Background:
The Cleopatra Steps Out Gallery opened on May 31, 1996, only 14 weeks after owner/fiber artist Kate Mellina quit her day job as an internal consultant for a large corporation which was offering a voluntary buy-out package to its employees as a result of the corporation's recent divestiture. Mellina and her husband Dave Christopher decided to take the buy-out and to "accept this free pass from heaven."

"Before I left my job, we forged a bond with a local workshop that hand tufts luxurious wool rugs, and our original concept was that we'd design and sell custom rugs on the first floor and offer a revolving menu of fine contemporary art and craft exhibits on our second floor," says Mellina.

The contemporary crafts were so popular that two years later they decided to completely overhaul the first floor to include a wide array of crafts by New Jersey artists and other American craftspeople. "We still offer five special exhibits a year upstairs; these are a great way to attract media publicity and new customers to the gallery."

Kinds of crafts sold:
contemporary crafts in a variety of media, including metal, wood, glass, mosaic, jewelry, fiber, pottery, painting, photography and paper. Functional and non-functional items are carried, but functional pieces, such as lamps, mirrors, picture frames, side tables and other home and office accessories are most popular, along with photographs of area attractions.

Currently looking for:
contemporary crafts in most media (except jewelry), especially by New Jersey craftspeople

Prime customers:
Year-round visitors are generally affluent women or couples in their 30s to 60s. The gallery also receives a large influx of summer residents from neighboring beach towns, and vacationers from New York and Philadelphia.

"We also have a secondary customer base of Jersey shore music fans and people who summered in Asbury Park in their youth. This group of middle-aged and older customers are always looking for items with an Asbury Park or New Jersey theme."

Signature crafts:
In an area dominated by Victorian and traditional seaside gift shops, Cleopatra Steps Out is known for handmade contemporary work with a sense of fun. "We do well with painter Patti Kaufman's vibrant, hand-painted and decoupage mirrors, picture frames and boxes," says Mellina, but the gallery's signature items are exclusive Asbury Park crafts. Tyler Smith developed a series of wall hooks and shelves featuring famous Asbury Park amusement buildings, and Laura Tunis, whose painted gourds usually feature seaside or desert themes, is popular.

Exhibitions:
Special exhibits are held five times a year in the second-floor exhibit space. Exhibits range from contemporary art quilts and cutting-edge cloth dolls by nationally known artists, to the popular "Jersey Girls" summer show, featuring New Jersey women's fine art and crafts, to the annual New Jersey-themed show held in the spring.

"Several months before each exhibit, we put a call out to artists whose pieces would work well with our theme. We look for contemporary, well-made work by people who have earned credibility in their fields, although we are always open to promising new artists."

Artists are found through:
large wholesale craft shows in Philadelphia and Baltimore, the New York International Gift Fair and regional craft fairs. "I spend a fair amount of time shopping for work online, and The Craft Report's Insight column recently inspired us to add two new artists," states Mellina. Current artists are a good source of recommendations, as are inquiries from callers and walk-ins.

Pricing:
Prices are typically assigned by the artist, although assistance is available upon request. Prices range from $2.50 to $8,000, but the majority of the work is in the $25 to $350 range.

Purchase/consignment:
about 50 percent consignment, 50 percent purchased items in the first-floor craft gallery. The consignment split is 60 percent to the artist, and 40 percent to the gallery. All the work shown in the special exhibits gallery is on consignment.

Best-selling price points:
$20-$125

GALLERY OWNERS:

Would you like your gallery to be considered for inclusion in Gallery Profiles? If you are looking to attract new artists and new work, and you have professional slides or transparencies of your gallery, send your background information and images to: The Crafts Report attention: Kimberly Geib 300 Water St. Wilmington, DE 19801.

Gallery size:
1,900 square feet of display space, equally divided between general crafts on the first floor and special exhibits on the second floor

Number of artists currently represented:
Over 100 artists are represented in the first-floor craft gallery; the second-floor special exhibits gallery includes anywhere from one to 40 artists.

Non-craft items sold:
"We sell some special Asbury Park items such as T-shirts and house flags that Dave and I designed especially for the gallery. We also have a small display area featuring Vandor cookie jars, teapots and salt-and-pepper shakers in 'baby-boomer' themes, such as the Beatles, the Pink Panther, etc."

Services offered to customers:
gift certificates, free delivery of large items within a one-hour radius of the gallery, free design service on custom rugs if the customer purchases a rug. The gallery owners will also work with artists to design other custom gifts or home accessories for their customers. "We will also bring work to a customer's home, if he or she lives in the area, to help them test a piece in their home setting," says Mellina.

"Through Kate's association with our local Chamber of Commerce, we have worked as an information-sharing center for artists and entrepreneurs interested in relocating to Asbury Park. We host frequent school tours and have held exhibits of work by local school children. Each year, we host at least one fund-raising party for a local charity, and support local causes throughout the year. We also host meetings for everyone from the Chamber of Commerce to the N.J. ASID (American Society of Interior Designers). We've even hosted a surprise 40th birthday party!" says Christopher.

Gallery location:
The gallery is located in the historic downtown district of the beachfront resort town of Asbury Park, and is also at the heart of a zone that has been under redevelopment since 1996 (see The Crafts Report, April 2000, "The Pros and Cons of Opening a Gallery in a Redevelopment Area," and September 1996, "Seaside Community Crafts a New Image").

To submit work to the gallery:
"Contemporary craft artists can send photos or style sheets and descriptions of their work to the gallery, or can ask us to check out their Web sites," says Mellina. Artists can also contact us by telephone, but I generally prefer to see photos of the work before I set up an appointment. Drop-ins are not encouraged, and I absolutely hate receiving unsolicited e-mails with photo files attached. By the time they download, I'm convinced that I never want to hear from the artist again!"

Photographs will be returned if the artist includes a SASE, but Mellina likes to file paper images of artists' work or bookmark their Web sites for future consideration.

Why selling crafts:
"Because we love them! Despite our technical backgrounds (master's degrees in statistics for both of us), Dave and I have always been tinkerers. One of our first home improvement projects was dining room valances with real dishes and silverware floating on them. Owning a gallery not only lets us operate in a creative environment, it inspires our own creativity whether we're hanging an exhibit or dreaming up our own wacky projects. And we love to see customers' reactions to an individual artist's work," says Mellina. "Whenever times get tough, Dave slyly reminds me that I could easily return to a corporate job, and it puts everything in perspective. We'd love to expand into a space big enough for individual artist studios some day."

Kimberly Geib is editorial assistant of The Crafts Report.

MAY 2000: TABLE OF CONTENTS