Why MYA exist

With the advent of MYA, and my great understanding of the need for this type of Organization, my experience today brought home why there is a need and purpose for MYA in a very clearly manner to me.

Today I had an interesting encounter with one of our more popular Art Galleries. For years I have been going to this very gallery to see exhibitions and also to frame pieces of art, both for myself and that of clients. Having just restarted my journey on the road to painting after almost 10 years, I took a plunge and began pursuit of my art in once again in 2012.  This renewal of my love of and for Art was a "Reawakening" of who I am and all that I love about the art world, the joy, the passion, my own self-satisfaction of a finished piece and of course, what it brings to those around me. From this Reawakening several pieces were born and I felt that it was time to test the waters of the local art galleries. 

I ventured into the gallery, having previously spoken to someone there. I did not under any misconception, thinking that my work would have been "grabbed up". Even though I met with many of my fellow artists and heard all the stories and encounters they had experienced at the hands of the so called "Art Experts” and “Art Enthusiasts”, I proceeded nonetheless to carry my pieces to hear from a rather pleasant young lady at one of these more established galleries whether or not they would accept my work and display them.

As noted before, I was not expecting them to say "hey come let us have an exhibition" but I certainly was a bit taken aback with what came next. I was merely looking for them to possibly take a few pieces and possibly see if there was an interest from the viewing public or a sale of some sort. There to my amazement and amusement (I say these terms lightly), the young lady, whom I guessed was the person to determine what pieces, in lieu of her directors, would be the one to say yes or no to the pieces presented. She began by asking me, “Did you ever exhibit before? What are your qualifications in Art? Have you ever sold any pieces of work?”

With each response, I studied her expressions, and with each comment I felt greater validation of what I was doing with MYA is needed and necessary, and I kept saying to myself “You're on the right track, keep going.”  Sufficed to say after looking at all the pieces, she responded by saying, “I must say your work have potential, keep working but your work does not reach the standard of the pieces in which we exhibit. Possibly you can come back in a few years and we can see what happens there." Excuse me!!! To say I was more than a bit shocked would be an understatement.  After all I would like to see her qualifications to so flippantly judge my work as not good enough for even a corner spot in the gallery.  As I said I wasn’t looking to be a headliner but just a space to gauge the public acceptance or rejection of my work.

I thus went on to tell her of my qualifications in Visual and Fine Arts and to which her response was "Oh then you do have formal training!” I quietly kept looking at her, and said nothing, this so far to me has been quite an amusing and eye opener to what "Nonsense" this country can throw out to artists looking to show their works. OH BTW not even an intelligent critique was offered as to what they were looking for in terms of art and why my work did not make the grade.  That would have been more helpful rather than a straight rejection. I thus went on to discuss, MYA and the other dedicated, talented artists who are a part of this Organisation, to see whether I would have been able to secure a spot for them at this gallery. After all, my responsibility as the Director, is to ensure that my artist get the exposure and the notoriety they need in order to get their work out to the public. 

Having spoken about the myriad of work that these talented artists produce, she then said "If you are showing your work amongst them you possibly have a chance to get some of your work sold”. Note she hasn’t even seen the other artist work so how is she now open to having my work as part of a showing?  “So keep in touch with us, and send us their work as a collective body and we shall take a look.” Was her next statement.

Thus having listened to this young woman, I thought to myself about the present article I am working on, which deals with the challenges and issues, in which Emerging Artists face on a daily basis to have their works seen and sold. In order to be fair to the Gallery owners, who are in it as a business, to make money, they also have standards to work with, ambiguous as it may be and seemingly purely subjective, and of course who they perceive will generate sales to their galleries. However don’t they have a role to play in the development and promotion of new artist?  Bear in mind this encounter took less than one hour, (most of which I spent waiting) funny enough I did not leave feeling deflated, or depressed or anything  of the sort, but confident in the place MYA holds for new artists and helping them develop, promote and sell their works of art.  It also proved what had been discussed just a week ago by my fellow artists. That they too had encountered similar, and did not feel the need to be validated through the art galleries, and to them the important thing was working and being able to sell their work, to the wider public, but not necessarily through the hands of these "Art People”.

The question remains who will give the up and coming artists their needed break? Who will throw the doors open for them to walk in? If the art world in this country is operated by the selected few who determines who gets in and who does not rather than allowing the public the opportunity to experience art that may just speak to them, who will provide that forum for the next great undiscovered artist? 

This is exactly why MYA was founded.