The site of the premise, the vision of its directors and the appropriateness of the exhibition's program to the fulfillment of its objectives, are factors contributing to a gallery’s critical and/or financial success.

This column will sometimes be concerned with the physical position of a gallery, because as a real estate agent would stress ‘Location! Location! Location!’ is a prime consideration when choosing a dwelling or a place for business. Alternatively, it will introduce the reader to a manager of a commercial or non-profit exhibition space who will reveal the behind-closed-doors-thinking that occurs when shows are conceived and when artists are added to a gallery’s stable.

Running any kind of gallery is more than a job, it’s a 24-7 vocation. Since a commercial art venue’s rent can be five figures a month and must be covered before any other expenses are paid, the dealer must have an excellent strategy and high energy. A non-profit gallery director and board must continue to satisfy its funder’s expectations or risk becoming a footnote in art history.

In the next issue of Preview, the roster of galleries that have occupied the early-century rooming house at 555 Hamilton Street in Vancouver will be chronicled. This issue’s visual is Susan Edelstein’s The Ivory Soap installation that existed for a few weeks when it was part of The Spectacular State exhibit that presented artists’ views about fascism in several local spaces. The art piece was set in the window of the Access Gallery on West Hastings Street, a gallery now located at 206 Carrall Street.

Edelstein, who was then director of Artspeak, soon became the curator of the Kamloops Art Gallery and now lives in Ontario. The Ivory Soap, (replete with shower curtain, basin, ewer and a stack of soap) installation is gone and both Artspeak and Susan have moved, proving that in the art world it is not always true that “the more things change, the more they remain the same.”