(Photo courtesy of Red Chair Gallery)
The Red Chair Gallery, located in Downtown Bend on Northwest Oregon Avenue, is celebrating their 15th year of business, and being part of the Bend community. The gallery is owned and managed by Rita Dunlavy, a tile and mosaic artist, herself.
Rita recounted the story of how the Red Chair Gallery was founded, talking about how a group of artists who had lost their display space at Mirror Pond Gallery, and brainstormed the idea of starting a new gallery. “A couple of the artists in that group knew me as an instructor at the Art Station who was also retired from public accounting and thought I might be able to give a little guidance about how the structure might work,” she said. “They seemed dedicated to having a home for emerging artists and I didn’t have to think too long about it.”
Rita and the group of artists came across an address, the current one they use today, and decided it would be perfect; huge glass windows and a very tall ceiling make it ideal to display art of any shape or size. “If a small group of artists were willing to invest their own money and time, it would be worth trying to build it,” Rita said. “There were originally six partners, including myself. We all put in the cash to do the build outs and everyone took responsibility for the business tasks that most suited each of us.”
Overtime, the artists learned that pursuing their art career and running their business-oriented role in the gallery was difficult, so they eventually went back to full time art, allowing Rita to run the gallery solely. “It was difficult when a partner left but it happened over several years,” she said. “They all left their mark and had an impact on where we are today.”
Today, the gallery hosts a wide variety of artistic mediums, including ceramics, painting, photography, encaustic work, glass and mosaics, fiber and woodworking, jewelry and more.
The gallery opened in August of 2010, still feeling the effects of the recession. Rita said that, despite the economic situation and some early struggles, the feedback from the community was very positive.
When asked about how the gallery has supported artists throughout the years, Rita spoke on the spirit of camaraderie at Red Chair. “We have approximately 30 artists in the Red Chair Gallery,” she said. “I am pretty sure each and everyone here knows everyone. We are a pretty personable family oriented Red Chair community. It is nothing like it might be in a company you work for. They cover for each other in emergencies, they meet for meals and some even travel together. I never experienced that kind of camaraderie in all my working life until the Red Chair Gallery.”
Looking back over the years, Rita has learned quite a bit about how to effectively run an art gallery, “Over time, we have tightened up many procedures and training times, adjusted artwork inventory to address the seasons and made strict policies for times when something as bad as COVID shows up,” she said. “If downtown activity affects our sales at any given time, we do not compete with that; we just shorten our hours.”
Another lesson comes in understanding what the community, both tourists and locals, actually want to buy. While summer profits are bolstered by visitors to the area, locals make up year round sales. A key to success comes in adjusting your offerings to reflect what those locals want to buy. This includes selling a variety of painting and artwork sizes, allowing for easier travel back home, either in a car or packed in luggage for a flight. Also, the gallery doubled their number of active jewelers in order to provide more options for smaller gifts.
Reflecting on that success, Rita is very grateful for the lessons learned, and the continual support from the Bend community, “I am very happy that we have reached our 15th year. It sort of snuck up on us. I would like to think we will be here to celebrate our 20th. A large percentage of our artists have been with us since the first day,” she said.
Her last message to Bend is simply, “Thank you for everything,” as she plans the future of the gallery, with hopes of maintaining their current business model and contributing to the culture of this community.