I am a professional photographer and while I have my work carried in several large galleries, I have never owned or ran my own fine art gallery. I met through a contact an owner of several fine art galleries and he is retiring. He’s been leasing out his old spaces and he has a few left in big markets. The largest market without question belongs his space he has in Long Beach. I make comfortable living with my work I already have carried currently, but I am about to run into the issue of having too much content for them and I also have a lot of So Cal content in particular that won’t be carried by them.
This seems like a pretty ideal situation for me to branch out and finally have my own fine art gallery as a physical conduit for my work. I would have to put in the work to get it up off the ground and then remotely manage it from another state, but I know a photographer who does that successfully. Does anyone know how competitive the market is in So Cal for fine art or what the art community is like? Or the challenges that could come with establishing a gallery in the area? My girlfriend and I are flying down for the weekend look at the unit in person and take a mini vacation on the beach. I’m currently looking into the costs and the overhead that would come with a move like this and it looks promising. I also have a meeting with a bank for potential financing. However, I’m also trying to remain cautious and reserved. This has always been a sort of dream of mine for my work, but if I’ve learned one thing, running a successful business takes an insane amount of time and investment.
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