Peter Precourt, a professor of art at the University of Maine at Augusta, is using a vacant storefront at 265 Water St. in the state’s capital as a pop-up art gallery, in part as an effort to showcase the wide range of possibilities of redevelopment in the city.
The Kennebec Journal reports that the gallery, known as Pop-Up 265, came to fruition in part from the Augusta Downtown Alliance’s Raw Spaces Art Walk that took place on May 13. The walk highlighted redevelopment possibilities in the city, which has a number of empty storefronts.
“It wasn’t a part of the initial plan, but it was a happy outcome,” Augusta Downtown Alliance Executive Director Michael Hall told the newspaper. “My goal was to have people see what the buildings look like filled.”
Once a month an artist will install their work at Pop-Up 265. Although the gallery won’t have regular hours, the space’s large storefront window will allow passersby to stop and get a look at the installation.
Precourt will also be getting a small percent of any work sold in the gallery to cover expenses. While most galleries take a 40% to 50% cut of work sold, Pop-Up will take 15% of the profits, the newspaper said.
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