Uxbridge Community Gallery
OS/BC Guidelines
5 South Main Street, Uxbridge MA
Mission:
The Open Sky / Blackstone Valley Art Association Collaboration, or OS/BC, exists to best utilize the 5 South Main Street, Uxbridge location during its non-Open Sky hours. We strive to benefit artists, the Open Sky individuals served, and the greater Uxbridge community as a whole.
OS/BC:
The OS/BC is made up of Open Sky staff, the BVAA, and Open Sky individuals served. The OS/BC brainstorms about ways to better fulfill the OS/BC mission.
Gallery Activities:
The gallery will strive to hold art shows, seminars, workshops, classes, and other activities which encourage creativity in a variety of ways. While some activities could be for a fee and others might be for BVAA members only, overall there should be free, open offerings which all can partake in. We should actively encourage all levels of ability, all backgrounds, all abilities, all genders, all races to join us.
Open Sky’s insurance policy covers any activities of the Blackstone Valley Art Association and the OS/BC mission in this space.
Finances:
The OS/BC use of this Uxbridge gallery is rent-free.
Artwork: sales of art hanging for an official gallery show or a featured artist show has a 25% commission. This includes bin art. The artist keeps 75% while the 25% goes into the OS/BC funds.
Vendor: sales of small vendor-type items such as mugs, jewelry, books, and the like in the display cases has a 15% commission. The artist keeps 85% while 15% goes into the OS/BC funds.
Notecards: sales of notecards have a 10% commission. The artist keeps 90% while 10% goes into the OS/BC funds.
Courses / Workshops: payments for course or workshop fees have a 10% commission, which may be waived by the OS/BC if deemed appropriate. These fees could cover an instructor’s fees, the material fees, or both.
Gallery-promoting merchandise: sales of logo merchandise meant to promote Open Sky, the BVAA, or the gallery is sold without commission.
The goal of the gallery is for it to be self-sufficient. Money brought in from artwork sales commissions and activity fee commissions should then pay for the food, wine, and supplies used at gallery receptions and activities.
The OS/BC will also strive to apply for sponsors and grants to assist our finances.
Gallery Management:
There are two keys to access the gallery. These can be lent out, with training, to qualified members of the BVAA community who need to teach or work in the gallery.
The gallery should always be reset into its proper configuration before it is left.
Any displays (bin art, etc.) in the front area need to be kept on the periphery of the area and be safe.
The OS/BC team should hold quarterly meetings, maybe virtually for ease, in order to plan future improvements.
…
These guidelines were first created on March 6, 2018 with coordination by Alternatives and the Blackstone Valley Art Association. The language has been gently tweaked over the years. For example, Alternatives became part of Open Sky. We adopted the updated language of clients -> individuals served. We stopped using the back Conference Room for our library area. And so on.