Program Description:
Telephonebooth started in a back hallway in 1995 as a project space to highlight the excess of talented and under-exposed contemporary artists working in Kansas City.
In the last few years, galleries, currators and collectors that were previously only focused on New York vetted art, are also beginning to take notice of the density of credible artists in this small midwestern town.
Telephonebooth's third location is a rehabbed beauty salon in midtown K.C. and its basic premise is still operative; to provide a context of consistent high quality for emerging and mid-career working contemporary artists.
The prequesites for showing at Telephonebooth are also still the same, and they are: strong focus on current ideas and a strong work ethic.
While Telephonebooth provides on-call representation, advocacy and transparency are also on the agenda; part of the project mission is to give artists, regardless of their career position, at least a partial representation of the services provided at a professional gallery but also include the artist in the business, investment and developemnt process, that process includes negotiating contracts, promotional involvement and cooperative use of resources.
Supplementing the gallery space is the Telephonebooth Flatfile containing work by most every artist that continues a working relationship with the gallery.
For both beginning and advanced collectors, the high concentration on value at Telephonebooth represents an opportunity to support an artist's early career while appreciating the progress of that career from the position of a true grassroots patron of the arts. The track record of Telephonebooth demonstrates a solid foundation in the contemporary art market while still keeping with the d.i.y./low overhead business model.
Telephonebooth will always strive to create a context of quality as well as develop and cultivate relationships between collectors, gallerists, currators and artists of a contemporary orientation.
