Within its first year, Artlink Phoenix’s series of Collectors Tours has seen increased community interest, a new tour date and expanded partnerships with downtown galleries and the Phoenix Art Museum.
The Collectors Tours was created last year to offer a more intimate experience than First Fridays – for $35 attendees receive a guided trolley tour of three downtown Phoenix galleries and participate in discussions with featured artists and gallery curators. The next tour is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 16, exactly one year after the inaugural tour. It will be the fifth in the series.
“It’s one thing to buy art because it looks nice. It’s another thing altogether to buy art following a conversation with the artists themselves,” Artlink Phoenix President Catrina Kahler said.
The mission of the tour hasn’t changed in the first year, but its execution has. Among the recent changes are a switch from running the tour on Third Fridays to the following Saturday afternoon, and a new partnership with the Phoenix Art Museum in which the museum’s curators selected the local downtown galleries.
In June, Artlink Phoenix sent out a call for submissions. The galleries were then selected by Sara Cochran and Gabriela Munoz, Phoenix Art Museum curators.
Kahler said the selection committee tries to bring variety to the tour by making sure a gallery isn’t featured in two consecutive tours.
“Now they’re really being stringent about submitting work. You really have to write a proposal … so that’s good,” said Robrt Pela, owner of R. Pela Contemporary Art, which was accepted for the November tour.
Phoenix Art Museum Director Jim Ballinger will lead Saturday’s tour, which features exhibits at Willo North near Thomas Road and Seventh Avenue, Eye Lounge near Roosevelt and Fifth streets and R. Pela Contemporary Art near McDowell Road and Fifth Avenue.
“We’re really looking forward to hearing his (Ballinger) take on not only the art that’s featured in the galleries that we’ll be visiting but the downtown Phoenix art scene as a whole,” Kahler said.
The Phoenix Art Museum often tries to support local galleries and artists and has partnered with Artlink Phoenix on previous projects, Ballinger said.
“We always try to be a participant, be helpful to the growth of the downtown creativity sector,” he said.
Ballinger said he sees the museum continuing its role in future Collectors Tours by curating the galleries and promoting and leading tours.
“When you look to create something like this, there are always going to be unexpected challenges that come up and you just have to adapt,” Kahler said.
Among those challenges was the growing crowd at Third Fridays.
The crowds at Third Friday motivated Artlink Phoenix to make the change to Saturday afternoons, Kahler said. Initially, the Collectors Tour was hosted on Third Fridays to provide a quieter, more personal alternative to the First Friday madness.
Kahler said by switching to the Saturday following Third Friday, they were able to maintain their original goal.
“That allowed us to create more space in the gallery schedule … and they were able to access a more intimate experience,” she said.
Pela agreed that scheduling exclusive tours on Third Fridays, when most galleries are open to the public already, was a mistake.
As a gallery owner, Pela was frustrated to see people who hadn’t paid for the tour lingering to hear the artists and getting the same experience as the collectors. Others, he said, would follow the trolley in their cars and wander in behind the tour to avoid purchasing a ticket.
“They (Collectors Tour participants) were essentially paying for what everyone else got for free,” Pela said. “It’s really intelligent of somebody to say, ‘Let’s get around this by making it a distinct Saturday afternoon.’”
Pela has participated in three of Artlink Phoenix’s past four Collectors Tours. His gallery has been a stop on the tour and he led a group of collectors on the tour in January.
The exhibit at R. Pela Contemporary Art features work by Janet De Berge Lange, Peter Mars and Kristin Forbes-Mullane. The show, Pop and Circumstances II, is celebrating an anniversary itself, debuting 25 years after a 1988 exhibit by De Berge Lange and Mars, Pop and Circumstance. Their work focuses on empowering women through paintings and traditional quilts composed of bits of hammered tin.
The artists love to see potential collectors at the tours, Pela said.
“It’s an extra audience and potentially a different audience than they’ve already spoken to or who has already been through the show,” he said.
Kahler said the tours are usually full with up to 30 people in attendance, often with new faces at each one.
“Those 30 people are out in the community month after month talking about what’s cooking down here, which is really exciting for us,” Ballinger said.
Contact the reporter at emregan1@asu.edu.
