Welcome to the club
From Isobel Johnston...
If you’ve ever fancied listening to an artist talk about their work followed by a dinner with like-minded people then you should think about contacting NG Gallery. It can offer you such an evening. Or you might even like to take one of its newly devised practical art classes. Or try one of the National Art School’s short courses; sign up at TAFE or something on offer through WEA. If the hip and young side of Sydney’s art world is more your thing why not do a one of the myriad of events on offer at the ARI’s from First Draft to St Peter’s Lane to MOP, Slot or Peloton. From Art After Hours at AGNSW, Arthere , Open Sydney to Bundeena’s Art Trail or open studio days – there’s a lot on offer, all of it educational and most of it fun.
Education has always been around as part of the art world and as an integral part of the role of various galleries, although historically it has been primarily the domain of public institutions from ‘big’ museums to medium scale publicly funded organizations. What has changed is that in recent times we are seeing a shift to education programming by commercial galleries and ARIs.
To grow new clients first you must educate them. This might sound more than a little trite yet there is a logic to it as the benefits far outweigh the costs in setting up such programs. This kind of benefit has a great deal more to recommend it than the older style of audience building, which relied upon ‘wining, dining and wooing’ of only wealthy potential or existing clients.
This blossoming of education is maybe a feature of the times, a means of building "client bases", "investing in the future" or "getting through the tough economic times". It is also marks the difference between the new breed of gallerists who have thrown off the mantle of exclusivity to act as a conduit between the artwork and the general public, perceiving their role in terms of a public relations strategy which involves welcoming everyone with the same level of enthusiasm as opposed to an older style manner of conducting business which often made the uninitiated feel like badly dressed customers in a boutique store. Meeting artists, hearing them talk about their work is now a feature of most commercial gallery programs. Tours, soirées and other opportunities to mingle, hear and socialise with artists are also now a feature of the art gallery world.
Michael Reid Gallery is the first commercial space that springs to mind. It has offered education programs in conjunction with and as an adjunct to his exhibition programs for the last few years. More recently, a new breed of commercial galleries like Sullivan and Strumpf, Gallery Barry Keldoulis and Breenspace have shown a way forward that brings a sense of pleasure and engagement with both the artwork and the audience. If the art market is to be revivified then making people feel welcome and enabling them to find the experience enjoyable seems at least one positive outcome of the economic times.
Will it work? And of more immediate concern will it be the silver bullet to ward off tough times for galleries big and small? There’s nothing like keeping busy while we wait and see how the local, national and global art markets recover. But maybe we are in fact glimpsing a shift in the structure of these businesses where selling work becomes only one of their activities. Maybe we’re moving to a new phase where education, entertainment and places for social engagement take on a more a directly remunerative role rather than merely being add-on benefits only available to the serious collectors.
If you’ve ever fancied listening to an artist talk about their work followed by a dinner with like-minded people then you should think about contacting NG Gallery. It can offer you such an evening. Or you might even like to take one of its newly devised practical art classes. Or try one of the National Art School’s short courses; sign up at TAFE or something on offer through WEA. If the hip and young side of Sydney’s art world is more your thing why not do a one of the myriad of events on offer at the ARI’s from First Draft to St Peter’s Lane to MOP, Slot or Peloton. From Art After Hours at AGNSW, Arthere , Open Sydney to Bundeena’s Art Trail or open studio days – there’s a lot on offer, all of it educational and most of it fun.
Education has always been around as part of the art world and as an integral part of the role of various galleries, although historically it has been primarily the domain of public institutions from ‘big’ museums to medium scale publicly funded organizations. What has changed is that in recent times we are seeing a shift to education programming by commercial galleries and ARIs.
To grow new clients first you must educate them. This might sound more than a little trite yet there is a logic to it as the benefits far outweigh the costs in setting up such programs. This kind of benefit has a great deal more to recommend it than the older style of audience building, which relied upon ‘wining, dining and wooing’ of only wealthy potential or existing clients.
This blossoming of education is maybe a feature of the times, a means of building "client bases", "investing in the future" or "getting through the tough economic times". It is also marks the difference between the new breed of gallerists who have thrown off the mantle of exclusivity to act as a conduit between the artwork and the general public, perceiving their role in terms of a public relations strategy which involves welcoming everyone with the same level of enthusiasm as opposed to an older style manner of conducting business which often made the uninitiated feel like badly dressed customers in a boutique store. Meeting artists, hearing them talk about their work is now a feature of most commercial gallery programs. Tours, soirées and other opportunities to mingle, hear and socialise with artists are also now a feature of the art gallery world.
Michael Reid Gallery is the first commercial space that springs to mind. It has offered education programs in conjunction with and as an adjunct to his exhibition programs for the last few years. More recently, a new breed of commercial galleries like Sullivan and Strumpf, Gallery Barry Keldoulis and Breenspace have shown a way forward that brings a sense of pleasure and engagement with both the artwork and the audience. If the art market is to be revivified then making people feel welcome and enabling them to find the experience enjoyable seems at least one positive outcome of the economic times.
Will it work? And of more immediate concern will it be the silver bullet to ward off tough times for galleries big and small? There’s nothing like keeping busy while we wait and see how the local, national and global art markets recover. But maybe we are in fact glimpsing a shift in the structure of these businesses where selling work becomes only one of their activities. Maybe we’re moving to a new phase where education, entertainment and places for social engagement take on a more a directly remunerative role rather than merely being add-on benefits only available to the serious collectors.
Labels: art market, commercial galleries, Isobel Johnston
This entry was posted
on Monday, March 09, 2009 at 12:30 PM.
