716: Fine Art

Gallery will re-open in Racine this September
by Bill Robbins
from Kenosha News | Saturday, July 21, 2007
photo by Sean Krajacic

After 18 months in one downtown, a Kenosha art gallery is pulling up stakes and moving to another.

Operators of the 716: Fine Art gallery at 716 58th St. have closed their doors and plan to re-open in September in a space at 401 Main st. in Racine.

“We’ve had a tremendous amount of support from people who came to the gallery,” said David Geisler, 26, executive artistic director and owner of the business, which leased the Kenosha space.

“We’ve had some loyal patrons who bought some pretty expensive artwork,” he said. “It’s just that, as a whole, the city recognizing us wasn’t happening.”

The gallery specializes in high-end, more urban and abstract art that averages $1,000 a piece and up. The intention was to appeal to serious art enthusiasts and, to some extent, the gallery succeeded. Often, one sale practically paid a month’s rent.

But sales have virtually evaporated in recent months, and that’s a big reason for the move. Also, the gallery already represents a number of Racine artists, so the relocation there made sense.

“We’ve had some positive and beautiful experiences here,” said Geisler, who will continue to live in Kenosha. “Unfortunatley, as far as the numbers go – having a massive amount of traffic in here – it’ didn’t work out.”

The location of the now-shuttered gallery, along a downtown sidestreet, didn’t help.

Said the gallery’s artistic coordinator Michael Lynch, 23: “If we were on Highway 50 we probably would have done better.”

Racine has a more established art scene, and that’s a major reason for going there, Geisler said.

In fact, downtown racine is home to a dozen or so galleries. geisler sees that as an opportunity and not a competition liability.

“A gallery has only 50 or so pieces up at a time,” said Geisler.

“People who like to purchase art often make an afternoon of it, shop around, if you will,” he said. It’s very possible none of those 50 pieces grabs you. So you go from gallery A to gallery B. One day gallery A will make the sale, and the next day gallery B will make the sale.”

Collectively, the galleries can succeed, he said.

“We want to take the energy that we have here and mix that with the energy that’s already there,” he said.

Lynch said Kenosha has a distance to go before, as a community, it embraces the abstract art world.

“I don’t think people have an understanding of how we need to approach art in Kenosha yet,” he said. “There is a small (art) community that, for lack of a better phrase, gets it. The rest of the community is like, ‘I don’t know, art seems kind of scary.’”

Said Geisler: “People need to feel that art art can survive here before it will survive here. People still seem very hesitant about art.”

With 1,800-square-feet of gallery space, the new, leased location is slightly larger than the Kenosha site, and it’s situated on downtown Racine’s main thoroughfare. The name of the gallery won’t change.

“716: Fine Art has become an entity of it’s own,” Geisler said.

Artists from both Kenosha and Racine will continue to be showcased.

Concerts and performance-art shows, which became a primary source of revenue for the gallery over the last six months, will continue in Racine, Geisler said.

“We want to be an outlet for original artists in all forms,” he said. “So during the day it’s art on the walls, and in the evenings it’s musicians or dancers or actors. The focus is on original art.”