The AIR Gallery is an artist-owned and operated gallery in Brooklyn, New York, established in 1972 to showcase female artists and address challenges faced by them. Membership is maintained at 20 artists, who pay to belong and hold an ownership stake. The gallery hosts international exhibitions, facilitates young careers, and holds lectures and educational activities. Archives dating back to its beginnings are available to the public.
AIR (Artists in Residence) gallery in the United States is an artist-owned and operated gallery. It was established to serve as a way to showcase female artists and assist them in their careers. Additionally, the AIR Gallery and its members maintain involvement in political issues and the general promotion of women in the arts. As of 2011, the AIR Gallery is located at 111 Front Street in Brooklyn, New York.
The first of its kind in the United States, AIR Gallery was founded in 1972 to address the challenges and prejudices faced by female artists of the time. Susan Williams and Barbara Zucker, along with the other four founding members, selected 14 artists to become the first members. Membership is consistently maintained at 20 New York City artists at any one time. The AIR Gallery is cooperative in nature, with members paying to belong and holding an ownership stake in the gallery. Artists must apply for membership and go through a rigorous peer interview and critique process to be inducted as one of 20 members.
Over the years, the AIR Gallery has resided in a number of locations throughout the New York City area. Beginning with its opening on 16 September 1972, the gallery was located at 97 Wooster Street until 1981. It then moved to 63 CrosStreet for the next 13 years. From 1994 to 2002, the gallery moved to 40 Wooster Street and then to 511West 52nd Street until opening in Brooklyn’s DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) neighborhood in October of 2008.
Individual artist exhibitions are not the full extent of how the AIR Gallery contributes to the women’s art world. Beginning in 1976 with an exhibition by Aline Dallier called Combative Acts, Profiles and Voices, the gallery has hosted and sponsored a number of international exhibitions. A grant program was also started in 1993 to help artists lend a hand by providing them with visible exhibition space. The program facilitates young careers by fostering interaction and relationship building with other more experienced and established artists.
The archives of the AIR Gallery dating back to its beginnings are available to the public. These archives include material such as administrative data, curatorial decisions and exhibition histories. Festive and biennial exhibitions are organized by invitation. The AIR Gallery and its members also hold lectures and other educational activities for the public to help advance the cause of women’s empowerment, particularly in the arts.
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