Social Media and Art Galleries

When it comes to social media engagement, the art world has been rather slow to adapt. Just another 20th century industry that believes itself immune to the disruptions that have rocked every single other industry in America. Of course, the art world has nothing to fear, they are safe in their cocoon.

I kid of course, but what I am not kidding about is the static posturing that many entities in the art world embody. It’s funny that a world known for their progressive nature would be so slow to engage social media, one of the most powerful, democratizing forces that our culture has seen emerge in decades. Social media is a vanguard movement and there is still plenty of land up for grabs. If there were ever an industry that could benefit as much from jumping out ahead of the wave beyond the hospitality business, I am not aware.

As far as the information revolution goes, social media is the tip of the spear and it is disappointing to see galleries and artists confounded by the opportunities inherent in social media. That is not to say there are not exceptions to the rule, in fact, a brief perusal of Twitter and the blogosphere informs us that there are tons of artists, galleries, auction houses and museums embracing social media. Future posts will highlight successful integrations so that others can be made aware.

That being said, most of these entities are still conducting static 1.0 messaging, basically broadcasting their services and offerings but not really engaging in conversation or community building. Even more than that though, I am basically unaware of anyone using social media as part of their offerings. Either an artist crowd sourcing their work, or an art gallery engaging in authentic personal outreach via blogs, Twitter and Facebook.

And that is what I am waiting for. I want to see artists and galleries using social media in their art and outreach. I want to hear about projects that incorporate the great power of social media. Criticize it, deplore it, acclaim it! Whatever, just start using it. Start experimenting, start brainstorming. For an industry built upon creativity, how about you start using some of it!

Well, in fact, this is what I have been doing, and as I continue to shift my focus onto the art world in general (see here for why I am doing so) I’ll be brainstorming aloud ways to do so.

Social Media Challenges Art Galleries to Confront Exactly What It Is They Do

Are galleries only purpose to make money? Or is their a nobler end?

What has become of the art world? A handful of rich collectors, a sprinkle of wealthy gallery owners (some more famous and wealthy than the collectors in their rolodex) all involved in a closed loop of dealmaking and privacy? I thought art’s purpose was for good of the society at large! Well, social media is going to help us segregate just which art galleries are interested in community and conversation and which ones are interested in their own profit potential. It’s going to be a rough road, and I fully expect many galleries to fail miserably at this test. But in the end we shall all be better off.

How An Art Gallery Could Use Social Media

Last weekend Nic Rad and I had a long discussion in his Brooklyn loft where we bandied about ideas on how art galleries could potentially use social media to promote themselves, their artists, their community, but also, and this is where things undeniably get tricky, how to embed social media into the very fabric of what they do, which is promote, share and eventually sell art.

One legitimate question that continues to come up is why or how social media can become a prominent aspect of their activity, when galleries sell mostly to older, wealthier collectors? What is the point of being public and transparent? What is the point of asking the community to engage with a gallery or artists if that community won’t ultimately participate in the final resting place of that art? As a follow-up, an art consultant based here in NYC wrote me the following:

I’ve been mulling over your idea in my head of social media tools for art galleries ..the main question I guess I have is…if art galleries are in a high margin business that only appeals to a very small group of people..how would twitter drive its business? Would the idea be to make the gallery like an artist– cool to the masses and then hope that the elite buyer catches on?

A legitimate question for sure. And one that I imagine won’t be answered, at least not in full, for some time to come.

Well first off, even if an art gallery is only facilitating the transfer of art from producer to consumer, there is still a public role to fill.

Let’s map out just one example that emerged from the talk with Nic last week.

Let’s say an artist has an upcoming show and wants to use social media to talk about the work as it being conceived and executed. Maybe that artist starts a blog and twitter account dedicated to the project and commits themselves to writing 3 posts a week for 3 months. The blog posts could be highly focused formal discussions of the artists experience as he executes his work. Perhaps it could be ruminations on inspiration for their work, other visual or performance artists, what music they listen to in their studio, other artists who are helping out, even the food they eat.

Taking this a bit further, what if the artist self consciously used his twitter account to solicit feedback on his work, share his blog posts, as well as pictures, interviews, video chats and podcasts with the community. Anyone who wanted to, and who became aware of the project, could participate: by retweeting blog posts and content the author shared, by offering advice or associations that perhaps the artist had not thought about previously. There is so much to work with once the full power of social media is taken into account. The hive mind is ready and willing to engage.

But ok, what now? At some point, that work will be executed, the show will open, and if its successful that work will be bought and belong to someone, and most likely, not someone involved in any of the community discussions that helped the work reach its final phase.

Well, what if a gallery owner said to their potential clients that, on top of you owning the art work itself, you also get a digital download of all the conversations, recordings, blog posts and even the analytics that this project generated. Wouldn’t that be awesome?

A collector could get a “sack” of rich data

• How many times the blog was viewed?
• How many retweets or mentions the post or account received?
• A chronicle of all the conversations (blog comments, links, twitter conversations, facebook comments and “likes”)
• A listing of other blog posts that picked up and discussed the work
• A list of everyone who commented including links to their twitter account or blog

This is really rich stuff and would undeniably enhance the piece of work. Imagine going to an art show and next to a hanging piece of work having a presentation that discussed all this in a legible manner. I think it would increase its value because on top of actual ownership, the collector, for the first time as far as I can tell, could own or at least see what went into the work. The blood, sweat and toil. The long nights in the studio. The depression and suffering, or the joy and happiness the work brought to the artist and to a wider community.

And the gallery could manage this whole campaign with a small budget. Let’s say 3 months and less than$2500. Now THAT would be an appropriate first step for the art world to integrate social media into a campaign. And by virtue of it being the first of its kind, it could potentially garner all sorts of attention in the press, in the art world and the social media community. I think its clear by now that when you engage social media authentically and with good intentions, the community will reward you for that engagement.

So how about it? Anyone out there willing to experiment?

Remember, we are all cartographers in the new world of social media.

Image Source: Martin Beek on Flickr

Tagged as: Art Galleries, The Art World and Social Media