C. James Fagan wants to be stimulated by the things he sees in the gallery. But is that what the gallery is for? Here, he ponders the broader purposes and concerns of our contemporary art spaces and their fundamental relationships with us — the people who visit them…
Why do galleries exist? This may strike you as a strange question. For the majority of people reading this article, galleries form an ubiquitous part of their lives and even careers. For many, viewing art also forms an important element of their social and leisure time.
Naturally, the first and perhaps the most obvious answer is that galleries exist to show art, to display whatever they see fit. Fair enough; but it also matters who is attending the gallery. The question of why galleries exist is related to another, key question: Who do galleries exist for?
How can we begin to understand or investigate what is a complex relationship between people and institutions? For the purposes of this article, I am relying on my own experiences as an art viewer with an art degree who has worked at galleries in my hometown of Liverpool; using the microcosm of one city in order the understand the macrocosm of the UK art scene.
“My actions may indicate one reason galleries exist: that they are places to discover art”
Liverpool has galleries within a 20 minute walk of each other that offer an enormous range of artistic practice — from Greek sculpture to the latest digital technology to live performance (though they could offer more of the latter). I haven’t always been aware of these places; it was when I made a decision to take an interest in art that I sought out the gallery space.
My actions may indicate one reason galleries exist: that they are places to discover art. First, I had to discover what was available to me: this was done by scanning through the ‘what’s on’ or the ‘culture’ sections of the local press. Reading these listings for the names and locations of my local galleries allowed my imagination to be caught by a provocative exhibition title or description.