Galleries gain ground: St. Louis proves popular places for art
St. Louis has seen a boom in art galleries in recent years
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| Erica Burrus photo/ Phillip Hitchcock, owner of phd gallery, 2300 Cherokee St., speaks about art galleries in communities. |
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"It speaks to the reasons I came back to St. Louis," said Hitchcock, a 1976 Lindbergh High School graduate. "I saw explosive growth and renovations and an opportunity for art."
Hitchcock is a professional artist and gallery owner who lived in Los Angeles for nearly 30 years before he moved back to St. Louis in 2005.Hitchcock has been a sculpture for 20 years. His work has been featured in solo and group exhibits. In his career he has made awards for various organizations and sculptures of professional wrestlers for a wrestling event.
Last year the Rev. Lawrence Biondi, S.J., president of Saint Louis University, commissioned him to create a sculpture of Jesus Christ embracing the cross for SLU's Museum of Art. It is now in the University's permanent collection.
Recently, he took on another role in the art field. On April 21, 2007, he opened phd gallery, 2300 Cherokee St. It's just one of several galleries that have sprung up in South St. Louis neighborhoods in recent years.
Soulard, Benton Park, Marine Villa, Gravois Park and Benton Park West neighborhoods are popular spots for galleries and artists. One reason is because they are emerging areas that were once forgotten.
Galleries have played in important role in these neighborhoods, serving as an anchor providing stability and spurring economic growth for other businesses.
"Art galleries are on the edge. They're willing to take a chance," said Hitchcock, a 49-year-old Tower Grove East resident. "They do set the tone for a revitalization."
Juan Chavez, founder of Boots Contemporary Art Space, 2307 Cherokee St., said artists find neighborhoods once on the decline attractive because property prices are reasonable.
Both commercial and non-profit spaces can flourish in these environments. Boots, whose non-profit status is pending, is an art space run by artists.
"We don't represent any artists, we organize and curate exhibitions," said Chavez, who lives above his gallery.
Since Boots opened in 2006 on Cherokee's Antique Row, Chavez has seen businesses established, including phd gallery and Mississippi Mud House, a coffee shop.
Chavez's gallery wasn't the first. Other galleries started the movement, including Fort Gondo Compound for the Arts, 3151 Cherokee St., and Snowflake/Citystock, 3156 Cherokee St.
"Without them I couldn't have been doing what I'm doing," Chavez said.
Chavez founded his gallery because there was demand for it.
Artist-run spaces tend to spring up in areas where rent is cheap, which often means industrial areas. The basic concept of an art space involves a group of friends that get together, finds a building and organizes an exhibition on a shoestring budget. This creates an underground scene, which eventually becomes mainstream, Chavez said.
The term "starving artist" really does apply, said Thomas DeClue, owner of 20:08 Gallery St. Louis, which features photography. He looked at buying a building on Main Street in St. Charles, but it was too expensive. He wanted an area with foot traffic and one that had a mixed use building so he could live on one level and have his gallery on the other. He settled on Antique Row, 2008 Cherokee St.
While art can help stabilize neighborhoods and create growth, it can come with a price. Artists and gallery owners fix up buildings, other businesses are established, people move into the area and property values increase. If artists or gallery owners can no longer afford the rent they are forced to move, Chavez said.
For art spaces to be successful it takes help from the community. You have to nurture artist-run spaces, help them out and give them back to the neighborhood.
"Art spaces bring culture to a neighborhood and that's important," Chavez said. "Communities need to support these institutions because they bring neighborhoods back to life."
Hitchcock agrees.
"Art doesn't exist without an audience," he said. "In some way, shape or form the community needs to support it if it's going to survive and flourish. In some way or another that boils down to money, whether it's a donation to a public space or buying art for your own self enrichment."
Hitchcock believes opening up an art business in not all about the money.
"Passion plays a big endeavor," he said. "You open up a gallery to make a difference in the community, not make $1 million. You have to be driven, not by a business plan so much, but by passion or a mission to do something for the community and I'm part of that."
