MUSE ART GALLERY - with Kaye McGarva

Creative Connections with Mandy Jakich

Muse Gallery, founded by Kaye McGarva in 2017, is situated in Havelock North, in the Bay of Plenty, Aoteaora NZ.

In this episode I talk to Kaye McGarva, a professional artist herself and the owner/director of Muse Gallery.

This bis a conversation I'm sure many artists will be intrigued to hear. Kaye shares how and why she started Muse Gallery 9 years ago and the challenges of starting a gallery with no former experience in this area and how she grew the gallery from the ground up. We explore how Muse Gallery organises their yearly exhibition programme, the current stable of artists at Muse Gallery, how/why they were selected and how connecting with more experienced established artists helped the gallery to build their good reputation.

Kaye gives some super helpful tips to artists when approaching galleries: the dos and don'ts; her preferred ways for artists to connect and share their work; how and why they choose the artists to join the gallery; what feedback or advice they may pass on to artists approaching them and what they look for in an artist beyond their work.

We talk about how the gallery deals with artists not selling work, how she feels about artists experimenting and changing styles, gallery commissions and pricing work, her view on artists selling work themselves, artist contracts, how the gallery elevates the artists and communicates the ideas behind their artists work. Kaye explains what type of gallery she sees Muse Gallery as, what if offers as a gallery, ways they make the gallery feel accessible, how the gallery operates and where this gallery fits in the NZ gallery landscape.

And so much more! This is a fascinating chat which I know you'll benefit from listening to.

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