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Supporting the Gallery

Note: All supporter levels and dollar amounts mentioned in this post apply to the 2007-2008 season only.

We have spent some time revamping our “membership” and patronage at the Gallery. When dealing with tax-deductions, legal jargon, and state-funded institutional bureaucracy, progress can be very slow. So, today we proudly and triumphantly unveil the results. The support levels have shifted a bit to allow for increasing costs and we have created more levels to allow patrons to find one that works best for them.

I am a major fan of institutional transparency, so I try my best to explain why we do things the way we do them. A change in the support structure was needed for legal reasons and to help bring more financial aid to the Gallery. The majority of the money that we receive from the University covers our office and administrative expenses – what happens in the office. What happens in the Gallery is mostly up to foundations, grants, individual and corporate supporters. Without you, we could not even mount a single exhibition. That may sound odd, but you can know that your donation is not paying my salary or buying our paper clips. Your donations go to our exhibitions and programming.

Now, we enter the phase of this entry that I hope doesn’t border on money-grubbing ranting designed to instill a deep, acidic guilt in the reader’s gut. We have trimmed back our exhibitions to five each year in hopes that by eliminating quantity we can focus on quality. This also frees us up to plan Gallery events such as Bad Art Night, Film Night, and The Incubator Series without killing ourselves. Admission to the Gallery is free. I find it a cheap trick to charge admission for exhibitions, especially at an institution such as ours. I hope that many people come to the Gallery, but I do not want each visitor to trigger a “cha-ching” sound when they walk through our door. A small donation each time you come is greatly appreciated, but we won’t stare you down with our laser-beam eyes if you bypass the donation box and saunter into the Gallery. I know what it is like to have an anemic wallet.

Our exhibitions are challenging, different, and sometimes difficult. Those three words do not equate to vast throngs of visitors pounding down our door (and therefore no vast amounts of admission income). You will probably never see an exhibition at the Gallery of Contemporary Art that would be considered a “blockbuster.” The meat of our exhibition season will not consist of tepid traveling exhibitions that never considered the sensibilities of Colorado Springs. When you come to the Gallery, you will find custom curated exhibitions (with an occasional traveling show that has been carefully selected) that seek to expose the Pikes Peak Region to important artists, themes, and ways of interacting with the world. You will be hard-pressed to find better exhibitions of contemporary art elsewhere.

We will not act like a deadbeat uncle and inundate you with request after request for money until you wonder if your entire donation was eaten up in postage costs and mass marketing firms’ services. Frankly we don’t have the staff or desire to do that. I am just as perturbed by the constant stream of junk mail as I’m sure you are. We will come to you once each year (if you’re on our mailing list) with a simple request that you lend some support to the Gallery. Some supporter levels may seem daunting, but not when you break them down to monthly amounts. For roughly $8.33 each month, you can be a Supporting Patron at the $100 level. That is no more than a trip to the movie theater each month for your Hollywood fix. For about $20 each month you can be a Principal Patron at the $250 level.

To give you some perspective, the following are some of the approximate costs associated with mounting an exhibition or hosting an event:

• $30: One box of halogen flood bulbs to light six artworks for two-three months
• $100: Postage for one batch of exhibition announcement postcards
• $975: Shipping of six moderately-sized artworks from New York to Colorado Springs (one way)
  • We use professional art shippers not the USPS
• $1300: Bringing in an artist from out of state to lecture about his work
• $1500: The cheapest price for a decent video projector that would allow us to feature more video art
• $5000: Bringing in an extremely famous artist to lecture about her work

  It may not sound sexy when put that way, but it highlights not just the need for support, but for many patrons to pitch in and help shoulder the costs.

  All-in-all, I would like our supporters to feel like patrons of the art – true supporters of culture – and not customers or commercial consumers who are merely paying for a service. If you value the contributions that the Gallery of Contemporary Art makes to the community and the quality of life in Colorado Springs, please consider donating an appropriate amount.

  As an added bonus for the 2007-2008 season, the Bee Vradenburg Foundation will kindly match each donation to the Gallery with a dollar-for-dollar matching grant up to $10,000. So, if you become a Principal Patron at $100, the Bee Vradenburg Foundation will pitch in $100.

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