1. Contact:
Jennifer Barnes
865-309-9145
Gallery 133 started in September 2011 at 133 S.
Gay Street in Downtown. From the beginning we
were focused on promoting art in Knoxville, but not
at the expense of the local artists. Most galleries
wants a large commission, 40 to 60%, resulting in
the price an artist must charge to local people to
also be higher. Eliminating this commission allows
more people to purchase affordable art, which will
encourage the artists to produce more art.
Gallery 133 feels strongly that many want art to be
exclusive, only affordable to a select few, limited by
what the majority would consider to be acceptable
and that is where are different. Gallery 133 accepts
all, we do not determine what is or what isn’t art, we
don’t feel we have the right to judge someone’s work
as acceptable. We push the envelope, we are edgy,
out of the box, different--Michael Gill, Alive after Five
Coordinator at Knoxville Museum of Art said, we
were “the most provocative art gallery in town”—we
will gladly accept that. We want to be the art gallery
in town where we challenge the average person’s
concept of art. We want everyone who sees our
events to walk away thinking, one way or the
other, good or bad. We want to be the art gallery
for EVERYONE—not just a certain type of person.
We have gotten to where we are due to the kindness
of many individuals: David Dewhirst, who allowed
us to use the space at 133 S Gay Street rent free
until leased in December. While the only means for
promotions was Facebook, we have used it
extensively. We teamed up with Michael Samstag to
provide art in the Preservation Pub Annex for the
Knoxville 24 Hour Film Festival Holiday Party and the
Preservation Pub has allowed us to stay and run our
events out of their Annex, unfortunately they are
closing the Annex to remodel for Scruffy City Hall
which will be opening in July…so after the 27th
Rossini Festival Gallery 133 will again be homeless.
We are a Corporate Non-Profit Charter from the
State of Tennessee, we have an Employer
Identification Number from the IRS and we are in
the process of applying for 501C Status with the US
Government. Our website - Knoxgallery133.com.
We even did the Harlem Shake.
In the past week we reached almost 10,000 people,
We have over 1000 fans on Facebook and over 700
have checked in at the gallery. At the April First
Friday at the Preservation Pub Annex we had close
to 7,000 people invited by the 31 artists who were
showing. We have over 59 artists on our group page
on Facebook.