Have you ever wondered what a commercial real estate lease looks like?

I’ll let you decide the significance of the pink and blue stickies.

Soon to graduate with an MFA, local artist Roma Misra presented her thesis exhibit at Texas Christian University’s (TCU) Art Gallery, opening on February 22, 2008.

The show comprised 7 works under the theme “Synapse”. The works were tightly woven into an organic whole. I didn’t get much time to speak with the artist about her work, and hence learn about her influences and subject matter. However, the works really did strike me as having a distinct influence from two very different cultures: India and the United States.

One of my favorites of Roma’s work is shown here (with apologies to the artist for having to resize the image to get it to fit my blog!). This work is very evocative - having traveled in India, the painting brings back vivid memories for me: the cacophony of diverse elements, the juxtaposed colors and even the sound.

Roma Misra, …gauging…, acrylic and glitter on canvas, 2007

One of the great pleasures of this business is discovering new talent. It is so refreshing too find new and exciting art, and to explore new ideas or find new ways of looking at world.

I recently (February 2, 2008) visited the pix2 exhibit at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD). Housed in the Visual Arts Building, the exhibit featured 13 local artists.

John Pomara, a faculty member and talented local artist, curated the pix2 exhibition. The premise of the exhibit was:

Art writers and critics from the Dallas-Fort Worth were invited to pick an up-and-coming young artist who shows promise and merit, but has not been prominently showcased in area galleries. This exhibition is an opportunity for the public to view artists ‘under the radar’ in the North Texas art scene.

And, some very promising art it was. I found the works by Sara Ishii, Kevin Joseph Brown and Josephine Durkin particularly compelling - very innovative, intensely thoughtful and technically impressive. A sampling of images below (with all due respect to the artists, I took these pictures with my camera-phone):

This is the first official picture of the art251 store front. Like the cool planters? No cool art251 sign yet above the door, though.

The space faces West, so combined with the fine large windows, we should get lots of good natural light. I would have preferred an East-facing venue, but the developer expressed some reluctance to demolish, re-orient and rebuild the entire complex just for us.

I’ve been thinking about the answers to these questions for a while. Our art space isn’t yet open, in fact, we’ve only just begun the design. So it may seem rather premature to be worrying about “curating”. Besides, what is curating anyway? Why do we need a curator?

“Curate” (the verb) comes from the original Latin word “cura” meaning to take spiritual charge or to care for an individual or a group. So, while curating once meant taking care of people, it has in recent times taken on a similar meaning but applied to the care of inanimate objects, usually art. Though interestingly nowadays as you walk around your local mall, or shop in cool stores, you are just as likely to be exposed to a curator’s machinations as you would in a museum or art gallery.

Outside of the confines of our hallowed museums and public galleries a lengthy and formal education in art history, architecture / design or visual aesthetics may not be as important a requirement for being a good curator. Rather, a good curator in the narrower context of a commercial art space such as ours is a great observer, with a curious and open mind. A good curator is invisible, yet his or her hand is unmistakable. A good curator recognizes that art takes precedence over the curator; he or she is not the artist. A good curator creates a context for further exploration of art by others. A good curator understands the audience and the community in which the art is shown. A good curator is skilled in weaving links of ideas amongst the individual works.

Some might say a curator is nothing more than an organizer; using his or her experience and personal biases to shape a collection of ideas. Well, perhaps, but wouldn’t “curator” look so much more “curated” on a business card than “organizer”. Or, others might prefer the term “guardian” or “overseer”.

In any event, I think art251 needs a curator. We’ll need the curator to jury and select the art, to organize and display works in aesthetically interesting ways, to link art works in new ways that supplement and expand an idea, to tell a compelling story to our audience. Importantly, our curator will do so in a manner that builds on the original intent of our artists and lets the art shine through, guided by an invisible hand.

After much negotiating on business issues, we received the “final” draft of the commercial lease yesterday (February 12) from Southern Land Company. The lease is a weighty tome measuring 54-pages (legal size) of densely worded terms. Not for the faint of heart!

So, it’s now winging its way to our attorney. Thus, the term “final” may be more relative than absolute, as our attorney and Southern Land’s counterpart duel it out - all in the name of art. That said, we should only be a couple of weeks away, at most, from a lease signing - this is now becoming frighteningly real.

Building a sleek and modern space to house art251, our contemporary art store, requires lots of planning. So, we looked high and low for a sophisticated project planning tool. After a thorough and critical period of evaluation we settled on…

Our construction almost has a Mondrian-esque quality. Now, all we have to do is keep the kids away from the stickies.

Art is alive, well and thriving in Houston area high schools. This short video of the Video Arts Scholastic Event, sponsored by the Texas Art Education Association, will give you some idea of the breadth and depth of the young talent bubbling up from our larger neighbor to the south.

Could we, should we have something just as bright and bold in the Dallas-Ft.Worth area?

We’ve settled on “art251″ as the name for our art space. Now it’s time for a professionally crafted logo. We’ll need a sign, featuring the logo, that will live above the front door, a logo for our website, one for our newsletters, and various other incarnations of “art251″ for all our business and marketing collateral.

But, for now, here’s my initial design - saved in this blog for posterity. I’ll be using this one until we get a more artistic, sleek and modern design.

Professional graphics designers, now is your time!

We’ve finally settled on the name for our space, after much deliberation and review.

art251
As in, “art, two-fifty-one”.

It’s simple, clean, and has an urban-ish feel. The name isn’t too upscale, nor it is too down-market, or chain-like. We believe the name “art251″ connotes art, though is mysterious enough to cause people to think; but not too mysterious that they’ll have no clue as to its contents.

For the mathematicians, 251 is the fifty-fourth prime number. More interestingly, 251 is the smallest number that can be written as the sum of 3 cubes in 2 ways (i.e., 2³ + 3³ + 6³ = 1³ + 5³ + 5³). And, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born 251 years ago.

Also, it happens that “251″ is the street address of our new space. I’ll let you choose which of our stories is the most compellingly romantic. I’m not telling.

Well, it’s not really a fair question.

Over the last two days we’ve had the privilege of meeting two very talented people: one, an attorney; the other, a retail designer. While both were so very different, they shared some interesting characteristics, perhaps not coincidentally. They’re both very good at their work; they’re passionate and articulate; and, they are both very creative. And, a great bonus - they both love and support art!

Yesterday, the attorney gave us a brief crash course in commercial real estate law, incorporation, and indemnity clauses (which I think means no one ever has to be responsible for anything). All difficult, and yet all so very necessary.

Today, the retail designer talked with us about color and lighting, fixture design and furniture, wall textures, architectural drawings and permits, drop down ceilings, acoustics and millwork. What fun. I think, at heart, I’m a frustrated designer / architect.

Next, the architect versus the tax accountant!

We’re down to 2 finalists for the store name: art251 and ArtBox.

Our “focus group” convinced us to jettison Artbox Modern as too cutting edge for our potential market; and it turned out that Gallery251 is too upscale, Space251 is too obscure and abstract, and ArtSpace is rather overused. So, we’ve settled on our old favorite, ArtBox, and the upstart challenger, art251. Both names have their pros and cons.

On the ArtBox side:

• Pros: catchy, memorable, simple, art related, could incorporate “box” in the design and theme of store, extensible brand (both up and down), neutral.
• Cons: sounds more juvenile, connotes art supplies, not cool or sophisticated by itself (branding design could help), very retail-ish sounding, internet URL not available, other “artbox” named art businesses abound (though not in Texas).

On the art251 side:

• Pros: simple, tied to the address, cool and hip, urban (we think this is a pro - it’s the aesthetic of the retail development), more likely to connote art for sale versus supplies, upscale but not too upscale, internet URL address available, unique, no known art stores or galleries.
• Cons: tied to address (though if located elsewhere it would have a fun story about the name’s origin), doesn’t scale as well (e.g. with attached sub-brands such as modern, noir, etc.), could be too cool for general population.

So, we have a couple more rounds to go for our intrepid contenders. But, I’m sure we’ll have a name picked by end of next week. ArtBox, art251 - may the best name win!