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The Eilat Museum has plans to open an art gallery, which the artists of Eilat see as a progressive and much-needed move. However, it seems that there are now plans afoot to have the planned gallery also serve as a shop. This, the artists view in a much less favourable light. "It will cheapen it psychologically, bring down the level from a cultured, professional art gallery with leading Eilati or guest artists, to feeling like just another souvenir shop," one well known local artist said.
Some while back, the Museum and the Ministry of Tourism put things in motion for an art gallery to be built onto the Eilat Museum by enclosing part of the pergola outside the museum. A design for the municipal art gallery was submitted by Eilati artist Aaron Ben-Asher (the artist who painted pictures on the utility boxes along Tmarim Blvd.), and the proposed plans for the gallery have in fact been approved and funds allocated for the project. More recently, however, the idea of making the gallery into a shop as well has thrown concern into the ranks.
Most of the artists feel that a municipal gallery should be on a par with municipal galleries elsewhere in the world, where fine quality art is displayed, exhibitions and openings take place, events and talks are held, school classes visit for children to learn about art, and so on. The galleries often have memberships, ‘Friends of...' societies, to help support them, with the Friends (sponsors) invited to special events, exhibition openings, etc. There might also be a donation box in the gallery. Such museums and galleries raise the cultural level of the city for both the residents and tourists. A quality art gallery alongside the museum also draws more visitors to the museum. Thus, the idea of tills and merchandise and a commercial atmosphere that would replace the cultural ambience of a respectable art gallery appalls many of the artists.
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The artists believe that a museum or gallery's job should be to promote art, not just sales. It also surprises them that the decision makers don't realise that by preserving the cultural ambience of such facilities, they are bringing up the level of the city as a whole and hence its attractiveness to tourists. Both the museum and the art gallery should be cultivated to the utmost, with content being the primary concern and not sales. There are plenty of shops around, but there is only one museum and will be only one public art gallery. There are a couple of private galleries in Eilat owned by artists either alone or in partnerships, but these by definition of being private are run completely differently than a public municipal or state gallery should and would be.
In the words of the artist who submitted the design for the gallery, Aaron Ben-Asher, "I see a high quality public art gallery as a cultural symbol for Eilat, like the Ink Flag is." To make it so, Eilat's planned gallery needs to be truly cultural (no shop) and truly public (no ‘special interest' agendas or persons). As most of the bureaucratic hurdles for its construction have been passed, time will tell very soon whether art and culture win over commercialism and personal agendas regarding the art gallery's nature and quality.
Images: design sketches by Aaron Ben-Asher
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