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Last year, many art dealers were discussing plans for multinational expansions. With the recession, the art market has now gone bust. Nowhere has that been felt than in New York, whose galleries represent the full spectrum of the art world. In New York alone, two dozen galleries have closed. Art dealers have slashed prices and deepened already discounted items to no avail. They now are laying off employees and dropping artists with poor sales records. Some have approached current customers for help. Hit hard has been the Chelsea Art Galleries. The crowds have thinned in all their galleries....

Says Australian art teacher Gina Grant, "I thought you would like to look at some of my fourth and fifth grade self portraits. I had them look into a small mirror and then with a permanent marker draw their faces starting with their eyebrows and eyes, nose then mouth and then hair and jaw line.

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