On the first floor of an office building, one would typically expect to see bustling workers and office suites. It might seem odd, however, to step around a sculpture or past a row of paintings.
As with any business, location is key. If an art gallery is in a heavily trafficked popular tourist area, the opportunities to sell the work of local artists rises. Artists, critics, and art dealers all need to make connections and broaden their art networks to all sorts of audiences.
Galleries are a place for artists to experiment and play with their imagination. Gallery owners can tend to have the same creative tendencies. In a market dominated by wild personalities and free spirits, it’s important to stand out among the colorful crowd. Hosting an art gallery in an office building ensures traffic will be constant and to an audience that may otherwise not have visited a museum. Multiply the exposure if a space is open to hosting events. Enabling the neighboring offices to host meetings or employee events opens up the networking possibilities and may increase sales as word travels. The more eyes on the artwork, the more likely it is to sell.
Why would a physical gallery be beneficial in the digital age? An exhibition confined to a screen can do injustice to a work of art. The thumb of a customer scrolling through Instagram does not compare to the face-to-face interaction between a viewer and a painting.
All this sounds great for the art gallery owner, but why would an office building want to host an art gallery? There is a uniqueness to the location and financial benefit for the host. Making a building a destination by hosting a gallery in an office building is a unique feature that can draw different office and retail tenants. An art space not only draws traffic to the building but it also draws revenue to the retail space.
The novelty of an art gallery in an office building is not necessarily new. New York high rises have hosted specialized art pieces in their lobbies for years. There is a great diversity available in office buildings that may not be available where typical art galleries appear. Being able to broaden and brighten the community, even with one small piece of art, must mean something.
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2600 Douglas is pleased to host monthly art nights in conjunction with Coral Gables Gallery Nights on the first Friday of each month.