Dear Artists and Art Family,
There is never a shortage of articles about art; the art market, galleries, collectors, decolonising art production/education. Everyone talks about the imbalance of power, the lack of sustainability, the need for accessibility and new models. Sometimes “periphery” is just a nicer way of saying ignored. (Whether this is due to geographic situation, poor resources, or simply because they don’t know the right people). It pays off for the mainstream to be able to talk about dire issues and sound smart and ethical, while perpetuating violent, flawed systems. The need to map spaces which are ultimately rendered invisible is jarringly present.
Critical dialogue is trending, but if anything actually changed, would people be as welcoming? And why do the individuals working hardest to drive change always find their energy exploited? This is for those of you who actually believe we can change things together. It suits businesses the way it is. But you, the artists, are ultimately the businesses, so let’s consider that.
As you know, Art Meets has created an app, in addition to our other channels for content creation. The primary focus is in service of artists, and in turn, the spaces and people who truly, ethically support your best interests. Through the app we want to facilitate connections, and have it work whether there are 5 artists or 500, 2 galleries or 2000, 20 events per day or one per month. It opens the visual arts industries to a whole new audience and consolidates events and landmarks.
Do we need to continue to depend on the small percentage of people who are buying or can we rather appeal to the 100 who could be? Can we shift and distribute future wealth by repositioning ourselves in “partnership” with a new generation of local collaborators?
So, now that people are more in love with their computers, we encourage you, and all artists, art spaces and events - if you truly wish to see a new system emerge - please join us in this experiment.
The more populated the app is, the more useful it will become and the further we can go toward building connections and creating active engagement - whether online or physically. No artist is far apart enough from anyone else that they should be invisible, unless by choice.
If you’re keen - let’s experiment together.
Art Meets app - Coming soon to iTunes and Google Play
Dates running on; 27 February 2021, 27 March 2021, 24 April 2021, 29 May 2021.
Times: each session runs from 10am - 10pm (SAST/CAT)
Interested participants can join the conversation by emailing info@artmeetsapp.com