Oct 8, 2010
NYC
Elevation: 80m
Changes come.
Since we have started Baang and Burne Contemporary we have heard feedbacks from artists, emerging / mid-career / well established and more. Everyone is excited about the new business model. Everyone agrees that the old way doesn’t work.
Baang and Burne is a work in progress. That is part of how Kesha and I had designed it. We want it to flexible, agile, creative and always adopting to make it better. We wanted to be open to possibilities and we want to continue to refine the way we work and think as we learn, grow and expand. This might sound like a crazy business plan. It is certainly not a business plan that I could take to the bank and get a loan on. Then again, the business plan that would land me a bank loan is also one that is barely self-sustaining. This is a business that is built on relationship building, transparency and adaptability.
Damien Hirst has circumvented his dealers and taken his art straight to the auction house. Hazel Dooney is waging a war against the traditional gallery model. We are artist turn gallery directors who are still practicing artists and believe that our survival will only come if we help one another.
There are days when we are knee deep in conversation / discussion of building something new that I almost want new titles for us. To call ourselves something other than “gallery directors” and Baang and Burne something other than a “gallery.” I believe in the importance of language. I believe we should use it well and wisely.
Then it hit me. Synthesis. What we are building here is synthesis and not antithesis. We want to take all of the positive aspects the traditional model, all the positive aspects of its antithesis and blend it into something that is synthesis. Now that I have the right word, I am a lot more settled in the title of gallery director and the categorization of gallery.
Just when I am starting to get comfortable, Kesha asks a crucial question, what would you do if there are no more galleries tomorrow?
The questions throws me back deep into thought and I hope whatever answer I come up with, the idea and spirit of what we’ve built Baang and Burne on is centrally figured into the answer.
How dependent are you upon the galleries?
What would happen to your career if there are no more galleries?
What would you want in place of it?
