10A KULTURE
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2007
BY MATT ERICKSON
Grimshaw Gallery, Ad Astra Galleria, KOJO and Fields Gallery all are Lawrence art galleries that have closed since 2004. In a few days, another gallery will join the list: Olive Gallery and Art Supply.
Olive, 15 E. Eighth St., opened in 2003 and will close Saturday. Jill Kleinhans, Olive Gallery co-owner, declined to comment on the closing
Dave Loewenstein, a Lawrence artist, said the string of gallery closings was not a disturbing trend so much as a sign that sustaining a commercial art business in Lawrence was no easy task.
"Lawrence is a fairly small town without a large art-buying market," Loewenstein said "It's hard to get that kind of business going."
Despite the trend of galleries closing in town, a new one will open this spring.
6 Gallery, owned by Sally Piller, will open at 716 Massachusetts St. in early May.
Loewenstein said that several opportunities still existed in Lawrence for local artists to display their work, from the Lawrence Arts Center to restaurants and coffee shops.
He said the Solidarity Revolutionary Center and Radical Library, 1109 Massachusetts St., would have a local art show that begins Friday.
Loewenstein said many people considered art a luxury, and most Lawrence residents weren't likely to buy original art because of the cost. Cities similar to Lawrence's size that support commercial art businesses must have a tourist industry that brings in people with disposable wealth, he said.
"That's not any tragedy," Loewenstein said. "I think it's just
a reality."
Fields Gallery, a downtown fixture since the 1960s, closed in October. People can now view and order artwork at the gallery's Web site, fieldgallery.com.
She said competition from charity auctions and other ways of purchasing art, as well as the high cost of operating a retail business downtown, made it difficult for Lawrence art galleries to turn a profit.
Even though many gallery owners don't even have the expectation of turning a profit, Wilkins said, they are likely to struggle even to break even and sustain operations.
"You have to really love what you're doing to be opening a gallery in the first place," she said. "Breaking even would be good."
Piller said she knows about the difficulty of running a profitable art business in Lawrence, and she did not expect a large financial gain.
"That seems to be a pretty hard egg to crack here in Lawrence," she said. "I don't necessarily have to make a living with this."
Piller said she had a roster of about 50 local artists who would contribute to six art exhibitions each year, with each show tied to a charitable organization. She said she planned to use personal communication with Lawrence residents to convince them of the importance
Jon Allen, manager of Olive Gallery and Art Supply,
talks to a customer and explains why the gallery is closing.
The store will close on Saturday.
and attractiveness of buying local art.
"I think a lot of galleries are kind of intimidating and imposing." Piller said.
Kansan staff writer Matt Erickson can be contacted at merickson@ kansan.com.
Edited by Rvan Schneider
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