Life in 2023: Difficult Times for Many People and Shopkeepers!

There are days when I am deeply grateful to no longer have a Brick-and-Mortar art gallery!

Today would be one such day... as I was running some errands in our downtown area — not far from where we used to have the Red Dragonfly Gallery — and noticed that "tough times" had taken another victim from our already shrinking arts community: A cooperative art & crafts gallery that had been around for over 30 years is no more.

I actually stopped and asked someone in a neighboring store whether the gallery had simply moved — happens quite a lot, around here — but they had actually shut down completely, back in April.

Goes to show that either I don't get out much, or I haven't been paying attention.

There was a time when our small seaside city had over 30 art galleries... now we have about five or six.

Some of that can be attributed simply to buying habits, and to people living in smaller spaces and being more mobile. But still... folks do have to live somewhere, and they still have walls in their houses!

I remember one of the things we were increasingly learning, back when we still had the gallery, was the fact that people were starting to view art more as experiential than as something you actually own.

I expect that holds true more than ever, particularly with so many people choosing the lifestyle of the Digital Nomad. If everything you own is in a couple of suitcases and a backpack, art is hardly something you're likely to cart around!

Regardless, it was sad to see another old time gallery off the scene... and it left me pondering whether our identity as "an arts community" is also going to slowly fade away.

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(All images are my own)