Sure, New York’s galleries happily show your work if you’re an older big-name visual artist who can command through-the-roof prices. But thousands of professional New York artists over age 50 who have not made a big splash in the art world are shunned by galleries unwilling to take a chance on them because of their age. I recently visited a sunny, spacious gallery smack in the heart of Chelsea’s Broadway of galleries that bucks this trend. The Carter Burden Gallery at 548 West 28th Street exhibits older professional artists exclusively. Under 60 need not apply!
The Burden Gallery is part of the Carter Burden Network, one of the City’s major non-profits dedicated to serving seniors through a broad range of programs. “The Burden Network’s slogan has always been ‘we give a voice to older people,’” said Marlena Vaccaro, the Gallery’s Director and Associate Executive Director of the Burden Network. “I like to say that the Gallery gives a wall! We have a wonderful Board and corporate sponsors, but it’s the quality of the work on our walls that keeps us going.”
Vaccaro believes passionately in the Gallery’s mission to provide exhibition space to older professional artists whose careers have stalled or who failed to get the recognition they deserve. “Our exhibitors are lifelong artists who identify as such, whatever day jobs they may hold to survive,” she explained. “Making art is what they do. They don’t retire from making art the way they might from a job. They keep at it, many producing vibrant, important, cutting-edge work. But because their sales potential may not have kept pace with their talent, galleries can’t afford to take a chance on them.”