&gallery Carnival Fundraiser

Hi, I'm Sean Paul.

I've been lending what extra hands I've got at &gallery since it's humble beginning in 2018 back when it was located on Grant and Stone. I have gotten the pleasure of seeing how the gallery has grown, built a wonderful community, helped artists, and given back over the years. I still have trouble putting into words what the gallery is, so I always just say "It is a really cool weird local gallery", an understatement, but if you've ever been in you know what it is all about! If you haven't been in, you should give it a visit!

Unfortunately, &gallery has fallen on hard financial times. Myself and a ton of other amazing people are coming together to throw a Carnival event November 11th to fundraise to ensure &gallery can keep its doors open.

Below are the words of Cynthia, the Owner and Gallery Curator of &gallery:

I’m going to speak about &gallery. In order to speak about it, I have to break it into two parts: the passion side, and the business side. 

The Passion:

I love Tucson’s art community and I have witnessed firsthand the what happens when you nurture our community. What happens when you give it a space, uplift artists rather than feed a competitive environment, curate and theme art shows, and give them a retail outlet and opportunity to sell their work, making actual income. The best part of &gallery is I didn’t have to look hard at all to find artists to fill the gallery and retail space. It told me our community NEEDS this and I have been doing my absolute best to make you all proud. This spirit of &gallery is thanks to all of you, the artists, the collectors, supporters, and friends. 

The Business:

&gallery is a small business. Many times people assume otherwise. In the past I’ve had had a staff of 2-4 people assisting in running the gallery. They helped with daily store maintenance, customer service, marketing and social media, communication with artists, curating art shows, event coordination, including events that take place outside of the gallery (conventions and markets), creating merchandise, doing payroll, taxes, and many more things. Since August, the gallery’s staffing has been reduced from 3 employees to just one, and that single employee is me. That reduction in staff had to happen because the gallery has taken HUGE financial hits, from theft(thousands of dollars), incredibly slow summer sales which much of Tucson has been struggling with, paying back loans, not to mention my personal life taking a dramatic change, and a long list of other things. I do not say this lightly, but I’ve had the hardest year of my life in every aspect. &gallery will not make it if things continue the way they are.

&gallery needs help. We want to recover, and keep our doors open for the wonderful local Tucson community.

&gallery has always been for the community. Everyone that has ever been involved with &gallery knows the importance of the gallery, and the importance of uplifting each other. Personally, I know I’m really bad at accepting help, and at times, even the praise. I know this is something that I have to be very conscious of, because I really am truly grateful for all the support and love the gallery and I receive. With that, I have accepted the help of my wonderful friends and community to put together a fundraiser for &gallery! 

Nov. 11th at &gallery, be ready for a carnival themed fundraiser! It will include an art auction, booths, games, and more fun! 

The event will be all ages from 7pm to 9pm, then from 9pm to 11pm, in true &gallery fashion, we will switch into an AFTER HOURS event, complete with cake sitting!

I cannot thank you all enough in advance for your support, and look forward to seeing you all there! (I hope you are looking forward to me sitting on a cake!)