By M.Sebastian Araujo

Original Art by Liz Carney

Ever wonder what was it like to have an Art Gallery in Provincetown? As the Summer faded into a warm memory, I had a chat with Liz Carney. Founder of one of the coolest galleries in town,Gallery 411! Not only is she an entrepreneur but an artist as well…

What is it like to have a Gallery in Ptown?

  I only opened Four Eleven Gallery in 2011 and I have no prior experience owning a gallery with which to compare.  But I’ve been told if I could open a gallery in the midst of a recession and keep my head above water, even if just barely breaking even, then it would be ok.  I’m holding on to the life-raft of those words some days!  And I can say that in our fifth season we are seeing the benefits of just keeping the doors open and doing our best. That consistency is paying off.  Trusting myself is paying off. This year I’v also loosened the reigns enough to trust a full time employee and have hired Matthew Capaldo.  Matthew is an artist represented by Four Eleven whom I met through a mutual friend the year I opened. I went on a studio visit and knew immediately he had something important to say in his paintings and have shown his work since day one. Now Matthew is our Managing Director and he’s meticulous and incredibly conscientious (as are his paintings) and our energies balance beautifully! ( See more about Matthew here: https://www.visit-provincetown.com/speaking-of-art-with-matthew-capaldo) This makes it possible for me to also continue my work as an art educator in Boston where I am the Executive Director of a children’s art program in Dorchester called Dot Art (Dot is short for Dorchester amongst Bostonians who know the neighborhoods).  So I’m dividing my time for the past three years between Boston and Provincetown.  Each year I’ve felt the economy is picking up at the pace that we, myself and the gallery’s growing family of artists, interns and employees, are understanding who we are an what we want this gallery to be. The timing just feels right.  Many people say that Four Eleven has a feeling of “Old Provincetown” and that pleases me so much!  It’s the highest compliment I think.  I know we are doing our job to preserve something that matters.  There are times I think we are one of the least commercial galleries on Commercial Street because we are in it for something way beyond sales and marketing and that slick business world mentality.  There’s a commodity of love that is inherent in art…embedded and ineffable in the hand made, human mark and channeling of something we’re losing as a culture.  I feel Provincetown has always been that kind of town, one where people sometimes paid their rent in paintings, or fishermen shared their catch with a family in need. Ours is town made stronger by the tragic reality of people nursing their best friends and lovers through the AIDS pandemic.  Provincetown has something to share with the world, and this gallery is just a tiny microcosm of that.  In fact, Four Eleven would not exist if it were not for the fact that I’m renting the space from my mother Madelyn Carney, who has owned the house in which the gallery exists for almost 40 years and she has rented apartments to dozens of artists and poets and playwrights in town such as painter John Dowd, playwright Ryan Landry, performance artist Dina Martina, artist Richard DeQuattro, poets Paul Lisicky and Candace Reefe just to name a few P-town folk! My mother went to Mass Art on a full scholarship in the 50’s and she herself really gets the struggle and she has lived in such a way that our entire family lives and breathes art, music, writing…and of course hard work.  One could say Madelyn Carney is really the mastermind behind this whole gallery.  She is 85 and still painting and her new works are on view at the gallery as well!  Here’s to Madelyn!

Do you think being an Artist has an affect on your choices as a Gallery Owner?

Absolutely.  As an artist I know what it’s like to give 50% to the gallery and so I am proud to say we have never ever had to ask artists to wait to get paid!!!  But seriously, it’s so incredibly hard to get one’s work out there and take the risk of making art without any “payoff” or blueprint for “success” and I respect people who paint in a way that the work is their compass. One can see it in the paintings when the work itself is the teacher and I feel that as an artists I can understand that. I get it. I love all the artists that show at Four Eleven and feel so incredibly blessed by the conversations we have.  Currently Four Eleven Gallery represents Helen Grimm, Brigid Watson, Matthew Capaldo, Janine Evers, Pete Hocking, Cheryl Robinson, Craig Hunter, John Irwin, Craig Hunter, myself and my mother as well as some works by a few of my seven sisters!

What is your criteria when choosing an artist?

I’m looking for work that communicates a strong understanding of composition, a love of the medium of paint and a relevance to Provincetown as the oldest continuous art colony in the country.  As cliche as it sounds, I know it when I see it.

 What prompts people to collect Art?

 Love. And a sense of being at the races and betting on an artist’s career…so a little bit of obsession I guess too!  And in a community like Provincetown I think that collecting art is also about keeping what people love so much about this community alive.  It’s an act of responsibility to our town which is built on an arts based tourism economy. Personally, at a time when life is so virtual and people are isolated with hundreds of “friends,” collecting art and being part of this art community here is a way of keeping connected!  Really, collecting art for many of us is a way of life and hopefully our gallery encourages that. It’s possible to build a collection with a lot of money…trading or only buying small works…but it’s possible and feels rich in ways money can’t ever buy.

  What made you decide to open a Gallery?

Well, about 13 years ago I was creating a curriculum for teenagers in Arts Entrepreneurship. I got trained by the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship at Babson Business School on the premise that we could reach teenagers who were from tough economic circumstances by teaching business skills and empowering them with the vocabulary of free enterprise. I realized I needed to practice what I preached a bit and take some risks with my own career.  Later, when I lost my husband  to cancer in 2007, I realized I had been through the hardest thing this life could ever hand me and so why not just dive in, why not just live with a little more faith and a little less fear.  My late husband Paul Hansen was a brilliant computer programmer and visual artist who loved Provincetown and whom I met here. He and I even talked briefly about making a gallery in this space once. Anyway, back to business…I know from teaching kids about start-ups that entrepreneurs find their financing in a myriad of creative ways, and the best capital is that of life experience, passion and drive. Since I’ve painted here and exhibited seriously since 1995 I feel I know a good bit about Provincetown as an art community and have something to share.

What is it about Provincetown that continues to attract creative people.

The fragile nature of this landscape, the instability of it’s environment, the challenge to exist here in winter and the intensity of summer, I think these are part of what attracts people. But some of it is random. Like the fact that the Portland Gale in 1898 wiped out many wharves and in a sense cleared space in the town for an emerging arts and tourism economy (an interpretation I learned recently from Pete Hocking, one of our gallery artists), or that the First World War made it hard for students of Impressionism to study in Paris so they came here.  Random acts of nature and human history are collaborating on this fine work of art called Provincetown.

How good it is to see  the Vitality and Creativity of Ptown which is world famous, still homegrown  in this crooked crazy quilt of a town perched out on the farthest point of the know world (OK, I am getting a bit dramatic), my cap is my hand to Liz for helping to keep the creative vibes ebbing and flowing.

Bravo!

Keep making Art this World needs more Art!

For About Gallery 411 Have a Peek Here:

http://www.fourelevengallery.com/