HOW TO OPEN AN ART GALLERY
How to turn your passion into a job
Has opening an art gallery always been your dream?
Certainly it will not be easy to achieve, but not impossible if well prepared.
To open an art gallery it is not enough to have a substantial budget, it is an excellent starting point, but you need to have a medium, short and long term vision of the project, have a strong passion for art and at least have experience in the art market.
Being a good gallery owner requires a strong artistic competence and excellent managerial skills, qualities that must be supported by a great professionalism not necessarily derived from a specific background, but mainly oriented towards dedication and attention to the growth of artists and their gallery.
Before starting this adventure, you need to consider a few tricks that will allow you to better plan the opening of your future art gallery.
1 – CREATE YOUR ART NETWORK
Before becoming a gallery owner, it is a good idea to gain experience in the sector and create your own art network: artists, collectors, curators, art critics, journalists, art advisors, art collection managers and many other professionals. Before being a gallery owner, you have to be an active member of an ecosystem like the evolving art ecosystem.
2 – EXPERIENCE IS EVERYTHING
To get your own gallery started is fundamental to understand how to manage (or not to manage in some cases) your own. You could learn a lot: the contacts with artists and collectors, the birth of an exhibition with the different moments of dialogue with the artists, the curator, the setting up, the communication, or even the management of the warehouse, the commercial strategy and the bureaucratic aspects of management as well as the communication strategy with the press and the activities of the gallery.
3 – ANALYSE THE CURRENT STATE OF THE MARKET
The identity and mission of your art gallery will depend on the current status of the art market and the existing and active offline as well as online gallery system. Do research, develop a plan to strategically track your gallery’s objectives and program
4 – PHYSICAL ONLY, DIGITAL ONLY OR BOTH?
An art gallery, whether physical or virtual or both, requires the study of a careful strategy: the modalities of the physical can never be the same as the virtual. For this reason it becomes vital for the success of one’s project to be clear about the pros and cons of one’s choices, without forgetting that mistakes and failures are and will be made.
5 – THE IMPORTANCE OF THE BUSINESS PLAN
Needless to say, opening an art gallery, physical or virtual, involves the start of a commercial activity. Unthinkable to do so without a Business Plan, which establishes a monthly or annual spending plan, and records any item of expenditure
6 – SELECT ONLY ARTISTS YOU ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT
Before you decide to invest in the promotion of an artist you have to believe in his work. If you open a gallery with the sole purpose of selling works, you will not sell them. If you open a gallery to promote artists, and do your work well, you may also be successful.
Before opening an art gallery it is essential to create and manage an orderly and up-to-date digital archive of the works and artists you are going to exhibit.
Today it is possible to create a complete inventory thanks to the use of professional digital tools such as Art Rights, platform that allows you to create, manage, update and enhance your Digital Archive in a simple way, anywhere and anytime from pc, smartphone and tablet.
And you, are you ready to open your art gallery?
Photo credits: The AB Gallery
