Alan Ward’s Post

Niche business models exist. The 3rd observation from this weekend was about the business models at play within art. I see two extremes; the high street galleries and the public art galleries. The first have more in common with business investors than art itself. They’re mostly risk-averse, presenting a scale-up opportunity for artists who have already proven themselves, especially celebrity artists (whether they’re originally known for their wall art or not). This is aligned to what I’ve seen of the investment approach in the UK. It’s neither good nor bad, but is constrained and presents restrictions on evaluations. The second is a little more obscure to me. From what I can see, once again it’s relatively risk-averse, but the celebrity status preferred by high street galleries is swapped in favour of validation by art critics and curators. It’s still a case of having to have proved interest before being considered for display. In between, there are all sorts of business models, eg vanity publishing (often pay-to-play), local galleries, competitions (again, often pay-to-play), exhibitions (majority of which are pay-to-play) and so on. What they all have in common is the risk-averse nature, whether that’s requiring proof of ability to sell before engaging or pushing the cost onto the artist through demanding funding before engaging. I’m curious if the same business models exist outside the UK, notably in the US that had traditionally been more open to taking on risk. #businessarchitecture #businessmodel #artgallery #artgalleries #artinvesting