3-Story Art Gallery Opening In Tribeca In March

TRIBECA, NY — The artist behind an iPhone app that connects artists to collectors in Laguna Beach, California is expanding into a 3-story art gallery and studio space in Tribeca next month.

The art center, NYA Gallery, is expanding at 7 Franklin Place / 373 Broadway and will host a group exhibition featuring several artists for an opening and reception on March 7. The gallery currently sits on the fifth floor of the building and will expand to a total of three floors.

The artist and entrepreneur behind it all, Shane Townley, hails from Laguna Beach, where the gallery's sister site is located. Townley will be the gallery director with Cathy Condon as the studio and residency director.

Spending time traveling by train to artist' studios, framing shops and storage spaces ate into Townley's day-to-day business when he first expanded his gallery to New York City. Locating all of the puzzle pieces in a one-stop-shop art center was ideal — and perhaps in the future, a part of a larger plan he is working on with the landlord of the building to make the entire building art-focused, he said.

His success at opening galleries in both Laguna Beach and now Tribeca is rooted in iPhone apps that link artists with collectors, called LagunaART.com and later NewYorkART.com, Townley said. The apps, which started as a website in the early 2000s, aimed to connect artists to collectors in an age where more people are consuming art on platforms like Instagram — and where artists go viral and become well-known online.

But viral fame hasn't always translated to sales, according to Townley.

The digital age — and his investment in an iPhone app — hasn't waned Townley's belief that an in-person gallery space doesn't compare to scrolling through social media.

"Even in the future, galleries and curators — the whole thing is still very important to the art world," Townley said. "I think technology has a lot to do with marketing, promotion, advertising. As far as the physical work, you still need a physical space."

The new center will have 9,000 square feet of space on three floors of exhibition and studio space, with 22 studios and 1,500 square feet of fine art storage. The gallery boasts a private entrance for VIP guests (and delivery of large works) along a tiny cobblestone street at Franklin Place. Door-to-door art delivery will also be offered.

"The vision is to have everything in one place," Townley said.

He searched across the city and in Jersey City for a gallery space and found Tribeca to be the most convenient in terms of price, transit, and accessibility to nearby stores and supplies. Locating his gallery in Tribeca is a part of a larger trend of gallery owners fleeing a pricier Chelsea and other neighborhoods for Tribeca, artnet reported late last year.

The grand opening on March 7 will feature several artists curated throughout three floors.

Studios are priced at $1,500 a month, which includes promotion from the gallery on a variety of digital platforms, including Townley's app and Artsy. Artists also have a chance to have a solo show at 7 Franklin Pl. or at Townley's original gallery digs in Laguna Beach.

Image courtesy of Shane Townley Image caption: A view of the cobblestone entrance at 7 Franklin Place, where 3-story art gallery, NYA Gallery, launches in March.