Artist Cooperation Online and IRL
Why it's worth considering
Last week a collector of my work, Cleve McMillan – who is also an education startup platform builder and producer – sent me a cool, impromptu video about a well-made booklet, titled Melville Open Studios, that he came across at a cafe while in Perth. I’m sharing it with his blessing.
The IRL component to Melville Open Studios happens once a year, when artist studios are open to the public for a weekend in May and there’s an option to tour them by bus for the modest fee of $10 AUD.
For the rest of the year, the booklet serves as a physical directory to the online world, showing examples of artists’ work and pointing viewers to each artist’s website and social media presence. There’s also melvilleopenstudios.com, which acts as an online hub that credits current sponsors and shows a clear pathway for new sponsors.
The About section of the website explains that the actualisation of this concept “was lovingly nurtured by the Arts and Cultural Development Officers at the City of Melville from 2017 to 2021. In 2022, Melville Open Studios transitioned to being run by a committee of creatives, and proudly supported by the City.”
I’m sharing this with you because it’s a great example of cooperation which cross-pollinates exposure to different artists’ work.
I’ve seen a commercial gallery tour that’s similar, though I never attended and have forgotten the name. I’ve seen other coordinated studio tours too, though none as well organised and established as Melville Open Studios.
The artworld is small and increasingly fractured. Tech’ corporations are keen to capitalise on ‘the creator economy’ with various platforms and ideas that facilitate cooperation – or Artist Corporations. When it comes to the visual arts, where artists create a tangible object that can be bought and resold, it doesn’t have to be complicated. When blockchain or equivalent technologies enable the resale of digital products, it will be less complicated for other areas of the arts, too.
One complicated aspect, however, is that the trad’ artworld has a behavioural problem. This has created a context in which unethical and criminal acts have flourished to the point where they have become an integrated part of many art business models. In my younger years, I thought this was a gallerist and art dealer problem. Over time, I’ve seen that many artists are enthusiastically complicit.
The hard truth is that not many in the arts can be successful legitimately. I acknowledge that this is even rarer when done solo, outside the trad’ system. My columns on digital strategy for creators are about how it can be done. However it does take a greater time commitment that may not be viable for everyone.