Gallery, Store, Market?

I go back and forth, sometimes calling Second Street Art Market the gallery and sometimes the store. Neither seem to be right. Market wouldn’t sound right either. When someone asks what we’re doing, I hesitate, because I don’t know whether to say we’re opening a gallery or store, because again, neither seem exactly right. I don’t want to say we’re opening an art store, because that sounds like we sell art supplies.

Regardless, I am anxious to spend the day there today, getting some things set up. The painter is still painting, but we aren’t painting the workroom, or the supply closet, and there are certainly things I can get put away into drawers, file cabinets, kitchen cabinets, etc. Our phones and internet access get set up today, which will make working there much easier.

This weekend Doug and I did a lot of driving. Saturday we went south, looking for office supply stuff. We checked out a couple of used office supply places only to find that OfficeMax was half the price of the used stuff. By the time we got to OfficeMax the boys were tired and cranky. Frank didn’t feel good and Beckett was in serious need of a nap. We got what we needed anyway, so at least we accomplished something. Sometimes finding out a place doesn’t have something is as much of an accomplishment, because at least you won’t go back again.

Yesterday we went north. We stopped in Castle Rock at the Barn and I picked up a couple of great things for display/merchandising. There is certainly an abundance of that type of thing there. I could probably get just about everything I need, with the exception of jewelry cases, at the Barn, but it may make more sense to check out places like Goodwill or Salvation Army first and see if I can save some money.

We also went up to Park Meadow and visited Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters, both for display ideas. Walking around the mall, we got further ideas, or solidified ideas based on things Restoration Hardware, Williams Sonoma, etc. did with their displays. As a woman, who has wanted to open a store for a very long time, I have paid attention to displays and merchandising for an equally long amount of time. This trip’s main purpose was for Doug to see what types of things would work, and how simple it was. He was thinking we would have to go to more of a pre-fab commercial look with racks and shelves, etc.

Today my main focus, other than organizing the office, will be to set further appointments with local artists, and then contact artists whose information I picked up last Friday. When I did a verbal checklist with Doug about what types of products I had found vendors for, I was very pleasantly surprised at how extensive the list was.

I’m hoping Doug will make extensive progress on the logo today, and that tomorrow I can get a splash page up at least for the . . . um . . . gallery? store? market?