Location Location

Today I've been thinking about the location of my gallery.

Now I'm a 'North of the River' guy, so my gut feel is either in the city, or inner north. I haven't looked at prices yet (that is, how much it costs to rent a shop), so that's probably a next step.

My guess is that renting a place in the city would be hideously expensive, so it probably rules that out. But I would ideally like to have it somewhere that both locals and tourists could stumble upon it. Ideas include:

• Gertrude St, Fitzroy - Just a cool street to be on, probably rather pricey
• Brunswick St, Fitzroy - Not quite what it used to be, but still attracts a lot of foot traffic
• Smith St / Johnston St, Collingwood - Maybe more affordable
  
• High St, Northcote - a little further out of town ... but it's my new hood

Perhaps I shouldn't rule out other areas just yet. But I've always liked this part of town, and think I'm far more suited to running an art gallery here than say, Armadale.

Then again, I guess an art project doesn't necessarily need to be held in the one physical space. Perhaps it could be a roving gallery, with a stand at the Rose St Artist market one day, and somewhere else the next. Or it could be an outdoor gallery like the City-lights project.

I also like the idea of an underground, guerilla style gallery that 'pops up' in different places, not unlike the mobmov guerilla drive-in movement.

I guess it will probably come down to cost, and where I can afford to set something up. But I'm always interested to hear what everyone else thinks.

Linden Postcard Show

The Linden Postcard Show is another great idea for an exhibition that has become somewhat of an institution in Melbourne.

Each year the Linden Gallery run their postcard competition. Anybody is able to enter a postcard sized artwork (up to 3 per person) into the competition. Judges then pick the winning postcards, and the winner receives $5,000.

With some big sponsers behind the competition, it receives a lot of good coverage, and lots of entries each year - About 2,500 entries were received into this years' show.

It's another example of democratic art, where anyone can enter. For my gallery / store (if that's what my business becomes), I'm leaning towards the sort of art that anyone can submit.

The almanac

"The first thing you should do", I've been told on several occasions, "is to get a copy of the almanac". So I did. "It's the bible", I've been told.

I picked up the August edition of the ArtAlmanac last week. And it is definitely a great starting point to get familiar with the Melbourne art scene, no doubt.

But essentially it's a book full of advertising. And at $495 for a full page, that cost adds up for a small gallery over 12 months. I wonder if it's worth it.

Perhaps the art collector uses the almanac to shortlist their next investment. And I'm sure every gallery feels as though they have to be in it each month, because "you just have to be in it!". But do you?

I'm curious - Is advertising in the the ArtAlmanac a manatory? Does anyone actually read it? Could you spend your gallery marketing budget in a better way? What do you think?

Threadless for Art?

No doubt you've all heard of Threadless, the Chigaco based T-Shirt website.

Threadless works like this: Anyone can submit a design for a T-shirt. Users can then score the T-shirt designs, and the most popular T-shirts are then printed and sold. Each week the team at Threadless print about 10 new T-Shirts, which are quickly snapped up by devoted fans of the site ... which include me. I have a quite a few of their T-shirts, including my favourite, "The Communist Party".

Their business model is simply a great idea. The community creates the T-shirts, the community votes for what T-shirts get sold.

There doesn't seem to be anyone doing this in the art world, but I think it could work really well. Artists could submit their pieces, and the artwork that gets the highest rating gets sold in the gallery.

This has been one of the ideas floating around in my head for a while - to start an art gallery that is "the Threadless for Art". Does anyone else think that this is an idea that could work?

Great Australian Artist #3

Nathaniel Eckstrom gets the guernsey for my next great homegrown artist.

This picture, entitled "None of them you knew" is my personal favourite.

You can check out more of his work at his website, myspace page or etsy store.

I really want to keep using my blog to showcase great local artists - if you know of any artists that are worthy of mention, please let me know.

I heart we heart prints

We Heart Prints is a great site that I keep going back to.

It's a simple blog with links to great prints from different galleries. Like this one - Rose Zephyr by Kris Lewis

Definitely worth a visit if you haven't see it already.

One more for the week

I also decided to pop into 696 Gallery on Sydney road on Friday. For some reason I have just kept hearing about 696 this week, so I thought I'd take a look for myself.

696 is part gallery, part shop. As you can see by the image, they stock everything from artwork to T-shirts to badges to toys and more. It's a smallish space but they make the most of it by packing everything in.

It's a cool store. A couple of thoughts that I had as I was visiting:

• The location: Sydney road is great, but does the location pull enough people in? Does a gallery need to be in a good location to pull in the feet traffic, or will people travel?
• Product range: Are they trying to sell too many different things in the one store?
• Layout: Some might argue that there is too many pieces on the walls ... but I actually like viewing art like this. In a 'formal' gallery you aren't as free to just browse ... It's as though you need to stop and reflect on each piece exhibited. 696 feels much more down to earth.
  
• Support for local artists: Quite clearly they are supporting local artists, and from some of the Melbourne blogs that I've been reading this week, 696 has already generated some local fans since their opening earlier this year.
  

Their myspace page re-affrims some of these thoughts:

We are a low commission based, free rental space, shop/indoor-outdoor gallery. Keen on supporting local artists, national talent and just cool shit in general. A Non-arrogant approachable space with an eclectic goal. Artists always wanted.

They also have a smallish room out back for smallish exhibitions - right now they are running 'A Pretty Discomfort' : by Narida Yeatman-Morgan.