Women on the Edge
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The financial squeeze has already been felt. Artemisia’s gallery coordinator, Tricia Alexander, was presented with a three-month contract instead of a yearlong one when her term recently came up for renewal. Alexander handles all day-to-day operations, from PR and billing to manning the front desk. “She’s a treasure. It would be really tough if we were to lose her,” Brotman says, but Jahn Foundation money funded the position. And it’s not like current members could step in and fill her shoes; although in years past members have run the gallery without paid staff, Brotman doubts they could return to that arrangement. “All our members are working women now with, I believe, more obligations than members had when we were first founded.” The board is scrambling for grants and donations; worst-case scenarios include reducing gallery space (they now have 2,280 square feet in River West) or closing altogether. Everyone’s committed, Brotman says, but “there is that possibility. I guess this will be a decisive year for us.”
