Gallery Project co-directors Gloria Pritschet and Rocco DePietro always knew the funding that covered a portion of their contemporary art gallery’s rent had a shelf life. They are extremely appreciative of the 5 years of support provided by their former benefactor, Julio DePietro, a filmmaker (and Rocco DePietro's son) who formerly resided in Ann Arbor but now lives in New York. As was agreed upon, the funding ceased at the end of March.

Although Gallery Project makes some money from the sale of artworks, its vision as a non-profit organization does not intend the space to be a commercial business. The co-directors agree that 1 challenge they face is to find new ways to raise money without having to retool their original vision for how their space on South Fourth Avenue should be used. About a year and a half ago the co-directors, volunteers, board members and the gallery’s network stepped up fundraising efforts in order to secure new sources of money that would cover the inevitable gap.

The gallery is closing for the month of April for a little repainting and possibility some light renovations; however, when the gallery reopens in May, visitors will find that Gallery Project’s basic nature has not changed. A new cycle of contemporary group art exhibitions will commence with the opening of “Imaging the Future” on Wednesday, May 5.

In the final days of March, Pritschet and DePietro shared their story about how and why they are keeping the gallery going despite reduced funding. “People think that we got some great big grant from someone and that’s why we’re staying open,” Pritschet says. In fact, “we did work on getting donors and writing grants, but we were unsuccessful.”

The funds the gallery has been able to collect over the last year or so have come out of the pockets of gallery patrons, who include mostly local contributors along with Gallery Project supporters nationwide. Most of these donations have been “small in amount, yet generous in heart,” according to Pritschet. A few people have contributed $1,000 checks to the gallery and an out-of-state foundation gave them $500, but the co-directors agree that these are “the larger donations” they have gotten. Contributions have mostly come from small donations at fundraising events, money collected in a plastic jar at the gallery’s front door, or individual private contributions that the gallery receives in the mail.

Landlord Ed Shaffran is supporting the gallery by “reducing our rent,” which offsets some of the cost that was once covered by their former benefactor, DePietro said.

Moving ahead without a major benefactor or large grant, the Gallery Project co-directors are still “hoping that another sponsor might come forward. We’ll continue to look for sponsors and for grant possibilities, but that will not be the determining factor of Gallery Project staying here,” Pritschet says. She is “encouraged by the individual attitudes of people” who support the gallery with their donations, keep coming back to see new exhibitions and volunteer their time and networks.

An ever-rotating roster of collaborating curators work on exhibitions dreamt up by the co-directors or they bring original ideas to the gallery. DePietro explains that Gallery Project’s collaborators come from “a broad range” of backgrounds and disciplines, and each contributes “their unique networks” to gallery project’s extended family. Rotating collaborators help accomplish the gallery’s goal of maintaining a constant flow of new and different perspectives in and out of the gallery space, by suggesting artists and utilizing their connections.

Pritschet and DePietro describe their model of exhibition programming as “a gallery of ideas,” and report that Gallery Project collaborator Andrea McDonnell describes it as an “open vessel collecting model” in a paper she wrote that evaluated Gallery Project. The gallery only hosts “highly thematic” group exhibitions, which feature many different artists with diverse perspectives on a given exhibition’s theme, according to DePietro. “Rather than owning art that we can pull out and show,” for example, “we make it an open vessel where work can flow through,” he explains. Gallery Project showcases many different “people who are trying to visualize interesting ideas, ideas that are on the cutting-edge of some new frontier,” he explains.

Gallery Project encourages anyone to submit artwork to an exhibition. Exhibition statements are posted on its web site ahead of time so that interested artists can consider how their artworks relate to a given theme. There is no need to submit your entire portfolio, because Gallery Project is more interested to know how particular artworks explore an exhibition’s concept.

One thing that Gallery Project does collect is a vast network of collaborating curators, artists, volunteers and “collaborators at large” — patrons from all over the country, ready to share ideas and support the gallery in a number of ways. In the last year, the gallery’s co-directors wanted to give more recognition “to the relationships that we’ve had with our collaborators at large over time,” and “energize our network,” DePietro explains.

The gallery also has a “self-motivated” board of directors, “who are workers, just like we are,” DePietro says. Pritschet adds that the board is “a non-hierarchical, collegial board of people who are motivated to be active in Gallery Project and get hands-on,” she says. Board meetings are more about “splitting up the work,” than anything else, according to the co-directors.

There are other ways the gallery could make money. They could rent space to exhibiting artists or become a co-operative that charges membership fees. Pritschet and DePietro opted to stay true to the model that had established in the gallery’s first 5 years, and decided “not give up on our original vision and the original sense of how to bring that about,” which includes things like not charging artists to submit their work and not representing the commercial interest of any particular artists, Pritschet explains.

The gallery rents out the space for things like fundraisers and “cocktail parties” or other “social events,” but they do not rent the space out for solo shows or exhibitions that only feature a couple of artists, nor do they host weddings. You can inquire about using the space for your event, as long as it is “focused on viewing the art,” DePietro says.

“Imaging the Future,” the 1st exhibition in Gallery Project’s new cycle, challenged artists to pose questions about the future and answer them with their art. The artworks in the exhibition will explore a wide range of questions, from “What is going to happen to my town, to Michigan, to my country, my world?” to “Will we have colonies in space or on distant planets and moons, and will we be encouraged to travel there?” according to the exhibition’s statement. Exhibitors in the show include artists, scientists, architects, metaphysicians and explorers. The exhibition will be on display May 5-June 13, and an opening reception for the exhibition will be held in the gallery on Friday, May 7 from 6-9 p.m. Gallery Project is located at 215 South Fourth Avenue, in Ann Arbor.

Jennifer Eberbach is a free-lance writer who covers art for AnnArbor.com.