Paramount Gift Gallery, Gallery St. Germain Merging

ST. CLOUD --The Paramount Center for the Arts is merging two of their galleries.

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The Paramount plans to move the Gallery St. Germain from the Regency Building to the Paramount Gift Gallery when their lease ends next month.

Executive Director Bob Johnson says the expansion will allow them to have both galleries under one roof, while still having the ability to accommodate the needs of each gallery.

We will have portable walls, and can adjust the size of the room depending on the need. If we had a larger exhibition, we could contract the size of the gift gallery and if we had a Christmas sale we could expand the size of the gift gallery.

The Gallery St. Germain has been operational since 2015 and shows roughly 8-10 local and national shows each year.

The Paramount Gift Gallery has been in operation since 2000 and presents the works of 71 incredibly talented Central Minnesota Artists.

Johnson says there are many advantages to combining both galleries.

The financial advantage, one employee or volunteer can handle both spaces at the same time, and we have the potential to increase patronage in both venues as people come preshow or during intermission to look at the gift gallery they can also see an exhibition. So there really are some distinct advantages to doing this.

Johnson says the plan would be to expand the gift gallery by about 270 square-feet.

He says while the gift gallery will be shut down during construction, all the pottery, paintings, jewelry and other works of art will still be available to view or buy online.

Renovations are scheduled to begin by the end of April with hopes of completing the project by early Summer.