Stopped off at Leura on the way home Friday 8th May. Originally off to Lilli’s Pad so parked opposite but decided to walk up further and check out some artworks at Gallery Lane, off Railway Pde, Leura. We entered via the back gate with a sign ‘Gallery” on it and in wandered up past the outside of the gallery. My partner wanted to go straight in to view the works but on first inspection from the outside things didn’t look too exciting (for me at least) and since we were near Leura Garage I said “lets have a look on the way back after we grab something to eat”. Well that’s just exactly what we did and as we walked down to the gallery at around 3pm we noticed two elderly people (a man and a woman) sitting outside to the right of the closed gallery doors. “Is the gallery closed” my partner asked as we slowed to wait for a response. There was no reply, so we continued on. “Excuse me”, suddenly an abrupt and acerbic voice cut the air. “You can’t go through there, this is not a public thoroughfare, this is a private garden. I remember you, I saw you two walk through earlier. You can only come through here if you are visiting the gallery or going to the chiropractor.” There must have been a momentarily perplexed expression on my face. Where were the signs saying “No public access” “No thoroughfare” “Access only for gallery patrons” “No access beyond this point” From the laneway, none, just a sign on the open gate saying “Gallery” and certainly nothing at the front entrance to the drive from Railway Pde, or anything to indicate a denial of access or passage. In a moment that person (who I assumed to be the gallery owner) had cost the gallery any chance of future patronage on both our parts and any chance of recommendation to friends or other interested parties. I couldn’t even be bothered to explain that, that, was what we had come for; to see the gallery. Rude is not my food. We could have returned the response and kept walking the extra 7 meters, however, we just turned and walked back out the drive and around the block to where we were parked and; lamenting our decision, headed home.
Art + Photography + AI 