Support Galveston County’s art community with online shopping

With one click on the Galveston Art League’s homepage, visitors can see the current month’s exhibit. Or they can go back to see two previous months of gallery exhibits.

​Like most retail businesses, the Galveston Art League Gallery has experienced a drop-off in foot traffic
since Covid-19 erupted. Many Galveston County residents and tourists want to support the artists who
work in the region, however, and the Art League needed a new tactic to meet the challenges of the
pandemic. Ultimately the Art League made it easier to see and buy area artists’ work with its recently
revamped and upgraded website, www.GalvestonArtLeague.com.
But it wasn’t a straight or easy solution.
At first, the Galveston Art League Gallery – like many other businesses – completely shut down for
several weeks. Then the gallery, at 2117A Postoffice St. in downtown Galveston, reopened in summer
2020, but only on Saturdays and Sundays, which meant fewer hours to make sales even as fewer people
strolled through the facility. In the pre-Covid era, the league’s gallery had been open Thursdays-
Sundays.
Several ArtWalks were canceled, which further depressed gallery sales. The Galveston Art League
Gallery, voted Readers’ Choice Best Art Gallery in a Galveston County Daily News poll, was always
hopping with visitors and shoppers during those Saturday night ArtWalks.
Clearly it was time for the Galveston Art League to make an important pandemic pivot to further the
league’s mission of promoting visual arts and regional artists: offering online sales of artwork.
The first step was for the Art League webmaster to set up online shopping in the summer of 2020. It was
a significant advancement, but the photos of artists’ pieces were small because of the aging platform for
the website.
So the Art League tapped one of its talented volunteers to create a new website with improved
shopping capabilities and another major plus: The website is “responsive,” meaning its size adapts to the
device you’re using.
Designed to keep members and nonmembers in the know about Galveston Art League, the new website
is much easier to navigate. For shoppers, that means it’s just a click from a link on the homepage to see
items in the latest show and sale. They see larger images and other vital information such as medium,
price and size. Shoppers also can click on homepage links to view artworks and details about the
previous two months’ shows.
All credit cards are accepted, but if someone wants to write a check or pay with cash, an email to
gallery2117@gmail.com or phone call to 940-222-1958 can make that happen. Shipping is also available.
Of course, if you can visit the gallery physically, that’s the best way to view the artwork: up-close and
personal. Hours are noon to 6 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Please sign the guest book and ask
questions about the artwork and the artists, most of whom have business cards and bios on file in the
gallery.