Boston Contemporary Group forms

A new gallery coalition, the Boston Contemporay Group, has formed. As I write in this week’s Boston Phoenix:

After a brutal spring in which each week seemed to bring the depressing news of another Boston art outlet shuttering, a new consortium of galleries announced its formation with the launch of a Web site this past week. It was a quiet but clear signal of an effort to jumpstart the local scene.

The straightforwardly named Boston Contemporary Group aims “to support an environment in Boston for critically relevant contemporary art.” Just what that means is under discussion, but the group hopes to cultivate new clients, generate excitement about art, spur dialogue, and bring in much-needed revenue.

Read the rest here.

The charter members are LaMontagne Gallery, Proof Gallery, Samson Projects, and Steven Zevitas/OSP Gallery, all based in Boston.

Arthur Dion, the director of Gallery NAGA and president of the Boston Art Dealers Association since its founding in 1989, says of the new group, “It’s wonderful. And it’s an expression of growth and vitality in the Boston art ecosystem.”

“It’s like when the ABA developed to expand professional basketball beyond the NBA,” Dion added. “Look what happened: we got Dr. J. These are talented young guys. It should be good for the community. They’ve got energy. How small can the scene be if we’ve got a proliferation of professional associations. That’s fabulous.”

This fall, BADA plans to publish and distribute its second map of Boston-area galleries. And it continues to offer its Paine Scholarship to local art school students (three $4,000 grants and up to five $500 grants annually). This year's winners will be invited to exhibit at New England School of Art & Design at Suffolk University in Boston.