14 posts tagged “gallery”

I know that New Year's Day is, when it comes down to it, an arbitrary Western cultural construct. However, it just so happens to come at an appropriate time for me to start fresh and shed the frustrations of this past year. I am horrified that this blog has become a stand in for a therapist. I also hate that it's all words and no images. Boring!

In general, I hope to return to some art making and not just gallery management in this coming year. On the plus side of that, I just got into a show in Savannah, GA and have been offered a solo show at a local gallery. On the minus side, I am artistic director for at least two shows at my gallery this year, plus there's about four other shows in which I will be heavily involved. Hopefully I can just keep the two sides nicely balanced.

I'm not going to make too many promises because I am afraid of not keeping them, but here's to hoping that 2009 is peachy keen and art-o-licious!

So did I mention that sometime last spring/early summer I became president of a non-profit? A non-profit dedicated to the arts and community. What the hell was I thinking?

First off, I have been affiliated with this groups for 5 years, since before it was an NPO. I have grown immensely as a result of being part of this group and have always been quite devoted to it. I do not take my leadership position in the group lightly. That being said, I am ready to throw in the towel and call it quits.

The financial problems (read: we can't pay our bills) weigh heavily on my mind, especially for the last couple of months. We have never really had any money, but it seems to be dwindling more and more. We operate a retail art gallery and sales are just not happening. Yeah, I know, everyone is in the same boat, but I am just so frustrated because I believe in our organization so much.

But I think even more frustrating than the money problem is the feeling that I have minimal support from the community and even from a lot of the members. I put in a ridiculous amount of (volunteer) hours (let's talk about how I never make art any more...) and have a handful of core members who do that same, but I get minimal participation from others. We have events and no one shows up. We ask for donations and get nothing. I would prefer a $1 donation from everyone who comes in our doors rather than a $1000 donation from some sugar daddy - the thing that is important to me is community support.

Sorry to bitch and moan, but I just feel so defeated lately. I don't know when it's the right time to say publically that we need to ask ourselves if we should be wasting money on gallery rent every month. True, the parent NPO can still exist without the gallery, but it would be a lot harder and a lot less desirable for people to be members. I am basically assuming that if we close the gallery, we end the NPO as well, and I would hate to see that happen.

As promised, here's the mail goods I got in June.

These two fiber-based ATCs came from across the Atlantic. What a treat! I contacted this artist after we both participated in an STC swap. In that swap, she also made an ATC with cross stitch. I love it! 

I would have some good stuff to post if I had scanner access at the moment. I received two different surprises in the mail this week and I want to share them. Soon.

I have had frustration after frustration with the latest show I organized at my gallery. First we only received entries from two artists. Two! Then groups that we tried to contact specifically wouldn't give us the time of day. The final show is severely scaled down with only 4 pieces of art in it. If that wasn't bad enough, the piece we hung in the front window touched off a censorship debate due to the naked penis in it. Trust me, I have no desire to look at a naked penis, but that doesn't mean that it should be censored. I hope I can look back on all of this fondly in the future. At the moment I am just tired of the whole thing. I have a new idea for a gallery show, thanks to a discussion with another gallery member, but I am going to take my sweet time proposing it since this last show has left a bad taste in my mouth.

My summer job begins on Monday. It's a good job but I will miss having a free and open schedule. I'm not complaining, I promise.

Like I said, mail art scans coming soon...

This is the first part of my online documentation of the Cut & Paste Show I organized at Sixth Street Gallery. This is going to be longish, bear with me. First, a wide shot of most of the show.

There is a great mix of different types of wall art and sculpture/3d art. This is particularly exciting and fulfilling for me because part of my goal with this show is to simply to give the general public a much wider idea of what materials can be made into art and what can be called art. Too often I see people limited to the idea that art=painting and painting=art. I have more to say on that subject, but that is for another time.  I will probably be posting more photos of the juried show in the upcoming weeks.
Another exciting part of the show is that one of the artists proposed to create an installation of cut paper shapes in whatever area we gave her. The left image shows the main installation in the middle of the wall with other wall art. It can also be seen in the first photo in this posting. The large scale of it is great as is knowing that this was created just for our gallery and just for this show. I also wanted to use the installation idea to add some art to areas of the gallery that are usually bare. The middle photo shows a support beam in the middle of the gallery and the right photo shows the top edge of the back wall. I am especially fond of the birds on the back wall, partly for aesthetic reasons but also because I like the idea that anyone who takes the time to look up will be rewarded.

1. The camera mail arrived at its destination on Wednesday with about half of the photos taken and the whole unit sealed up in a plastic bag. Hmm, I wonder when the bag got put on. The camera has been dropped off for developing and now I wait for the prints. Stay tuned.

2. Journaling is still spotty. I'm trying not to lose faith in myself.

3. Okay, I take back half of my angst expressed last week over the lack of Cut & Paste submissions. I got a pretty good amount of submissions and some very interesting work. I still would have liked to receive more, but I really can't complain. However, I stand by my frustration over how hard it can be to get people to participate in things, both the artists and the (potential) audience. I'm certainly guilty at times, but really, would it be so hard for people to go out into their communities every so often and participate? Sigh.

I wonder how many people, even (especially?) artists, understand how nerve wracking it can be to put on a juried gallery show. I have this Cut & Paste show that I'm organizing and I have only 5 more days to receive entries. As of tonight I think the official tally is 3 entries. Sure, they usually all come pouring in at the last minute, I've seen it happen before, but I'm still trying to brace myself for the worst case scenario. It's hard feeling like no one gives a crap. Like everyone who I handed an entry form to was lying when they said it sounded cool and they were interested. Like the few people I felt sure would follow through and at least make an ATC for the show weren't even dependable.

Part of this is the frustration I've been feeling about trying to get people to get off their butts and do anything. I invite so many people to gallery openings and they never show up. I put on events at the gallery to give people fun, affordable, community-building, non-intimidating art activities to participate in and no one comes. I don't know if I'm a sucker for trying again and again. So far it hasn't made much difference. I could rant more, but that will lead to pages and pages of bitterness. We'll leave it at this. Please, if you can support your local art scene/small businesses/friends, then please do it. Someone out there has put their heart into this stuff.

In other news, I mailed my camera art last week and am now waiting for it to arrive at its destination (several states away - I hope that gives me good odds for lots of photos). Stay tuned for details.

My journaling has been spotty. Highly spotty. But I promise I have not abandoned it.