The departure of longtime nonprofit Gallery5 board chair, Prabir Mehta, marks the end of a brilliant and turbulent era at the venerable venue. In recent years, Virginia’s oldest surviving firehouse, police station and jail has hosted memorable performances and art exhibitions even while changing owners, struggling and reconfiguring itself to survive the long slog through the pandemic.

And no one has been as closely identified with the gallery as Mehta, a founder of the board, negotiator of the lease, and dependable presence in the audience when not onstage leading his eponymous band.

The rhomboidal Gallery5 at 200 East Marshall St. sits on a triangular lot across from the iconic Richmond Dairy “milk bottle” building, where Brook Road slices through the parallel streets of Jackson Ward. The name comes from the Steamer Company No. 5, recalling the days when fire engines were horse-drawn, steam-powered pumps. The structure was built in 1883 and has since survived multiple proposals for demolition.

After entering the front door, the main gallery is to the left and the performance area and bar on the right. The old fire engine doors can be opened on warm nights to accommodate an outside crowd. Recently, the space was empty and deeply shadowed on one of those sunny, freakishly spring-like February afternoons when Mehta sat down to reflect on the coming transition. The first question was why now?

“The boring answer is that my term is up, and the bylaws provide a mechanism that ensures change happens,” Mehta says. “We’ve had other leadership; Justin Laughter was also a board chair, so was Brian Phelps. I have been a board chair before, and I am currently the board chair again.” But this does not mean that his departure is business as usual.

“You can’t replace what Prabir does,” says graphic artist and Gallery5 board member Katie McBride. “He has a unique skillset; a marketing and communications professional with 18 years of experience. He works longer and harder and accomplishes more in a day than anyone else I know. Nonprofits live and die by relationships [and] he has a great ability to bring people in.”

Those skills were particularly vital in 2018, when Vanderbilt Properties bought the building. Before the purchase, the building’s disrepair was reflected in its below-market rent. Survival depended on Bruce Vanderbilt buying into the Gallery5 mission.

“Prabir established a great relationship [with Vanderbilt],” McBride recalls. “He made sure he understood the value and continued the partnership though the COVID crisis. I don’t know where we would be without that. The other foundation he laid was establishing regular free tentpole events: jazz every fourth Friday, Classical Revolution on the last Sunday, that bring people in every month. That was all Prabir.”

Piloting G5 through major changes

For Mehta, the last eight years have been a consuming labor of love.

“It is difficult to run a nonprofit, and there needs to be some boundary set for what an individual is asked to do for a volunteer gig,” he explains, noting that there is no money in it. “If anything, it’s the opposite. Board members put money in to keep this place alive. We don’t have a kitchen to offset the costs; we don’t have corporate sponsorship. We are an independently run, community-based nonprofit and every penny matters.”

The pursuit of those pennies is hard work, he says. For Mehta, it has required that he take time away from his main other pursuits, including paying gigs with The Great Big Everything, a consulting firm with clients that have included the Science Museum, VPM, and the [Mozart Festival], and from his own music career with his genre-expanding rock band: The Prabir Trio.

In reality, his band is a quartet featuring local musicians Kelli Strawbridge on drums, Jeremy Flax on bass, and Kenneka Cook on harmony vocals. Mehta supplies exuberant post-psychedelic guitar and vocals. Their debut album, “Haanji,” was an immigrant’s tale. “[It was about] adjusting to life in the U.S. All the epiphanies from things you encounter for the first time,” Mehta says. “The second album is going to be more about contemporary India. Songs about specific places like Rishikesh, the city in Northern India where I am from, or growing up by the Sabarmati River. I have never sung in my native tongue before. Or used all of those beautiful Hindi harmonies.”

He adds that he is putting a lot of time into telling that story and the band “is really supportive.” In that regard, Mehta can’t wait to have more time to get back to music.

“I just love music. It’s my very favorite thing in the world. I feel like I’m better at that than anything else and it does more for me than anything else,” he says. “I’ve missed devoting most of my life to it. I’m looking forward to situations where I can start touring again, doing shows in other places and not feel that I need to keep the music stuff in Richmond because I was needed here.”

Board chair by committee

Mehta says he’s witnessed a lot of changes over the years due to the transitioning environment. In the early days, those changes brought G5 from a DIY arts community to a real 501c3 nonprofit, he says. Then the neighborhood changed before their eyes, seeing more commerce and residential activity. This helped fuel a higher demand for their arts hub as well, he says.

”I was around for those [years] as my first time being board chair, but then 2015 happened and I was pulled back in for a second term, this time it lasted eight years,” he explains, noting that the second stint involved some of the toughest decisions. “The building sale and the pandemic were two occurrences that could have ended the organization, but they did not. I truly believe this small but dedicated group of people are capable of remarkable things. Plus there is a huge community of musicians and performers that rely on Gallery5 to be a part of a diverse offering of venues our city has.”

Looking back now, Mehta feels he has put a “fair amount of [his] being” into Gallery5. “[But] we are at a good place to give someone else the opportunity to run with it,” he says. “And it gives me the time to devote to things I have put on the back burner, my music, and my family.”

The “someone else” to run Gallery5 will, for the time being, involve three people. Katie McBride is one of them; Lauren DeSimone and Ryan Holloway are currently also running the board as co-chairs. They will maintain this organizational structure until a board chair is identified, according to Mehta.

“We are taking the time to step back, shore up what we have and build new resources,” McBride says. “We won’t know how to replace Prabir until we spend some time without him.”

For those interested: Mehta says that Gallery5 is actively looking to expand the board and seek new folks in the community that want to get involved. McBride will be leading that effort, but folks are encouraged to reach out or visit www.Gallery5arts.org for more info.

Mehta believes that every city needs a place like Gallery5, where new artists can be inspired by established ones and often be involved in the same shows. So don’t worry, the monthly burlesque shows, art openings, and jazz night shows will continue.

“I am sure Gallery5 will do great things moving forward,” he says. “There’s programing set through the year. This is the first time the organization has an extended lease going out to 2029, and the staff and facility are in the great shape ready to serve the city’s arts entertainment needs.”

Thanks in no small part to his longstanding effort.

Prabir Mehta makes his farewell appearance at Gallery5 as board chair on Friday, April 7th during the G5 18th birthday (First Friday) bash when Prabir Trio will perform with Sweet Potatoes and No BS Brass. There is no cover charge for First Fridays. Music starts at 8 p.m.