A
younger artist friend from back home asked about recommendations for the small
or rural art gallery. It is a difficult question to answer. I have worked with numerous projects that
denote, list and explore galleries as cultural assets in terms of tourism and
media, but most often, the smaller gallery and the rural gallery seem to act as
a local arts incubator, a social outreach or an artisanal display more than
they do a true arts center.
As I am trying to consistently reinforce,
there is nothing wrong with the artisanal center or promotional gallery and as
such, I can only recommend a strong relationship be established between the
local arts community, the chamber of commerce and the local technical schools
and all efforts be made to market! Market!, Market!
On the other hand, just as a small ethnic
or rural community requires a church, mosque or religious center, each should have
a fine arts establishment – merely for the survival of the spiritually creative
soul.
The most common arts venue in smaller
communities seems to be the theatre – Ft Peck Theatre near Glasgow, Montana, Commonweal
Theatre, in Lanesboro, Minnesota, the old Baliwick Theatre in Chicago, and the
Minnesota Historical Theatre in St Paul,
and numerous other examples indicate how smaller theatres have become
essential venues for the arts. My observation
is that the strongest of these theatres also seem to have tendency to include
both locally reflective material and one or two more challenging or experimental
pieces, along with the traditional performances of traditional favorites such
as the Sound of Music, Death of a Salesman, etc. While popular films such as Please Don’t Eat the Daisies andWaiting for Guffman tend to disparage
small-community efforts in this regard, I often find smaller, more local,
more-budget-conscious productions to be more intimate, more approachable, often
more creative, and just as interesting as Chicago’s Wolf Trap or Minneapolis’
Guthrie. What are the popular Fringe
Festivals if not groupings of the smaller theatrical and cabaret-style theatre
experience?
Art galleries that seem to do “small” well
are Klondike Institute of Art & Culture in Dawson City, Yukon, the original
Plug-In Gallery (now a greatly expanded enterprise) in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Chateau
Park Museum – Art Centre in St Catharines, Ontario, Hamond Arts Alliance in Hammond,
Wisconsin, the Swedish-American Museum (SAMAC) in Chicago, Dana Gallery in
Missoula, Montana, and the arts pavilion at Kirstenbosch Gardens in Cape Town,
South Africa.
Is there a formula for their success? Probably not. There might be coincidences and similarities,
but often their success is due to the vision and networking of a very small
group of educated, dedicated, semi-professional volunteers.
I have noticed a few seeming commonalities. First, there is a unity of vision and
dedication to merit and quality.
None of these galleries are ad hoc or merely displays of art goods. These
are not art stores. Rather, they tend to
have curated shows centralized around a certain theme. Often, they might have room to display work
by a number of artists, but the main gallery space is dedicated to juried shows
celebrating individual themes or a couple of complementary artists. In other
words, there is a theme and there is programming, the extent of which is
dependent on the space.
Hammond Arts Alliance is the least formal
and is technically an open gallery, but the small community of artists which it
serves are quite serious about art.
Secondly, there are no artisanal objects or
even crafts. It is not a
craft show. If they show up, they show
up in the bookstore, not in the main gallery.
For the difference, please see my 10 Feb, 2013, essay, Defining Art: Artist or Artisan.
That being said, Hammond, Wisconsin, is again
very good at incorporating items such as pottery and glasswork into their
shows. In fact, Hammond Arts Alliance
programming seems to tend towards multi-media inclusiveness, incorporating folk
music, poetry, publishing, visual, sculptural and artisanal arts. All objects are well curated and treated
respectfully and with an informal catalogue.
At the same time, glasswork and pottery tend towards the conceptual and
artists are on-hand to describe their work and why it is conceptual or unique,
hence art glasswork might sell for $400.00 and above.
That being said, Dana Gallery seemed to do
well incorporating design-forward, high quality, hand produced furnishings into
its art space, literally selling the shelves, tables and chairs with the art
work.
Third, shows are organized around intriguing
and often consistent themes.
Kirstenbosch Gardens operates a gallery whose theme is really the
seasonal colors of South Africa and it is often treated lightly but
consistently. Summer landscapes might be
mixed with portraits of folk singers and the market – all outdoor summer
activities – all South African artists.
The show is diverse, inclusive, and yet oddly coherent.
Some small galleries are “ethnic-ish” such
as SAMAC’s (the Swedish Museum) focus on Swedish artists and Swedish-American
art, and art that deals with the concept of immigration and establishment in
new cultures. SAMAC hosts some major and
very complex shows but always tied back to the concepts of Sweden and/or the
concept of the multi-cultural immigrant experience.
St Catherine’s is more regional in theme
but has also mounted some major thematic shows, including explorations of local
and native folk culture and discussions of the environment.
Often, these shows are funded by grants
specified to that particular show for the theme expressed. Artists are scheduled to discuss their work,
schools are expected to bring their students to the exhibits and special
discussions, book readings, musical events and other programming reinforce
access to the show and the general theme.
Connections are often quite loose, but conceptually relevant. So the fourth aspect, would be multi-dimensional,
multi-media presentations and participation.
Fifth, even the smallest galleries contain
conceptually forward, experimental and challenging art work. SAMAC has had shows based on wool – all art
objects are derived from, wrapped in or composed of wool. Plug-In has had shows including art composed
on grains of rice. In fact, Plug-In’s
original, very small gallery was always experimental and theoretically
progressive and linked to the local or regional culture. Admittedly, Plug-In occasionally brought in
more experimental shows, such as the visual artistry of the musician BECK. Eventually, an even smaller side gallery was
opened that was always dedicated to experimental art concepts by local artists
– once incorporating a snow drift of hand-cut paper snowflakes.
The difficulty in mounting such shows is
that you need to support them with media outreach including interviews in local
media, catalogues (often times no more than a well-written brochure) and
intelligent, intellectual dialogue with artists, media and non-artists. Is the local arts community willing to
challenge itself to live up to this standard or is it mired in artisan-quality
fine art?
The Klondike Institute of Art & Culture
in Dawson City, Yukon, is highly progressive and experimental, and firmly
rooted in a sense of belonging to Dawson City (sense of place). For that reason, local tourism approaches a
visit to the gallery as an essential stop in “seeing” and “understanding” the
Dawson cultural experience. Seemingly,
for small town galleries, this would be the ultimate goal.
Many of the galleries are exceptional also in generating supporting materials such as books, journals, ‘zines or even
tourism brochures or newsletters. It
does seem important to have a physical publication beyond a web-site or
blog. I don’t why, but perhaps it is so
that the public has something that goes with them into the gallery to help
curate the show. A progressive gallery
might consider acquiring a couple of Kindle™-type electronic readers to try bridging
the gap between the Internet blogs and the physical locality of the gallery. Otherwise, journal support can start small
such as a hand-out brochure, or be targeted for grants by state funding
authorities. Be creative and do what can
be done.
Finally, the most successful small galleries
seem to be networked, networked, networked! Small, independent artists tend to quite
rightly fiercely protect their mailing lists.
Yet, everyone must contribute towards the success of the local gallery. Think of it as being church for the creative
intellect – a church that commands your utmost participation – no holds barred.
SAMAC is networked with local ethnic and
immigrant community cultural centers and artists, both in the United States and
Sweden. Kirstenbosch Gardens networks with
the gardening community and the regional arts community. They might avail themselves of the Garden’s
international reputation in botany, the tourism community and the emerging
African arts scene.
Form alliances with experimental galleries
in other small towns or in the regional center – especially with academic
communities and state-supported galleries and historical collections – and
don’t limit it to the local regional or national scene – some of the greatest
small art shows I have seen originate in Florence, Italy, Bourdeax, France, or
Amsterdam, Netherlands. Seek funding
from their national arts boards, tourism bodies and cultural exchange grants –
and make such exchanges a real and viable component within the programming
schedule. Caution: such exchanges should be two-way exchanges in
order to benefit local supporting artists as well.
In the case of SAMAC, pre-packaged shows
are often presented as programing alternatives.
A show on Somali immigrant art in Sweden might be pre-curated and
pre-packaged with a suggested cost of $10,000.00. Such shows can provide a unique and vital boost
to the local scene, and might best be paired with specific arts and cultural
grants. Dana Gallery, a private gallery
in Missoula, Montana, has established certain shows that exchange regional art
from the Rocky Mountains with fine arts exchanges from China. Missoula art goes to China. Chinese art and artists come to Missoula.
To what extend will art sales support such
programming?
There is no magic recipe for the successful
small gallery. Keep
expectations realistic, but push the envelope.
Be willing to take a chance bringing in or developing conceptually
challenging and unique shows supported by the best efforts of the local
community. Note that art grants and
cultural programming grants will and should form a considerable aspect of the
expected budget. This will take time and
resources. Most importantly, no gallery,
no matter how creative, no matter how well organized, no matter well networked,
will survive without the dedicated support and participation of the local arts
community.
Perhaps the greatest art in the small art and
small conceptual arts gallery is the maintenance and management of the gallery
itself. Good luck and happy viewing!
~
PACE
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