10/17/2012
To All of our Friends and Supporters…
On October 29th I will be leaving as Director of The Bogart Salon. The space itself will be on short hiatus while the owner makes decisions on the direction it shall go in. Since I founded the salon back in May of 2011 I imagined a new concept for what an art gallery can be, and I feel in an incredible 14 months, we achieved those original goals. To open a “living room” for the art world, where art, artists, curators, critics, and the audience could all be in one place exchanging ideas, arguing about the nature and role of art in this new century, and most importantly treating art as something “sacred” and magical, full of play and messy connectivity; where the art might be “made” by the collectors (Peoples Art Collective), or perhaps the audience itself (Dejuener Sans L’Herbe). Where the gallery might become nothing but a virtual space, an internet hub where the show is the critics and bloggers themselves discussing the previous show (War Room).
The incredible pace of change here in Bushwick was already under way when we opened in September of last year, but in that time we believe The Bogart Salon played a crucial part of that development. Whether it was the hosting of seminal panel discussions such as Confronting Bushwick, or Capital and Its Discontents, the filming of a Isha: a Tell All Tale the world’s first ever Bollywood style soap opera filmed in a gallery, citydrift/Bushwick the first iteration of a multi-city, multi-nation meta art event that will travel abroad in the coming years, or simply elegant art exhibitions with unique artists from around the world we feel proud of our re-imagining the art gallery as a “meeting place”, a 21st century version of a salon; an analog room with a digital interface that could be at once intimate and expansive.
I (and the rest of our team) will soon be relocating to a nearby space under a new name, and with an even bolder and more expansive vision for art and contemporary culture. We will update all of you in the coming weeks with our plans for the future, but extend our deepest thanks for your support these past months, and finally please come and celebrate the closing of the final show under our direction, Vacationland, and share with all of us the joy of these past months…Friday, October 26th from 6-9pm.
Sincerely,
Peter Hopkins, Meenakshi Thirukode,
Maya Meissner, Wilson Duggan
