This is the AJF blog’s first look at Heidi Lowe Gallery in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, but we recently featured a profile of Heidi and the gallery in the July AJF newsletter – a members only feature. The gallery’s latest show is called Desire, a theme that many jewelers investigate. I was curious as to who was included and how the idea was handled.
Susan Cummins: AJF featured you and your gallery in the July newsletter so I don’t want to repeat the questions asked, but for the sake of this interview, can you give me a short version of the story of how you decided to run a jewelry gallery?
I have always been drawn to the museum/gallery sector of the art world. As an undergrad I worked at the Baxter Gallery at Maine College of Art. The director, Jennifer Gross, was a great mentor and she allowed me to participate in all aspects of the gallery. At SUNY I realized how few places the public has to experience art jewelry. Opening a gallery was a way to realize a dream of mine and contribute to the field in general. After grad school I moved to New York City to work at Leo Koenig Inc., a contemporary art gallery in the heart of Chelsea. This experience helped me to understand the logistics of running a gallery, but did not provide a model that I could see myself owning. It was not until I visited Dunedin in New Zealand that I found a gallery that spoke to me. The gallery, Lure, was run by artists, showed many artists’ work and provided a fun and inviting space for the public to interact with art jewelry. This solidified my vision and I opened the gallery three months after returning from New Zealand.