Location: Cowra
Offers: Curated range of regional artworks for sale
We spoke to: Gallery owner, artist and curator Inel Date
By Callum Robinson
Little Magpie Gallery, owned and run by Inel Date, is a bright and welcoming spot in the heart of Cowra. Launched two years ago as a pop up, Inel’s mission was always to enliven the town environment, as much as anything else, and now as an established presence, the gallery would appear to have succeeded.
The commercial gallery’s main exhibition changes every two months, but the artists, whether emerging or well-known, featuring or resident, are all from the Central West region. There’s a vibrant artistic community around the gallery that visitors are naturally drawn to.
‘It’s a celebration of place,’ Inel explains. ‘A snapshot of creativity in the Central West, and a showcase of the wealth of cultural capital that we have here… I just love sharing the talent of the region.’
Little Magpie’s carefully curated aesthetic is proudly rural and always a little whimsical (Inel loves all kinds of native birds, not just magpies), and amongst the artworks Inel has created a comfortable and intimate space, with lounges and native flower arrangements. The kettle is always on for tea and coffee, too.
See has a regular program of workshops to bring people into the gallery space.
Keeping a visitor’s book gives Inel a bit of an overview of the kinds of visitors she’s receiving, a lot of whom come from Canberra and Sydney, either staying in the area to see family, an event nearby, or just stopping on the way through the region. As a relative newcomer who didn’t grow up in Cowra, Inel has been pleasantly surprised by the amount of traffic through town, and pleasantly surprised by how many of these people have taken an interest in the local artists here, their work and their perspectives.
Besides maintaining an enticing window display for the gallery, to be seen from the advantageous position on Cowra’s main street, Inel has put a lot of work into the online visibility of the gallery to encourage more visitors and potential buyers. As she curates the physical gallery space, she also curates the Instagram grid, and as a promotional platform for visual media, Inel stresses the indispensability of the app. A lot of her sales take place directly through the Instagram app – they’re not just pretty pictures.
Working with existing tourism networks in the area has also been important to establishing the gallery’s digital and physical presence, and Inel has the gallery, its exhibition openings, workshops, and events listed with Arts OutWest, local tourism and keeps cards and flyers at the Cowra Visitors Information Centre. ‘You have to know what’s on around you,’ Inel says, to strategize the promotion of your business in its physical context.
Her next big marketing project is to set up a mailing list and send regular updates, a task that can feel too big when busy running the gallery, curating exhibitions, and producing her own landscape paintings for sale.
When considering the challenges she experiences as a business owner, Inel is frank: ‘It’s a commercial gallery – you have to sell things. There are overheads, like rent, for one thing, and it’s very expensive.’ She notes too that as a private, for-profit enterprise she is not eligible for the same kinds of funding that a public gallery might receive. Regardless, she’s determined to grow the gallery as a viable platform for local artists, and knows that increased and diversified marketing is essential to this. She also plans to open the gallery space up for hire to an expanding network of artists and curators, for more exhibitions, workshops, and events that engage both locals and visitors. Multiple income streams can be the difference between make or break for a small business like Little Magpie, and we very much hope that Inel’s gallery continues to grow in its success.
Three tips we got from Inel:
- Make your space special – and professional – from the beginning; even if it’s a pop-up, it shouldn’t look like a pop-up.
- Pick your lane and stick to it, commit to a vision and don’t compromise on quality.
- Be prepared to work hard.
More info:
https://www.littlemagpiegallery.com.au
https://www.instagram.com/littlemagpiegallery
IMAGES: credit Nicola Mason for Arts OutWest
