My First Gallery Show
Jennifer@Indy.USA
>Hey Everyone,
A couple of weekends ago I participated in my first Gallery show. The show was a two evening event and the first night was part of what is called "First Friday's" here in Indy. The IDADA (Indianapolis Downtown Art Dealers Association) sponsors a shuttle service to take patron from gallery to gallery. It occurs on the first Friday of every month. 18 Galleries were involved and it was a very successful event. I was amazed at how many people were shuttling all over downtown Indy that night. The gallery that I was in is an old historic school that has been converted into galleries and studios with the help of some very gracious individuals and some grant money. A great group of people to be involved with. The main gallery is the old gymnasium and the studios upstairs are the classrooms. There is a ceramic studio, a glass studio, a woodworking studio, metal working you name it. We had live music and lots of food and wine and all of the artists studios were open to the public with their work displayed in them. It was a great atmosphere. We even had an interactive studio where patrons could help create a large 3-D sculpture made from found objects.
The lighting was thankfully adjusted after these shots were taken if any of you are cringing. I was too! Thanks to lots of great feedback from WC and WOWies, I made my own pedestals from Sono Tubes from Lowes and some 20x20 floor tiles from another Big Box store. I cut them to different heights,primed and then painted them in various colors of brown and tan and weighed them down with a 10lb. bag of play sand that sat on a piece of 1x3 the spaned the bottom. The tiles have a piece of 1x3 adhered with construction adhesive to keep them in place. I was thrilled at how many other artists complimented my pedestals. I was quite nervous about them and wondering how they would fit in with the other stark white pedestals the gallery provided.
One of my goals this year was to get into a juried gallery show. My main focus for this show was to get my work out in the public, so I guess.. mission accomplished! Unfortunately sales were very weak. I honestly didn't see anybody buying anything. I think most people were just enjoying the gallery hopping and several people even asked if things were in fact for sale. So I think most thought it was just "look" only. I didn't sell one thing...oh well? I'm not going to get rich, but I'm having fun!
Thanks for looking : )
Jennifer
