About the Art Upstairs Gallery

In late Spring of 2002, a group of local artists founded Art Upstairs Gallery.  They wanted to provide artists in the Charlottesville area an opportunity to exhibit and market their art.

For five years, Art Upstairs Gallery was located upstairs in the historic Hardware Store on the Downtown Mall in Charlottesville  When the Hardware Store was sold in 2006, the Gallery moved to its new location in York Place at 112 Main Street. It is now accessible both from the Downtown Mall and from Water Street.

Art Upstairs is operated by its member artists. They sit the gallery and serve on committees which run the business.  There are a maximum of about 24 members.  Each artist has his or her own space to display paintings.  Every month, the artists refresh their displays by changing the paintings that they hang.

Every month, one of the artists is the Featured Artist and enjoys a large display area and is the focus of the Gallery's publicity.  Art Upstairs participates in First Fridays and the Gallery Walk and hosts an Opening highlighting the artist of the month and attended by many of the member artists.  In December, there is an All Members' Show.

New members are juried in by a standards committee and pay a monthly fee to belong to the gallery. Our artists work in  oils, watercolors, ceramics, photography and mixed media.