First Friday

Grand Opening: Arts Seen Gallery Co-op & Café

Artists, Prepare to be Seen

Grand Opening

June 5, 2015 6-9PM

Arts Seen Gallery Co-op & Café

The month on First Friday Scranton, June 5, Arts Seen Gallery Co-op & Café celebrates its grand opening with a celebration of the arts featuring a variety of artists including Igor & Kim Kulagina, Tamara Pilger, Rick Skursky, Piera Marotto, Travis Prince, Annette Bohn, Rose Stone & John Waering, Sharon Digennaro, Tami Duffield, Rachel Mercuri, Louise Banks, Helen Gambal, Jim Cook, Gail Bartlett, Richard Aston, James Rhoden with works ranging from paintings, prints, cards, Russian nesting dolls, decorative boxes, stained and fused glass, bonsai tree sculptures, portraits, photography, hand dyed silk scarves, pottery, mosaics, and graphic art as well as the music of Frank Palumbo.

The acoustic anti-hero, Your Pal Frank, is playing in your basements and living rooms this summer. “I’m a realist, it shows.” I started out just playing my friends parties, to everyone’s parties, now any stage or floor. I have 2 releases, “Honesties” and “Flaws and the Things we do to Forget”, which can be found on www.soundcloud.com/yourpalfrank. “I’ve toured for the past 10 years with different bands, these are my stories, and hopefully they can help you, like music helped me.” Your Pal Frank can be found on multiple digital media outlets. Some of these outlets consist of Spotify, iTunes, and Amazon. In my spare time, I’m a huge sports head and can’t wait for the 2015/16 NFL season! Finally, but not most importantly, Rowdy Roddy Piper is my favorite wrestler.

Arts Seen Gallery Co-op & Café is an artist run collective and a relaxing place to purchase art from emerging and established artists and artisans residing in NEPA. It provides an exhibition space for local artists, a meeting space for artists to gain inspiration from others, and a gathering place for our community to experience art in a relaxed atmosphere. The gallery itself houses artwork on display from local artists in a wide range of media and styles. In addition to participating in First Friday Scranton from 6-9PM they are also home to the “Be Seen Open Mic”, a monthly gathering of wordsmiths, which will be held on First Fridays in Scranton from 9-11 PM. The open mic is uncensored and will feature poetry, comedians, and musicians most nights. All are welcome to sign up and participate and sign ups start at 8:30 PM sharp. The open mic is hosted by their talented poet, Chelsi Louise.

The gallery and café is a cooperative corporation, overseen by Kim Kulagina, President and General Manager, and Tamara Pilger, Vice President and Café Manager. It can house approximately 30 artists and currently has 17 signed on at their Scranton location.

If we think the artist suits us and they think the gallery is a good fit for them we ask for a small damage deposit (returned if artist decides to leave, has no damages, and gives a 30 day notice) and $50 per month rent (to cover building rental fees). This gives them a 50 square foot of space (5′ x 10′ or 10′ x 5′) that they then use as their “store” for their art. We encourage a sign with their business name and for the artists to display business cards and/or brochures as the customers sometimes like to contact the artists for custom pieces. For pieces sold in the gallery we take 10% commission for the gallery, which covers expenses for the hosted events. We do not take commission for the artist’s custom work orders. The artists are also required to participate in overseeing the gallery and/or café based on their availability. These are all minimum requirements to be a member of the gallery.

As a co-op Arts Seen plans on sharing the proceeds from the café as it becomes solvent with hopes of sharing these proceeds amongst its participating artists/volunteers: The more time they commit to volunteering the greater their share. Anyone that is a member will benefit from the profit sharing but volunteers investing more time will garner more of the proceeds.

We are a State non-profit cooperative corporation. Everyone here gets a vote in the goings on of the gallery and café. This is how the gallery worked in Wilkes-Barre with little problem but we did not have a profit as we were just selling art. Now with the café involved the artists stand to gain a profit which is a huge plus for everyone. We felt that adding the café would increase foot traffic for the artists to help in getting their names out there and also be an aid in hosting events where we can serve food and drinks and get to know people in the community better. What a better way to meet an artist whose work you’re interested in than to sit and have a coffee with them? We noticed in Wilkes-Barre that the customers really enjoy speaking to the artists on duty and will generally buy one of their pieces after meeting them.

Contact: Kim Kulagina or Tamara Pilger

Address: 534 Lackawanna Ave, Scranton PA 18503

Phone: (570) 468-0491

Email: artsseengalleryandcafe@aol.com

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