Art museums and galleries collect, exhibit, and offer educational programs to enhance people's appreciation, respect , and understanding of various works created during different periods of history and originating from diverse cultural backgrounds. For many, the art works are people's first experience with cultures other than their own. Art museums and galleries are vital for building a healthy and friendly global community.
Art museums and art galleries are primary institutions that preserve works of art from diverse cultural traditions created by numerous individuals. Through works of art and other artifacts created in other traditions people often come to understand other cultural traditions. Art museums and galleries collect and exhibit artworks by their artistic merits, irrespective of the artist's racial , ethnic, national, social and cultural background. Art museums and galleries provide a unique space where different barriers that divide people can be transcended.The art museums and galleries play a crucial role in enhancing mutual respect among people in the global community. Sometimes, individuals experience other cultural patterns through the exhibits and services that they deliver.
The term is used for both public galleries, which are museums to display a permanent art collection, and private galleries for the sale of art, which are commercial enterprises. Nevertheless, both types of gallery can host temporary exhibitions including pieces borrowed from individuals or institutions that own them.
Contemporary Art Gallery
The term gallery of contemporary art usually refers to a commercial for-profit, private gallery. In large urban centres, these galleries are often found clustered together. New York City's Chelsea district, for example, is widely regarded as the center of the contemporary art world. There should be at least one gallery in even smaller cities, but they can also be found in small communities and remote areas where artists gather, i.e. the Taos Art Colony and St Ives, Cornwall.
Galleries of modern art are usually available to the general public at no charge; some are semi-private, however. Usually they benefit from taking a cut in sales of the art; it's normal from 25 to 50 percent. There are also many non-profit galleries, as well as art collectives. Many galleries in cities such as Tokyo charge the artists a flat rate every day, but in some foreign art markets this is considered distasteful. Galleries frequently hang solo shows. Curators also create group shows that say something about a specific theme, art movement, or related group of artists. Galleries often prefer to solely represent artists, giving them the ability to show regularly.
The definition of a gallery can also include the artist run centre, which often (in North America and Western Europe) operates as an area with a more democratic mentality and selection. Quite usually an artist-run space has a board of directors and a support staff choosing and curating shows by committee, or some sort of similar mechanism to choose art that generally lacks commercial ends.