To the editor:

My collectors and the other gallery businesses are asking why my shows are not listed in your paper.  I said that I send you the notices with photos but only once or twice have they appeared for benefit of the public.  I guess I am submitting them in a wrong manner. You were generous enough to have an article appear last year in the paper but all the follow-up I tried to provide didnt appear the notices of shows etc.

As you are well aware, our gallery profession among the private retail sector (minus the Torpedo Factory) has a unique role in drawing tourists to Old Town.  Im afraid that our individual struggles to keep on going will need all the kinds of public interest notices we can get.

We are the no mans land part of Old Town the North between the fabled historic districts and the growing Jurassic Park called Potomac Yard. Del Ray gets any press and a lot of it but still fails to be very attractive as a business/tourist destination. Our small Northern enclave is new and attractive and has fewer but quality services to many new Alexandrians. Although it is not generally known, I am probably the longest running, consecutively open fine art gallery in Old Town, since I started on King Street in 1983, the same time the Metro came into use.

Ever since the construction of the new bridge and in the rigorous throes and wake of its construction, I have never had any outreach from the City of Alexandria or the Chamber of Commerce or real inquiry about how the business goes here at the end of Powhatan Street. Id be more than happy to dialogue about it with anyone interested.  We have a lot to offer in what I refer to as The Northern Gateway to Old Town Alexandria.

Bob Muray, The von