Atelier D'Artiste 14 ...The Future Home of Raw Canvas

A newly formed organization of Black art galleries has been established in St. Louis, Missouri. The organization is the Alliance of Black Art Galleries, consisting of eight art galleries with a shared focus of exhibiting culturally relevant art and supporting artists whose career aspirations would benefit from broader exposure in galleries. The three primary reasons for starting the Alliance are: (1) to identify areas of cooperation and  collaboration; (2) to share information of  mutual interest; (3) and to express and  demonstrate publicly the mutual support the galleries have for each other.

 

The Alliance galleries, which include public, private and nonprofit art galleries, are as follows: 10th Street Gallery (Patricia Smith Thurman and Solomon Thurman ); Atelier D'Artiste 14 (William Burton, Jr. and Robert A. Ketchens); Exodus Gallery (Carlton Mitchell); Gya Community Art Gallery (Dail Chambers); Jah’z Art Private Gallery (Sami Bentil and Annetta Vickers-Bentil); L. D. Ingrum Gallery & Studio (Lois D. Ingrum); Portfolio Gallery and Educational Center (Robert A. Powell); and Salon 53, a private residential art gallery (Freida L. Wheaton).  

 

The Alliance galleries represent and show regional, national and international artists, most of whom are African Diasporan artists. Although small in number, eight is perhaps the greatest number of Black art galleries ever in operation at the same time in St. Louis.