Galleries Bye Bye!

Yesterday, I had a little time to kill and ended up in the Italian Market looking for a record store. While enjoying an fabulous iced coffee in a little joint, I happened upon the Philly Weekly with a cover story of interest. I usually boycott the local dross but could not resist, 'Why Are So Many Art Galleries Closing?' I've known the answer to that question for a while and the author got pretty close to naming it. Philadelphia had drown in its own culture of funding which has become a country club of sorts, a closed system. The author named three commercial galleries that just about make ends meet. I could make it five if pushed. The question I now have is why does a monopoly on public purse strings create the dearth of collecting in the contemporary private sector what little there is of it? And what burden does it put on the artist? Does it force us to make art for museums?