The gallery is part of our art. Indeed, community seems to be at the core of these alternative venues. She points to ArtVigor, an East Boston gallery that recently closed. People would come in off the street with food and talk about the art. There isn't that austere, pristine feeling you find in many commercial galleries and museums.
People are more friendly.
The stakes aren't so high. To go into a Newbury Street gallery, you practically have to get a pedicure and have your hair blown-dried. Many alternative galleries have outreach programs. Green Street curates a show of high school photography. Out of the Blue helps with art projects at the Martin Luther King School in Cambridge.