Interview with Sam Belkowitz

Member of the artist-run collective Little Berlin, Belkowitz, a 2003 Fleisher Challenge artist and PEW Fellowship finalist in 2001 received his BFA in Photography from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and has exhibited throughout Philadelphia and the East Coast. His work has been shown at the Ice Box, the ICA Philadelphia, Vox Populi Gallery, Nexus Foundation, and the Painted Bride Art Center, as well as at the Baltimore Contemporary Museum, Baltimore, MD, The Studio House Gallery, Washington D.C, and Howard University, Washington, D.C. Sam was interviewed by BSA Students Amber Callahan, Christine Ferri, Chriztie Kaufmann.

 

Little Berlin Collective members

How do you manage the financial aspects of running a gallery?

SB: We do some type of fund raising every month, asking for donations for the opening receptions. In October, for example, we’re did the B.Y.O.T.Y. (Bring your own table, yo) book fair with people paying $25 to rent a space and I think we had over 20 people. Each month we try to do some fund raising at the openings that adds between $150-250. We sell t-shirts and people make donations at the door.

Do you need to have supplemental income-- Running Little Berlin isn’t your full time job?

SB: Exactly—it’s just a collective and everyone pays membership dues every month. Right now we each pay $25 a month and there are eight members so that generates $200 a month. Each member gets a $75 stipend towards cards, vinyl and PR. They can use the stipend any which way they want.

Is the way the collective is managing Little Berlin going to stay the same, or do you have any plans to change things?

SB: We’re happy to keep things as they are right now because we like how open it is for programming and such. We investigated becoming a 501c3 non-profit last April, but over the last few months we’ve been talking about whether or not we should do that. The 501c3 process can take a long time and is kind of costly.

A lot of organizations in the city have gone through the process with the help of the Arts and Business Council or the PVLA (Philadelphia Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts) and they do pro bono work to guide you. Basically you have to go through incorporating on a state level, which is involved and costs about two grand, and then you have to fill out an application, have a lawyer review it and then submit it, and that takes 3 months to a year to complete. One of the things we didn’t want to do is have that lengthy process stifle our programming. I think Martha (Savery) and myself and all the other members are trying to figure out the balance because the fund raising efforts I’ve described is really not enough to help us rent the whole space and give us an operating budget.

Is there a hierarchy in this organization or are you all on equal footing?

SB: Yes, we have a kind of hierarchy--we set people up with task titles like 'director' or 'president' or 'accountant'-- the person who handles the money. Two people have teamed up to do grant writing and public relations because we have a website component. We also have to deal with facilities. The person in charge of that task would be responsible for organizing the library, but then everybody else would also help out.

Do you ever seek out artists to work with in your galleries or do most of them contact you when they are interested?

SB: Its works both ways--most of the artists that are involved in the gallery get a month to curate and then when they curate they’re actually going outside of our group to get people to show here based on whatever their show is going to be. Now sometimes people just send out an open call to the community. Tim (Pannell) did that for his show, The End, which was a couple of months ago. He just put out an open call because he didn’t know a lot of artists and people responded. There is information on our website about his show.

What are you looking for in an artist or their work when considering working with them?

SB: I think when they apply they have to be on point-- their resume, their proposal and their artwork has to be presented well. And I think too, they have to really fit within the theme of the show that’s going to be executed. Straight up. And there’s no age limit. A lot of times we show artists that we don’t know so it’s really open in that way, but their work has to be really specific to what we’re showing. Outside people propose shows here-- like we’re going to be hosting a show for Philagrafika in February, and in March we'll have a show of ceramics, for NCECA (the national ceramics conference). Also we do hold shows for performance and theater groups. So they’ll do one or two shows a month on a night when we’re not here. They submit a proposal and usually it comes up because they’re looking for a space. We wind up offering the space to them and they bring a lot of people to the gallery that wouldn’t normally see the exhibit on view. It's also good for there to be events here on a night when we’re not really open-- the gallery hours are only on the weekends from 12-5.

Do you cover any of the costs when you take on a new artist?

SB: That’s up to the individual curator for that month. My month to curate is November and I will be covering shipping costs for some people. I have a few artists that are sending me work from Los Angeles and from the South, so I’ll be covering their shipping.

Sam, have you experienced many obstacles during your travels in your quests to take photographs?

SB: Yeah, but not anything that is beyond what people experience when photographing in the public.

So you haven’t had to give up on a picture you were trying to make because of some obstacle?

SB: Sometimes that happens, and it happens here in the States, and also when I travel abroad. On my last trip I was traveling to Copenhagen and I went to Christiana, which is an area sort of in the center of Copenhagen which is run by locals and is reactionary against the government there. The government has really messed with them and has had raids and pulled people out, so they have a 'please don’t photograph' sign up because everyone really feels threatened. So I didn’t take pictures there. I feel there are certain circumstances here in Philadelphia where that happens as well-- sometimes with the cops, you know they don’t want you taking photos in some situations. When that happens I feel like it’s the same as in Copenhagen.

Is there anything else that you would like to say to our readers?

SB: Come and see the show I curated which is opening on November 7th at 6 pm-- it’s the first Saturday in November. it’s called Heaven on Earth and runs through November 28.