What if there were no more art galleries?

Charlie Grosso and Kesha Bruce of the roaming art gallery Baang and Burne raise this provocative question that challenges the norms of art production, distribution and ownership:  What if there were no more art galleries? “Artists would have to be in complete control of their own work,” says Kesha.  How would artists sell and promote their work if they completely removed the traditional commercial gallery route from the equation?  What if self-produced, “indie” events were considered the norm instead of the alternative?

Charlie and Kesha plan to do just that with their event, 6×6. In 6 weeks, they will host  6 art exhibits, 5 artist dinners, 1 scavenger hunt, 4 workshops & 1 cooking class. They see this is a blueprint for how artists can wrest control back. This isn’t about countering the increasing hold of the digital domain however. They see social media as a given. Charlie tells Untapped, “Running an aggressive social media campaign, reaching out to sites such as UntappedCities and really embracing the new opportunities of the digital media is a given. We hope with what we are doing with Baang and Burne and 6×6 that we can show the art world an alternative but also use the web to reach out to new audience.”

A further example of their digital savvy is that  they will take the video footage and workshop notes, podcast recordings and package it all up into an affordable, easily accessible, step-by-step DIY “How-To” Guide that teach independent artists how they can plan and re-create their own version of 6×6 in their own communities.

Some of the artists featured in 6×6 include Guggenheim fellow Ed Smith, paintings by a 72 year-old South African artist Meyer Uranovsky, as well as new work by anonymous video artist, and YouTube celebrity, Readymade777.

You can get involved and support 6×6 via Kickstarter. Four “Friday Art Date”  dinners where a gallery space is transformed into a fun, cozy restaurant for the exhibiting artists and 15 to 20 hungry art lovers.

Get Connected: A two-part workshop series focusing on on Effective Web Design + Branding and Social Media for Creatives, in partnership with the New York Foundation for the Arts.

Web Work Marathon:   Show up with your laptop, images, and a bit of web copy.   Leave with your slick new Art website built under the knowledgeable guidance of a team of Rockstar web designers.

Hide and See:  An Art World themed Scavenger Hunt throughout the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City custom designed in partnership with Secret City.

Looking and Cooking with ArtBite.  A Fine Art cooking class taught by Renowned Los Angeles Executive Chef Maite Gomez-Rejoin.