OUR PROCESS

We book our art well in advance and begin brainstorming for monthly showcases that conceptually, metaphorically, texturally, or literally align with the art we've booked. Each month we empty our entire space, take down the outgoing art, move out all the furniture, take home all the clothes, pack up all the objects, and start with a clean slate. We then curate an entire retail environment to complement the incoming art on our gallery walls. The contents of our monthly showcases are sourced from the estate of our founder's mother (she was more than a bit of a shop-a-holic/collector/hoarder) and our burgeoning community of 40-60 consignors and designers of vintage and contemporary furniture, fashion, art, jewelry, artifacts and ephemera. When it's not in the space, our inventory lives either in our founder's basement ( a by-appointment-only showroom), with our consignors, or, ideally, it's been sold. We launch our new collections on the First Friday of each month in conjunction with Portland's East-side Art Walk, and then on the last weekend of each month we have a huge sale and then we start it all over again. And then again.

OUR PRACTICES

We are a 100-percent volunteer-run organization and we rely exclusively on grass-roots community building and social networking efforts to develop our client, consignor, and volunteer base. In order to do this effectively, we have several practices not commonly found in business contexts. We don't like to 'sell' stuff (perhaps this is why we are a non-profiting for-profit?). We'd rather build trust and support than make sales. We're also sincerely much more interested in hearing about our customers than telling them about us or our stuff. This is how we build relationships, form alliances, connect, and grow. Perhaps most importantly, we try to be a place of possibility, where most things go, where it's okay to go out on a limb, to be yourself, to test the waters, to make mistakes, or happy accidents. We share. We share our ideas, our resources, the keys to our space, the passwords to our website, the messy particulars of our business, our secrets, our successes and our failures. We hope its all for the greater good, that through sharing and comparing we'll continue to grow, to learn, and to ultimately transform ourselves, our community, and others.

OUR PUBLIC PERCEPTION

We are told that Golden Rule is perceived as a special place full of special people and special things. People know we have a powerful history, an ever-changing present and an uncertain future. It's clear there are many layers to us, in each and every one of us here, in every piece of inventory that steps in the door, and in each and every monthly iteration. We are not just a store (we call ourselves a "space" for a reason). Or just a gallery. Or just a community. We are all of the above, and more. We intentionally defy categorization and logic, opting instead of a bit of mystery, a bit of ambiguity, a lot of narrative, and a lot of connection. Those who have come to know and love us best tell us they have to visit us at least every month, if not several times each month, in order to really "get" it, and they miss us when they don't. They tell us we're "a concept shop and gallery" that they "would never recognize us from the months before" but that we always feel "kind of like a natural history museum" with "a lot of heart" and a huge community of "nice people who are really talented and welcoming." But don't take their words for it, experience us yourself.

Want to share your perception of/experience at Golden Rule? Please do! We appreciate all feedback, positive, negative, constructive and anything between.