News from Delavan Art Gallery

The following letter was sent to our email list on Monday, December 17, 2007 at 5 PM. We welcome your comments.




A Letter from Delavan Art Gallery

December 17, 2007

Dear Artists, Friends and Supporters of Delavan Art Gallery,

Delavan Art Gallery is taking a break. Starting after the closing of our exhibition, "The Artistic Domain", on Saturday, February 23, 2008, the gallery will operate on a reduced basis for a period of time with the intention of resuming active exhibitions in September (2008).

Since opening four and a half years ago we have followed a self-defined mission of showing and selling the fine art of area artists. By February of next year we will have had forty-four exhibitions for 155 area artists in individual shows, 250 area artists in seventeen group shows, an exhibit each year for four years running of the students from three neighborhood elementary schools and also numerous special exhibits and events. We will have displayed over 6500 pieces of two and three dimensional art and sold over 1800 works by 225 artists. Our openings and events have consistently been well attended; people continually come into the gallery, some of whom have never stepped foot in a gallery before; we have been selling artwork since day one and area artists continue to want to have shows here. An achievement of this scale has only been possible through the efforts of our very competent and dedicated staff, especially Caroline Szozda McGowan, Gallery Manager, and Courtney Rile, Marketing and PR Coordinator, as well as the many, many others whose help, advice and support has been so essential. We also wish to recognize the buyers and collectors who have sustained us to this point.

From the beginning we have been an experiment, a fact we made explicit in our gallery description, which goes to all interested artists. We created a gallery that is large enough to do several individual shows at the same time; a gallery that is flexible with its hanging panels and excellent lighting; and which promotes area artists and the arts as much as possible. However, to enable this we must also have sufficient self-generated revenue as we are structurally a for-profit organization. Thus we have a "double bottom line" with the dual tasks of serving the arts community and sustaining ourselves financially. On the first point we have succeeded very well. On the second there is a need for improvement. Another, equally if not more important factor is our own energy level for continuing the present mode of operation. We all feel a need to change our procedures and practices. Currently we have three and a half days to turn over one show to the next, and we've done it forty-three times, but it's now time for a change.

After reviewing the situation, we have decided to ease off for awhile. We'll keep artwork in the gallery by artists who have previously shown; we'll be open during TH3, The Third Thursday, each month or by appointment; we may have a few selected events, and, throughout the pause period, we'll be actively re-thinking how to better accomplish our dual goals.

This period of lower activity will involve time off for our staff, but for the most part we will still be around. We hope to use this time to regroup, refresh, reset, rethink, reenergize and return. Undoubtedly there will be changes. We will reexamine the setup of the physical space; the geographic area from which we draw artists; the frequency of our shows; our commission structure; the kind of artwork we choose to exhibit (while maintaining our quality levels); our presentation and sales efforts; our advertising reach; and many other aspects. While nothing is off limits, there are a few areas we are not interested in changing: our concentration on area artists (although the area may be somewhat expanded), our personnel who I feel have done an extraordinary job in these four and a half years, and our desire to remain focused on fine arts. Our purpose in this respite is to reopen with new energy, new excitement, new ideas and possibly some new directions.

In the course of our continuing operations we have had shows on the planning board, which will now not be happening - at least for a while. While we all regret that this will disappoint artists who were looking forward to the possibility of doing a show in the near future, we must have this hiatus if we are to continue at all. Please contact us via e-mail if possible if you have any questions. In addition we will be separately contacting those artists who have shown and who have work here.

We must genuinely thank the many fine area artists who have shown here, the buyers and collectors of artwork, the greater community of artists and friends who have been so supportive, the loyal gallery attendees and new viewers who we enjoy seeing at each opening and throughout the exhibitions, the present gallery and building personnel as well as past gallery personnel, all of our wonderful interns and volunteers, the media and our suppliers and all others who have made important contributions to the gallery's success thus far - Thank you.

Finally, we will keep you up to date via our website, www.DelavanArtGallery.com. Alternatively, we'd like to hear suggestions and comments from interested parties. Leave comments on our blog: http:// DelavanArtGallery.blogspot.com and/or mail letters to Delavan Art Gallery, 501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse, NY 13204.

In the meantime we continue to be open and hope to see you during the course of our current show, "Wrapping Up The Season", which ends Saturday, Dec 22nd. Then for the 44th Exhibition, "The Artistic Domain", from opening on Thursday, January 24th and running through Saturday, February 23rd, 2008, and finally for a great re-opening in September 2008.

Thank you all for your support.
Sincerely,


Bill Delavan, Director
Caroline Szozda McGowan, Gallery Manager
Courtney Rile, Marketing and PR Coordinator
Delavan Art Gallery