Midtown’s MAIYA Gallery, located at 2220 J St., closed its doors for the final time Saturday.
Owner Kelly Truscott, 52, said the decision to shutter the business was twofold – she wants to move closer to family in southern California, and the gallery was not profitable.
“If it was profitable, it would have made the decision a little more difficult,” Truscott said Monday. “Maybe I could have found someone to buy it.”
MAIYA – which stands for “my art is your art” – opened in August 2009 and was Truscott’s realization of a longtime dream.
“I was a stay-at-home mom and worked part time in customer service and retail,” she said. “Once the children grew up, I wanted to launch a business, and I love going to shows, so I thought it would be a wonderful business to have.”
She said she knew it would be tough to start an art gallery in the depths of the recession, and though it’s now closed, she said she doesn’t regret doing it.
“The artists I met and the people, and just being a part of the fabric of Midtown has been a lot of fun,” she said.
Works in the gallery rotated, and Truscott said she liked to keep things fresh by changing what was carried, which proved to be popular during Second Saturday Art Walks.
Despite having art ranging in price from $10 to $1,000, Truscott said selling art in a gallery setting is difficult, and the younger generation often looks for art online.
One local artist, Mary Czechan Coldren, 66, had a show in the gallery in May 2010, and her work was regularly carried by the gallery.
“I think it’s very sad,” she said. “It was just a beautiful space for a gallery. It was just big enough, and it was a good location, and I’ll miss it a lot.”
She added that she would like to see another gallery move in and operate in the same space.
Looking back on the three years in business, Truscott said there are a few things she would have done differently to prepare herself for running the gallery.
“People tell me I lived my dream,” she said. “And yes, I did. But you need to prepare for it. I could have taken art history classes and worked in a gallery when I was raising my kids, but I don’t know if that would have helped the gallery succeed.”
Truscott said she, too, would like to see another gallery move in, since the space lends itself to housing art.
“I’m talking it up with other members of the (art) community, because we have established this spot,” she said. “We got a lot of traffic on Second Saturday.”
Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.
