We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Bradley Donaldson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Bradley, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

The McKinney Tx historic square has hosted many art galleries over the years. The last one standing 8 years ago was called The Last Art Gallery. It got its name from a combination of Louisiana and Street which is where it is located on the square. Originally 3 ladies started the business but after 4 years were tired of working the 5 days a week schedule.

When I heard they were going to give up their lease I stepped in and suggested a different business model to keep the gallery going. With their blessing I emailed all the current artists showing in the gallery about my idea to start a Cooperatively run gallery. This means they would still pay for space to show their art, but also it would involve them working 2 shifts per month so we could eliminate payroll and get the gallery staffed. Of the 28 or so I emailed, 18 were interested in helping me save the gallery. I formed a new L.L.C. and took over the lease in May of 2019.

I knew I wasn’t going to be able to handle all the roles necessary to have a successful business, so I offered up to 3 of the 18 the opportunity be my partner. Luckily, 3 did step forward and McKinney Art Company was born. I was able to legally obtain the DBA “Last Art Gallery” to keep things consistent with the business. On June 1 2019, we were off and running!

It was an interesting startup because we had to make everything up as we went along. Our biggest challenge was finding more artists so we could be open more days of the week. The second challenge was getting 18 people to all understand how to work in a gallery. Most of our artists are introverted, so teaching them to say hello and wait on a customer took many hours of training. Everyone was enthusiastic about the challenge and before long we were in a happy rhythm of sales. We started out with 4 potters, 4 Jewlers and the rest were painters. We had to learn about each other’s techniques and processes in order to talk to customers intelligently. It was really exciting!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I spent the last 40 years or so working in the Automobile business. I worked my way up to becoming Vice President and General Manager of a small chain of German manufactured car dealerships. With that experience, I ended up buying my own Toyota store and operated it for many years before selling it and moving back to Texas. After that, I spent most of my automotive career doing consulting and development work in the industry before starting a software company with some business friends in 2009. We built a business that sold compliance software to Dealers all across America. In 2021 we had over 700 accounts and were able to sell the company to a venture capital group. This allowed me to retire completely from the automotive business and focus on my art and the gallery.

With this experience, it was easy for me to organize Last Art Gallery into a viable operation. My three partners and I divided up the workload and developed a business model that is working perfectly great today. We occasionally hit a few bumps in the road, but mostly the gallery is very successful. We have run it year after year with the idea that we give back all profits to the betterment of the business. Basically, we have all paid to be volunteers in our own business. We currently give back 92% of the sale price to our artists. If we have excess profits, we plow it back into the business with capital improvement projects. In 2020 we built 8 studios and attracted 8 artists to work in them. We also left a large area open to be our classroom. In 2021, we had to adjust from the impact of COVID. We made it through and had a fantastic 2022. During that year we managed to replace all the storefront glass. Doesn’t sound impressive but replacing 50-year-old glass with modern windows was a big deal. Our building was built in 1901 and gone through many business models. It works great for an art gallery because we have high ceilings and about 4000 square feet to display area. Our artists also conduct classes in their various styles for our customers. Our classroom has become a success story in its own right.

The success of our gallery has had a big impact on the City of McKinney. Our downtown area has now been designated a Cultural Arts District. We have many events throughout the year that involve the arts including Arts in Bloom. This April art festival attracts over 35,000 people over a 3-day weekend. People come to McKinney and find out we are Truley “Unique by Nature”.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Last Art Gallery has 48 artists in total, so when you walk into the gallery there is a lot of work to see. We have 8 potters, 8 jewelers, 3 glass artists, 2 woodworking artists, 2 found item/steampunk artists and the rest are painters. We have a painter for every medium from watercolor to oil paint to resins and acrylics. Then we have artists that come in and create in their studios. Customers love the way we interact with them. We are always willing to share the story of our artwork or our fellow members. It’s a very unselfish group of artists. When customers learn we are all local, work 2 days a month in the gallery and have an exceptional body of work showing in the gallery, they tend to come back. We basically have something for everyone. We are a very popular place to buy gifts as well as to get a customized commission completed. Our classroom offers a variety of classes and each one usually fills up very quickly once posted on our website. Our strongest advertising is word of mouth, and our strongest attribute is that we have created many collectors who seem to come back again and again to purchase original art.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

I actually have 3 partners who stepped forward early in the founding of the gallery. I knew their names, but I really didn’t know them very well. When I said I would take on partners it was because I knew I couldn’t get the gallery operating all by myself. The first requirement of the partnership was the need to help fund the operation. We each put in $2500 to start the gallery and surprisingly enough that amount was just right. We have managed to run the business at a breakeven point over the last 4 years. We found or roles very naturally and throughout the years we have always been on the same page when guiding the gallery through all the business decisions we have made. Interestingly, we have never had a cross word amongst us! The financial goal of the gallery is to break even. The partners are not interested in profits because what we want to do is keep the gallery in business promoting the artwork of all these great artists. From time to time over the years we have had excess profits. This is where we think up the capital improvement projects or if around our anniversary or during the holidays, we throw a party. The partners look at their role as if it were a community service. We are keeping the art alive in downtown McKinney, and we don’t mind paying a bit extra over our rent to accomplish that.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lastartgallery.com
• Instagram: last_art_gallery
• Facebook: lastartgallery

Image Credits
All images are by Bradley Donaldson