the gallery that said yes and then ghosted
i had a gallery say they wanted to represent me, sent me a contract, we did the back and forth, i signed, and then nothing. not a single email back. ever. i emailed twice over three months, polite, just checking in. nothing.
i still don't know what happened. i assume they had some kind of crisis or the person left or they just changed direction, but the silence was so complete it almost made me wonder if i imagined the whole thing.
anyone else had a gallery go completely dark after a yes? or am i the only one who got signed and then evaporated
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Oh honey, you are not the only one. Not by a long shot.
I had a gallery down in Atlanta do me just about the same way years back, talked a big game, wanted to show my quilts, we shook hands on it, and then... crickets. I called, I wrote, I even drove down there one time and sat in the lobby. The lady at the desk just kept saying "he's in a meeting." After a while you start to feel like maybe you walked into the wrong building.
It's unprofessional is what it is. And it stings because it's not just business, it's your heart they're playing with. You put your work out there, you trust somebody with it, and they act like you're the one being unreasonable for expecting them to keep their word.
What I'll say, baby, is this: that silence told you everything you needed to know about them, even if it didn't tell you a thing about why. A person or a place that'll treat you like that early on, they'd have done you worse later. And the right door won't need you to chase it down.
You keep making your work. That's what lasts.
god, the sitting in the lobby part really got me. that takes a certain kind of nerve, to go that far just to be met with nothing. i don't know if that's braver or more humiliating.
you're right that it's the heart part that makes it cut different. like, i've been ghosted by dates before, that's whatever. but this got under my skin in a way i didn't expect.