What is the role of the art gallery ?

There is a difference between an art gallery and an art museum. The first two answerers are describing the functions of art museums. An art gallery sells art. Their role is to seek out new talented artists and to help them develop and mature artistically. Is their job to bring the artist's work to the attention of the buying public (and that of museum acquisition committees.) They build awareness by presenting the artists' work with individual and/or group curated exhibitions. They will bring in the artists to discuss their work with patrons, and they will bring in scholars to talk about aspects of the artists' work. These talks might be about influences for the individual artists, how they compare and contrast with the work of peer artists. They might talk about technique and what is new and different about the work or how it is related to historical works by better known artists. The art gallery advertises and markets the work of the artists they represent. They might also loan it ...  more