Today we’d like to introduce you to Adrian Moody.
Hi Adrian, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Moody Jones Gallery was established in December of 2016. Adrian J. Moody and Robyn R. Jones are its founding principals. The gallery grew out of decades of art collecting by the principals. It has been a lifelong journey that started close to 40 years ago. We both attended Art shows in various cities throughout the years. In August 2004 we opened a Gallery space in Philadelphia called Art on 38. We ran that business for a few years and eventually it closed. It did not stop us in that we continued Art collecting and our personal collection grew even larger. We then decided that we needed to share our collection with the public and in 2016 we opened Moody Jones Gallery in Glenside, Pennsylvania.
Our goal when we opened was to downsize our personal Art collection. Being the patrons that we are Artists who we collected works from over the years got wind of our new Gallery space and we started having shows for Artists.
Owning a Gallery for us is more then a business. It is a lifestyle. We want to encourage the importance of why collecting Art is important. We focus on educating folks who call themselves collectors or those who want to start collecting.
Our mission is primarily preserving and celebrating Art from the African American diaspora. We generally handle original works of that celebrates Black culture and empowerment, and visual storytelling through Fine Art. Beyond rotating fine art exhibitions, the Gallery hosts Artists talks, panel discussions, community workshops, and collecting consulting.
We have involved our two children Nick Moody and Dylan Moody as part of our team. Dylan is our Creative Director and Nick, who played professional football, is a consultant. They grew up surrounded by Art all their life and it is a blessing that they have grown to understand how important it is to continue with what we call our Art Legacy.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Yes there have been obstacles. There have been many shows where we did not make any sales of the Art. Getting the Artist to understand that pricing of Art will impact sales is a struggle. You want the artist to benefit but making the Artist to be realistic can be difficult.
Finding that market of collectors both new and old can be at times a struggle. Key to it all our view is making sure you bring in good work that you believe the public will consider and hopefully purchase.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Adrian Moody was a practicing attorney for over thirty years. Dr. Robyn R. Jones was a Obstetrician/gynecologist by trade and training and ended her career working for Johnson and Johnson dealing with medical research for women.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
We are both optimistic about the growth in the Art space for Galleries in this country. It is important that we keep Art in the forefront. It is important that the public understand the importance of Art as an asset.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://moodyjonesgallery.com
- Instagram: moodyjonesgallery
- Facebook: moodyjonesgallery
