By Rebekah Jacob 

Published on the blog of Skirt! Charleston 

Passion and courage fuel the creative entrepreneur to move forward, innovate, and take risks that others wouldn’t dare. Passion and courage fuel us to believe in ourselves to do our best as our lives unfold. As Albert Camus wrote, “Life is a sum of all your choices. Large or small, our actions forge our futures, hopefully inspiring others along the way.”

Passion is energy, an emotion that must be channeled and there is no better time to hone that energy than now. In my own life and profession, sure a top-notch curator/dealer requires academic training, apprenticeships, travel, and a hard-drive of information and images; but most of all, I need the ever-burning passion and boldness to be in the game, no matter what.  Because in the freedom fight, more times than not, you get your ass kicked.

I also think of passion in regard to establishingand developing the RJG brand, a living organism. With full hearts and intense focus, everything we have tried to do is steeped in quality, ethics, humanity, and artistry. I hope that the brand’s touchstones and the source of our pride are respect, dignity, compassion, community, responsibility and authenticity. No matter what I have always been proud of the passion that our artists and our staff have spurred in their hearts, while venturing along this never ending, sometimes unpredictable, journey that honors the past while reinventing the future.

In life and our careers, there are moments when we summon the courage to make choices that go against reason, common sense, and the wise counsel of people we trust. Despite all risk and rational argument, we search deep, lean forward, and believe–no matter what–that we are choosing the right and best thing to do. We refuse to be bystanders, even if we don’t know exactly where our actions will lead or if we have the skill-sets to follow them through. We become innately intuitive, holding our own counsel and putting one foot in front of the other, determined to scale the intimating mountain to reach the summit.

I  also think of boldness in regard to the innovation and creativity of  our brand, particularly through technology.  In my own business, innovation is about rethinking the nature of a brand and also its relationships, not just about retaining products. RJG has strived to build our technology so that  we receive a lot of traction from established and  new online social networks.  In our journey into the virtual world, we have worked hard to get on the front end and better understand / capitalize on the power of the web at large. Having learned from both established and new clients, our website  has evolved into more than a one-way suggestion box;  it can  has become a genuine opportunity to connect–and buy. There is no doubt that in a creative business, an online social media presence, versatile web based platform, and online marketplace cannot be discounted.

When runningmy own gig, mediocrity will not do. I have put in 10,000 hours and I am ready to put in 10,000 more.  Iam busy every hour of every day, ushering in deals, launching new projects, realigning staff, solving problems.  It can be overwhelming.  There is no time to waste, and I am often running gains against the clock. Running your own gig is a balancing act by which we will survive our crucible and thrive behind it, with heads held high but feet firmly planted in reality. Ladies, thisdelicate balance of passion, boldness, and innovation is key, as this is how we win. #Onward

Everything starts with the art.  We choose artists and estates from the American South and Caribbean Isles based on instinct, creativity, breadth of work, price point, and attitude. We aggressively mine and exhibit enlightened work that evokes the modern age of these two regions riddled with complexity and never-ending exploration, and which deeply connected via indigo, cotton, and slave trade.  Whether emerging or experienced, these artists expand the conventional definitions of their medium including paintings, works on paper, photography and video.  

Growing up in the Mississippi Delta, I was wholeheartedly seduced by the art of the American South both for its stunning visuals and for the great divides it addresses.  Many Southern fine art photographers deeply engage in the essence of place, visually examining the relationship between past and present to make sense of the peculiarities of Southern identity. I seek out artists who stay true to their Southern roots not by solely focusing on the beauty of the landscape but also by exploring the conundrums of the place we call home.  These issues of poverty, race, and inequality have become a driving point of interest for me, strongly evident in my affinity for documentary photography, whether vintage or contemporary, as it relays a strong, intricate narrative that extends beyond the place where words end.  Bringing the work of Civil Rights photographers like James Karales to the forefront likewise highlights the need for continued discussion on issues that continue (unfortunately) to remain relevant today.  My favorite WPA authors/photographers like Eudora Welty and Walker Evans traveled the Carolinas, capturing in words and images this land of elegant decay, still struggling to heal from the Civil War. Similarly, many contemporary photographers like Richard Sexton poignantly capture and document fading structures and archetypal characters in a way that still entrances me.

In a parallel construction, I believe that there is no more magical place on earth than Cuba. Since my early twenties, I have made it a personal mission to share the rich visual vocabulary of Cuban artists and photographers informed by centuries of cultural and political discussion.  Revolutionary greats like Roberto Salas, Caralse, and Alberto Kordo helped incite the revolution in Fidel’s Cuba and made phenomenal exhibitions in my home state.  Later, having become well-versed in the emerging art scene, I had the opportunity to juxtapose the work of the two regions and have curated several exhibitions of Southern and Cuban artwork in Havana and throughout the Southeast.  Over the years, I have seen many of our monumentally-themed gallery projects––both exhibitions and publications—take on their own organic forms, becoming a voice for thousands who sacrificed to change the world.  

After years of diligent research and honing my skills, I at last opened my dream gallery in early 2004.  Rebekah Jacob Gallery began in a modest thousand square foot white box in the quiet, quaint area of lower King Street in downtown Charleston.  The odds were not in my favor; at this point, neither contemporary art nor photography had a strong foothold in the Charleston market. Yet I persevered, bolstered by the entrepreneurial spirit of my father, Les Jacob, whose voice I would often hear reminding me to put my head down and get to work, no excuses.  We not only survived, we thrived, and as the economy rebounded, we decided to triple our inventory and our space. Progressive art requires a progressive neighborhood, so we headed north to upper King Street, an area at the heart of the city’s creative culture renaissance.  The large walls of this sexy 3,000 square foot Chelsea-like gallery were necessary to keep up with the increased production from my artists as well as the increased demand from our clients.  A progressive but also an ardent preservationist, I was attracted to the traditional design by a Charleston architect that was flexible enough to allow for the modern edge instilled by my designer William Bates.

However, I failed to forecast how the mercurial rise of internet commerce and the radical redirection of marketing towards social media would dramatically affect my business. Technology trumped square footage, so I downsized our footprint and invested in our internet platform. Our physical location on Broad Street is secondary to our online presence, where the majority of our art is now sold to buyers around the world.  Instead of print media buys, we focus our energies on creating an e-commerce experience that is attractive and secure. 

My father said that success happens when preparation meets opportunity. I have spent my life preparing through academic training, apprenticeships, professional networking, and global travels.  As Rebekah Jacob Gallery turns ten, I think he would have been proud to see my diligence has turned into a legacy.

- Rebekah Jacob