A New LifeAn interest in collecting art provided bar manager Stephen Vaughan with a career change and challenging opportunity, writes Michael Kelly
Plenty of students work in pubs to pay their way through college but not many decide to leave college altogether to manage bars.
Stephen Vaughan (28) was studying finance in UCC and working part time in bars in Cork when the opportunity arose to run a student pub in the city.
"I've never regretted not finishing college," he says. "I was immediately attracted to the money and I felt that I was learning what I wanted to learn at work. The idea of finishing college and then starting in some €18,000-a-year job and working my way up the ladder just didn't appeal to me. I would have been taking a pay cut. I managed my first bar in 1999 when I was 20 years of age and two years after that, guys in my class were finishing up and couldn't find work."
Vaughan managed some of Cork's best-known watering holes including The Hairy Lemon, The Thirsty Scholar and The Slate but his life changed direction courtesy of a Christmas present from a friend.
The gift, a painting by local artist Bill Griffin, got Vaughan in to the hobby of art appreciation and eventually put him on the road to owning his own gallery.
"It was the kind of painting that when you put it on the wall, it was very hard to have anything else other than other paintings around it. Once you start buying a few paintings you start to learn more about art. I got in to a habit of walking in to galleries, going to auctions, keeping an eye on certain artists and watching what their paintings would sell for."
As his personal art collection grew, Vaughan started to sell paintings, largely to create space on his walls for more art.
"I started trading up, buying more expensive paintings as I went along and I realised that I was doing quite well at it. I never started out to make money but I was making a healthy profit. It got to the point where I was making more money from buying and selling paintings than I was taking home as a bar manager."
It was at that stage that Vaughan started to investigate what would be involved in running an art gallery. "I felt that I was young enough to give it a go. I was 26 at the time so I could afford to spend a few years at it and if it didn't work out I would still be in my 20s. Also I don't have a wife and kids so I only have myself to look after. I was looking for leases around Cork and a place came up in Washington Street."
The Shaw Gallery opened its doors in May 2006.
"Traditionally galleries are dead quiet in July and August - most galleries would say that you should close your doors in the summer months. I knew it would be hard for the first few months but it was all my own collection that I was selling so that kept me going."
He speaks poignantly about seeing customers coming in and snapping up his private collection. "It was heartbreaking. I am a collector at heart and I promised myself that I wouldn't buy any art for myself for two years while the gallery was getting off the ground.
"The only painting that I kept was the original Bill Griffin piece that I got as a present. There was a watercolour from Jack Lynch's private collection which I had bought at auction which I was particularly sorry to lose."
Since then the gallery has put on exhibitions by Bill Griffin, Vittorio Cerefice FRSA, former Warhol protege Steve Kaufman, Mieke Vanmechelen, Grzegorz Laskowski, Anthony Ruby and Rachel Burke.
"At first it was mainly local artists but as our reputation has grown we have had national and international artists. Initially it was very much about keeping the head above water but we are doing well now and the gallery is typically booked up six to eight months in advance."
Recently, Vaughan acquired a short-term lease with the Dame Street Gallery in Dublin for a four-show exhibition. So is this the start of a Shaw Gallery expansion in to the capital?
"It's a big step to come to Dublin where there's so much competition but this is a good opportunity for me to see if it's viable for the future. I would definitely look at it."
Does he miss pulling pints? "I miss certain aspects of it. The social side of it, the banter that I had with the customers. But I don't miss the shifts.
"There were weekends, like the Jazz festival, when you would do 16-hour shifts three or four days on the trot. That's fine when you are 21 but not so fine when you get a little older."
The progression from bar manager to art dealer cum gallery owner can't have been as easy as it sounds, can it?
"When you are interested in something and have a passion for it, it's never hard work to find out a lot about it," he says.
"I have friends who are mad into soccer and they could tell you the names of the starting 11 in every team in the Premiership.
" I had five or six years in business under my belt so I suppose I had a good business head on my shoulders.
"There are trials and tribulations when you run your own business but I am the kind of person who thinks that if an opportunity comes along you should take it, rather than look back in 10 years and regret it."