Portrait of perseverance
By Brandon Griggs
The Salt Lake Tribune
Published October 14, 2007 12:00 am
On Dec. 3, 1982, Linda Southam, a recently divorced single mother, opened her own art gallery in downtown Salt Lake City. From the beginning, it was a family operation.
"We still laugh about the opening night," says her daughter, Kim Southam. "My mother was pulling curlers out of her hair in the bathroom while getting ready, and at the same time grabbed me, a shy 11-year-old, and told me to go out and greet the customers."
Twenty-five years later, the gallery is still in business. Southam Gallery will celebrate this milestone with a 25th-anniversary group show, opening with a reception Friday from 5:30 to 9 p.m. at 50 E. Broadway - the only address it has ever had.
The show will feature works by 27 artists, including several - John Jarvis, Elva Malin, Steve McGinty, John Myrup, J. Ken Spencer and L'Deane Trueblood - who have been with the gallery since the beginning.
A traditional gallery in a state with traditional art tastes, Southam has endured by specializing in mostly realistic landscape paintings, still lifes and portraits. The Southams have kept costs down - in a quarter-century Linda and Kim, now the co-owner, have been the only full-time employees - and survived in spite of a lonely location on a near-deserted retail block.
Linda Southam launched the business after studying art at several Utah universities and working for two other galleries. She believes her art background, and a talent for making sales, helped her succeed where many other galleries failed.
"I feel fortunate to have started when I did," she says, referring to escalating rents and insurance costs. "Because for a person to start a gallery now, you need a lot of money."
Linda Southam is in the process of turning the business over to Kim, who will run it after her mother retires. In her spare time, Linda hopes to paint. So has she ever sold any of her own paintings in the gallery?
"Not yet," she says. "I'm pretty critical of my own work. It's never been quite good enough.
But, she hopes, someday it will.
By Brandon Griggs
The Salt Lake Tribune
Published October 14, 2007 12:00 am
On Dec. 3, 1982, Linda Southam, a recently divorced single mother, opened her own art gallery in downtown Salt Lake City. From the beginning, it was a family operation.
"We still laugh about the opening night," says her daughter, Kim Southam. "My mother was pulling curlers out of her hair in the bathroom while getting ready, and at the same time grabbed me, a shy 11-year-old, and told me to go out and greet the customers."
Twenty-five years later, the gallery is still in business. Southam Gallery will celebrate this milestone with a 25th-anniversary group show, opening with a reception Friday from 5:30 to 9 p.m. at 50 E. Broadway - the only address it has ever had.
The show will feature works by 27 artists, including several - John Jarvis, Elva Malin, Steve McGinty, John Myrup, J. Ken Spencer and L'Deane Trueblood - who have been with the gallery since the beginning.
A traditional gallery in a state with traditional art tastes, Southam has endured by specializing in mostly realistic landscape paintings, still lifes and portraits. The Southams have kept costs down - in a quarter-century Linda and Kim, now the co-owner, have been the only full-time employees - and survived in spite of a lonely location on a near-deserted retail block.
Linda Southam launched the business after studying art at several Utah universities and working for two other galleries. She believes her art background, and a talent for making sales, helped her succeed where many other galleries failed.
"I feel fortunate to have started when I did," she says, referring to escalating rents and insurance costs. "Because for a person to start a gallery now, you need a lot of money."
Linda Southam is in the process of turning the business over to Kim, who will run it after her mother retires. In her spare time, Linda hopes to paint. So has she ever sold any of her own paintings in the gallery?
"Not yet," she says. "I'm pretty critical of my own work. It's never been quite good enough.
But, she hopes, someday it will.