New art gallery

[maryline]

Hi, and thank you for reading my new thread.
For years I have wanted to start an art gallery and when an outlet in the centre of Cambridge became available I just jumped at it! However, being a College owned property I had to submit a proposal and financial calculations, so I never thought I would be approved! They are strict, rigid, cautious and very particular! The College never favours individuals with no prior retail experience. . . yet, I was! Wow, initial excitement, but now major panic.
It is a commercial outlet in the centre of Cambridge costing £45k per annum (rent, rates & VAT), this does not include utilities, insurance and general running costs.
However many financial calculations I put together will not be a true representation of the actual market. The other galleries are doing well. I had hoped to rent wall space, but artists understandably seem put off. I guess they want to be wanted, to have been selected. So that leaves me taking on unknown artists' work to sell with a lower canvas price, and possibly with less pulling power when it comes to buyers. Established artists like to be with galleries which are also established, who have the contacts and reputation.
This will all come in time, but then that is the panic! With such heavy rent and the time needed to establish!
The outlet is such a fantastic opportunity, however, a new venture jumping into an expensive commercial outlet . . I have been in business (self-employed working from home) for over 20 years, but can't rationalise this one!
Anyone with advice, info, or suggestions whether personal, experienced or gut, would be so appreciated!
Thank you

 

[Doodle-Noodle]

Goodness - that's a BIG financial commitment for a first venture! Very exciting though!
My advice to you would be firstly to put your heart in a box for the time being and listen only to your head - when you are passionate about an idea it is very easy to get swept along with what you personally imagine will happen and completely dismiss what may well be the probabilities.
I am not trying to pour cold water on your plans, just advising you to be realistic. You are looking at breaking into a notoriously difficult market for which reputation of both the artists and the venue is going to be paramount unless you are able to come up with a very clever (and probably expensive) marketing campaign which will persuade both buyers and artists that your gallery will be "the" gallery to be associated with.
You mention that there are other galleries in your proposed catchment area that are doing well - how well are they doing? Well enough to sustain a rent of £45k a year? Do you actually KNOW that they are doing well? What proof do you have? They may just APPEAR to be doing well - after all you wouldn't want to exhibit, visit or purchase from a gallery that didn't give the impression it was hugely successful.
Wall art is a tricky market - we sell original artwork, but buyers fall into 3 categories in my opinion.
1: Art lovers - will pay for a painting because they love it, it didn't just talk to them, it screamed their name and stole their soul. They have to have it.
2: Investment buyers - not really interested in the piece itself, they are speculators hoping to pick up a piece that will increase dramatically in value.
3: Home furnishing brigade - they have a space on their wall and want something to put there. They want whatever they buy to co-ordinate with their carpets, curtains and cushion covers and to be able to tell their friends and neighbours it's an original painting.

We sell more to number 3 than anyone else; they are prepared to pay more for an original than they would for a print from Next or BHS, but not a huge amount more.

Getting artists to exhibit in your gallery will be easier once you actually have premises, it is do-able, we are doing it. If I were you I would be seriously investigating how well the competition really are doing; make sure you can offer something to your customers/artists that they can not get elsewhere, and triple check your projected figures against your known expenses every ten minutes for the next year before going ahead unless you are able to personally shoulder the financial liability you are thinking of taking on.

 

[B&H Digital]

I can't help you out, but we're located a few miles down the road from Cambridge, and from my experience it's something the City could do with, especially with the amount of people who visit Cambridge!

It sounds really exciting though, and we wish you the best of luck with it

 

[maryline]

Thank you for that! You are absolutely right, there are so few in Cambs, and there should be a good market for it!

 

[maryline]

All great advice, thank you. The galleries have been around for years, but absolutely right, they have to look like they are doing well, so I may look a little deeper than on the surface! I will be offering something a little different to the others, so have a slight edge over them. I have already picked up interest from radio but can't fully publicise till all too close to completion. So feels like a bit of a gamble! No artist will commit without knowing the location. Umm. . The glitzy, glamour of a central city location with premium rent hence more cost to artist vs a venue on the slight periphery lower rent less cost to artist. So appreciate your points, thank you!

 

[Spock]

My gut says that's an awful lot of money you're going to have to make to pay for the gallery! Good luck to you if you go ahead with it

 

[fisicx]

Thank you for that! You are absolutely right, there are so few in Cambs, and there should be a good market for it!

Maybe there are so few because there is NO market for it.

Perhaps people have tried and failed.

Hope it works out for you but might it not be better to start out with something a lot less expensive? I remember reading somewhere that start up costs for a shop can be in excess of £100K

And its 45K per year plus wages and so on. Assume two members of staff plus utilities and promotion and you will have to turn over a lot of money each week just to break even.

 

[marlint]

I think there's a big gap in the market for exhibiting/selling stuff by students.

There're a couple of online sites doing this which do really well.

It also gives you a USP (help a student earn their way through uni, get a cheap work of art by the next big thing etc).

It would help with publicity (get featured in Varsity, other student papers and magazines etc).

Students also probably have few other outlets for selling their work, so you could probably negotiate a bigger commission. You could probably also sell the pieces for less.

Maybe create a competition (Cambridge Student Art Prize 2012), exhibit and sell the best entries at the Gallery, have a prize night etc- lots of possibilities.

 

[marlint]

There's also opportunity for increasing turnover by doing low value, impulse buy options.

Small runs of postcards (something a bit different from the usual postcards)

On demand printing of posters of famous works.

Photo/Coffee table books with a number of prints of works in.

 

[maryline]

Fantastic ideas and suggestions, thank you!