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called, adding that this squeeze led to the gallery’s reorganization as a nonprofit, tax-exempt artists’ cooperative.
“It’s been a success. Maybe not financially, but in the terms of meeting the needs for this community of artists,” he said, noting that in the last three years the gallery has been the showcase for eight artists having their first, one-person exhibitions. “Besides, there probably isn’t a cooperative like this anywhere in the United States that’s making money,” Mr. Lewis said. “Breaking even, yes. But it’s hard to have a lucrative gallery operation of any kind in the city, much less in the country, unless you’re going to make it a very exclusive gallery. And that would defeat our purpose. This is a community effort,” he affirmed.
Certainly, the artists of Middle Street have sold works through the gallery. After every opening, a handful of little white dots are affixed to pieces that have found buyers. But it is not the sales that the members talk about when they explain what the gallery means to them.
“We’d be isolated without it,” says basket weaver Janet Kerig, whose reed creations in pastels — more sculpture than basketry — have inspired scores of local people to take her basket making classes and become makers themselves. “It’s a place for artists to meet each other. It’s a place of inspiration.”
“For me, it’s been a reason to strive for museum quality, to be creative and experimental,” Laurie Marshall says. “The artists in the gallery have stimulated each other to grow, and they’ve built a support system. Middle Street is a place to get ideas, a place where people can come and look and say, ‘Gee, this is what’s possible! Anything’s possible!’ ”
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