From the publisher, James Gimian:
Why We Are Launching the Online Gallery
The idea of the Online Gallery arose after many years of hearing our readers tell us how much they love the art and design in our magazines. “Oh, I love the Shambhala Sun. It’s so beautiful!” is what we are so often told. We’re not surprised when we hear this, because art and design are integral to the Shambhala Sun Foundation’s mission of presenting genuine dharma. In fact, for us, the art itself is dharma. So the idea of making it available to our readers was always somewhere in the back of our mind, something we might get around to someday.
Then, as we announced in our September issue, we made the transition to becoming an independent nonprofit corporation. Our new status has made it necessary for us to find ways to fund the organizational costs and new initiatives that aren’t covered by the proceeds of a nonprofit magazine-publishing business. When we considered our opportunities, we saw that while we didn’t have lots of extra money to invest in new business ventures, we did have some mighty assets: the support of the artists, illustrators, museums, and galleries who appreciate how we’ve treated their work in our pages; the ability to produce publications with very high production values; and the appreciation and support of readers like you who love our work and want to support us.
From there it was an easy leap to start this Online Gallery venture to make available to our readers high-quality archival prints of the art in the magazines. We figured that if we could pull it off, then when we heard someone say, “I love your magazines; the art is so beautiful,” we could reply, “Well, why not take it home with you, and in doing so you could help us continue to fulfill our mission.”
Generous Contributors
To get started, we approached the artists, museums, and publishing companies whose unique work illustrates our articles. We found them all willing to take part and very generous in extending rights for this project. Our art directors work hard to present artwork in its best light, and consequently we’ve found that our contributors have a lot of appreciation for how we treat their work.
We also hope that our Online Gallery offerings will spur further interest in our contributors’ work. As a result, the interest you and your friends take in their work will bring benefit to them that matches their generous gifts to us. We encourage you to explore the websites and galleries of the artists and museums whose work is represented here, because we are sure you will see many other works of interest. We hope that you will love their work as much as we do.
One great concern and potential stumbling block in establishing the Online Gallery was the considerable capital needed to print and inventory 25-30 high-quality archival-grade prints. High-quality, short-run (print runs of up to 300, in this case) printing is an art in itself. It is very cost-effective on a per-unit basis, but the costs of printing 30 or more separate prints at the same time easily add up to $50,000. Fortunately, we knew from producing our magazines that high-end, on-demand printing (a distant relative of the color printing you can now do in your own home) had evolved, but we didn’t have much experience with it. And we couldn’t settle for anything less than the level of quality our readers had come to expect of us.
A First-Rate Printing House
After just a little research, we were surprised and pleased to discover that we had an excellent on-demand printing company just a few blocks away in Halifax. With state-of-the-art scanning and printing equipment (their suppliers describe their scanning set-up as one of only ten of its kind in the entire world), Image House has established a reputation among artists for producing prints that rival the originals in quality and attention to detail. In owner Craig Yorke and Image House, we found a partner for the Online Gallery who had the same commitment to quality and precision that we have built our reputation on.
So that put things in place, except of course for all the work it has taken our staff to put everything together for the Online Gallery launch. Now we are pleased to offer a wide selection of fine art and photographs, calligraphies by artists and dharma teachers, and illustrations we have commissioned to illustrate covers and articles. Most prints are available in two sizes to accommodate your needs, and we’ve arranged for an elegant framing option for those who don’t want to have to do that separately. We are proud to present this excellent work, and honored to work with such wonderful artists.
Dharma in your world
In the end, the Online Gallery is about wonderful art, and appreciating the brilliance of the phenomenal world. You’ll note that each description starts with comments by the art director who chose the work, either Liza Mathews, art director of the Shambhala Sun, or Seth Levinson, art director of Buddhadharma: The Practitioner’s Quarterly. Hear in their own words how they came to choose the work and why they were inspired by the artist. And we hope you decide to bring some of this art home with you to brighten up your surroundings and inspire everyone who sees it there—or to give some to friends and family. As with everything we do around here, this gallery is simply another way we can work together to express the dharma and share it with as many people as possible.