Trinity Galleries owner Beth McGloan-Asimakos (Submitted)
Trinity Galleries, located in the city’s uptown, it set to celebrate its upcoming 25th anniversary on December 2.
“I wanted regular people to come into the gallery, and not just people who know art, people who don’t know art,” said owner and president Beth McGloan-Asimakos, who opened the Germain Street gallery and café in 1995.
Back then, there were only a handful of art galleries active in Saint John but now their numbers have tripled.
McGloan-Asimakos says the café, which operated for three years, helped introduce people to original art in Saint John.
“I was bringing in people who were a little more intimidated by art, it was very satisfying to talk about the art on the walls while they’re having coffee,” she added.
Trinity Galleries interior (Submitted)
She began showcasing local New Brunswick artists in the galleries, before expanding to show other artists such as Tom Forrestal, Jerry Collins, Mary and Barbara Pratt, Alex Coleville and Diana Reardon.
The galleries’ painters in its 25-year history span from Victoria, British Columbia to New York City. Examples of painters currently being showcased include Larry Horowitz, Angela Morgan, Sophie Paquet, Carole Lessard and Heather Sayeau.
McGloan-Asimakos says Trinity Galleries helped level the barrier of access by including affordable, smaller works and offering payment plans where clients could purchase a piece, take it home and pay it off over six to twelve months.
“Everybody feels good when they’re around original artwork – what a huge difference it makes having something that’s made by hand by an artist, rather than something that’s mass produced that you would pick up at Winners,” she said.
“It was really important for people to feel comfortable to come into an art gallery and say, ‘You know what I can afford it, I can do this.”
McGloan-Asimakos says her goal is to give artists as much exposure as she can, while also selling their work and still paying her bills and fulfilling buyers’ needs.
Trinity Galleries (Submitted)
“Staying true to being a fine art gallery for me has had its challenges,” she explained, adding Trinity Galleries does not sell crafts and pottery and does not have a custom framing shop to bring in further income.
“I chose to stay and work hard for the painters in the fine artists. It has been more of a challenge for me, but I still saw it through and continued on.”
Later she began working with a marketing company to learn more about her client base by interviewing them about what art draws their attention and what made them come in and purchase a piece.
McGloan-Asimakos says the galleries’ website and social media have been a useful tool to connect and help generate excitement and connect with clients, saying almost half learned about them through social media.
“We need to make the most of that, and more video – people love it when you show a video, a nice panning of the wall. If they can’t be here, they want to be like they’re walking in,” she added.
Originally McGloan-Asimakos thought about of closing the galleries leading up it its 25th anniversary but when they reopened in June, she saw there was no lack of people wanting to buy art.
Trinity Galleries (Submitted)
“I soon realized that everybody is home, and no one is spending money going to Europe, people are looking at their wall space and their homes a lot more closely,” she said. “The paintings are selling, because people are spending more time thinking about changing things up.”
A VIP event celebrating Trinity Galleries’ anniversary was planned to take place December 4 but was later cancelled. An online event of the galleries’ many artists will instead be livestreamed on Facebook at 8pm on Wednesday, December 2.
“We also have individual ornaments that we had sent to each artist, each artist painted them in their own way, they’re coming back to the gallery, and we will be doing a silent auction all the month of December, and all the money goes to the non-profit First Steps,” explained McGloan-Asimakos, adding the non-profit helps single and struggling mothers in Saint John.
McGloan-Asimakos says today, Saint John currently has the most art galleries per capita in Eastern Canada, describing the local gallery scene as one of encouragement, saying no one is showing the exact same thing when it comes to art.
“Everyone has their niche and the more art galleries there are, the better it is for us as a whole in uptown Saint John.”
