Julie Adair
Google
To be avoided! We were sadly mistreated here. I have been visiting this gallery over the last 10 years. Last weekend, my friend and I were with my daughter and four of her friends for her 15th birthday and decided to pay the gallery a quick visit before our dinner reservations. Our group had an appreciation of the paintings there, so out came the phones for the obligatory teen selfies. As we were walking around looking at the artwork, a woman came out and told them that they couldn't "jump around" the paintings as if they had been acting like toddlers. My daughter and her friends are cultured young ladies who are in audition-only dance, theater and vocal performance groups, so they were shocked to be confronted in such an accusatory way. Immediately following this, a man came out and lectured them for taking selfies with the paintings rather than letting us know that they have a gallery rule for no photography, which would have been a simple, instantly respected request. Instead, he went into a lengthy stream-of-consciousness rant (think James Joyce trying to be lucid) and stated with great relish that these artists (who let's face it, would actually be thrilled to know that someone had finally ventured into the gallery that day to appreciate their work) had "worked their entire lives to bring this artwork to fruition only to have it defamed by (the girls) treating it as if it were graffiti by taking selfies with it which is disrespectful of their life's work." He then said to them, "How would you feel if some kids were just taking selfies with your art that you worked your whole life on as if it were just some backdrop for a photo...?" He was shifting from beratement to harassment. He wasn't even close to being done playing cat and mouse, so before he could continue, I said, "Well then, we'll be off..." and the girls followed me out. So, to this confrontational man at the gallery, I would like to say that photography is allowed in some galleries and is not in others, therefore I kindly suggest that you indicate this through a sign on the door or a verbal request, but not an after-the-fact lecture aimed at bringing people down to your level of (dare I say, clinical) misery. I should add that I am more than happy writing this to hang on your "gallery wall".