Meme Exum knows what comes to mind when the average person thinks of an art gallery: sterile, ritzy, even uninviting.

She wants hers to be nothing like that.

“I’m the antithesis of a fancy New York gallery,” she said. “I think there’s this idea that just because you’re in a socio-economic bracket that you have these, these values or interests, and that’s not the case.”

Opening the Glimpse Gallery, Exum aimed simply to build a bigger bridge between local artists and local art appreciators, making it easier for people to get their work out there, or to see themselves so taken with a piece that they consider bringing it home.

“We’re all in it for the same thing, which is getting ideas out,” she said.

Tucked into a side alley near the State House at 4 Park Street, Glimpse hosts six shows a year with seven artists apiece. Exum aims to mix styles and subject matter in each show — classic landscapes with more vibrant abstracts, photography in with impressionism. She wants to mix the level of experience of the showing artists, helping to lift the profile of those starting out while also bringing those with a strong foothold into a low-key, intimate show setting. Exum requires artists to be present at gallery receptions to interface with guests and discuss their work.

Exum, with three painters in her immediate family, grew up in a home with ample art on the walls. But it wasn’t until adulthood that she found her place in the art world.

Living in Atlanta, Exum worked in marketing for an architectural firm. On the job, she saw the growing network between interior designers and architects to fill new builds. She also had friends who were early-career artists looking to get their work before potential buyers.

“I realized that I could be a facilitator,” she said. “I realized that I could be something of value between my friends and that opportunity.”

Her first gallery was a digital one.

“It was a way to feature the work,” she said. “So when an interior designer was like, ‘Well, I don’t know you from Adam,’ an artist could say, ‘Look.’”

After moving to New Hampshire with her family a few years ago, opening a physical gallery wasn’t in Exum’s plans — she came across what is now Glimpse while looking for an office for her website design business. But the space was perfect — and now serves a dual purpose.

Exum’s goals in opening Glimpse are like those she’s always had. Unlike the traditional gallery model, Glimpse operates on space rental and doesn’t take commission from purchases made at its showings: exposure is the point, not necessarily sales. Exum also brings artists in so they can get to know each other before the show, aiming to foster an atmosphere of community, not competition, between them.

Along with their friendship, it was Exum’s approach that drew Christina Landry-Boullion on as curator.

“I felt like in a lot of places, art can seem out of your scope. It can feel elitist. It can feel other. It can feel too pretentious, too advanced,” Landry-Boullion said. She liked that Exum was creating a space where artists would “feel like they were a part of it, and this was part of their community, and that they were welcome.”

In each show, Landry-Boullion finds where each artist fits in Glimpse’s seven walls, aiming to create subtle aesthetic flow between each collection without overwhelming the eye. It’s a tall order in a small space.

As a curator, she sees Glimpse’s two rooms as “inviting, warm and cozy” while also “creative and elegant and rich with culture and art and beauty.”

“We wanted a space where people come and enjoy the art together,” she said. That artists are on-site for questions and conversations is special, she added. “It’s not very often that you get to have a relationship not only the artwork, but with artists themselves.”

During a reception, guests, fellow artists, friends and family chatter and bob between each wall. Artists, who begin standing by their own work, often find themselves floating through the room, conversation to conversation. On a Saturday night in February, a blizzard outside seemed to scare no one away.

Several of the artists, especially those who were local, had never shown their art in a gallery before.

“It’s pretty cool to see your work on a wall,” said Concord photographer Aaron Carr. “You know, you spend so much time looking at it on a computer screen, or uploading to Instagram. To actually see it come to life on a wall, you know, really gives you a different perspective.”

Fellow photographers Claudia Rippe and Gary Samson attended the reception to support Carr, but they were encouraged by Glimpse — to see multiple mediums in the same show, to see so many artists in one space, to see a new gallery opening up at all.

“There are not that many opportunities for artists get their work out these days,” Rippe said. The pair reflected on galleries in the city that had come and gone.

“Having a quality space to exhibit artwork is really important,” Samson added. “Are the walls well lit? Is it a comfortable space for viewing? Can you get people through the threshold to come and see the artwork?”

Emma Crisp had her first show at Glimpse last April. The confidence she came away with grew into seeking out more exposure, and her work is currently showing at Go Native, another fine art gallery Downtown.

“Having that show at Glimpse was really validating, and inspiring, too,” Crisp said. “I’m just putting my work out there more, and Mimi really pushed me to do that.”

Crisp embodies the role Exum hopes Glimpse pays in the region’s artistic ecosystem.

“There’s no restrictions about, like, if you show with me, you can’t show with them — I want artists to show with them,” she said. “We uplift each other.”

Catherine McLaughlin can be reached at cmclaughlin@cmonitor.com