The Collector's Gallery of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery will close on October 31, 2009. "The decision to end this program, which has existed since 1933, was a difficult, but necessary one," Albright-Knox Director Louis Grachos said. "It is part of an ongoing audit of all of our activities as we strive to build a more efficient operation," he continued.
Collector's Gallery Volunteer Chairwoman Eras Bechakas added, "This decision has been made to help ensure the stability and growth of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery for the future."
The closing of the Collector's Gallery does not in any way diminish the Albright-Knox's commitment to the art and artists of Western New York.
The Albright-Knox Art Gallery will continue to be a driving force in the expansion of the regional, biennial exhibition Beyond/In Western New York, which was reformatted in 2005 to become a twelve-venue exhibition that in 2007 received almost 60,000 visitors. This outstanding curated, invitational exhibition provides an essential platform for all Western New York artists. The exhibition further serves to call national and international attention to the wealth of artistic talent in our region. The Albright-Knox will continue to allocate significant resources to this project to ensure it remains a strong and growing component of its exhibition program and looks forward to Beyond/In Western New York 2010.
Supporting the work of Western New York artists will also remain a key component of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery's strategy for the growth and development of its Permanent Collection and its exhibition program. In recent years more than seventy works by Western New York artists have been purchased by the Gallery for its collection.
Area visual and performing artists will also continue to be supported through the weekly Gusto at the Gallery program, which offers free museum admission to the public on Friday nights and regularly introduces new audiences to the arts. Over the last several years, Gusto at the Gallery has created opportunities for hundreds of visual and performing artists from across Western New York.
In recent years, there has been significant growth in opportunities for area artists to exhibit and sell their work locally, including the establishment of more than fifteen new galleries in Buffalo that promote and advance the work of Western New York artists. The Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Collector's Gallery are not in a position to compete, nor do they wish to, with these successful, flourishing venues at the expense of a focused pursuit of the Albright-Knox's mission.
Collector's
Gallery Volunteer Chairwoman Erras Bechakas said, "The volunteers and Gallery
staff will spend the next few months deciding how we can best support the
Gallery and area artists in new and exciting ways in the future, and I look
forward to that."
First he sells the gallery's defining pieces. Now he ends a popular program in existence since 1933. Certainly leaving his mark on this place, hardly in a good way though.
Why doesn't BRO follow up and figure out what exactly happened to the money gained from selling off its best pieces? How has the gallery improved since then? Seems like the gallery has done one thing since the sell off: gotten worse.
It hurts to admit that your city's premier institutions can't afford to keep up with the Joneses but that's where the AKG is and if selling off some of the family jewels keeps the house from falling down, so be it. It's just stuff. Maybe this will spur the Burchfield Penney to bring that program over there. Since they are more closely associated with regionalism than the Albright Knox, it would be a better fit.