‘Teaching the Science of Selling Art’ from the IHT:
“As the global art market has ballooned into an industry turning over an estimated $25 billion or more a year in sales, a subsidiary business has grown alongside, training those who hope to make a living from the commerce of art.
Some conventional universities and art schools have introduced art history programs with an art market component. These include the École du Louvre in Paris, which now includes an auctioneer training course in its undergraduate and graduate programs; the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, which this year introduced a masters degree in art museum curating; and the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, which offers a masters in Art Market Principles and Practice.
Auction houses are also in on the act. Highly intensive, often highly priced - with fees running into the tens of thousands of dollars - but relatively easy to access in terms of academic entry requirements, the auction house schools immerse their students five days a week in the world of art, with an eye on the practical business aspects.
The mainstreaming of culture continues apace!
The Future Laboratory have published a report for this month’s Esquire magazine exploring what it means to be a man in 2008. The emerging profile, ‘The Menaissance Man’ (or ‘Intelli-gent’, as Esquire puts it):
“…Men who are open to new experiences, not prepared to conform to set life-stages, happy to embrace a work/life balance that allows us to be more socially mobile, while also being more culturally aware about things such as literature, history, design, lifestyle, fashion and travel. In the survey a huge proportion of readers expressed a keen interest in art and culture… In terms of how we define masculinity itself… we want to be intellectually, as well as physically, muscular…”
The Gulf State of Qatar unveiled the world’s largest collection of Islamic art on Saturday, in the new $300million Museum of Islamic Art in Doha.
The musuem will be working in partnership with the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of New York, the Louvre, the Royal Collection of Morocco, Egypt’s Museum of Islamic Art, and the Cartier Collection of France to exhibit rare works of art spanning a 1000-year period.
See Al Jazeera’s interview with Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, one of the founders of the museum
Artist-designed packaging is clearly still working well for brands - the latest is Malibu’s Pop & Street Art Series, a limited collection of bottles by So-Me (France), Delta (Netherlands) and James Jarvis (UK) and curated by La MJC.
The aim is for the three different artists to represent their three different styles/countries on the bottle. Each bottle is signed and limited to 100 editions. Available exclusively at Colette, Paris from Dec 1st.
MTV and hp have teamed up to create a global cross-promo campaign which places art and design centre stage. Fresh from their innovative adventures with the bfi and National Gallery, hp are using the MTV platform to engage new consumers.
MTV EngineRoom revolves around 6 creative challenges for international teams using hp gear. Challenges include interpreting time travel using digital media, designing websites for indie rockers, and mash-ups of college music.
And for the next challenge…
We’ve had Dell’s artist-designed laptops, now hp are taking personalisation to the next level. The Notebook Design Contest asks users to submit designs for a limited edition laptop, which Joe Public will vote on to select a winner.
This is your Engine Room challenge.
Use your art to make your mark globally! Design unites. It’s one of the most personal ways we communicate with each other through art; it transcends language and culture. We invite you to submit your best designs for a chance to create the next global special edition HP notebook. Whether you’re classic or modern, cosmic or grounded, explosive or minimal, show the world what you’ve got!
In the midst of this global financial turmoil, CNN reports that expensive art is suffering but at the Affordable Art Fair, sales are up. ‘Low price art pieces’ are hot.
We’ve had enough of ‘choose what you want’, now it’s time for ‘tell me what to choose’. Whether it’s listening to friends or to trusted influencers, Curation is hitting the mainstream.
By now, sites such as Last.fm have firmly established the idea of social recommendations: “Every track you play will tell your Last.fm profile something about what you like. It can connect you to other people who like what you like - and recommend songs from their music collections and yours too.”
Social search is on it’s way too, from start-ups through to Google. Techcrunch recently posted a video of ‘the future of Google search’, complete with a Digg-style interface that allows users to vote search results up or down, comment on results, and prioritise whose comments/recommendations they listen to (see below for a demo).
Back in the real world, club nights like Matter London are bringing in specialists to ‘curate’ the evening. One recent import was LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy and Pat Mahoney, who have been running a party in New York, ‘Special Disco Version’. The mix of DJs and artists they curated for one night only at Matter included Brazilian light and visual artists AVAF (Assume Vivid Astro Focus), who usually only do shows in art galleries.
Bestival, the boutique music festival on the Isle of Wight, is proudly “curated by BBC Radio 1’s Rob da Bank” and his wife, Josie. According to their intro, “It’s Rob and Josie da Bank’s creative vision that sets Bestival apart. Whilst the massive musical brain of Rob ensures the Bestival line-up is the most eclectic you’ll ever experience, it’s Josie’s creative wand that casts its magic over Bestival land. From the most original boutique campsite experience, to the Bollywood Cocktail Bar, fancy dress en mass and even a Hidden Disco, it’s this uniqueness that makes Bestival a wondrous world of discovery and adventure that will inspire peace, love and dancing not only in September but all year round…”
Since curation is the bread and butter of galleries and museums, the timing’s perfect to feed the mainstream hunger for ‘curated’ offers from authoritative influencers.
