A MAJOR Change to The Dancing Rabbit Gallery

Earlier this month, we spent a Monday morning watching the funeral procession for Queen Elizabeth II, and we were very touched by the tributes paid to this wonderful monarch. For her entire long life, she worked diligently to improve the lives of her people, and by extension the lives of everyone on the planet. But, as we observed a few weeks ago, all good things must come to an end.

That brings me to the subject of this month’s newsletter. As of November 1, 2022, The Dancing Rabbit Gallery will be closing its doors after 42 years of operation as an art gallery specializing in Native American art of the American Southwest.

To celebrate our transition, we are offering all of our website visitors a special opportunity during the month of October. Everything on the website is offered at 20% off retail, and still includes the free shipping and free insurance in the United States and Canada. To obtain the savings, just enter the coupon code exodus in the shopping cart when you check out, and it will recalculate the price. The coupon code will expire at midnight on October 31, so do not wait if there is something you have been waiting to acquire. After October 31, the inventory will no longer be available for purchase. Because of the nature of this transition, we are unable to utilize layaway and unable to accept any returns. As always, shipping and insurance are completely free in the United States and Canada.

This was a difficult and very emotional decision for us. As Michael and I are both getting older and health issues are becoming more prominent, we felt that we were no longer able to sufficiently deliver a superior quality experience for our clients. We made the painful decision to cease operations.

We will always be very grateful for the amazing relationships we built over the decades with Native American artists and their families. These relationships will stay with us forever. We mourned the passing of decades-long friends, and welcomed new babies into the next generation of artists. We learned an immense amount about Native American cultures.

We also wanted to extend our heartfelt thanks to our clients, without whose support and encouragement this Gallery would have not been a success. Our overarching goal has always been to provide everyone a meaningful learning experience while looking at our website. Knowing more about the backstories of the artists, their tribes, and their cultures brings the art that they produce alive to a much greater degree. Art tells a story, and being able to interpret that story makes the art much more than pretty shapes and colors.

Part of our mission at The Dancing Rabbit Gallery was outreach, and we worked with a number of wonderful organizations over the years. The most touching to me is the work done by Adopt a Native Elder (anelder.org) as we sponsored elderly Navajo living on the reservation, often without running water, electricity, or adequate food. Being able to provide those life essentials is a very humbling feeling. We also worked with the Museum of New Mexico Foundation (MIAC) to help sponsor their activities, and the School for Advance Research (SAR), and the Institute for American Indian Arts (IAIA), and others. Generally, any profits we made from our Gallery went into those organizations.

And finally, we would like to extend our very grateful thanks to our suppliers and service partners over the years. In particular, Native American Arts magazine has continually given us both professional and high-quality advertisements and we feel as though we developed excellent personal relationships with many of Michael Clawson’s team.

We discussed at length the option of selling the business outright to another owner, and decided that even though it was a financially better option for us to do that, we did not want the name and legacy of The Dancing Rabbit Gallery to move away from our control.

We both feel truly blessed to have traveled this path over the years, meeting wonderful people and getting to become part of their lives and families. We have seen the grandeur of the American Southwest, both created by Mother Nature and subsequently modified by humans. The history and culture are both deep and extensive in this part of North America, often overlooked by those comfortable in large cities and crowded neighborhoods. The American Southwest, and the peoples who came to this area tens of thousands of years ago, developed a harmonious lifestyle together. We have learned many lessons from our time on Mother Earth, and we hope to continue to learn and grow for as long as we continue to make trips around the Sun. Happy Trails, everyone!