Begin at the beginning of course.

So, you think you’d like to start a co-op gallery?  Great! Go for it!  You will be one of many artists groups that have taken on this challenge.  We are, one and all, getting rid of the middle man and going back to the artist/client relationship.  Artists benefit from it and customers benefit from it and prefer it!   The locally made brand of anything is becoming more fashionable than  the imported-from-who knows-where brand.  Listen to your customers, they will frequently ask “where’s the artist from?”  The reason is, they do care and will usually support those who live and work in the area where they are purchasing before buying work of art selling at a great distance from where it was produced.   At a time when our country is outsourcing American product so much so that we rarely see “made in USA” on tags in clothing, household items, computers, electronics or much of anything else anymore.  It’s not a wonder that American consumers want to take part in trade where the producer is right here in this country, and even better, right in the same town!  For now, "handmade in America" is coming back into vogue.  Hooray!

 Ok, we have established that you’re interested in doing this, now what?   You have so many great ideas about where you want to put this business, who you want to be a part of this business and so on, but the technical parts are not clear yet. That, my dear, is the purpose of this blog.  I will work to deliver my knowledge of opening and running a successful cooperative, hopefully enabling you to avoid some of the pitfalls of continually trying things until you find what works.  Some of those pitfalls are necessary, yes, but let's avoid reinventing the wheel every time if we can.  Let’s set you off on a course of structured success!