Gallery Director

A Gallery Director decides what art the gallery will display, and takes care of the gallery’s behind the scenes business. This means when you’re a Gallery Director, a typical day might find you contacting past clients to let them know about a new show, selling art, coming up with a marketing plan for an upcoming show and creating a budget for next years expenses. These duties overlap with those of a Gallery Owner, so will shift depending on how hands-on (or hands-off) the Owner wants to be in the daily business.

Parts of a Gallery Director’s job are as awesome as you imagine. You keep your finger on the pulse of the art world in order to find new Artists who will fit the personality of your gallery. You work with Artists and other Gallery Owners to negotiate the best shows for your space, and bring in exhibits that interest the biggest group of your clients.

But its not all glamor, as in this job there is no such thing as a job that is below you or not your responsibility. You are literally the one in charge of everything at your gallery. This means you might find yourself answering phone calls and doing data entry or updating the website and keeping records of sales.

So get excited to do some really cool art world things, like throwing opening night parties, meeting the latest and greatest Artists…make sure the gallery gets cleaned, and the lights focusing on that new artwork are working correctly.