Contemporary Art Gallery Survives 2020. What now?
2020, A Tough Year
To say that the past year has been an interesting year is one way to describe what has happened. Businesses (and people too, of course) have had to make many adjustments, some easy and some difficult. Some businesses have actually prospered over this time … Have you bought anything from Amazon lately? Yet, many businesses have struggled. This has been especially true in industries that have traditionally relied on in-person visits such as restaurants, movie theaters, gyms and art galleries.
Art Galleries Face Obstacles
Art galleries, for the most part, rely on in-person visits to generate sales — even though 87% of galleries have some kind of online presence, according to the Artsy Gallery Insights 2021 Report. By just watching the news or going online you probably read about art gallery closures, reduced hours, and social distancing within galleries. Of course, among other obstacles, these have all impacted their ability to conduct business.
Even though our business, Blue Hill Fine Arts LLC, is an online-only contemporary arts gallery, we too were negatively impacted by restrictions. Perhaps you are wondering how that’s possible. After all, we are an online-only business and so many of the restrictions that have / had been put in place and effected in-person visits simply don’t apply to our situation. The restrictions, you might think, could actually help us because they essentially encouraged (or perhaps forced) many people to shop online. Yet, we were negatively impacted.
Our Obstacles
From a collector perspective, many people simply didn’t have the discretionary funds to purchase art. And if collectors did have the money, the uncertainly of when the world would be back to normal most certainly held back at least some people from buying artwork. And while connecting with artists (i.e., our suppliers) via multi-media and social media platforms was already a norm for us, meeting artists in person before working with them for the first time was still important in many cases. In Asia, and China in particular, even with the incredible adoption of online communications tools (e.g., WeChat, What’s App, LINE) in their societies, in-person meetings still hold a lot of weight with individuals. In these meetings with artists, for example, we would strategize about on how to price their art, help with more tactical issues such as choosing paintings for display on our website and how to best complete our submission form. The opportunity to meet artists in-person at physical exhibitions was obviously removed as well. As a result, both our supply and demand were negatively impacted.
Our Plan
So, what did we do? At first, we continued with business as usual. We had no idea how long things would last. However, as time went by, we realized this would not be good enough. We began to focus more on our social media presence for both our buyer and supplier channels. And while a marketing strategy and tactics for both artists and shoppers is typically not the same, we also have had to account for language and cultural differences. In addition, we decided to cut our formal advertising spend.
In 2021 we have reached out to contemporary art collectors and artists more often via social media and we have continued to make improvements to our website’s design and backend performance. As a result, we have noticed improvements in our overall social media presence and SEO. Furthermore, we have begun to expand to other areas within Asia to find more brilliant and creative contemporary artists to work with. We think expanding our supply chain will not only offer more variety for contemporary art lovers, but also lower our risk of working with artists from just one country. Stay tuned for more unique and incredible contemporary artwork coming soon.
Although 2020 was an unexpected hurdle, we believe 2021 will serve as a year to further strengthen and build our relationships with contemporary artists and collectors. And we expect to be better positioned to avoid future obstacles. And of course, if you are looking for unique and creative contemporary art, don’t forget to check out our online gallery.
