John,

I've seen various approaches to this in practice. I think much may depend on whether one is part of
a public, private, or educational institution. I gravitated to the university gallery field, in
part, because I believe educational institutions are well situated to present and promote just those
sorts of progressive works that may not be possible in commercial venues. How does one put a
pricetag on community-based projects for instance?

At any university I've worked at, price lists for contemporary art exhibitions were either kept
hidden until someone requested them or not revealed at all by gallery staff. If there was an
interest in purchasing something, I would simply provide that information to the artist to pursue.
If a dealer was the lender, then the information would go to them. Once a university gallery or
museum begins to act as dealers themselves and take commissions as well (as some do), I worry about
the impact such activities will have on future programming.

When it is student work that is involved, there are some further points to consider. Essentially art
degree programs wish to professionalize emerging artists as best they can, and I suppose a point
could be made that student exhibitions should operate like the real world. But when I've seen this
happen at some institutions- red and green dots going up next to works on opening night of a
graduate thesis exhibition, for instance- I felt very uneasy about the message it was sending to the
student and the public in such a context. I wonder how the critiques (an integral part of the MFA
thesis defense) went the following day and how the sales or lack thereof effected the dialogue.

Joe Houston
Joe Houston, Director
Indiana State University Art Gallery
Center for Performing and Fine Arts 102
Terre Haute, IN  47809
Tel: 812.237.3787 Fax: 812.237.4369

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