To increase your revenue, you must diversify your audience. The more people you get interested in your product, the better your business will do.
However you look at it, art is a business. The artist producing a painting on commission, the freelancer designing a website, the museum offering special benefits for new members- all are selling something.
But is art always a product? What about the value of the creative process to express emotions, political commentary or the development of skills? Does the intrinsic value of art get lost when it's tied to money and business? Or, does the exposure of people who would not normally visit a gallery or museum expand artistic reach beyond what traditional methods can ever do?
Four years ago I moved to San Francisco and started working at a new kind of art space.
111 Minna Gallery is a bar, event space, and art gallery in over 4,200 square feet. It has 2 full bars, 16 foot walls, and a convenient downtown location. Each month they produce an art show, which stays up day and night, during all events from happy hour to
Microcinema . During the 10 years it has been open, the space has developed a reputation for quality, affordable work, leaning towards the "street art" tendencies of the Mission School.
So here I am. The crowd varies from hipsters drooling over
Doze Green's work (myself included), to over-powdered (in more ways than one) young professionals leaving their drinks- and ring marks- on
Albert Dicruttalo's sculptures. Obviously, sometimes booze appreciation overpowers art appreciation, and vice versa. But I loved it. I still do. I meet all sorts of people and talk to them about their work, their influences, the last great movie they saw...it is a way of making a connection in a world where internet friends become part of your social circle.
But the point here is that art has become cool. You can go somewhere to admire it over a glass of wine, and even purchase it for under $500. And by owning or appropriating it (Can't afford an original? Buy a t-shirt!), you get to have some of that cool too. It's a win-win situation. The artist can make some money- minus the gallery cut, of course- and potentially gain recognition that will lead to more shows, freelance work, a network of peers, maybe even an entree into a museum or other cultural institution. You get the piece, which hopefully looks great on your walls, and the feeling that you have done well by being an arts patron. So you're not a Medici, but still...a friday night out with friends becomes a cultural experience. The product is
cultural capital and personally, if you're going to be a "heartless capitalist" I think this is the way to go.
Places like
Varnish Fine Art , The
Canvas Gallery,
BOCA , and
Club Six have all got in on the act. The art business is surviving in the face of cuts in
institutional funding . But art bars often focus on art and artists that are hip and who will sell- challenging the status quo isn't always a factor. Are those artists being left out?
The underlying question here is: Are places like this undermining art appreciation or diversifying the audience for the arts world?
