{"id":98058,"date":"2025-10-02T00:50:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T00:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/98058\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T00:50:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T00:50:10","slug":"the-rise-of-community-galleries-in-boston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/98058\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rise of Community Galleries in Boston"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CatherineCatherine LeComte Lecce, cofounder and manager of the Burlington Micro Gallery, poses inside the converted trailer in Burlington.Pat Greenhouse\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n

Such artist-run galleries, typically small and decidedly unconventional, <\/b>are having a moment in the Boston area, maybe because artists feel there\u2019s nowhere else to show. In the last decade, the city of Boston lost roughly 100,000 square feet of cultural production space<\/a>, due in part to sky-high property values and development of areas that once housed artists and galleries. <\/p>\n

\u201cFirst the artists move in, then the galleries move in, and then commercial development moves in,\u201d said Lynne Cooney, associate professor of art history and director of exhibitions and galleries at Montserrat College of Art. Cooney has followed local art spaces for 25 years.<\/p>\n

Artists need space to show. And in a market where gallery space is limited (and high-priced), all but the most established are left with few outlets. So, many have stepped up in creative ways, often spending their own money and time. <\/p>\n

In the case of LeComte Lecce, a photographer and director of exhibitions and programs at the Photographic Resource Center in Cambridge, the notion of a small gallery that could show the work of artists like her and also travel to find new audiences was a driving force. She approached economic development officials in Burlington, who liked the idea and ultimately funded the venture. <\/p>\n

The gallery opened in June. Its picture windows mean viewers can see art without even coming in. And wheels let it easily relocate to reach more people. LeComte Lecce plans an artists reception on Oct. 2 in a Burlington parking lot that hosts the Burlington Town Center Beer Garden<\/a>. Next stop, Burlington officials hope, is Burlington Mall. The first show spotlighted Concord artist Jai Hart<\/a>;the second show features Burlington artists, including LeComte Lecce.<\/p>\n

Cooney sees two reasons for DIY spaces today: community and curation. Many artists \u201clike the curatorial as part of their artistic practice, and see it as an extension, which I think is a critical part of a lot of these alternative spaces,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Consequently, the divide between artist and curator is fogging. Painter John Guthrie operates Gallery VERY<\/a> out of his South End studio. Kate McNamara, interim director for the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard, has a side gig running the East Providence gallery ODD-KIN<\/a>, a self-proclaimed \u201cartist-informed\u201d alternative space.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Curated Fridge Summer 2025 Show.Yorgos Efthymiadis<\/p>\n

Photographer Yorgos Efthymiadis, a recipient of the Institute of Contemporary Art\u2019s James and Audrey Foster Prize<\/a>, hosts the Curated Fridge<\/a> in his kitchen. After attending a Photolucida<\/a> event in 2015, he put promos he\u2019d picked up on his refrigerator and posted that image on social media. The warm response prompted him to make an open call for his first show. Guest curators such as Karen Haas, the Museum of Fine Arts\u2019s curator of photographs, assemble exhibitions from anonymous entries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey show up to my house. I bring them the pile of prints, which sometimes is more than a thousand,\u201d Efthymiadis said. The project is \u201capproachable and it doesn\u2019t take itself too seriously,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Last fall, Charlie Crowell, a preparator at the ICA, opened deiner,<\/a> a gallery space in his dining room. He had moved to Arlington from Detroit in 2023, and considered another move, for a job offer to work for a successful New York artist. He nixed the idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose people are always going to have talented individuals lining up to help them,\u201d Crowell said, \u201cbut my friends and other artists at my level are not necessarily going to have somebody who\u2019s going to be like, \u2018I want to support you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CharlieCharlie Crowell runs the private gallery deiner in his Arlington dining roomDeiner<\/p>\n

Deiner, he said, \u201cis an opportunity to make better connections with people locally. To create a space not only to meet other people, but also to showcase the work of my friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

He hosts a dinner for every exhibition. Conversation about the art is the point, not selling it. \u201cNot everyone\u2019s artwork lends itself to being a commercial object,\u201d Crowell said, \u201cbut that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s not poetically palatable to a different kind of audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s currently exhibiting painter Vanessa Spollen-Jaramillo<\/a> and ceramicist Amy Wilson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The reasons for artist-run spaces may be changing, Cooney observes. \u201cAlternative spaces in the \u201990s, and maybe even earlier, were about literally having an alternative to commercial galleries,\u201d she said. But they have always been about community.<\/p>\n

Artist Yolanda He Yang started Behind VA Shadows Gallery<\/a> online in 2021 and now runs a window space in Harvard Square, thanks to support from the Harvard Square Business Association. There now is \u201cOn My Way to Work,\u201d a group show. Most of the artists Yang has shown are museum workers. She held that position at the ICA.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just being an artist, doing fun and experimental things,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve been working on this project and never got any money. I just love hosting friends and letting other people feel the same belonging I felt when I met a family at the ICA.\u201d<\/p>\n