In the 40-plus years Nancy Whitenack has run Conduit Gallery, she has mastered the art of the pivot. Beginning in a shared Deep Ellum live-work space circa 1984, she relocated to the top floor of Undermain Theatre before landing in Conduit’s current home on Hi Line Drive in the heart of the Design District.
But change is inevitable, and Whitenack is making a big one by moving to a 4,000-square-foot space in the former Holly Johnson Gallery at 1845 Levee St. in a less-expensive part of the Design District. Opening the space on Jan. 11, with exhibitions from painter Kirk Hayes and a group of Conduit artists, Whitenack is excited even as she navigates the district’s emergence as the hot new ’hood.
“The rents are going up, and it’s not viable for us to pay huge rents and try to make our business work,” she explains. Her new gallery will be next to Cris Worley Fine Arts. Worley is “a gallerist I really respect,” Whitenack says. “We will do lots of interesting programming together.”
Whitenack says she’s seen pioneers such as the gastropub Meddlesome Moth priced out of the area in the last few years. But as tony restaurants pop up and developments like The Seam are welcoming fancy retailers, getting neighbors to engage with Conduit’s “dynamic programming” is what drives this doyenne of the local scene.
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“We really try to make sure our program is inclusive to the public that exists in our world. We’ve shown works that are quite provocative, and artists have built it out to make a statement. We’re always trying to pay attention to the world we live in, and the art we show speaks to that.”
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