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From personal experience, I know how difficult it can be for artists to get their work into a gallery, and how dispiriting all those polite and not so polite refusals can become.
So although we opened Gallery 13 to act mainly as a shop window for my own work, I resolved to be more accommodating to other artists than the galleries I had come across. This approach has now resulted in our little shop displaying at any one time the work of about 50 artists and craftspeople, all living and working in our area. The range of art and crafts has grown unusually wide. We currently show pottery, woodcarving and turning, handmade furniture, painted furniture, stained glass, painted glass and stone carving, as well as an excellent selection of paintings.
Another significant decision has been an insistence on showing only originals. I feel that seeing and touching original art, laboured over and deeply felt by another person, provides a life-enriching pleasure that is a basic human right. Reproductions, no matter how accurate, do not satisfy the soul in the same way. I hope that the prices Gallery 13 offers can make ownership of unique and beautiful things a possibility for more people.
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