City galleries are creating their own monthly buzz

ON DISPLAY: Gallery Z is one of the Providence galleries that have opened their doors for Gallery night to promote themselves. /
ON DISPLAY: Gallery Z is one of the Providence galleries that have opened their doors for Gallery night to promote themselves. /

Already famous for fine restaurants and an ambience reminiscent of a small city in Italy, Federal Hill in Providence is rapidly acquiring another reputation – and no, it has nothing to do with mobsters. It is becoming a destination for those seeking to admire and acquire fine art.
Actually, Providence itself is a mecca for artists and art enthusiasts, as evidenced by the popularity of Gallery Night Providence. For one evening each month – from March through November – more than 20 art galleries throughout the capital city open for free to browsers, buyers and the simply curious. Organizers say about 2,000 people generally attend. Five galleries on Federal Hill took part in the 2008 season of Gallery Night.
“You can’t get any better than this,” said Chris Chabot, who with her husband Lee Chabot, owns and operates Chabot Fine Art Gallery at 379 Atwells Ave., which opened in June. “We’ve got great food, great wine and great art,” she said of Federal Hill. “It’s like a mini Santa Fe.”
Berge Ara Zobian, a photographer who owns and operates Gallery Z at 259 Atwells Ave., prefers to compare Federal Hill to the Soho area of New York City during its artistic heyday about three decades ago when hundreds of galleries were located there. “I grew up in New York City in the 1960s and 1970s, when Soho wasn’t even Soho yet,” Zobian said. “It has always been my dream to bring that here, and it’s happening.”
He moved his gallery to Atwells Avenue nearly five years ago – the first on Federal Hill, he said – and since then has convinced at least two other galleries to join him in the neighborhood. Today, there are five that make up the “Art on the Hill” group: Gallery Z, Chabot Fine Art Gallery, the Royal Gallery, Gallery 17 Peck, and Gallery Belleau II or Bello Vetro, all located on Atwells Avenue within walking distance of each other. The five are chipping in to begin an “Art on the Hill” radio advertising campaign this month, Chabot said.
“That’s really why we moved in here,” she said of the proximity of other galleries. “There’s more power in numbers.” Owners of the five galleries “work well together, that’s the nicest part,” Chabot said. “We’re all in the same business, but we’re each unique and we have different styles. I think we really complement each other.”
Gallery Night throughout Providence started about 12 years ago, opening member galleries for free one night each month for 11 months of the year and offering visitors free parking with trolley rides from one location to the other. At approximately $400 each, the cost of running 8 to 10 privately owned trolleys each month became prohibitive, Zobian said. Now, school buses are leased at roughly half the cost, and Gallery Night runs just nine months, on the third Thursday of each month.
“We are, as far as I know, the only Gallery Night in the country with free transportation,” said Paula Martiesian, who co-chairs the event with Zobian. Participating galleries are sprinkled throughout the city – “from Mount Pleasant to Allens Avenue,” she said – in four major areas: downtown, East Side, Wickenden, and the West Side, which includes Federal Hill as well as galleries at Providence College and Rhode Island College.
Gallery Night operates with an annual budget of approximately $50,000, drawn from grants, sponsorships and annual fees for gallery membership ranging from $250 to $750, according to Martiesian. She and Zobian expect Gallery Night will return in March for another season.
Although Gallery Night regularly draws tourists, organizers say the ultimate goal of the event is not necessarily to make money for the galleries. “I, personally, don’t rely on Gallery Night for sales, it’s foundation, it’s a buzz,” Zobian said.
We can’t guarantee that people will be buying and selling, only that more people will know about your gallery than before.” &#8226&#8226

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