VoyageKC – Rising Stars – Angie Evans of Art House 310
VoyageKC – November 4, 2022
Opening a business during a global pandemic is not for the faint of heart! The silver lining is that we had ample time to do renovations for a June 2020 opening date. We had no idea what that might look like with Covid, but we slowly started having small events with many precautions until we got the start we had hoped for before Covid.
We entered this endeavor knowing that this business would essentially be a second full-time job for us. Do we joke that how else would we pay for this glamorous lifestyle? The idea to purchase a commercial building is rooted in need to get our art and everything that comes with it out of our living space at our home. What was needed was a studio space. After a long year or so looking for a suitable space and a few other deals that fell through, we finally found the perfect spot. This property had enough additional space, so we decided to use it as a platform for other local artists to show their work.
We would want to do things a little differently. Learning from our challenges in navigating the art world, we decided only to showcase local artists for the foreseeable future. Several other galleries in our area showcase regional and national artists, which is wonderful. Still, often, it takes more work for local talent, especially emerging artists, to get a platform to show their work and break into the art scene. We wanted to be open to seasoned and emerging artists, allowing them to show their work alongside those seasoned artists. This not only allows for great viewership for both groups but also allows for several learning opportunities for those emerging artists.
Another thing we made a point to focus on is utilizing social media for marketing and promotion. Angie’s background is in marketing, so this was a no-brainer. Most other galleries in our area still relied on more traditional media for marketing and promotion, and only a few of it at that. We wanted to make our featured artists feel like rockstars and feature each artwork they had on display. We strongly encourage the artists to share in the show’s promotion and their work, and the result has been tremendous. We have frequent visitors to the gallery that see the work on our social media channels and come in specifically to see one piece and end up leaving with sometimes multiple pieces. It’s been a great way to showcase some of our more seasoned artists.
Our biggest goal in changing the traditional art gallery narrative was to have each artist that walks through our doors have an experience that exceeds their expectations of what a gallery provides. We know we have achieved our goal through feedback from our post-show surveys, the desire from many artists to get on the calendar for future shows, and the vast support we hear each month from artists and patrons during our gallery openings. The response has been more than we ever could have imagined! We are proud to say that we have provided a platform for over 100 local artists in the short two years we’ve been open, and we are booking artists upwards of two years in advance.
