Today is "Galleries" focus day at the Post's Style section, and Jessica Dawson reviews a library show in Baltimore.

In the "Arts Beat" column, Chris Richards discusses the Convention Center's art collection. For my opinion on that subject, read my Nov. 11 posting.

And just as I predicted yesterday, there are two music reviews in the paper.

This gets to the heart of the matter of my bitching about the Post's gallery coverage. Because Jessica is the only freelance writer that the Post employs to review galleries, and because not only does she review gallery shows, but also sometimes museums, and also embassy shows, and university shows, and alternative spaces shows, and library shows, and because (as she did today) she sometimes includes Baltimore in her geographical area, there just isn't enough coverage in the newspaper on a par with what the Post does for music, theatre, performance and even fashion!

In fact, a quick check online reveals that since April 25, 2002 the Post has published 146 columns on fashion while Dawson has only written 76 in the same time period.

How can the Post justify having several contract writers for all those other art genres but only one for our area galleries?

I believe that they feel that their gallery coverage is appropriate and see no need to expand it to the same degree of coverage that they provide in Style for music, theatre, fashion, etc. I disagree, but I am certainly not objective about the issue.

Why does the Post feel that way?

Simple: Because no one complains except gallery owners. And of course from our perspective the coverage could always be better and to them it is just sourgrapes.

But do the readers care?

I don't know, but the Post obviously thinks that they don't care. This is clear because once in a while, when Jessica is away or on vacation, they just skip the column.

I guess that we should be grateful that the world's second most powerful newspaper allows one freelance writer to write an (almost) weekly column to cover all of our area galleries, plus Baltimore's, plus embassies, and libraries, etc. And also lucky that over in the Weekend section Michael O'Sullivan has been allowed by his editor to expand his column from just covering museums and also include galleries in his coverage.

Thank you guys.