I was tickled pink to be interviewed by Community Divas, a podcast about communities hosted by Eden Spodek and Connie Crosby. You can listen to the podcast here -- it is about 10 minutes in total and doesn't require any special software.
What does it take to build a community and how am I building community around tinku gallery?
1. Start with who you know. I already had a community of friends and business contacts in Toronto and Boston, who were the foundation of the community I wanted to build around the gallery. The first event I held attracted over 100 people just from this group alone. Not only are people you know your biggest advocates, but they will give you the straight goods about what you are doing right and what you can do better.
2. Make it a two-way conversation. No one likes to be talked at. Everyone loves to feel like their voice is heard. Applying this to a community, find channels in which people can participate, speak up, collaborate. At the gallery I do this both online (making it easy for people to leave comments or send me email) as well as face-to-face.
3. Provide an environment for the community to grow. This is an area in which I'd like to do more. To start with, I am doing simple things like making it easy for people to join my email or snail mail list, and to spread the word to their friends so we get good attendance at our openings. What I'd like to do more of is to make the gallery a gathering place that draws people in from the neighbourhood, not just for our openings, but for other events. I already get lots of people dropping in when they are walking by, but I want to do more to attract people off the street to come in and become a part of the gallery community.
4. Give and take. It is natural to grow a community based just on what the gallery needs but becoming a part of the broader community - i.e. providing a place for people to join together for talks on music, literature, life, creates a lot of goodwill that is good for everyone. And likewise, don't be afraid to ask for people's help -- giving people an opportunity to actively participate in the gallery makes them feel a part of the community, not someone looking in from the outside.
5. Be yourself. To build a community that will sustain itself for the long run, it's important to be true to who you are. I don't hide who I am, and I don't try to be someone I am not. I extend this to the gallery. There is lots of room for lots of different types of galleries, and each one will attract their own community. My focus has been to make the gallery a place where collectors feel comfortable starting or growing their collections. The work we carry is not traditional nor is it pushing the envelope...we are somewhere in the middle. Certainly there is always room for identities to evolve, but the constant is that we provide a certain degree of transparency so our community comes with us on this journey.
What does it take to build a community and how am I building community around tinku gallery?
1. Start with who you know. I already had a community of friends and business contacts in Toronto and Boston, who were the foundation of the community I wanted to build around the gallery. The first event I held attracted over 100 people just from this group alone. Not only are people you know your biggest advocates, but they will give you the straight goods about what you are doing right and what you can do better.
2. Make it a two-way conversation. No one likes to be talked at. Everyone loves to feel like their voice is heard. Applying this to a community, find channels in which people can participate, speak up, collaborate. At the gallery I do this both online (making it easy for people to leave comments or send me email) as well as face-to-face.
3. Provide an environment for the community to grow. This is an area in which I'd like to do more. To start with, I am doing simple things like making it easy for people to join my email or snail mail list, and to spread the word to their friends so we get good attendance at our openings. What I'd like to do more of is to make the gallery a gathering place that draws people in from the neighbourhood, not just for our openings, but for other events. I already get lots of people dropping in when they are walking by, but I want to do more to attract people off the street to come in and become a part of the gallery community.
4. Give and take. It is natural to grow a community based just on what the gallery needs but becoming a part of the broader community - i.e. providing a place for people to join together for talks on music, literature, life, creates a lot of goodwill that is good for everyone. And likewise, don't be afraid to ask for people's help -- giving people an opportunity to actively participate in the gallery makes them feel a part of the community, not someone looking in from the outside.
5. Be yourself. To build a community that will sustain itself for the long run, it's important to be true to who you are. I don't hide who I am, and I don't try to be someone I am not. I extend this to the gallery. There is lots of room for lots of different types of galleries, and each one will attract their own community. My focus has been to make the gallery a place where collectors feel comfortable starting or growing their collections. The work we carry is not traditional nor is it pushing the envelope...we are somewhere in the middle. Certainly there is always room for identities to evolve, but the constant is that we provide a certain degree of transparency so our community comes with us on this journey.
What are your thoughts on community? What more can we do at the gallery to grow our community?
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