Frontrunner Gallery actually opened at 59 Franklin back in January, but it took me a few months to figure that out. I went and visited a month or so ago, but I’ve been waiting for an opening to take photos. In other words, “New Kid on the Block” is relative.

The gallery is a collective for emerging artists, founded by (from left in the photo above) Michael Fasciano, a senior digital strategist at Kirshenbaum Bond and a documentary filmmaker; Lys Hunter Schwartz, a designer who works for a textile company as well as on her own projects, including a calendar wheel about which produce in season; Leah Overstreet, a portrait photographer and photo director at MTV; and Edward Symes, a photographer and filmmaker who had been working in the building when the landlord started looking for a gallery tenant.

“It’s a place where creative people come together, network, and learn by osmosis,” says Fasciano. “We want to use the space not only to talk about creative work but also support it.” They’ve started a Meetup called Crosslink at the gallery; a recent topic was crowdsourcing funding for art projects (they raised $3,000 for a documentary film).

They describe the opening process as “slow and steady,” determining what works as they go. “When we started, we were looking for artists, but now artists are finding us,” says Schwartz. That might include painters, sculptors, photographers, musicians, anyone; gallery openings often end with a performance or two. The one I attended last week was for a show of mixed-media work by Alejandra Picard (pictured above, along with a photo of one of her paintings), although I left before the music. Actually, I left before most people arrived—I think I trend old for the Frontrunner crowd….

Frontrunner Gallery is at 59 Franklin (between Broadway and Lafayette); frontrunnermagazine.com.

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