It was on the 2nd Saturday of March 2002 that I led my first gallery tour, under my newly-formed enterprise “New York Gallery Tours.”  Therefore, my Sat. March 10, 2012 Chelsea “Best Exhibits” tour will mark my company’s 10-year anniversary.  I can hardly believe how profoundly different my life is from back then.

Ten years ago I was a tenured college professor in New Jersey’s Kean University, and I thought I had the rest of my life mapped out.  I liked teaching (I thought), and was good at it.  The work schedule was decent, salary was acceptable, benefits were good.  It was a safe life.

I spent my days off obsessively visiting the newly emerging Chelsea galleries.  And one day I thought to myself that I’d like to share what I know about art, and about the Chelsea galleries, with other people.  It was supposed to be a once-a-month hobby leading tours, if that.  I didn’t need the money, so I charged next to nothing.  I set up a ridiculously primitive website using Front Page, sent out a few press releases to publications that listed walking tours for free, and waited to see if anyone would show up.

They did.

My first tour consisted of 22 gay men, after one of the gay weekly glossies listed my tour.  We had a fabulous time.  My teaching skills came in handy, as did my accelerating knowledge of the contemporary art scene.  The guys on my tour told their friends.  My e-mail list was born.  And a month later, on my next tour (with all-new art), even more people showed up.

Eventually straight people started attending as well, and the groups got so big I had to run two tours a month.  I expanded beyond the Chelsea galleries – to Soho, then Midtown, then Upper East Side (and, in time, the Lower East Side as well).  Scheduled tours were now taking place every Saturday afternoon, plus a private tour or two during the week.  My work life became stressful, as my full-time teaching job (4 classes of 30 students each, plus research & publishing) started getting in the way of what was becoming my life’s passion.

So I took an unpaid sabbatical for a year, to see if my “business” (yes it was now a business, though I had never taken Econ 101 in college, let alone business courses) would continue to grow.  It did.  Then I asked for a second year of sabbatical, and the university said no.  I said how about if I teach half-time, and the university said no: I had to teach full-time or not return at all.  So I said no.  I gave up tenure.  It was one of the bravest and smartest decisions I ever made.

That was 6 years ago, well before the recession hit.  When the downturn finally happened, it seemed to have no effect on my business, and in fact gallery tour attendance grew slightly each year of the recession.  I was actually supporting myself financially doing what I loved.  I knew I’d never become wealthy from it, but it paid the bills and more.

And so I lead what has become a charmed existence, running my “accidental” business, at which I’m fully immersed in the most vast, most creative visual arts scene in human history.  Here’s to another 10 years of gallery tours.  Make that 40 more years.

Rafael Risemberg, Ph.D.
Founder and Director
New York GalleryTours