It ain’t broke… Or Is It?

Art spaces of all sizes play a vital role in a broader arts ecosystem, not just in displaying and selling art and in challenging how we perceive the world around us, but in inspiring new generations. Today’s child sketching an idea on the back of a schoolbook could be tomorrow’s fine art painter, but equally could be a graphic designer, animator, game creator, app designer, film maker or TV producer. Creatives are people we need every day to turn other people’s ideas into concepts, emotions, stories.

The Arts contribute a greater amount to the UK economy than agriculture

Funding into the arts returns many times the monetary value of the initial investment. This ‘multiplier effect’ is well known

For Artists:

Underpinning these creative industries is an entire ecosystem of arts activity and enterprise, be that amateur or academic, academy or attic and it has been under pressure for decades.

Whilst single paintings by big name artists can sell to investors for millions, that is a representation only of art as commodity.

Such headline-grabbing art is broadly irrelevant to the art that is necessary for any society to evaluate, represent and challenge the environment in which it exists.

Beyond flagship funded projects who themselves face challenging times, there is significant systemic lack of investment across the art sphere, despite the significant multiplier effect that arts spending is known to have.

The truth is that the arts are largely funded by the artists themselves, by supportive partners and for the few, selling sufficient work to at least cover the costs of making art.

As artists we can’t help ourselves, making work is what we do, money is not the object. We do however rely on networks of large and small galleries to create an infrastructure where we can to develop portfolios, gain exposure, share our vision and ideas.

At VA.M We simply extend that provision into the virtual space.

For Gallerists:

For galleries & arts organisations seeking funding in a competitive environment, or for those resisting cuts to funding, there exists

an awful trial of having to demonstrate qualitative benefit in value terms.

Not scores for pleasure, education or inspiration, but through the crass quantitative metrics of visitor numbers, ticket sales & year on year comparisons.

At the time of writing from lockdown, we know that post the first wave of Corona, our access to many, if not most public sites will change. Not least will be footfall into gallery spaces, museums and heritage sites. We can help with that, our models allow you to attach your google analytics code so you can track visitors in real time or monitor recorded stats over the lifetime of the gallery

Transition with Familiarity

My approach and experience as a serious arts practitioner is despite the virtual nature of the output, to provide curators and artists with familiarity in the curation and installation process. Equally to balance that tradition and familiarity with the start of a transition to unimaginable potential and interactive remote access via the vast array of devices that people use every day, including those in their pocket.

Reality will be increasingly virtual

Whether we individually agree or not on the benefits and possibilities arising from emerging technologies, the truth is that it is here and we as artists and gallerists can choose to be passengers or we can choose to drive.

In this case we are inviting conversation regarding the virtual space with which we will increasingly engage. It is a space that can add to existing gallery presence or into which new virtual gallerists can emerge cheaply, creating entirely new spaces for art and artists.

VR & AI aren’t coming: it’s all here already. Virtual Arts Media is part of that.