Location, Location, Location

What's an art gallery without a really cool space? Well, through very good fortune, I found it--the Charlotte Trolley Powerhouse Museum in Historic South End. But how did I end up here? After searching high and low for the perfect space, and even considering opening Pantone 278 in my own home, one phone call to my friend James Mathis, Director of Historic South End, and a partnership was formed. Turns out the Museum was looking to be open during the South End gallery crawls, and I was looking for a place to sell art. The rest is history.


A little bit about Charlotte Trolley, Inc. Trolley cars made possible the development of Charlotte's earliest neighborhoods, including Dilworth and served as a catalyst for the city's first era of economic growth at the turn of the last century, much like the light rail has done for South End during this century. The Trolley Museum now houses a fully restored trolley, and vintage trolleys run on the light rail line on weekends. A non-profit was formed in 1988 to educate the community about the important role played by trolleys in the development of Charlotte. You can learn more at www.charlottetrolley.org/.

Location: Charlotte Trolley is located at 1507 Camden Road in Historic South End and directly adjacent to the Bland St. LYNX Blue Line Station. There are on-street parking spaces available in the area, but the Museum does not have any dedicated parking spaces. To encourage visitors to Pantone 278, there will be a drawing during every gallery crawl for everyone who rides the light rail.

So, how's this thing going to work? The Museum hasn't installed it's exhibits yet, so it has a great space for hanging art. From April 30 through September 30, Gallery Pantone 278 will display art in the Powerhouse Museum in conjunction with the South End Gallery crawl to be held on the first Friday even of each month. Each show will go up on Wednesday, there will be an invitation event on Thursday, and art will be on display during the crawl on Friday night. Art will also be available for viewing at my home following the show by appointment. I can't wait to see how the artists will use the space to display their art. Here is a link to the event page for the first Opening. http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=170268140640&ref=nf

Note: Check out the new Pantone 278 logo. Many thanks to Frate (http://www.ignitedstudios.com/) for his hard work on it. In the next blog post I will reveal my first artist. Be sure to click on the box to the right and follow my blog so you don't miss out.

The Launch of Gallery Pantone 278

In an effort to avoid the obvious April Fools jokes, I actually waited until after midnight to post my very first blog about my new art gallery -- Gallery Pantone 278.



Every few days I'll be posting a short blog about the gallery, including how I got to this point and where this thing is headed, and probably a whole lot of other stuff you may or may not have interest in.



Unlike this blog, the idea of an art gallery did not materialize late at night, in a sleep deprived state with absolutely no idea what I was doing (okay, that last point is debatable). The seeds of what will become Gallery Pantone 278 were probably sewn some time back in 1983 with my first visit to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, fermented over bottles of wine with my good friend Beth Wilson, and finally sprung into life with the encouragement of Ashley Lathe and James Mathis.



My goal for Pantone 278 is to create a place in Charlotte where artists and those interested in art, and even those who aren't, can gather to discuss, appreciate or just look at art. I want the gallery to be a social place where everyone, no matter their experience with art, will feel comfortable exploring their notions and perceptions of art.



There will be 6 shows this summer, each focusing on a different local or regional emerging artist. These shows will be held in connection with the Historic South End Gallery Crawl held on the first Friday of each month with the inaugural show launching on May 1, 2009.


And with that...Gallery Pantone 278 was born.