We recently connected with Kristin Wiebe and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Kristin, thank you for being such a positive, uplifting person. We’ve noticed that so many of the successful folks we’ve had the good fortune of connecting with have high levels of optimism and so we’d love to hear about your optimism and where you think it comes from.
We have a tremendous wellspring of optimism coming from primarily our neighbors and neighborhood around us. Baltimore is a “DIY Town,” as we have often heard in the past, and this endeavor has really made us test that and prove it to be right. Not only can you “Do It Yourself” in many areas of opening a business, but there really are a lot of people right next door who cheer you on. A secondary source of optimism comes from actually wanting to interact with humans in real life. So much of our existence is atomized and force-fed on small screens. We wanted to be a part of the street-level conversation that actually makes up a city and fight back in some small way against the megalith of online mass retail.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
We exist solely FOR Baltimore artists. There are many wonderful galleries in Baltimore, and we have been frustrated by the paucity of art spaces that are open during normal working/walking/shopping hours for the pop-in consumer. Add to this the fact that we want to highlight only local artists. If you like to keep adding, also add in the fact that we want to bring the price point down to a level that the local walk-in/pop-in consumer might feel is relevant. We want the first-time art lover to come away with an original piece of local art. What is exciting is that we have been writing checks for this local art for commissions to over 30 artists in our five years of being open six days a week!
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The three most impactful things were:
1) The ability to create a business plan and budget (with spreadsheets and all that)
2) The ability to make almost every aspect of the gallery space on our own such as furniture, displays, wall painting by our own sweat equity along with our wonderful friends
3) Knowledge of our product (art) and a genuine desire to project empathy and a welcoming atmosphere for both prospective artists and first-time art collectors
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
We opened with great enthusiasm in February of 2020 and came out of the gate swinging. One month later, the Great Pandemic fell over the city and we were shut down for three months. Consequently, we have been fighting a fundamental change in consumer behavior that has gripped Mom and Pop retail at the main street level. This fight has been somewhat of an uphill battle, given that during the Pandemic we received no local, state nor federal assistance and the economy has been uneven ever since. Our strategy to overcome this is to continue with our street-level retail, but we have consequently put more money into online marketing than we ever thought we would. We host two free, public events every month and we try our best with social media.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://bmoreartgallery.shop
- Instagram: baltimore_art_gallery
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bmoreartgallery
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