Learn about the features and challenges of an artist-run gallery

Artist-led galleries provide space for exhibitions by member artists and others.
Often run by artists who prefer co-operation between artists
​to representation by more conventional and commercial art galleries - although some do both
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Artist-run galleries have long been key players in the contemporary art ecosystem. They offer an essential counterpoint to the commercial sector, where experimentation sometimes takes a backseat to producing sellable work. A feature of every city with a significant community of artists, they come in every shape and size.
The Pleasures and Pitfalls of Starting and Sustaining an Artist-Run Gallery
Below are some references to articles about artist-run galleries for those looking for information about them.
I'll be writing this section up properly in due course.

What is an artist-run gallery?
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Artist-run galleries are for those artists who want to co-operate to exhibit and sell art - without the involvement of a commercial or public art gallery.
  • At their simplest they are the annual exhibitions of any local art society
  • As they get more ambitious, they create organisation structures and secure spaces on a longer term basis and become an artist-run gallery

While some are very successful, it's sadly the case that for others, whatever talents the artists may have as artists are not always matched by the very necessary knowledge and skills they need to run an art business.
REFERENCE:
An artist-run space is a gallery facility operated by creators such as painters or sculptors, thus circumventing the structures of public (government-run) and private galleries. Artist-run spaces have become as an important factor in urban regeneration, for example in Glasgow, Scotland.
Wikipedia
CASE STUDY - SUCCESSFUL ARTIST-LED GALLERY #1 - Mall Galleries, The Mall, London

Some artist-led galleries become very successful because they
  • create the organisational structures they need and
  • attract the expertise and technical and business-minded support they require

An example in London is the Mall Galleries which is run by the Federation of British Artists  a major visual arts charity established in 1961 which comprises eight of the UK’s leading art societies, specialising in oil, portrait, marine, wildlife, watercolour, pastel, printmaking and sculpture.  This is a successful business model of an artist-led gallery in a prime location in the centre of London which goes from strength to strength - with help of full-time staff and business-minded trustees. It also hires out space and hosts some of the major/leading UK art competitions and art events by other artists.
Picture
The Mall Galleries in London is run by the Federation of British Artists - an organisation of leading national art societies in the UK.

Starting an artist-run gallery
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Probably the best advice is to walk before you run! 
​i.e. get experience of running an exhibition by hiring a space before you get into grander schemes of running a space for exhibitions over a longer period.

You also MUST be very wary of "what you don't know you don't know" (and the fact that your peers may be in the same place as you).

​Just because you want to do something doesn't mean to say you know everything you need to know to be able to sustain it over time. 

The next best piece of advice is DO YOUR RESEARCH! (see below)
REFERENCE:

Lessons from artist-run galleries
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Some are resolutely anti-commercial and only last a season; others move, adapt, and transform into viable commercial galleries over the course of years. Some are wife-and-husband passion projects; others engage dozens of members living thousands of miles apart. There’s no dominant model or sure formula for a successful artist-run gallery—or even an agreed-upon measure of what success looks like—but they do tend to follow a few structures and patterns, from how they’re organized to how they pay the bills and handle sales.
​The Pleasures and Pitfalls of Starting and Sustaining an Artist-Run Gallery | Artsy
Artist-run galleries
  • succeed because of initiative and drive at the beginning and good relationships with the artists - backed up by a sound business model, access to relevant expertise and sound systems which are sustained over time as key people come and go
  • falter because of artists falling out and people thinking they know more than they actually do - and fail to ask/pay for and get appropriate advice and support to develop a sustainable business model
  • fail because more successful artists leave +  the lack of business acumen of those running them and people leaving who made it all work.

Read the lessons of those who have tried and those who survive to find out:
  • what are the challenges
  • what helped them succeed
  • what influenced the success or otherwise of the venture
  • why they failed, if they failed
Artsy identified the following business models in their survey
  • Couples who curate
  • The collective good - Many of the artist-run galleries that stick around for five or more years benefit from a larger, rotating membership system and more formal structures.
  • Location, location location - expenses as well as gallery space and time have to be split between members as 
  • the way they deal - and the need to be real!
REFERENCE:
Artsy regular runs articles within its art market section on artist-led exhibition spaces Other articles:
  • Artist-run Galleries - Differentiating Three Models in Current Contemporary Art Markets | Journal for Art Market Studies - "focuses on a particular local establishment of artist-run galleries in New York at the intersection of art production and commercial/institutional recognition. Artists founded art-run galleries that show strategies to exhibit and sell works of art in a peer-to-peer scenario, breaking with some established safeguarding protocols of emerging and established White Cube galleries. "​
​Artnet News also focuses on art spaces run by artists from time to time