Columbus, Ohio USA
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Thomas R. Riley bids farewell
to Short North Community
July 2005
By Jennifer Hambrick
Thomas R. Riley
After eighteen years on High Street, one of the Short North's oldest galleries is closing its doors.
The Thomas R. Riley Galleries, established in 1986 as the Riley Hawk Galleries and a specialist in art glass, is shutting down its Columbus location at 642 N. High Street. According to gallery owner Thomas Riley, the gallery will hold a special thank-you sale before closing for business by mid-August 2005 and locking up for good by September. The Thomas R. Riley Galleries in Cleveland will remain open.
Riley says the Columbus location's closure comes as a result of sluggish business brought about by a family dispute over the gallery's management.
Riley established the Riley Hawk Galleries in Columbus in 1986, leaving it under the management of his daughter, Sherrie Riley Hawk, and her husband, Tom Hawk. In 1987, Riley opened the gallery's Cleveland location and remained in Cleveland. Riley claims he was full owner of both galleries.
According to Riley, while he was in the American art glass Mecca of Seattle establishing a third Riley Hawk Galleries location, his daughter and son-in-law staged a forceful takeover of the Columbus gallery, creating a logo for a Hawk Gallery to reside in the former Riley Hawk Galleries space, putting contracts with credit card companies solely in their names and advertising an upcoming Riley Hawk show as a Hawk Gallery show.
“It was very drastic action,” Riley said.
Riley hypothesized that his divorce from Riley Hawk's mother in 1993 and his remarriage two years later may have provoked insecurity about the fate of the family business, though he claims that there was no reason for it.
“There were no grounds for them to feel that they were being shut out,” Riley said. “They worked for me, they wanted to have it all, and they wanted me to give it to them, but I wasn't ready for that at the time. If they had waited, I would have given it to them. Nothing sinister had happened to them in the interval. There was really only that fear that something bad might happen.”
In early 2002, the Riley Hawk Galleries split, becoming the Thomas R. Riley Galleries, owned and operated by Riley, and the Hawk Galleries, owned and operated by Sherrie Riley Hawk and Tom Hawk. At that point, Riley says, mudslinging began. Riley claims that Riley Hawk Galleries’ art collectors and artists began to defect as a result.
“Tom and Sherrie managed the gallery for 15 years and did an excellent job, but I had established the (gallery's) mission,” Riley said. “So we felt that when they left what we had to offer to Columbus would still be of interest. And we felt that with time people would sort out the differences and would go to both galleries to seek out the forms they needed. Unfortunately, the Hawk policy of speaking adversely about us has rubbed off. In spite of continuing to have a diverse collection of museum-quality work at reasonable prices, the collector base abandoned us. We never discouraged anyone from going to the Hawk Galleries. But unfortunately the high road was not taken by both sides and that has resulted in our collector base leaving us.”
The Hawk Galleries opened in the spring of 2002 and are now the Columbus representatives of many glass artists who were once on the Riley Hawk rosters, including world-renown artists Dale Chihuly, Lino Tagliapietra and Ohio native and Ohio State University alumnus Christopher Ries.
Ries said his move to the Hawk Galleries was motivated by the close relationship with the Riley Hawk collector base Tom and Sherrie Hawk had developed in their years managing the Riley Hawk Galleries, years in which Tom Riley was expanding his business in Cleveland and Seattle.
“When the Riley Hawk Galleries split, Tom (Riley) was divided between Seattle, Cleveland and Columbus,” Ries said. “He, Tom and Sherrie had built quite a collector base in Columbus and (the collectors) identified with Tom (Hawk) and Sherrie because they had more personal contact with them. I have respect for every one of them, and I did not want to be forced to do business with one or the other. When the gallery split, I made the decision that I would stick with Tom and Sherrie because they had the relationship with the collector base. It was all very amicable.”
The Riley Galleries will continue to represent Ries in Cleveland.
“The ironic part of it is that the basis for the success of Hawk Galleries comes from the success of the Riley Hawk Galleries,” Riley said. “All of the policies for how to treat the artists and collectors came from the Riley-Hawk leadership.”
Sherrie Riley Hawk and Tom Hawk declined to comment about the closing of the Thomas R. Riley Galleries in Columbus.
“It's so personal that I'd rather not respond,” Riley Hawk said. “I wish him success in Cleveland.”
Riley Hawk is currently owner of the Sherrie Gallerie, which opened in June 2004 and specializes in clay, ceramics and art jewelry.
“Through this journey I've always just tried to look forward,” Tom Hawk said. “I'm lucky to represent the artists that are currently under my roof and to be able to go to work doing something I love to do.” Hawk had no other comments.
Maria Galloway, co-owner of the pm gallery, the Short North's oldest continuously operated gallery, is not surprised by the Riley Galleries’ closure.
“People come and go around here,” she said. “A lot of the businesses thrive on personality as well as product. I do believe (Riley) had other irons in the fire.”
Galloway says she and her husband and business partner Michael Secrest mentored Sherrie Riley Hawk and Tom Hawk during their first two years operating the Hawk Galleries.
Judy Hoberg, gallery manager of Studios on High, says the Thomas R. Riley Galleries will be missed.
“The area will greatly miss the presence of such a prestigious gallery,” Hoberg said. “It has been a cornerstone of the area since it was the Riley Hawk Galleries, so it will leave a big void. We moved (into the Short North) about the same time the Riley Hawk Galleries did, and so it's a part of history that's going away.”
Studios on High opened in 1985.
As Riley prepares to shut down his Columbus gallery, he also is looking forward to developing his Cleveland location. In May, the Cleveland gallery relocated to upscale Eaton Chagrin Boulevard.
“We got the opportunity to expand our gallery in Cleveland to an opulent space in a very attractive area,” Riley said. “So the combination to expand in Cleveland balances the sadness of contracting in Columbus. The space that we've moved to is compelling. It had to be an extremely compelling venue to pull us away from the Short North.”
Riley is also optimistic about representing a number of up-and-coming glass artists, including three members of renowned glass artist William Morris' team Ross Richmond, Karen Willenbrink-Johnsen, and Shelley Muzylowski Allen.
“They're doing exceptional work at great prices,” Riley said.
Despite the closure of his Columbus gallery, Riley remains grateful to the Columbus art community while looking ahead optimistically to the future.
“We love Columbus and will continue to live here,” Riley said. “We are very proud of the Riley-Hawk record in Columbus and the Short North. The support we've had here has been phenomenal. We feel very positive about the decisions we are making. We're not crestfallen at all and we're not bitter. We're taking a positive step, expanding in an area where we've been successful.”© 2005 Short North Gazette, Columbus, Ohio. All rights reserved.
