See Saw Art is a gallery located on 66 Hanover Street, Suite 201, here in Manchester! They’ll be celebrating their 2nd Anniversary in September. The gallery has a very cozy and welcoming atmosphere, and they host monthly exhibitions, so you’ll never know what you will find when you visit! I interviewed the owner, Amy Regan, about the gallery, and here’s what she told me!
See Saw Art hosts invitational and open call exhibitions. Invitational exhibitions are when the curator reaches out to different artists and invites them to have their work presented. Typically, the art has a similar theme, color, or just an overall feel that the pieces share. Open call exhibitions are when any artist’s work, of any art style, theme, color, or feel, are presented together.
Current Exhibition
The current exhibition, Group Effort, is an open call exhibition. The artists range from different levels of experience and different places in the world. There are artists who just graduated, artists that have never been in a show or exhibition, artists who are extremely experienced and have been in countless shows, and even the owner’s professor has some pieces in the show!
There are people from the Netherlands, Georgia, Maine, as well as many local artists. Amy Regan basically goes shopping for artists, reaching out and finding different artists who she would like to work with.
This show is a “pay what you can”. Many galleries charge over $50 to have your work shown, but Amy wanted it to be very accessible, so students could show off their work as well as experienced artists.
Now you may be wondering, since there are so many different and unique pieces in this show, how was she able to make everything look nice next to each other? Well, Amy wanted this show to represent a “breadth of work” with a large variety of art styles and themes. She is excited about exhibiting pieces that the artists themselves are excited about! Some galleries categorize what art will be in a show, but she wanted it to be full of variety and able to bring people together with it since there are many different art styles and people from all over the world.
Art Curator since 2007 Manchester Gallery since 2022
Amy has been working in art curation since 2007. She helped run and is a co-founder of the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts and she still runs exhibitions there. When she hit the 10 year mark in working there, she decided that she wanted to own her own gallery in a more commercial area. Looking for a new city, new people, and a place where she could see and express new ideas, she chose Manchester as the best place for this new gallery.
Selling the art is an important part of running the gallery, but it is not the ultimate goal. She wanted the gallery to be sustainable and able to thrive and didn’t want it to be like a museum where the work is only displayed and not sold. The goal at See-Saw Gallery is to show off the artist’s work whether it’s for the first time or the tenth time, fostering community, creating opportunities for artists, and have fun while doing so!
Amy went to college at the New Hampshire Institute of Art for photography. She is a co-founder of the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts and became a curator while working there. She was a curator, artist, and had a full time job and knew that she needed to choose one thing to do that she could pour all of her passion into.
She decided to be a curator because there weren’t as many of them making opportunities for artists and that is what she strives to do. She wanted to stay in the art community and be a resource. She worked and collaborated with the Rochester Museum and then decided that she wanted to have her own gallery.
WHO INSPIRES YOU?
I asked her who inspires her and her art style and here’s what she told me. She explained how she sees curators themselves as artists, and constantly looks toward her peers such as Matt Wyatt who is a photographer and artist. He inspired the way she presents art at her gallery and the way she hangs it up. She is also inspired by Katzman Contemporary Projects, who enjoys photography and who’s husband is an artist as well. She is inspired by their ideas and to reach out to other artists.
Amy said that she also looks towards other galleries, visiting artists and their studios for inspiration as well. Her own gallery has inspired her to work out of her comfort zone and interact and reach out to other artists. There are so many artists out there making so many beautiful things and she has the ability to show it off!
Whenever she feels down, she likes to remember that there are so many artists out there working hard too and she can help present them, helping to form connections between artists and people and giving the community so many opportunities.
Gallery Curation is like making a collage
Regan thinks of her curation work as creating a collage. Each time she sets up an exhibition, she has to decide which pieces look good next to each other, and make the entire gallery flow nicely.
She has been making art since high school but has been creating things long before then. She’s always loved to cook and sees food as another art form. She also used to sew with her mom. In high school, she took a black and white art room class, where she developed film and focused on photography.
She loved seeing the images develop and ended up going to college for photography. Her college was small and had a tight knit community, where she got to meet people with so much passion and talent for what they did.
She is very passionate about elevating the way people’s art is shown so she became one of the co-founders of the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts. The art Amy makes is helping other artists shine.
Upcoming
Congratulations on their Second Anniversary. September begins their third year in business.
Amy is very thankful and excited to keep moving forward! Time is flying by fast but she is excited to keep doing the exhibitions, bring in artists from different states as well as local artists, and continue to give the community top quality shows!
September 14th from 4pm-8pm there will be a new exhibition featuring an artist from Portland, Maine, many painters, and many photographers!
September 16-21, 2024. See Saw Art will also be active at the New Hampshire City Wide Arts Festival.
Things to know about See Saw Gallery
Amy Regan would like people to know that See Saw Art is here and they love visitors.
They have very consistent hours, are extremely welcoming, have a very diverse community, and are a safe space! Come by and experience the different work, hang out, and listen to some music. You’ll never know what to expect when you come inside because it changes each month!
The people that come to shows and the gallery are very supportive and provide lots of positive feedback and commentary. The gallery brings people together and is a very welcoming and honest space. Amy tags on social media, all the artists that are featured. Amy makes sure they each get the full attention they deserve!
If you are ever looking for a local art studio to check out, go to See Saw Art! They are extremely welcoming and cozy and would love to have you check out all of the unique art that is on display.
EDITOR’S NOTE:
See Saw Art is a 120 square foot exhibition space located within Mosaic Art Collective at 66 Hanover Street, Suite 201, in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Owned and operated by Amy Regan, See Saw Art features invitational and open call exhibitions on a monthly basis.
The Show, Group Effort, is open through this weekend. Hours as follows:
Friday August 30th 2pm – 6pm
Saturday August 31st 1pm – 4pm
Sunday September 1st 1pm – 4pm
