Hill Street Country Club founder Dinah Poellnitz is finding art and hope in the ways local artists are taking their art off the canvas and into protests
Hill Street Country Club cofounder Dinah Poellnitz in an undated photo.
Dinah Poellnitz opened the Oceanside art space Hill Street Country Club eight years ago, with a mission of sharing the “personal, communal and universal” through art. Hill Street has become a bastion for art and building community and equity for black artists, Latinx artists and people of color, working class artists and the DIY arts movement.
This current moment, the Black Lives Matter upheaval layered atop a pandemic, has hit hard.
"If art is personal, communal, universal, what are my experiences right now? I'm a black woman, I am a single mom, I live in a multigenerational home," Poellnitz said. Avoiding COVID-19 exposure is critical for her right now. No collaborating or opening the gallery, but also no marching or protesting in crowds.