Do you go to art galleries? Why? What do you like about them?

I like going to art galleries sometimes better than museums because they are smaller. I can get overwhelmed or zone out after a while in a museum, although of course, I go to them too. What I find problematical in a gallery at times is if the owner or assistant is too clingy and I feel there might be a pressure to buy or leave. A friendly “Hi” and “Let me know if you have any questions” is generally all the initial attention I want.

That’s impressive. I’ve never met someone who owned one.

What type of gallery is it? Can you describe it for us? What is its purpose?

@Pied_Pfeffer – Owning an art gallery isn’t hard. You just have to be independently wealthy,
which I sort of am. It’s a very beautiful tall white storefront in a small 150-year-old building in a small state capital, in the middle of downtown. Its purpose is to make works of art available for viewing and people are welcome to buy it. There are other galleries in town but they are also frame shops or gift shops; mine is nothing but fine art: painting, original prints, sculpture. Right now I have an installation in there that’s kind of odd and intellectual. I showed my own work once, and it did really well, and I’ll do it again next year, but that’s not my main purpose.
The gallery’s purpose is to give people who don’t look at art very regularly a chance to be with serious imagery without distractions. (We have no museum here.) I don’t make enough money to cover expenses. I take a 25% commission on works sold and I put up all the money for taking care of the property, payments on the building, heat, city services, and web/poster design; I split the costs with the artists of printing posters and providing wine and cheese for receptions; I do all the email and social-media outreach. I decide who will get a show and I make all the decisions along with each artist. I have two friends who each watch the gallery for me one day a week just because they enjoy it, and I like to have the artist come in one day a week in case people want to meet them. I do the rest. Sometimes we have performances in there too. I haul chairs in from home and do the haul them back out again.
@janbb – The friendly “Hi” and “let me know if you have any questions” is exactly our approach! Thanks for this.