for everyone new to art
The deconstruction and reconstruction of 49 Porter Street continues today. Provided the guy from eBay shows up, we will remove the internal glass dividing wall and all of the carpet, leaving us with a blank canvas on which we can start constructing the gallery and art space.
With three weeks left in January, things are still looking good for an end-Jan, start-Feb opening.
Now that we know that 100thgallery will be located at 49 Porter Street Prahran, I have been able to get into the space and measure it up. This has allowed me to revise (and simplify) the pricing structure based on the walls that will be available.
I now know that there will be a total of 9 walls of varying sizes available for artists to rent.
Based on our revised modelling, one hundredth gallery’s pricing structure will now look something like this:
This type of model turns ‘normal’ gallery pricing on its head and allows artists to better control the value of their work without losing 40% – 70% in commissions.
Artists will still need to submit the portfolio of work that they wish to exhibit for approval, and so that they can be scheduled with other ‘like’ artists.
If you’re an artist (aspiring, emerging, established or otherwise), or if you know an artist that should be exhibiting then please get in touch via email on charles@100thgallery.com
100thgallery will also be selling gift vouchers so that friends and family of emerging and aspiring artists can encourage their art; but more on that later!
It used to be Prime Advice (financial planning) and will soon be much more interesting as 100thgallery!
Have a safe and happy new year!
100thgallery has a home and its everyday name is 49 Porter Street Prahran. It is just fifty short metres from Greville Street and the Prahran Train Station. This property has caused no end of drama and headaches for the past 6 months, but all of that is behind me now as I have the keys!
As you can imagine, 100thgallery’s first space needed to tick a number of boxes.
I also wanted 100thgallery’s first space to be a little ‘out of the way’ and in an area that was cool, but not too cool (as too cool = big amounts of cash). Greville Street is one of the cooler ‘strips’ in Melbourne. It is forever evolving and has always been pretty good at bespoke offerings, whether it be music, fashion, food & drink, or something else quirky. Porter Street is the one-way street that runs along the train line between Commercial Road and High Street, intersecting Greville Street at its middle.
Tick!
49 Porter Street is one of five commercial/retail/office properties at the base of the ‘pret-a-porter’ apartment building about 50m north of Prahran Station and Greville Street (on the Commercial Road side). It is 5m wide and 10m deep… enough to be divided into two or three smaller exhibition spaces. For Prahran, it also wasn’t too expensive.
Tick, tick and tick!
As Christmas/New Year are upon us, trades people are taking a well deserved break. This means that 49 Porter Street won’t be turned into 100thgallery until January at the earliest.
Watch this space for progress reports and photos!
Until then it will be hanging sheets and carpet picnics!
Provided all works out with the property in the New Year, this is what I have planned for the 100thgallery fit out. The kitchenette is already there, so all I need to do in January is –
– have the concrete floor polished
– build three interior walls
– install the hanging system
– install gallery lighting
– paint the whole space
– put 100thgallery on the window
– hang some art
– have a grand opening
Too much for one month? Almost certainly, but let’s give it a go!
PS. Each room below is 5m across x 3m deep.
Today was d-day for getting the keys to one hundredth gallery’s first space. I left home at 8am to do the cross-town drive at the height of peak hour. I arrived in Prahran just before 9am; enough time for a cheeky coffee before the real estate agent office opened their doors.
The office opened on time and I was handed an envelope with the keys to one hundredth gallery’s (pending) first home. However, before I could leave the office to do my final ‘final’ inspection, I received a phone call from the agent (who wasn’t at the office yet) to let me know that nothing had been done during the weekend and all of the previous tenant’s furniture was still there. Worse still, he did not have timeframes for when it would all be moved. Fail. Epic Fail.
With many companies closing up shop for Christmas, this means that we will not have the keys until 2011. Hopefully, very very very early 2011. Provided we still get access in early January, we still should be able to open our doors in February. This is only a small speed bump on our journey. We will open our doors in 2011 and progress our vision and mission to represent and launch emerging artists.
Watch this space for further details!
Monday 13 December 2010 is d-day for getting the keys to our first gallery space. All has NOT gone well in the lead up to tomorrow and the past 6 months have been a bit of a nightmare (see ‘the property’ post). Our ‘final’ inspection on Friday revealed a space full of office furniture, files, missing light fittings and a general mess. To make matters more interesting, the front door was blocked with lumps of concrete, chairs and other office equipment (I think someone was trying to prevent us access but can’t be sure). To our bewilderment, there were also people moving things into our future storage cage, rather than moving things out!
All of this meant that the ‘final’ inspection ended up being the ‘second last’ inspection. The final inspection will now be just after 9am Monday morning. If all is not okay, a fairly large spanner will be thrown into our works. Hopefully I’ll have good news to report after 11am. Wish me luck!
13 December is a big day. 13 December is the day that I will (or won’t) get the keys to the first 100thgallery space.
It should have been far simpler than this but it hasn’t been and the past six months have presented some very interesting times!
You see, I found the property in March of this year signed the paperwork in June. I was due to get the keys in September and as such, I resigned from my job (and comfortable steady income).
In September, I was told that the current/previous owner had gone into administration and that the bank were repossessing the property and shredding my paperwork. Two weeks later, the administrator via the agent and behalf of the bank told me that I could get new paperwork if I agreed to pay more. Ummm… how about… no.
Thankfully, the bank came back and agreed to the original price but extended the timeframes to 13 December 2010. Actually, it was 30 December but this date also had to be amended as the bank’s representatives are all on holiday between Christmas and New Year!
So, in less than two weeks, one hundredth gallery will have a home or I’ll be back to the drawing board. Watch this space…