- After 38 years, PM Gallery is retiring.
- We’ve had the privilege of having PM Gallery as our tenant.
- As a tribute to their legacy in the Short North, we’re sharing our interview with PM Gallery’s co-owner, Maria Galloway.
Lykens Companies is excited to share our exclusive interview with PM Gallery’s co-owner, Maria Galloway. Read her reflections on the Short North, PM Gallery, and her thoughts as she leaves our community.
Everything changed. In 1980, the district had just gone from a dead end street (because of the construction of the Convention Center) back to a thoroughfare. There were dive bars, strip clubs, junk and second-hand stores, dead-or-alive TV shops, and many vacant storefronts. There was also a handful of retail including a couple of art galleries, a couple of groceries, furniture stores, and a UNICEF shop. The major change came in October 1984 when we had the first successful Gallery Hop at the Lincoln-High corner. It spread out from there as more buildings were rehabbed and reoccupied.
Everything changes. We knew it would. To have a strong arts district for almost 35 years is something to be proud of. There are those who think having public art is enough. It isn’t. Public art does not make an arts district. Philadelphia is full of original murals and the city is not an arts district. It is just one part of the puzzle. There are other parts needed: galleries (of all sorts) and unique retailers, not chain stores and restaurants. The evolution of the Short North continues!