Meet Cynthia of & Gallery - Full Length

Hello, hello!

We are here with Cynthia Nagle, who heads up And Gallery.

That is me.

So, can you tell me, what is And Gallery?

So, And Gallery is a gallery here in Tucson, and we show art that's— well, showcase art that's mainly the weird art. You know, like that wouldn't— you wouldn't see at your typical gallery. So we do more like pop art, lowbrow art, um, comic art, sequential art, um, all of that kind of stuff. Fantastic.

And how long has Ann Gallery been here on 4th Avenue?

We've been— we opened in November of 2019, and then we were closed for most of 2020, and then we came back this year. So it feels like this has been our first full year.

Okay, okay. Uh, what, what got you into running a gallery? Um, did you always want to be involved in the arts?

Well, I— yes, and I kind of always have been. Um, I've been doing marketing for like— I did for years, and I did for comic book shops, and I've been an artist myself, so I always especially with kind of art that I did with between fashion shows and toy design and all that, there wasn't really a place for me to do it. So I kind of ended up creating my own spaces, which put me into doing more event coordinating along with marketing and all that. And then, um, N Gallery was, uh, used to be on Grant and Stone, and it was like this tiny little place, really cool looking And, um, the owner was giving out flyers at Tucson Comic-Con one year, and I got one of the flyers, and I was like, damn, I know these artists, this is really cool. And, um, so I checked it out, fell in love with what was going on. I'm like, oh my God, this is what Tucson needs. And then I ended up reaching out to Jonathan and the owner, and I reached out to him. I was like, hey, I had just moved back from Portland, and I like was like, hey, I do organization, event coordinating, marketing. I love what you're doing with the gallery. I got ideas. And then from there, got a job.

That's awesome. That is awesome. So what is your connection to the community? And obviously we thought it's Pride connection, but like, how is the queer artist Flow in Tucson going.

Yeah, yeah.

So my connection with it is I am also a queer artist, so I am bisexual, and, um, it's always been my people. Like, it's something I didn't— I guess I haven't really thought too much about because all— most of my friends are either queer or, um, whatever it may be. And along with the kind of art that we do, like The— that's like most of these artists here are queer of some sort. And yeah, sorry, I don't know what else to say.

No, no, no, that's okay. That's okay. Let's see. All right. I got a list. Okay. You already answered what got you into running Ant Gallery. You reached out, took the initiative, and it paid off. Awesome. So, so for example, right now the Best of Tucson is going on. Why should people vote for Ant Gallery and not some other Joe Schmoe gallery shop?

Oh man, that's hard. Well, because there's a lot of great galleries in Tucson.

Yes, yes.

Amazing artists and hold amazing shows and beautiful pieces and everything. And Week is something that Tucson hasn't had before that I feel Tucson has needed, um, like with showing this type of art and these type of shows. Like for instance, um, I'll go with our hip-hop art exhibition. Hip— uh, Tucson has an amazing hip-hop community.

It does.

And then also with our Pride exhibition and also our Sophie McTeer solo exhibition, where, you know, representation matters. Like it matters to see queer art or art made by queer people and having the safe space for it. Like, I very much pride ourselves on holding a safe space, not putting up with any, like, anyone that's going to come in and be harmful or any art that could be harmful to anyone.

So that's amazing and wonderful. Uh, as a queer, I appreciate that because I know how hard it is.

I know how hard it is to find your space. And as much as Tucson tries to be that— say that they are inclusive and this and that, it's— I want to make sure we're doing the action, you know?

Right, you're not just talking about it. Exactly. That's what makes Zane Gallery so different in my mind, uh, is a lot of the content in the art you show and, uh, your commitment to diversity inclusion. Um, all right, so, uh, how do you see Ant Galleria evolving in the future? Like, you've only— like you said, this has been your first real full year open, so how, how do you hope to see it in the next 5.

So the one of the, one of our big like, um, missions here is at Gallery is to amplify artists. Yes, like, um, we want to make sure we're taking our artists to the next level because we could do like, I love our group shows and we could do them all the time, but if we're not pushing artists to be better than their last pieces or this and that, then It's like we gotta have that growth, and I know that's what artists want and need. And we're working on like different programs we could do with artists where it's, um, yeah, either having art discussions, critiques, um, also, uh, marketing tips for artists where we do— since N Gallery is owned by Eat Sleep Work, we do design work and marketing. So we want to have like classes where it's like, oh, this is, uh, some tips on marketing, social media, for your website, and also like just like the basic marketing stuff that I know a lot of artists don't know because it's— you're already doing so much work to get the art done, right? You're running your, your whole business with yourselves, and it's like finding those tools and energy to do it is difficult. So that's one of the things that we want to start doing in the future.

That's wonderful to offer all those resources. Um, how was the, uh, the networking night that just passed, right?

Oh yeah, yeah. So we want to start doing, um, different themed networking nights. Um, the music networking night was our first one. Um, we teamed up with Manny Meggs, that's a local producer, and he does so much for the community. He's so great. And then also the Takeover Lounge, and they do, um, the Takeover Lounge podcast, and they do like a lot of artist interviews, mainly mainly in the hip-hop world, but they do like all kinds of different musicians and stuff. So, uh, we teamed up with them and that went really well. It was— I haven't done— I haven't been to networking night in a long time, so it's cool to like see people having conversations. I kept hearing, uh, what was it, oh, I've been looking for someone that does this, right? The whole night. So I was like, oh, that's cool, because you know, especially like in music, it's not just making the music, like you— there were graphic designers here and artists here to be like, hey, looking for an album cover, this and that, logos and all that that goes into it. So it was a cool opportunity for people to meet each other.

That's fantastic. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm sorry I had to miss it. Oh yeah, but I figured it was music, so not necessarily. There'll be many, many more, I'm sure.

Comics and illustrators and all that.

Tell me about your products and services.

Well, I'll show you. Yeah, I'll do a quick little tour and show you what we got here. So this section here, um, between the walls in here is our retail area, and we sell a bunch of stuff from local artists, a little bit non-local, but, um, we have from prints, stickers, comic books.

We have a lot of stickers.

I love stickers.

People love stickers. Love them.

We have so many stickers. We have earrings, you know, all the cool oddball stuff. On this wall we have either originals and exclusive prints, and then here is just prints that people bring in and we're going to continue to keep selling.

Okay.

And, um, and then we do designer toys as well, so we have designer toys there, a couple here.

Those two, what I did The only two I have left.

These are 10 Times a Tiger originals. Yeah, you did a great job on those paints.

And everything here we printed at N Gallery. So we—

so that's here in the back?

Yeah, so we, we either photographed it and beautiful here, or we got the digital file and printed here. Like these two we photographed and, um printed them here.

That's a great capture, truly is.

Yeah, I'm like so happy.

A little pair—

we got lots of earrings, lots of things. Oh, but I want to take one more look at these custom toys.

So those are like toys that either, um, employees painted themselves or from our own personal collection that we're selling.

That's amazing, I love it. All right, check me To the back, our gallery space.

So this is like the showroom space where we have the shows, hang up art. So all of those tickets we photograph and print it here as well.

Oh wow, you are a full service— except for stickers. Yeah, don't do stickers.

I know, eventually. And then in the back here is our office area, and we have our giant we got a box wardrobe.

I think that's hilarious.

Oh my God, and there's people working here.

Oh, there's people working.

Jonathan, Ayla. And this is kind of our little green room, your lounge. Yeah.

Oh yeah, awesome. Thank you for giving me a behind the scenes. Let's see, what is your— if you had to pick a favorite piece in the Anne Gallery collections, uh, what are you, what are you picking?

Well, you just saw me struggle trying to decide. I would say probably this one, uh, the— by— I wanted to say Christopher Nolan, but Nolan Patterson.

Nolan Patterson.

Yeah, Nolan Patterson. Um, he goes by Basic Art. He actually, uh, did the Black Lives Matter mural over by Toole Avenue.

Yeah, that's the art warehouse I work out of. I arranged that.

Yeah, yeah. So And we have, um, his skate deck up there too. And then those three are all him as well. And if I were to pick a piece to like show what kind of gallery we are, it'd be this piece, the Smile piece.

Yeah, the Smile one.

It's just such a cool piece. And he's, he's again like an artist that we like keep— that he came in, he was very shy, kind of like do art. And then we saw his art, we're like, oh my God, dude, like— and so we've worked with him a lot with, um, we did prints of this piece, we have the original, we have a bunch of his originals here. We plan on having a solo show with him next year. So it's like, we just want to make sure we keep taking him to the next level.

That's great. Yeah, yeah, I love, I love the Black Lives Matter piece he put on Tool Shed. Yeah, we paid him for that. He was going to do it for free, and I was like, no, no, no, Please let us pay. Thanks so much.

And then this piece too, also like the way he works is really cool. He just, he calls it like jazz where he kind of starts off with one little piece and then keeps adding on, adding on, adding on, and lets it become a whole thing. Yeah, I'm an artist that does not work that way, so it's like so cool to see that. I need to have everything planned out, and that's part of me, my process.

We all have our processes.

Yeah, but I'm just like so fascinated by it.

It's agreed, he's, uh, spectacular. I love his color.

Yeah, yes, that's very cool.

All right, so last, last question I think is, uh, what are your favorite things to see and/or do in Tucson? Like, why do you love Tucson?

Oh my God, I— well, I'm from Tucson and my whole family's here and my friends are here, so I I love that there's culture and community.

Um, it's—

Tucson's like a little big city where it's like everybody knows each other, there's connection there. So it, it's cool seeing like how everybody comes together and helps each other out and support things. And, um, one of my favorite things to do in Tucson— I love going to events, um, and art-related things. And I think of what else I like to do in Tucson— eat, because there's really good food here, and it keeps getting better.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, straight up. All right, someone wants to get a hold of you, or anyone here at And Gallery, what's the best— how do they find you?

You can either find us on social media under And Gallery Tucson, all spelled spelled out, or, uh, my email, that's cynthia@angallery.art, all spelled out. And, um, yeah, that's how to do it.

Awesome. All right, and for any future artists that want to be featured here, like, what are your tips or tricks for them?

So, um, it's— look, I, I highly recommend, like, when art people come in and look at the gallery to— and want to have their art in here, to actually like look around and make sure it fits. Yeah, make sure it fits, because I know a lot of artists come in and they're excited. They're like, oh, gallery, I want to show my art in here. And I'm like, okay, take a look around. If you feel your art fits, then do it. Like, if you do, let's say, more like landscape paintings or things like that, it won't really fit with us, or portraits or things like that. Um, but, uh, yeah, that's— I'd say that's the first step. And then, um, second is to email me and what you would want to do at the gallery and with your art, because there's some people that are like, I just like making art, I don't really care for making money out of it. And that's totally fine, but it's like, we're still a business.

We're here to make money.

Yeah, we're here to help our artists make money, and we I have to make money to make sure we pay our employees, keep the doors open, and keep doing what we're doing and able to give to some of these type of events. So, um, yeah, just support the gallery in any way if you can. Like, we take donations. You could buy art because you're also supporting artists. Everything in here is commission-based, so when you buy something, it goes to the artist.

That's fantastic.

Um, yeah, just being very clear with what you what you want to do with your art and what you want to do with that gallery. Like, that just helps a lot for me to direct what to do with, um, whether group shows, recommendations, or whatever it may be.

That's fantastic. Well, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to talk to us over here at Gate to Sun.

Thank you.

We love you. We appreciate you. Thank you so much.

Love you. Bye.