Owning an Art Gallery
Posted: Wednesday, August 25, 2010
by Chris Sabian
Kute Fine Art
"Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art."
-Andy Warhol
I visited my favourite art gallery today with the intention of buying some Henderson Cisz prints. This was a spur of the moment decision based around the fact that I had some money off promotional vouchers which were expendable by the end of the month.
So the gallery is in an idyllic position at a marina surrounded by water, boats, wildlife and other five star retailers with a high volume of traffic passing by. So if your dream, as an artist, is to have your own gallery is it really Utopia or just a pipe dream.
Kate and her husband have had their gallery for two years and are in the process of opening another so is it an exciting, prestigious, and rewarding career, getting paid to select and sell art . Thier opinions were very interesting.
When you start an art gallery, you have the freedom to make your own choices and express your own creative spirit. Assuming you can source and obtain artwork, then you can sell the artworks you want to, introduce artists you admire, discover new artists and create a showcase for your own work if you are an artist.
You can hold exhibitions at your art gallery, which with the right PR could be attended by local celebrities and dignatories and with a bit of luck wealthy clients.
Plus, if you sell art on sale or return, you will have less riskbecause you can fill your art gallery with stock without paying until it's sold. This actually became unworkable for Kate and her husband but is a big fator for a lot of galleries.
So now for the bad news.
Running a successful art gallery requires a lot of hard work, determination and luck, and sometimes for very little financial reward very much like being an independent artist. Remember that selling art is a retail job. It may be high end retail, but it's still sales. If you don't enjoy sales, and you don't want to spend your time tracking down customers, do not try to run a commercial gallery.
Prepare a detailed business plan and budget for everything and then some. And then ensure enough resources to withstand some slow times'. But perhaps more importantly than that is that you should be well-versed in the history of art-and not only of the last 15 years, or even the last century, either, but art's entire history. There are certain instances when you can get away with talking absolute bollocks but this isn't one. You do not want to be found out in the art world because reputation counts for everything. So as my old schoolmaster use to say "Hit the books!".
This is a service industry, and it's very important to know that. It's a service to clients, and it's a service to artists, and a service to the field of art.
So if you have got this far read on for the final kicking.
This is no get-rich-quick business.
You have to be passionate about it. Interested is just commercial suicide.
Find a great location.
Have a lot of expereince in business.
Have fantastic interpersonal skills if you want to make a sale.
Have a good eye and do not buy crap.
In conclusion, you need a wide range of skills, you need to work hard, and you can't imagine for a moment that this going to be easy.
All things considered I'm too busy painting to even consider it.
-Andy Warhol
I visited my favourite art gallery today with the intention of buying some Henderson Cisz prints. This was a spur of the moment decision based around the fact that I had some money off promotional vouchers which were expendable by the end of the month.
Kate and her husband have had their gallery for two years and are in the process of opening another so is it an exciting, prestigious, and rewarding career, getting paid to select and sell art . Thier opinions were very interesting.
When you start an art gallery, you have the freedom to make your own choices and express your own creative spirit. Assuming you can source and obtain artwork, then you can sell the artworks you want to, introduce artists you admire, discover new artists and create a showcase for your own work if you are an artist.
You can hold exhibitions at your art gallery, which with the right PR could be attended by local celebrities and dignatories and with a bit of luck wealthy clients.
Plus, if you sell art on sale or return, you will have less riskbecause you can fill your art gallery with stock without paying until it's sold. This actually became unworkable for Kate and her husband but is a big fator for a lot of galleries.
So now for the bad news.
Running a successful art gallery requires a lot of hard work, determination and luck, and sometimes for very little financial reward very much like being an independent artist. Remember that selling art is a retail job. It may be high end retail, but it's still sales. If you don't enjoy sales, and you don't want to spend your time tracking down customers, do not try to run a commercial gallery.
Prepare a detailed business plan and budget for everything and then some. And then ensure enough resources to withstand some slow times'. But perhaps more importantly than that is that you should be well-versed in the history of art-and not only of the last 15 years, or even the last century, either, but art's entire history. There are certain instances when you can get away with talking absolute bollocks but this isn't one. You do not want to be found out in the art world because reputation counts for everything. So as my old schoolmaster use to say "Hit the books!".
This is a service industry, and it's very important to know that. It's a service to clients, and it's a service to artists, and a service to the field of art.
So if you have got this far read on for the final kicking.
This is no get-rich-quick business.
You have to be passionate about it. Interested is just commercial suicide.
Find a great location.
Have a lot of expereince in business.
Have fantastic interpersonal skills if you want to make a sale.
Have a good eye and do not buy crap.
In conclusion, you need a wide range of skills, you need to work hard, and you can't imagine for a moment that this going to be easy.
All things considered I'm too busy painting to even consider it.
Chris Sabian is an artist with http://www.kutefineart.com and co-owner of http://www.paragonprints.co.uk and blogger http://chris-sabian.blogspot.com
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