What say you all to photo bigots.

[paulr]

Everyone I know who has tried to start a gallery, without having worked in galleries many years to build a clientelle, has failed within a year. I'm not talking about frame shops that also happen to be galleries. Perhaps there are parts of the country with both low rents and lots of art collectors. But not anywhere near me!

[Kirk Gittings]

David Muench graciously approached me once about doing a joint gallery together in Santa Fe. While I was flattered I knew it would be the end of my career as a practicing photographer and the end of my financial stability. It would be all consuming both financially and mentally and likely not succeed-most don't. I was not at all interested in the considerable risk.

[Kodachrome25]

It can be easy if you keep the risk low like we have here, using an innovative approach of unused common space in an extremely expensive commercial core that would otherwise be far out of reach for most. It took three years to get the city ordinance to be amended so we could do it, but it was worth it:

http://www.nuggetaspen.com/

it isn't to hard to rent a space and run an art gallery.
when i got fed up with the galleries in boston ( in the 1990s )
i joined up with a handful of like-minded people and we
ran a gallery. no jury ... no BS ..
rent isn't too expensive, get a month to month lease
and a few other interested people and do it yourself.

it is a great experience ... and i look forward to doing it again someday..

good luck !

john

[DrTang]

In fact, I'd like to see the term "art" eradicated, especially in relation to photography.

hear, hear


art = whatever a group of professors, gallery owners and magazine editors thinks it is anyway

[Kodachrome25]

hear, hear


art = whatever a group of professors, gallery owners and magazine editors thinks it is anyway

Whatever...not directed at anyone in particular, but...

If your photos are not selling, get rejected by galleries because it is super-uber-duber mundane dead center of the frame happy snaps of bunnies, larva, trees and other static objects presented in cliche over saturated prose, then we need to "Eradicate" the term art...?

But if your work is selling well, winning awards and gaining critical acclaim, then you would likely be OK with it being called art...

I mean really....sour grapes grow best on people shaped vines...

[Marc B.]

Milton,

...it’s a good thing I had my nice hat on...

Why, not try your 'thinking out of the box' hat?

Given your close proximity to so many tourist destinations...ie; DC, Pennsylvania Dutch [Amish] Country,
Gettysburg, Bush Gardens, Colonial Williamsburg, Baltimore's - Inner Harbor, etc...
it may be worth checking into 'Art Fairs' or 'Fairs on the Green' events for local artists.

Also, try the myriad of Chesapeake Bay area "Bed n' Breakfasts," many of which display art on commission.
(Chesapeake Bay - North Americas largest estuary).

Marc

[Vaughn]

it isn't to hard to rent a space and run an art gallery...
john

A coop arrangement can work. I am a founding member of one that has been running for ten years now, with sales increasing a little every month for those ten years. A bit different than what most have in mind here -- multi media, 30 members. A bulk of our sales are artist cards, jewelery, and smaller pieces, but occasionally larger pieces(>$250).

Such a coop reduces the individual financial risk, and one only spends two 4-hour shifts behind the sales counter per month, along with some committee work (max 10hrs/mo, but usually much less). Everyone pays $60/mo for the rent and the cooperative takes 20% of the sales for other overhead expenses. Any excessive profit is redistributed back each year to the members in the form of a rent rebate (not taxable that way).

No photo bigots in the cooperative (we have two other photographers). http://www.arcataartisans.com/

Vaughn

[Drew Wiley]

I always did better in high-end galleries which did feature painters, mainly abstract expressionists, though I did get some of my photos once placed adjacent to
some of Winston Churchill's little impressionist paintings - the fellow had quite a bit of serious talent! I'd cogitating with some buddies at the moment how to get
a gig going around here, where commercial real estate is generally ugly and very expensive. Most allegedly successful photo galleries here in Calif have actually been
tax writeoffs for some gazooliaire, or some hobby to get his trophy wife out of the house. Then there are the disgusting tourist galleries. But it's a risky business
otherwise.

[Tin Can]

I second that notion of tax dodging galleries and boutiques. My entire neighborhood is being overrun with these pseudo businesses and making storefront rents way too high. Most artists have long gone for cheaper digs.

WGN news just claimed Chicago is #10 in world wide tourist destinations... I can't beleive that, can I?

Drew, you are lucky if you had positive gallery experiences. My second wife, a painter had very bad experiences. Theft and deception, Teamsters retrieved some paintings 600 miles away.

Paul Klein a well known and well connected 'art advisor' says this, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-k...b_3400091.html

Bear in mind Paul Klein sells a $1000 webinar to help advance artists in their carrer.

I always did better in high-end galleries which did feature painters, mainly abstract expressionists, though I did get some of my photos once placed adjacent to
some of Winston Churchill's little impressionist paintings - the fellow had quite a bit of serious talent! I'd cogitating with some buddies at the moment how to get
a gig going around here, where commercial real estate is generally ugly and very expensive. Most allegedly successful photo galleries here in Calif have actually been
tax writeoffs for some gazooliaire, or some hobby to get his trophy wife out of the house. Then there are the disgusting tourist galleries. But it's a risky business
otherwise.

[Jac@stafford.net]

Often success begets success. I occasionally work for an artist whose resume is so long and prestigious that I wonder if he gets grants because the grantor thinks "Hey, we must get on this list.

Speaking of grants, ... Oh, it might be off-topic.