From Kimberly Johansson, owner of Johansson Projects and parent of Sena (K) and Sam (2nd):
Like so many small businesses, galleries and artists are getting hit hard. Artists and many gallerists are self-employed and not eligible for unemployment benefits. While galleries survive by selling artwork, most of us do what we do because we believe art galleries serve an important political and cultural purpose by providing space to support the ideas and agency of artists, writers, performers, and all the creatives who create beauty, meaning, edification and connectedness for us to engage with and learn from. Galleries are community spaces providing a free public service through exhibitions, lectures, artist talks, school field trips and more. They are an irreplaceable part of the cultural landscape of the city and many are at risk of closing permanently.
For anyone that may have been thinking about starting to collect, acquiring artwork, big or small, now would be a critical time to support the galleries in your community. If collecting is not possible but you’d like to support the arts in some way, please feel free to reach out to me; I am happy to share some of the many other ways you can support the local landscape of the arts in small, meaningful ways.