FEATURE/Shanna McBurney; From Medical Devices to Paintings and Sculpture, How One Corporate Executive Became an Art Gallery Entrepreneur.

--(BUSINESS WIRE FEATURES)--

What do introducing medical devices like balloon dissection to the vascular surgery market and introducing great art at affordable prices to the young collectors' market have in common? Very little, unless you are Shanna McBurney, and then it makes picture perfect sense.

In May 1998, after a very successful marketing career working for two Bay Area companies -- General Surgical Innovations and Devices for Vascular Intervention -- Shanna had a sea change in her career path, to say the least. She opened up HANG, a chic art gallery with a twist, the fulfillment of a 12-year-old dream.

Shanna was born in Anaheim, Calif. She attended Pomona College were she pursued her interest in art taking art history courses and spending a semester in Florence. Back at Pomona, at a post-graduate art show in 1985, Shanna marveled at all the wonderful art and the reasonable prices. At that time, she imagined a venue where undiscovered, affordable artists could show their work. Although she wrote up a proposal for the idea, she tabled it when a job in the medical management field steered her professional course in a different direction.

Shanna's dream resurfaced innocently enough when, after earning her MBA at Stanford and becoming a top marketing executive; she began looking for art for her new home. The search was frustrating. High prices, laced with liberal doses of attitude, turned her off the "traditional" art gallery concept. She continued to search for art at various open studios, where artists open their doors on a specific weekend to the general public. The problem with the open studio concept was that someone who wanted to purchase art would have to wait for a particular weekend, then spend a lot of time travelling between studios. Finding paintings, not parking spaces was her goal.

There, the realization that so many wonderful artists were not represented by any gallery reminded her of her twelve-year-old idea that affordable original art should have a venue. This time, Shanna was in a perfect position personally and professionally to open her own business.

Shanna's idea was to develop a retail art business that would appeal to emerging collectors, sell and rent a large selection of the best local art at easy prices in a convenient and welcoming place. The more she thought about it, the more it made sense. In a matter of months, she had hung up her medical marketing career and hung out her art dealer shingle, leasing a 5,000 square foot gallery space at 556 Sutter Street and in a stroke of irreverence, called it HANG. Not HANG Gallery -- just HANG -- like in hang out, hang it up, hang it all.

HANG opened in May 1998 intent on setting itself apart from traditional galleries. White walls and museum-like stillness gave way to bright colors and lively music, everything from Louis Armstrong to Sarah McLachlan. Original paintings and sculpture by exceptional, yet underexposed, local artists were featured in a fun, exciting atmosphere where visitors were encouraged to ask questions about the art and the artists. Prices for purchase and rental were posted beside each piece. Customers could take the work home the same day.

Much of this success -- HANG sold or rented over 800 works of art during the first year -- was the result of skills Shanna gained from her experience in the medical device field. "Building a business selling art," Shanna notes, "has more in common with building a medical device business than one might expect. The same fundamentals apply -- take a great product, provide extraordinary customer service, skillful marketing and the ability to build a team that shares and deftly executes a common vision with great passion. All of this with intent to make the purchase of art as straightforward and fun as it should be."

Note to Editors: Color transparencies available.