Why Serendipity at The Arts Company? A Call to Expect the Unexpected

The real question is what took us so long? Serendipity pretty well defines the personality of our gallery. In the early years, we used to hear the phrase "always the unexpected fun part." Now we have come to think of the way we select and present artists and artwork as a deliberate act of serendipity--namely, finding neat and interesting art and placing other neat and interesting pieces around it to create a comfortable and welcoming environment. For sure, it's an unpredictable way to approach art--finding something really interesting, something unexpected that you hadn't thought of before. Then suddenly, you couldn't stop thinking about it.

For our gallery, context is of equal importance to the art. We want the art and the setting to disarm you and get you comfortable with seeing art in different contexts. That's always seemed important to us, because few of us live in white wall gallery environments at home. Our idea is to engage you with adventure and discovery in ways you haven't thought of art before. Often, this gives you new ideas about how to make art part of your own environment, to begin making your own new connections.

Right now, our Summer of Classic Serendipity at The Arts Company is an experiment in its own right. We are taking our little bizarre idea one step further. We are setting various spaces throughout the gallery as small tableaux or sets that feature a mix of art, furniture, decor, books, music, and whatever else we think fits the particular scenario. Our goal is catch our guests off-guard, to make you want to sit a minute in a particular environment just to try it on for a minute, to see the many ways art can fit into your work or living space.

It's all about welcoming guests into our sense of serendipitous adventure, which is what we think art can be at its best and most personal. We love taking this new approach in our gallery, but that's still not enough. Very soon, we will present our online version of this same kind of art adventure. Stay tuned for that.

Who knows where these new serendipitous adventures will take us?

A Summer of Classic Serendipity begins
at The Arts Company
Saturday, July 2, 6-9 pm
Continues through August 20


www.theartscompany.com