Save ARC Gallery

Patricia Otto is tired. As president of ARC Gallery, which has promoted women artists since 1973, she’s “really facing burnout,” she says. No one could blame her: The artist-run River West nonprofit ought to have about eight more members. But for now, Otto and only 11 other women manage all marketing, grant writing, show installations and “gallery-sitting”—all on a volunteer basis.

Otto guesses that ARC Gallery’s $70 monthly dues (which garner members solo shows every 18 months) deter more women from joining. Nonmembers find it “cheaper to just send in a proposal” for a show and, if it’s accepted, to rent exhibition space from the gallery, she laments.

Some relief has arrived from the Chicago Community Foundation. It gave ARC Gallery an Arts Work Fund grant to hire a consultant, who’s identifying “different ways of generating income,” explains Otto. “It would be sad if we had to go under, because we’re so grassroots that we don’t know how to survive in a more businesslike manner.”

ARC Gallery (832 W Superior St, no. 204, arcgallery.org) kicks off two new exhibitions on Friday 29.

NEXT>>