About ASAP Gallery

I'm Lewis Matheney, and I'm starting ASAP Gallery to support ASAP Support Group. ASAP Gallery, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit, is opening in early Summer 2025. Artists may join ASAP Gallery as members for a tax-deductible fee, and have a place to show their art year-round, as well as being members in ASAP Support Group. ASAP stands for Artists Supporting Artists' Priorities, and ASAP Gallery is opening to support ASAP artists. Here are images of one of the ground floor storefronts we've looked at for placement of the gallery.
Present space in top photo, looking from back of space to front. Bottom photo is same space with projected dual track lights, projection of art placement, and one of two mobile walls (with stripes) which run parallel to long walls, and provide a total of four display walls, each 4 ft wide x 8 ft high.
Present space in top photo, looking from front of space to back. Bottom photo is 7 ft. wide x 3 ft. deep stage in front window, suitable for singer/songwriter nights, musical performers, staged readings of plays & screenplays, spoken word and poetry nights (all unamplified and subject to reasonable volume limits). Projected ASAP sign added to photo.
Below is a working floor plan for the space we're currently considering to be ASAP Gallery, along with information about the size spaces available for each artist to use. Starting rates are as follows: $225/month for 3 ft wide spaces $250/month for 4 ft wide spaces $275/month for 5 ft wide spaces Discounts available if an artist wants to pay for 3 months, 6 months, or 1 year in advance.
One of the primary benefits to joining ASAP and having a space in this gallery is that it is a gallery of all mutually supportive artists: ASAP is Artists Supporting Artists' Priorities. Click here for full info on how the original version of the ASAP Support Group functioned: It included grass roots mutual promotion, and all artists bartering skills, abilities, and labor for each other's events, and, at the time, mutual promotion of each other's dot coms. With the 2025 version, ASAP members will be involved in most of those same activities, but with one major advantage: Social Media. ASAP members will commit to sharing a certain number of each other's social media posts monthly. The potential for creating a following and/or creating a viral sensation becomes exponential when multiplying a minimum of 20 artists sharing 20 other artists' social media posts. We'll have a predetermined rate of total number of shares per month, so that we don't oversaturate, but rather create a palpable buzz. Artists are encouraged to sell art in the gallery, and rotate in and out as many pieces as they want (and are able to sell) during their membership periods. I'm Lewis Matheney, the gallery owner, and I don't take one dollar of any artist's sales. I'm also an advocate of mutual support among all local businesses in the neighborhood, and create events that allow us to collaborate with them for mutual support and promotion. I've been a planner of events big and small, along with curator of exhibits big and small in NYC and throughout the metro region. I'll be creating events for ASAP Gallery that will have the gallery known as a center for cultural and community activities while remaining intimate and unique. A few examples of events: □ Vinyl Record Album Listening Parties □ Vintage Clothing Mini-Fashion Shows Featuring clothes from vintage clothing stores in the neighborhood □ Poetry Reading Nights □ Singer/Songwriter Nights □ Pet Adoptions Days (inside and outside the gallery) □ Vintage Video Night I'll help curate video not available for streaming that members and the public may bring in, for which I'll provide vintage equipment for playing: 8 and 16MM, VHS, DVD, and Laserdisc I just moved back to NYC full-time after living for appr. 4 years in my hometown in TN where I opened and ran an art gallery which I gave to local artists free of use and for which I didn't take any cut of their sales. Click here for more info on that gallery. Click here for more info on me and my art.