“Irina, it is always so nice here and I liked your gallery so much that I decided to buy my wife a gallery. Unfortunately, things didn’t go so well,” a visitor once told the owner of the Vakhtanov Doll Gallery. Perhaps it seems that if an art gallery is nice (and they almost always are) and the proprietor is a charming lady (as is often so), then running a gallery shouldn’t be much of a problem. But that’s not the case. One of the first problems on the long list facing wouldbe gallery owners is finding a suitable spot.
It’s one thing to call it a gallery…
Many businesses – museums, shops, furniture salons, etc. – like to call themselves galleries without actually fitting this title. But it’s not so difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. First of all, the purpose of a gallery is to assist clients in finding a work of art in the genre in which the gallery specializes. The second important attribute it the level of quality of the works of art offered by the gallery. Shops selling matryoshka dolls and $10 posters often proudly call themselves art galleries, but this segment is probably best referred to a pseudoart. A real gallery offers original artwork by artists who have succeeded in making a name for themselves. These are artists that have paid their dues. A third attribute is that galleries must be private. In Moscow there a number of little shops working in public museums that call themselves galleries but surely do not qualify as such.
After weeding out all the pretenders, it turns out that there are really not very many art galleries. Specialists say that, in comparison with Europe and the United States, there is a dearth of galleries in Russia. The reason for this is quite banal: the lack of money among the cultured and the lack of culture among the affluent. The target audience of art galleries is composed of businessmen, top managers and such who after satisfying there material ambitions have decided to develop their individuality. “After finally reaching a level of comfort in our homes, we can realize ourselves as connoisseurs and collectors of visual arts,” says Natalia Grigorieva, head of the Lumeire Brothers Photography Gallery. “This is where it is necessary for a gallery to step in and help discern the quality and level of the artists.”
A pack mentality
Galleries are most successful when located in the same general area as other galleries: in one complex, along one street or on the same block. “The most important thing for a gallery is to be located in the “branded” place that has long been known as and positioned as a gravitational center for artists and connoisseurs of artwork, and where there is a large selection of artwork,” says Denis Kolokolnikov, general director of Russian Research Group. “This all provides a level of visitation by those who are potential buyers of the given product.” But Moscow has not provided such an opportunity – there are practically no “art areas” in this city of millions. “In the West, it is an accepted practice to create art centers or antiques centers, where a wide variety of galleries are situated,” says Natalia Grigorieva. “In large cities there are entire art streets or art blocks, where people can go to take a stroll in the evening, relax, drink some coffee and see the new works of their favorite artists. In Paris it’s d’Universite, in New York its Soho. We don’t have this.”
In Moscow there are two places that have acquired the aura of an art atmosphere – Stary Arbat and Krymsky Val (the Central House of the Artist). However, the pedestrian walkway of the Stary Arbat is not a real art street and the what is created and sold there is not art. This street is too expensive and loud for galleries. It is difficult to image an affluent gentleman choosing the Arbat as a place to take a restful stroll among throngs of teenagers and matryoshka dolls.
One of the few oldtime art centers in the capital is the Central House of the Artist, which contains 60 galleries under one roof that offer the works of both wellknown and littleknown artists. There are efforts underway to create new art centers in Moscow. Similarly to Soho, they are appearing at redeveloped industrial sites, such as the Art Play gallery at the Krasnaya Roza factory and the Art Strelka project planned for the transforming industrial island across from the Kremlin (the Golden Island project). According to Denis Kolokolnikov, industrial sites are convenient for galleries, as among other reasons they offer large spaces at somewhat lower prices. Also, developers often try to market their redeveloped industrial sites as stylish and artistic, and the presence of art galleries only lends to this.
One of the most significant art center projects is the conversion of the Moscow Wine and Cognac Factory that is currently underway. The seven corpuses of the center, totaling 18,000 sqm, will include two exhibition halls, art galleries, design studios, artists’ studios, photography studios, “art bars”, cafes, etc. A concert and festival area will also be created.
Another art center is planned for the territory of the former Danilovsky Textile Plant. At Praedium experts point out the redevelopment plans for the site include the creation of a cultural amusement center that will include a building devoted to concert and exhibition space that will house artists’ studios and a school of architecture and design.
But these are isolated cases. If we look at the Soho district we see that an entire industrial area was converted into an art center. In Moscow industrial redevelopment tends to be aimed at the creation of office centers. “Galleries have small budgets for leasing space,” explains Anna Savenko, senior consultant in the retail department at Jones Lang LaSalle. “As tenants, galleries are a lowprofit business.”
Thus galleries are forced to make do with the few sites available. Few galleries actually own their own premises, and when they do the ownership is usually not a “result” of the gallery’s business. In some cases the owners invested well in real estate before prices started their endless march upward. In other cases some artists fell into good favor with city authorities, who were then willing to sell them space for symbolic prices.
Alone on the battlefield
Galleries are never a highprofit business. They are about individuals and their art collections, explains Natalia Grigorieva. “It’s always a personality business. It will never grow into a large chain with branches throughout the world.”
Such businesses often grow out a hobby or passion, as was the case with Irina Myzina, who started the Vakhtanov Doll Gallery in the late 1990s. “We opened in the Central House of the Artist,” Myzina says, “and there’s no better place for my gallery.” People visit the center to see exhibitions or simply in search of gifts. The center’s management has done much to raise its profile over the past ten years, Myzina says. It remains the only such center in Moscow that offers such a variety of exhibitions and galleries. The Manege, for example, is much more exclusive and often displays only the most fashionable artists. The location, atmosphere and lease rates also match what many gallery owners are looking for.
As far as lease rates are concerned, experts are at a loss to say what the market rates for galleries really are. In most case, galleries pay much less than what would be considered market rates. But even at discount rates, the single largest expenditure for galleries is most often their lease payments. For example, despite the international recognition and popularity of Irina Myzina’s doll gallery, the business is not a profitable one. “I don’t know of any doll gallery owners that have gotten rich in this business,” she says.
Walls needed
Galleries have their own specific needs. In particular, the most important attribute is the amount of hanging space rather than the amount of floor space. Artwork is not like ordinary goods in a store – it can’t be stacked in rows on a shelf, Myzina points out. “For 67 years we leased a place in the Sokol district, but the space there was insufficient,” says Ilya Volf, executive director of the Aidan Gallery. “Now we lease a 120sqm premise on 1st Tverskaya Yamskaya. But the gallery has outgrown this space and we plan on moving to the art center at the wine and cognac factory, where we will have about 300 sqm.”
New gravitational centers
Not everyone at the Central House of the Artist is as satisfied as Irina Myzina. The Lumeire Brothers Photography Gallery, for example, is considering a move to another location after five years at the center. The center attracts a large number people of people, but not necessarily potential buyers for artworks in the price range that the photogallery is selling, Natalia Grigorieva explains. “If we sold posters for $10 dollars we would do a good business, but our price range is $300 to $30,000. The Central House of the Artist mixes various epochs, styles, genres, etc., and our buyers see a lot of excess stuff, including works that aren’t really very high quality,” she says. “Perhaps, at new retail centers that are conceptually designed as ‘not for the masses,’ art areas will appear where we could situate our gallery.”
Anna Savenko points out that there was an attempt to organize “art space” at the Vesna retail center. However, she explains, this was seen as a way of filling space that other tenants had turned down. As soon as higherpaying tenants were found the galleries were pushed out. “Owners aim to lease their space for the maximum possible price,” Savenko explains.
It remains to be seen whether retail centers in Russia will find it wise to add art galleries in order to make the overall atmosphere at the centers more attractive. Such examples exist elsewhere. At Harrods in London, for example, the entire top floor is dedicated to art galleries. Experts find the option of devoting space in office centers only a remote possibility. Research has shown that cultural elements do not make it into the list of what potential tenants seek in an office center, says Alexandra Kryzhanovskaya, an office real estate analyst at Cushman & Wakefield Stiles & Riabokobylko.
However, in so much as art will always be in demand and the standard of living is increasing, we can say that galleries will continue to appear, develop and expand. And new real estate projects are from time to time beginning to include the idea of art space.