Well, after mulling it over for quite some time now, I've decided against developing an integrated gallery with the forum. Considering such things can break easily with forum software upgrades, I've decided to update and enhance the gallery we have now.
What I've done is use a vastly updated version of the Java-based freeware gallery generating software I had been using for manual updates before, but now I've got it completely automated. An update is performed every 2 hours, so new material that gets added/deleted is reflected within 2 hours.
What this also means is that I can give artists FTP access to their folders, and they can upload/download files as they see fit, so they have total control over the gallery. This also means you don't have to wait on me to do updates.
I'm just using a default "theme" for the gallery now (emphasizing world domination), but maybe if someone wants to develop custom graphics for it, I'd be willing to give those a shot. The program is JAlbum.
If you'd like to get FTP access to your artist directory, just let me know and I can set it up. Otherwise, I'll just push stuff from the forum/mailing list to the gallery as I feels like it.