shop and all that,” she said.

Still, though, Roberts believes Five Points and its small businesses have great days ahead of them.

And so does she, once she figures out how to spend her retirement.

This story was originally published January 16, 2019 at 5:00 AM.