The Conversation that Started It All- Jim Hamel

Prelude

The final piece of the puzzle for any photographer or artist is to place your work in a gallery.  In fact, it is often considered the Holy Grail for artists.  While I don’t necessarily buy into that, once I had some success in photography and found some interest in some of my photos, I decided to take a look into galleries to display my work.

Oddly, I hadn’t been to many art galleries.  I decided to fix that.  I made a list of all the art galleries in my area and set out to visit them.  I also went to a few in New York and a few other cities I happened to visit.  Prior to setting out, I mentally prepared myself to be overwhelmed by the work and the quality in which everything was presented by the gallery.  That isn’t what I found though.

To be honest, I didn’t like what I saw.  Some of the galleries actually seemed a little shabby, and not the sort of places where I wanted my work shown.  Most were very nice, but they seemed too formal to me.  I felt like I was in church, and I was supposed to stand silently and reverentially in front of the artwork.  Still others had a sales person standing over my shoulder the whole time.  There was an implied pressure to buy or get out.  They all made me uncomfortable. 

I had looked at galleries as the be-all, end-all for a very long time.  I felt very odd then, when I called Susan (my wife) and told her “I’m not sure I would put my photos in any of these places.”

A Conversation

A few months later, I was having a beer with Roben Bellomo.  We are both members of a photography group called the Daguerre Club of Indiana, a photography club that is over 100 years old.  We had been walking around a small town in central Indiana taking pictures and, after exhausting the possibilities of that, wandered into a local tavern.

We talked photography, of course.  While we talked, Roben asked if I had ever looked at putting my photos in a gallery.  I told him of my experience.  I was quite surprised when he told me he had had similar experiences, and was dissatisfied with what he had seen in the art galleries he had visited.  They just didn’t have the vibe he was looking to capture.  He wanted a comfortable place.  He wanted a place you could hang around.  He wanted a place where you could have events and music.  He wanted to make it relaxed and fun.  At the same time, he wanted to provide the best artwork possible. 

To say that this resonated with me is an understatement.  I had never heard anyone talk about art galleries like this.  I’m not from the art world, so much of what they do seems intentionally confusing and ­­elitist.  All the focus is on “collectors” and making the photos look as grandiose as possible.  There is very little focus on the customer experience.

We decided this model should be turned on its head.  Where most galleries are formal, we wanted a comfortable one.  Where they were confusing, we wanted to be transparent and understandable.  Where they focused on collectors, we thought it better to cater to people who just wanted the most meaningful artwork they could have in their homes or offices.  It should be a relaxed, welcoming experience. 

Aftermath

We’ve all had those conversations where you “solve all the world’s problems” and then you just go on with life and forget about it.  I half expected this conversation to be one of those.  We certainly didn’t walk out of that tavern with any plans to open a gallery.  

But we did think we had a better idea for what a gallery could be.  Over the next several months, however, the idea persisted.  The conversations continued.  Concepts became more refined.  And then one day we learned of the perfect space that was being built.  So now here we are, preparing to open this summer.

We couldn’t be more excited to show you what we think an art gallery should look like.