Another Martha’s Vineyard art gallery is on the move due to rising rent at its longtime location.
Galaxy Gallery in Oak Bluffs, a nonprofit cooperative showing artwork by Islanders, is holding one final exhibition this weekend at 99 Dukes County avenue, its home since 2016.
“We’ll be looking for another space that will be able to accommodate our mission, which is to support Island artists,” said Holly Alaimo, executive director of the Martha’s Vineyard Center for the Visual Arts, which runs the seasonal gallery.
“It’s hard, because this year has been the best participation,” she said, estimating that between 40 and 60 Vineyard artists have showed their work in one or more of the gallery’s two-week themed shows, which began in May with a showcase for students from the regional high school.
Artist cooperative will need to look for a new space.
“It feels like the energy this year was exceptional,” Ms. Alaimo said.
Galaxy traditionally closes for the off-season, but this year the co-operative will be clearing out completely.
Landlord Valerie Francis, who also owns the Knowhere Art Gallery on Dukes County avenue and Center of Knowhere on Circuit avenue, has raised the rent beyond what the nonprofit can afford, Ms. Alaimo said.
Ms. Francis replied to an interview request from the Gazette with an e-mailed statement that she was proud to have rented to the arts group over the past eight years.
“Our agreement was thoughtfully aligned with the organization’s nonprofit, part-time business model, and its financial realities, enabling the MVCVA to continue its mission,” she wrote.
Holly Alaimo, executive director of the Martha’s Vineyard Center for the Visual Arts.
Asked about her future plans for the building, Ms. Francis did not respond.
Ms. Alaimo told the Gazette her group is hopeful that the property will continue as an art gallery.
“This neighborhood really doesn’t need to lose another [arts] space,” she said.
Founded in 1990, the Martha’s Vineyard Center for the Visual Arts has changed locations several times, bouncing between Featherstone Farm in Oak Bluffs (now Featherstone Center for the Arts), the Mansion House in Vineyard Haven, what is now the Newes from America pub in Edgartown and assorted empty storefronts before settling down on Dukes County avenue, now designated the Oak Bluffs Arts District.
The co-operative even was its own landlord for a few years, after purchasing the old firehouse at 99 Dukes County avenue in the mid-1990s.
Susan Stovall by her work.
— Ray Ewing
“We had shows there, we had lectures, we had show and tells, we had interviews with artists,” Ms. Alaimo recalled.
In 2010, the organization sold the Firehouse Gallery for $168,000 to artists Alison Shaw and Sue Dawson, who run the Alison Shaw Gallery there.
“We took that money and we invested it so we could give grants to artists,” Ms. Alaimo said.
Artist Bill Buckley.
— Ray Ewing
Galaxy Gallery is at least the second established Island art showroom to relocate in the face of a rent increase this year. In the spring, North Water Gallery in Edgartown moved to North Summer street after the Fligor family raised the rent on the gallery’s space in their North Water street building, making way for an expansion of the Vineyard Vines clothing chain.
If the Martha’s Vineyard Center for the Visual Arts can’t find a new gallery space for the 2025 season, Ms. Alaimo said, the group will still be working to show Island art.
“Maybe we’ll do pop-ups. Maybe I’ll just do festivals, like our art strolls that we’ve been organizing now for six years,” she said.
Galaxy Gallery’s last group show of the year, with sales to benefit Habitat for Humanity, runs Friday through Monday from noon to 6 p.m.
An artists’ reception Saturday starts at 4 p.m., and on Monday the gallery hosts an artists’ yard sale of paints, brushes and other supplies from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. More information about Galaxy Gallery and the Martha’s Vineyard Center for the Visual Arts is posted at galaxygallerymv.org.
