As Laura Dragon steps down from operations of her art gallery, {9} The Gallery, the new management is expected to keep the business going in the right direction.
The new managers, Carrie Beth and Sean McGarry, have already made changes and upgrades Dragon herself is impressed with.
“There is just an energy about them that they put into {9}, and it’s the same kind of energy I have,” Dragon said.
Dragon also praised Beth and McGarry for their passion and engagement, and said she thought they would be a fresh change to the company.
When Dragon was diagnosed with terminal stage-four lung cancer in April, she needed to find someone to step in, but also wanted the gallery to stay the same. Last month, she sat down with Beth and McGarry and decided they were the people she wanted.
“I am thrilled that I have people in my life that love {9} as much as I do. And that wanted to keep everything exactly how it’s been,” Dragon said.
Dragon said she had been working with Beth and McGarry for a while, and they shared a similar eye. It has been a dream of theirs for years to operate a gallery, according to Dragon.
“{9} has felt like home to us since the first time we stepped through the door,” Beth said. “The gallery has a special energy vibrating and pulsing through it; it is more than an art gallery, it is space for community and creativity, for laughter and for healing.”
Although the vision for the gallery remains the same, there are more upgrades and changes expected from the new {9} managers. With McGarry’s background in web management, his intention is to take over the online capacity of {9}, which Dragon has always felt was treated as the “stepchild.”
McGarry said the journey is going to be a day-by-day situation, as the job is unpredictable. McGarry is most excited about discovering new talent. He wants to give local artists platforms to showcase what they can do.
“Thats what the best part about running a gallery is, you give people an opportunity to collect things that they would never be able to find,” McGarry said.
Dragon wants to keep the same formula that {9} The Gallery has had since it opened. With Beth and McGarry, she said things could change for the better.
“The best is certainly yet to come,” McGarry said. “We are kind of just getting started — we’re here for the long run.”
Contact the reporter at Kayla.Satterfield@asu.edu.
