Meet Brian Raitman | Founding Member

We had the good fortune of connecting with Brian Raitman and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Brian, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I decided to pursue a career in the arts because I wanted to do something beautiful. I wanted to create a space for people that would be a respite from all of the craziness in the world. Somewhere where people could visit to let things slow down for a bit and simply appreciate what humanity is capable of creating with little more than our hands as our tools. Additionally, I wanted to spend my life reminding people how important and worthy of honor the planet and the species we share it with are. Art is a wonderful way to do that. It is a powerful medium to affect change in the world. Landscape and wildlife works are the dominant subject matters in our galleries, for precisely this reason. We get to show how sacred the environment is with people who may not otherwise ever stop to think about why they too are inspired by the mountains and their non-human inhabitants.

On a more selfish level, long ago I realized that there are certain things in life that we can control as long as we are physically healthy. What we see, what we listen to, and ultimately, what we think about. Immersing myself in the arts has allowed me to surround myself with beauty on a daily basis. I get to spend my days in my “offices” looking at objects that are beautiful and timeless. It is truly a blessing.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Building a business is a long journey. Seemingly endless stressful hours are required to make it work. However, when it does, seeing persistence pay off is one of life’s largest rewards. Obstacles are just that, something in the way that needs to be overcome. Problems are there to solve. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned along the way is that you need to have a passion to make things happen. To maintain that passion, you need to find fun in moving those obstacles aside and solving the problems that arise. It isn’t easy, but nothing worth succeeding in is easy.

We opened in November of 2007, a time of economic strife in our country. One of my favorite lessons is that you can fake it until you make it. If you keep trying, you keep learning. If you keep learning, you keep growing. At this point, after 17 years in business, I get to look back and realize how far we’ve come. I get to think about all of the careers that we have helped thrive along the way. One of my favorite things to realize is that thousands and thousands of people all around the world go to bed every night and wake up every morning cherishing the artwork that we helped them select. That is a big reward. Bringing beauty into people’s lives will never get old.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Both Breckenridge and Vail are special places. They bring people from all over the world to visit. The dining scenes in both towns are lovely. Options are seemingly endless. I don’t know much about the nightlife these days because my free time day time pursuits have me exhausted by the time the sun sets. I will say, the mountains are to be cherished. The best places up here are those that you have to work to reach. They are the quiet ridges, valleys and streams that allow us to escape deep into nature. Fortunately for humanity, they are still there to be explored!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Over the past 17+ years we have worked with over 100 different artists. All of them have played a role, whether large or small, in making our galleries the success that they are. Some of them have shown with us for well over a decade and we have continued to move through life and grow together.

These days, perhaps the most important people in my life are the sales consultants who keep our galleries humming. Much of the art gallery industry’s beauty is that the relationships between the galleries and the artists are so symbiotic. Success and failure are shared more intimately between everyone involved than they are in most businesses. The sales consultants who have been with us the longest, Rob and Trinity in Vail and Sam and Liz in Breckenridge, make everything possible for both our galleries and the artists. They work 40 hours a week to build relationships with the people taking time out of their day to visit the galleries. They work tirelessly to make sure the artists we represent have thriving careers. When they are successful in helping people acquire the art we show, we all win. Thus, none of this is possible without them!

Website: https://RaitmanArt.com

Instagram: raitmanartgalleries