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Gallery Profile - River Market ArtSpace
Little Rock, Arkansas
by Jocelyn Jones
On the corner of President Clinton Ave., right down the street from the Clinton Library, Little Rock native Debra Wood stands on a ladder, changing light bulbs in the gallery she runs single-handedly.This is, of course, with the exception of her pink-collared dog, Musby, who serves as the director of customer service and gets paid in pets on the head by the number of locals who stop in to see her on their lunch break.
At 3,300 square feet, River Market ArtSpace may be big, but to Debra, her artists, and the community, a gallery has rarely felt so homey. Debra has hardly spent years perfecting her gallery know-how, however. She bought River Market ArtSpace just three years ago.
Before meeting a few friends for dinner one night, she stopped into the gallery to kill some time. The previous owner, Susan Strauss, overheard Debra remarking she had “always wanted to own an art gallery,” and six months later, she did.
Debra attributes her fondness for art galleries to the numerous times she came back home to visit her parents and traveled around Arkansas to places with spectacular art. “I just always had an affinity for the craft and the art that was here in the state,” she says.
Prior to owning River Market ArtSpace, Debra lived in Washington, D.C., where she worked in the White House for eight years. She says her job there, as director of presidential student correspondence, had similar responsibilities to that of her work now, as a gallery owner.
"Just like a politician," she says, "you always have to be on." Debra, who had never worked in a retail environment prior to River Market ArtSpace, claims the same skills she needed in Washington apply in Little Rock. "You have to deal with many different people and make lots of people very happy."
Maybe her aim to please is the motivation behind the extensive variety of craft that can be found in her gallery. Debra features artists from all realms of the art industry, including clay, sculpture, glass, wood, painting, photography, jewelry, and mixed media.
“I try not to stay in one little niche,” she says. “There’s something for everyone here.”
Read more in this issue of Crafts Business.
