Marketing local art to the world

01 Dec, 2017 - 12:12 0 Views
Marketing local art to the world

eBusiness Weekly

Arts Correspondent —
For artists to prosper and become well known in the art industry there is need for them to promote their art to a much wider audience. This can be achieved through support from local galleries and museums or when they relocate to first world countries where the economy is booming and art is highly in demand.

However, for those who still want to remain in their motherland at the same time promoting their works to the rest of the world, the best support they can get is from local galleries and museums. All artists want to be a part of a lot of art shows where most of their works are exhibited, sell their artworks in a market that produces a lot of capital and hopefully become famous someday.

However, many artists will clearly state that achieving all this comes with a lot of labour. Some artists may find themselves in a position where they cannot financially kick-start an art business.Organisations in collaboration with galleries and museums have created great opportunities for upcoming artists. These include art exhibitions and art competitions which can be national or international.

In Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwean Pavilion has managed to promote and uplift its Zimbabwean artists at the Venice Biennale since 2011.This has allowed Zimbabwean artists to showcase their talent to the rest of the world and open a market for Zimbabwean art. The Zimbabwean Pavilion intends to extend the opportunity to a lot of Zimbabwean artists rather than showcase only a single artist. This it has managed to do as to date, a total of 16 Zimbabwean artists have taken upon such a rare opportunity that only comes once in a while with grace and pride.

Zimbabwean artists have managed to offer the audience a better insight into what is happening in the country’s creative sector at the same time marketing their works to a world which has begun to have interest in Zimbabwean contemporary art. The Venice Biennale is one of the most prestigious events on the contemporary art calendar. Each year the Biennale holds exhibitions of artworks from all over the world.

Curators, artists, collectors, art dealers and journalists find themselves at this big event to see a splurge of art, from the official national pavilions. The Biennale also serves as an art selling point. Artworks at this event are bought at high prices and the event runs for six months. This year was the 57th edition of the event. The Venice Biennale was founded in 1895 and it remains one of the most outstanding and prestigious events in the contemporary art world.

The participation of Zimbabwe at such an international exhibition has created a market for Zimbabwean art therefore uplifting its own artists. This year, four artists have managed to participate at the Venice Biennale — Charles Bhebe, Admire Kamudzengerere, Sylvester Mubayi and Dana Whabira. Doreen Sibanda, the Pavilion commissioner has stated that the presentation of artworks by artists at the Zimbabwean Pavilion has created a new force that has enhanced awareness of the art world.

This has resulted in increased recognition of Zimbabwean art at a global level in art fairs and Biennales. Zimbabwe has for a long time been known for Shona sculpture, despite different forms of art having been in the offing for decades and are now also dominating the Zimbabwean art world. This has diversified the art industry and the art market has enlarged.

Marketing art is not only limited to the physical atmosphere, it can also be done online. An artist can market his artwork via different social media platforms and reach a wider audience as communication occurs in a virtual space. The digital age is now providing better business opportunities as artists can now present their works online and target his or her own audience in a better way.

This even ensures that the artist has enough knowledge on the kind of artwork that interests his followers. A Gallery can also take advantage of social media by creating fan pages where it is able to engage with its followers at a personal level. The Zimbabwean Pavilion has a Facebook page where it engages with its followers concerning exhibitions and artists.

This helps market the Pavilion and artists associated with them to a wider audience. Also art listings is another way of marketing art around the internet. Each art listing serves as a marker that will direct potential buyers to an artist’s website or blog. In this digital age, it is important for every artist to have a website. It builds credibility and provides audience with an opportunity to learn more about the artist and his artworks and finally make a purchase of it.

Art competitions have proven to be a great way of marketing artworks to the rest of the world. Recently PPC launched a competition during the International Conference for African Cultures open to Zimbabwean and South African artists. The competition which is being held in Zimbabwe for the first time, explores the various artistic uses of the medium of concrete.

The competition gives a wide range of people the chance to participate in the workshop, take part in the competition and win. Such competitions create business opportunities for artists and give artists capital to establish their business. Despite the country’s inadequacy in resources to help market works by upcoming artists the Zimbabwean Pavilion has presented itself with great opportunities and a better market for art due to the inclusion of a number of artists.

Zimbabwean artists have managed to market their works to a larger audience and this has helped some of them to get signed in by other Galleries in different parts of the world. This has driven maximum development of the creative sector through exposure and international collaboration. Business opportunities are presented to them as artists mingle with art dealers, heirs and different media practitioners.

The Zimbabwe Pavilion will again exhibit the works at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in 2018.

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