CHAPTER 2
Identity
Defining Your Program and Other Branding Issues
Because commercial art dealers are assumedly experts in the type of art they sell, it stands to reason that a dealer would limit the range of art she represents. Knowledgeable collectors might be somewhat skeptical about a gallery that sold sexy video installations by emerging American artists, ancient sculptures from Central Asia, and old master paintings from Europe. Perhaps it is not impossible for a program to represent all three effectively, but in addition to sending mixed messages to those seeking specialists to work with or buy from, staying abreast of the latest developments in each field would likely prove more time-consuming than productive. Most art galleries, therefore, have specific programs, maximizing the advantage of filling a niche in the market and often reflecting the unique experiences, connections, and interests of the gallery owner.
Defining your program, however, is only one part of defining your gallery’s identity. What “type” of gallery you open and how well suited you are to run it is an important decision to make early on, because this should influence every other decision you make in your initial steps, from where to locate your space to how you market the art you sell. In making each of these decisions, you will want always to play to your personal strengths and work to keep your messaging and strategies consistent. For example, say you are opening a hip, energetic gallery exhibiting “bleeding-edge” art. You probably won’t seek out a space on the most quiet, conservative street in the city. Nor would you likely have your customers greeted by a stern, matronly looking receptionist. (I mean, you could … that might be übercool if done just so, but you might also just end up looking like you’re trying a bit too hard.) Because matching every aspect of your gallery to your identity is important to your success, it’s imperative to think it through before you invest in some of the more expensive parts of getting up and running.
Ensuring that you’ve considered the impact of every detail, from how you host your receptions to how you answer the telephone, and how each enhances your identity, is time extremely well spent. A clearly communicated identity will not go unnoticed by the collectors, museums, critics, or artists you want to attract. If done consistently, you’ll have each element of your physical space, online presence, and other marketing efforts working in lucrative harmony. In this chapter we’ll look at the steps you can take early on to nail down your gallery’s identity, from writing a mission statement to making coherent branding decisions. We’ll also consider the various approaches to rebranding your gallery if the need arises.
DEFINING YOUR PROGRAM
The term program is used somewhat loosely in the gallery world. Generally, it refers to the way you present the artwork you sell to the public. For example, do you put on group exhibitions of art historical importance, do you present an ongoing series of solo exhibitions by the contemporary artists you represent, or do you not present organized exhibitions at all, but rather merely hang whatever inventory you have on hand? Another use of the term program, however, can refer to the specific period or genre of the art you sell. Are you specializing in modernist works on paper or pre–twentieth century American folk art? Do you only work with South American artists, or do you limit your inventory to work that deals with a specific subject matter? The gallery programs that stand to return the most profit often represent the riskiest investment, so choosing a program based on what art is currently most profitable may not work out as well as choosing what you, personally, know best. Matched with the right dealer, any program can be rewarding intellectually, spiritually, and financially.
What if you don’t know what type of art you are best suited to sell, though, or you don’t like the idea of limiting yourself to one genre or time period? What if your only guideline will be choosing art that speaks to you, or your only “rule” will be selling quality art, regardless of time or place of origin? Does it really matter? Not necessarily. Nearly every conceivable “rule” there has been for running a gallery has been broken by innovative newcomers, often with tremendous success. This is the art business, after all. However, the trend toward specialization seen in nearly every other industry in the world can also be seen increasingly in the art market, and for the same reasons: expertise is efficient, productive, and profitable. So, it might make sense for you to consider focusing on a niche. Once you’ve made that decision (and, again, you’re likely always best off playing to your strengths), you can move forward with defining your identity.
It is also useful to consider that your program may develop and change over time. When Patton founded yours mine & ours, she and her partners knew several artists they wanted to work with and held the general notion that they would support and exhibit emerging contemporary art. A year into the business, their programming became more defined by conceptual rigor, often counterbalanced by a playfulness or sense of humor. In short, it is useful to open your space with a loose definition of your mission and allow for it to grow and develop.
As mentioned in chapter 1, looking at how successful galleries have gone about something can be a helpful part of your education, even in deciding how to define or discuss your program. Toward that end, for the first edition of this book Ed asked two galleries who are members of the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) to “tell us about your program.” In 2018, we asked them to review their original statements and both had only slight updates to them, reflecting changes in gallery ownership or additional artists they’re working with now, suggesting overall their visions for their programs had remained strongly consistent.
New York’s P.P.O.W. gallery, founded in the East Village in 1983 by Penny Pilkington and Wendy Olsoff, recently discussed their program by noting (Wendy is writing):
Right before we opened, we received a phone call from arts writer Kim Levin of the Village Voice. I was shocked and nervous to be speaking to the press. She asked me to define our “agenda.” At the time I was completely taken aback, however 35 years later I am much more equipped to answer this question. It wasn’t until recently that we were able to reflect on our strengths and weaknesses as a gallery. We decided to build on our strengths which were artists of color, artists who identify as LGBTQ, and women. So we looked around—and rather than add what we thought could SELL—we added artists who could stand on the shoulders of the most important artists we represented—Martin Wong, Sue Coe, Carrie Mae Weems, Nancy Spero, and Dinh Q. Le. So we added Betty Tompkins, Martha Wilson, Carlos Motta, Judith Linhares, Robin F. Williams, Ramiro Gomez, Chris “Daze” Ellis, and Anthony Iacono to name a few. Our profile soared as we moved from the Age of Reagan to the Age of Trump, and we serve as a role model for dealers worldwide. We were never afraid of sticking to our instincts and were able to survive much turmoil since 1983. The job of a dealer is still challenging but after three decades there is a path to success—as we define it, not as defined by the market.
Boston’s Krakow Witkin Gallery’s co-owner, Andrew Witkin (who was the gallery director when we first spoke to him), noted that the original way he had defined their “program” had not really changed:
Krakow Witkin Gallery is located in Boston, Massachusetts, and exhibits internationally renowned artists and artists from the local community. The work is mainly minimal or conceptually based. The gallery is interested in educating people to trust in what they respond to, helping to be the bridge between the artist and viewer and attempting to be a shelter for the art of today by giving it a home. While committed to the work they present, they make no judgments that what they show is better than any other work out there, but are zealous in at least explaining why they care about this art. They believe respect, honesty, integrity, and equality are still relevant to contemporary times.
Important in what both galleries say about their program is how it incorporates their values. Also note that the way they’ve expressed their ideas about their programs is consistent with their identities: Krakow Witkin’s gallery program is more formal in many ways than P.P.O.W.’s, and that is reflected in how they talk about their respective programs. We will return to these ideas of values and identity consistency as we examine the tools and considerations involved in defining your program.
WRITING A MISSION STATEMENT
The single best step you can take toward defining your identity (or beginning a business at all, actually) is to write a mission statement. What is a
“mission statement”? In a nutshell, it is a succinct set of declarations about your business’s intentions and goals. Usually it is no longer than a two- or three-sentence paragraph. A mission statement should clarify what you hope to accomplish by being in business and how you intend to accomplish it. Writing a mission statement will give you a solid yardstick against which to measure how well you’re doing at any point in time, as well as what you could do better, what you’re doing that perhaps you don’t need to, or what else you should be doing. In other words, it provides solid guidance through the myriad decisions that you will face every day.
The generic mission of any business (because it’s the path to your own success) is to meet your clients’ needs. In a commercial art gallery, however, clients can be interpreted as collectors and/or as artists (if you’re working directly with artists). As a result, you must meet the needs of both to achieve your greatest success. Your gallery’s mission statement should, therefore, include how you intend to meet the needs of both.
There are plenty of models for the best way to go about writing a business’s mission statement, but the most straightforward one we’ve seen goes more or less as follows:
The following gallery mission statement is fictional. It is provided merely to illustrate how these four components could be consolidated:
Representing regional artists working in a neo-mannerist, representational style (and including painting, sculpture, and photography), we seek to promote the rich variety of local talent found in [Any State, USA]. Through innovative online marketing, American and European art fairs, and scholarly catalogs and group exhibitions, we seek to place our artists’ work in a wide range of international private and museum collections. We also seek to promote the visual arts in our community by contributing to local educational efforts and supporting regional art institutions.
Providing a dozen examples here won’t change the fact that writing your gallery’s mission statement can be a frustrating task. How can you encapsulate a vision that took you years to develop, or that you expect to grow as you learn, into one short statement? It took Edward months before he was even remotely satisfied with his. It took multiple drafts, a wide range of feedback, and some tough soul-searching. In talking with collectors, potential artists, journalists, or even new employees, a well-defined mission statement will enable you to communicate clearly what your goals are, even in the most delicate of situations.
For example, say you meet a new collector who really loves your program and has begun to purchase significant works from your inventory. Things are moving along very well in the dealer-collector relationship until the day she mentions that her nephew, who is in a band, also makes paintings in his spare time. Your collector admits that she is not really sure whether these paintings are any good, but she passionately lobbies that you should look at them and should consider giving her nephew an exhibition anyway. Believe us, it happens.
The details of such scenarios vary, but generally the issues involved are the same. If you don’t at least look at the work, you’ll potentially offend this new client. If you look at the work but don’t want to exhibit it, you’ll have to explain why. Clearly, telling this passionate collector that her nephew’s work is not very good won’t win you any points, but explaining that it doesn’t fit your gallery’s mission will be an argument you can more rationally communicate without hurting anyone’s feelings:
Thanks for sharing your nephew’s work with me, Mrs. Jones. I enjoyed seeing his paintings. Because my focus is in contemporary representational work, though, and his work is abstract, it’s not right for our program. He should be working with a gallery specializing in abstract paintings like “Gallery X” or “Y Fine Arts.”
You may need to get even more specific about why her nephew’s work isn’t right for you, but if you have carefully defined your mission, and have communicated it consistently, Mrs. Jones will more likely recognize the truth of your assessment and not take your rejection personally. (If her nephew’s work does fit within your mission statement, well, you’ll have to sharpen your diplomatic skills.)
A well-defined mission statement serves to guide more important business decisions as well. Which museum curators should you get to know? Which art fairs should you participate in or attend? How do you communicate in a way that will encourage journalists to publish accurately what your gallery is all about? If you have spent the time writing a solid mission statement, these decisions and statements will come much more easily.
BRANDING DECISIONS
Branding is the art of communicating quickly and succinctly exactly who you are, what your mission is, and the degree of quality the public can expect each time they buy from you. The most common branding tools are logos, symbols, or slogans (the “Golden Arches,” for example, or the “Swoosh” symbol immediately conveys a very precise identity and perceived level of quality to anyone who sees McDonald’s or Nike’s branding), but companies who use branding to its fullest potential leave very little to chance in any of their communications or interactions with the public. Each and every detail of the customer’s experience is considered and consistent. Indeed, a consistent branding effort reassures clients that they will receive the same quality of product or service each time they encounter that business. An inconsistent branding effort sends mixed signals, looks sloppy, and undermines your efforts to build confidence and to separate yourself from the competition in the minds of potential clients.
Opinions vary about how important or even desirable having a well-defined “brand” is for a commercial art gallery. On the one hand are dealers who work only with the artists they feel are important regardless of whether there are any connecting themes or styles among them, and so they may feel it is nonsensical to promote their “program” as if it were cohesive. There is even a sense among some dealers that notions of branding are too “corporate” or antithetical to the independent spirit they love about the art world. On the other hand are dealers for whom a carefully cultivated brand is a natural extension of how they run their business. Even if their program is diverse, they wish to capitalize on the effectiveness of branding in communicating to clients a consistent message. The following discussion assumes that whichever opinion you hold, your decisions about branding will be better informed if you consider its workings in detail. Therefore, the following recommendations come from the point of view that branding is something you should do well, if you’re going to do it at all.
Because the product an art gallery is selling (i.e., artwork) generally has its own unique identity, most galleries go for a minimal or understated architectural branding within their space; the “white cube” or stately salon approaches being most prevalent. However, there is a wide range of branding opportunities in any gallery’s advertising, logo, letterhead, and website, to name but a few. Indeed, from the style of your installations (in your gallery or at art fairs) to the refreshments you serve at your opening receptions, there is no shortage of ways to reinforce your “brand” to the world.
The only “rule” in this part of setting up your gallery would be to ensure your branding is consistent to maximize its impact and avoid confusing the public. Indeed, it should be consistently communicated in every aspect of your interactions with clients and the public. Here is a short list of day-to-day ways you can reemphasize your brand. Some of these may seem obvious to anyone who’s worked in a company of any size before, but in your gallery, you will want to also ensure each of them is reinforcing your identity (and, of course, that your identity is advancing your mission).
How You Operate Your Private Viewing Room or Office
From what you install on the walls, to the furniture you have, from how you welcome your clients, to how you answer the telephone, everything you do in your office speaks to your clients about who you are. The more consistent those things are with your identity, the more your clients will trust what you’re telling (and selling) them. If you’re specializing in bleeding-edge artwork, it’s perhaps fine to have an energetic (i.e., frantic or messy) office, but if your mission is selling minimalist art, a busy, salon-style installation in your viewing room probably won’t help you much with that.
Print/Visual Materials
Maintain consistency in the look and feel of your letterhead, business cards, catalogs, wall text, advertisements, and so forth. After you choose your logo, ensure the font you use in letters, catalogs, wall text, labels, and so on is a good complement and always the same. Consistency is essential. For example, consider making your mailed invitations so recognizable that your clients know that they are yours just by the shape or texture, even before seeing your logo. A consistent look and feel to your catalogs might encourage collectors or institutions you send them to group them on their bookshelves, reminding them each time they glance at their spines that your mission is well defined.
Website/Online Presence
In addition, obviously, to carrying over your logo and chosen font to your website, take time to consider how your identity can be strengthened or underlined here. For example, a big part of Winkleman Gallery’s identity was our dedication to an open dialog about contemporary art. This was reflected via a list of “Dialog” links to blogs and artist’s websites. Creating a personal brand through social media can help collectors, curators, and artists get to know the gallerist as well as the program. The most important factor is to be consistent across all channels—we’ll go into more depth on this in chapter 16.
Your Staff’s Personal Appearance
Although you may want to stop short of issuing uniforms (or maybe not … that’s your call), if you’re investing heavily to brand the elegance of the high-end traditional art you offer, for example, having clients see torn jeans and running shoes on your receptionist will probably not reinforce your mission. Dress guidelines are commonplace in most work environments and something you should consider for your gallery as well.
Installation Design
Although the artwork in each exhibition in your gallery will determine the details of the installation designed for it (e.g., should you paint the walls a different color; should you use wall labels; do you need different lighting?), your decisions here are one of the most important parts of how you define your identity to the public. For example, providing a bench for viewers might be an easy way to demonstrate you are happy for them to spend more time contemplating the artwork, confirming that education is a key part of your mission. Another example of how you can send the right (or wrong) message with your installation design is how warm or cool the “white” you choose for your gallery walls is (if, indeed, you choose the industry standard). Ed originally tried a cool, bluish white for his location in Chelsea but found that people were taking the art they exhibited with humor much more seriously than was intended. When Ed reverted to the warmer, more yellow-white we had used in Brooklyn, the mood among visitors lightened significantly with the very first exhibition. And the same goal of underlining your identity consistently should guide how you present your booth at art fairs. For example, some trendy galleries have taken to scribbling artists’ names in pencil next to their work at art fairs, providing another visual cue that connotes their youthful spirit or edgy programming.
Networking and Volunteering
A big part of running a successful art gallery is networking. Where or how you professionally socialize, therefore, can also be one way of underscoring your brand identity. If an essential component of your program is education, for example, participating in panel discussions at area schools or arts councils will not only be putting your time (if not money) where your mouth is but also will very likely lead you to meet other professionals with similar interests. If getting your artists into regional museums’ collections is one of your goals, then joining the museum as a member to mingle with its trustees and curators at private events can signal that supporting the museum is one of your priorities.
Promotions
The promotional efforts by commercial art galleries tend to stop short of giving away trinkets with their logos on it or advertising holiday sales because art galleries are generally seen as more serious than that. There is generally an expected decorum that leads dealers to find “classier” ways to get their name out there. If the identity you’re cultivating is one of scholarly expertise, for example, a key chain/flashlight with your website URL on it might undercut that message. Then again, as I have mentioned before, the rules are constantly being effectively broken. Still, more traditional promotional efforts include participating in a program designed to bring attention to a certain facet of the art world, such as the Asian Contemporary Art Week held annually in New York (www.acaw.info). Collaborating with other galleries, such as the Paris-Brooklyn Exchange in 2002 in which ten galleries from the Williamsburg district in Brooklyn exhibited the work of artists from ten galleries in the Marais district of Paris, and vice versa, can grab not only the attention of your collectors but also of government officials you may want to befriend as well. More recently, the multigallery, multicity collaboration Condo was launched (www.condocomplex.org) to encourage “the evaluation of existing models, pooling resources and acting communally to propose an environment that is more conducive for experimental gallery exhibitions to take place internationally.” We’ll discuss Condo and similar efforts in more depth in chapter 15 on the art gallery community.
CHANGING YOUR IDENTITY AND REBRANDING
Because art history marches on, partnerships dissolve, interests change, and artists leave one gallery to join another, or initial efforts sometimes simply fail, you may find yourself, after having spent years promoting a consistent identity, needing to rebrand. It may seem like jumping the gun somewhat to discuss that process here, but some of the lessons dealers have learned when rebranding may help you consider how to go about it more thoroughly the first time around.
One of the most common rebranding efforts among dealers is to change a gallery’s name that seemed to capture the essence of why they opened back in the day but that didn’t age well or continue to reflect their values as they matured. The name most galleries seem to end up with after such soul-searching is generally the surname of the primary owners or full name of the sole owner. The following anecdote from Ed might help explain why:
I was riding the subway one day and noticed the director of a well-established gallery whom I had bought some work from before opening my own space. He knew I had since started a gallery in Brooklyn and apologized for not having made it out to visit yet. He apologized as well for not recalling the name of our gallery. When I told him it was “Plus Ultra,” he looked surprised. “Plus Ultra?” he said. “I know Plus Ultra. I just didn’t know that was you.” I spent the rest of the ride wondering how many other people in the art world that I worked hard to network with also had never connected the dots, and what a waste of marketing potential that represented. Indeed, after switching to an eponymous gallery name, I saw a noticeable jump in instant recognition while introducing myself outside the gallery context.
How to go about a rebranding as drastic as a name change is a matter of some debate. Some dealers advocate the advice your parents always gave you when taking off an old Band-Aid: do it in one fell swoop. Others will combine their old name with their new name for some transition period and then gradually fade the old one out. Even though Winkleman Gallery used this gradual method, it still took about a full year after finally dropping the old name altogether for most of the gallery’s contacts to stop using it. Whether that reflects human nature or the success of the first branding efforts, we may never know. But if it ever becomes necessary to do it again, we would definitely switch all at once.
This is an area in which Ed and Patton don’t fully align. Patton’s space, yours mine & ours, chose its name due to the community spirit in which the partners see the space having. There are some clear names, ones that might be tied to an address, for example, that can prove challenging the moment a gallery moves. However, as we’ve reviewed all of the arenas of branding, choosing a name that aligns with the gallery’s program or mission is not necessarily a bad idea. Patton even notes the frequent compliments the gallery receives on choosing to name their space yours mine & ours for the community they intend to support.
LESSONS LEARNED
If you choose to name your space by something other than your own name, make sure it aligns with the gallery’s brand or mission. Think carefully about choosing a name that reflects a street address or area of town as moves are inevitable, which then later adds confusion or additional costs for rebranding. Remember, when you change your name, it’s not simply on a digital site; there are associated costs from a new logo, business cards, letterhead, and the pain of changing your LLC name, if you so choose. Additionally, in one particular horror story, a gallery’s lease was declared null and void when they changed their LLC/DBA to a new name.
All of this isn’t to scare you but to urge you to pay close attention to the decision from the outset.
It can be easy to see the big galleries with their expensive mailed postcards and feel you have to compete. The truth is, if you’re opening a small Lower East Side space, no collector or curator is going to expect you to have heavy card stock invitations and business cards. Let the money you choose to spend on these materials be reflective of the business. Additionally, postcards have become a rare entity in the contemporary art world. It may not be worth spending the money when a digital mailing list will do just fine.
With all this discussion of programming and a mission, it’s important to remember that businesses evolve and grow. What is important to you now may be less so in ten years. So don’t get trapped into maintaining a specific identity. If your curiosity starts to take you elsewhere, slowly explore, then it won’t seem like a massive transition all at once. Every dealer will acknowledge a point in which their programming grew and shifted, so don’t feel beholden to the mission statement of years ago.
One other thing to keep in mind here, though, is that the type of art that’s popular and/or profitable changes over time and most often circles back around again. Chasing after what’s big today is often a losing game. Exploring potential changes in your program carefully is important because, with time, the market will often swing back again to where you just left.
Winkleman Gallery made two errors in this regard, both trying to evolve to catch up to discerned shifts in the market or marketing opportunities, and both simply too little, too late. (Had we simply stayed true to our original identity, things still may not have worked out so differently, but at least then we would have been true to our original niche.) Both were errors resulting from natural observations as the gallery grew and we met a wider circle of international collectors and curators. By the time we had adjusted our program to try and encompass those observations, though, many other galleries were already far ahead of us in those niches.