Ebitenyefa Baralaye, Barabbas, Bronze (cast, polished), gold (laser plated), Image via ArtMgt
Long before the sharing economy became a thing, Michelangelo was trading frescoes for lodgings and Toulouse Lautrec was designing posters for dinner.
Today the situation is definitely less straightforward. The internet has prompted unprecedented exchange across the globe, creating a new economy which thrives on short-term commitments, personal connections and dynamic business models.
This new sharing economy is still a concept that exists somewhere between a functional economic system and a social utopia. Every platform has its own rules of exchange, sometimes actual barters, sometimes introductions to traditional transactions. Sometimes what looks like a conventional trade-off, has a ‘community-enhancing’ or ‘value-based’ element to it. There are even places where people offer something and expect nothing in return.
The opportunities in this new economy are constantly changing. Keeping up with them enables artists and arts organisations to make the most of a changing world. Here are four great examples.
Trade skills, space and materials
Ourgoods is a resource-sharing platform which facilitates exchanges of goods and services.
While the website has been primarily designed for artists, it is also frequented by technologists, makers, farmers, and activists. ‘We would like to see every sector of the solidarity economy supported for artists and all low income people: artists credit unions, artists unions, artists barter networks, artists community land trusts, artists free schools, and artists working with all people to build everything,’ explains Caroline Woolard – co-founder of the site with Jen Abrams.
Users register and make a list of haves and needs, then look for a atch with another user. From there, they go about helping each other on mutual projects.
The founders are building on they way creative people have been pooling and exchanging resources for generations. Nowadays, the internet not only makes swaps easier, but also enables community building. ‘More work gets done in networks of shared respect and resources than in competitive isolation. By honouring agreements and working hard, members of OurGoods will build lasting ties in a community of enormous potential.’
Woolard, an artist herself, was one of the first to take advantage of OurGoods’ network. ‘I had an idea for a glass sculpture, but I knew I couldn’t make it myself.’ She found a glass-blower was needed help with writing a project proposal and she suggested an exchange of skills. ‘We traded writing support for glass-blowing. Because it takes years to become a glass-blowing expert, and because I have years of experience writing applications and grants, we decided that an hour-for-hour trade was fair’
Because of OurGoods’ success, Caroline and Jen consider resource sharing as the paradigm of the 21st century. ‘We asked ourselves: What do you do with more arts graduates than ever in a networked information era and a Great Recession? You coordinate sharing online.’ With the platform they are committed to encouraging large scale change in the arts industry.
Get admin support when you need it
ArtsPool helps artists and creative workers control costs, save time, and focus on what matters most.
Other arts service providers tend to be more focused on front-end support, in particular fundraising, marketing, and strategic planning. ArtsPool has also honed in on back-end administrative work,’ explain managers Sarah Maxfield and Guy Yarden.
ArtsPool was born to try make up for some shortfalls in the U.S. non-profit system – including dwindling funding and increasing regulation – and the redundancies of arts groups’ infrastructures. ‘What ArtsPool offers is a chance to share elements of that infrastructure (expertise, labour, and technology) focused on purely operational and largely redundant and transactional work making, savings arts organizations time and controlling costs,’ they explain.
ArtsPool is easing short term, project-based hiring while providing better long-term stability for previously itinerant artists and art workers. ‘We allow a full-time worker’s excess capacity to be applied towards work needs elsewhere in the field (within the umbrella of the co-employment pool).’ In addition, workers receive benefits through ArtsPool that they otherwise are unlikely to receive from the individual entities engaging them on a contract basis.
On an operational level, when workers are hired by ArtsPool to deliver services, ArtsPool’s management is responsible for monitoring their workload. Any member that hires a worker to do work directly for them is responsible for managing the worker. In either case, the worker has an agency negotiate the nature and amount of the workload.
Maxfield and Yarden see the work that the arts industry does as vitally important. ‘The industry experiences so many challenges that tie back to a lack of resources. There is no magic bullet to address that challenge, but we do see a collective approach to core administrative work as a viable and important part of moving toward a healthier industry.’
Travel to arts events
Airbnb has popularised the idea of one person’s spare room becoming another’s holiday rental. Artists’ residencies enable artists to travel, work and experience cultural environments in other parts of the world,ArtPrize combines both ideas. During an annual 19-day event in Grand Rapids Michigan, ArtPrize matches out-of-town artists with volunteers offering free temporary housing through the artist hosting program.
Artists reduce the costs associated with participating in the event and often extend their stay, providing stimulus for both the local economy and the region’s cultural vitality.The ArtPrize artist hosting program is quite different from a traditional residency. ‘While some artists will have experiences similar to an artist residency – for example help completing their work, help buying materials – the intention of the program is the basic needs of housing,’ explains Jaenell Woods, public relations manager for Artprize.
‘The added benefits of shared hospitality and lifelong friendships are icing on the cake,’ says VanEe. ‘Throughout our years of hosting artists, we have seen the most ordinary of moments transform into the most exciting. From hanging drywall to making late night trips to Home Depot to eating Chinese, these are the moments that have connected us in community with one another, that have allowed us to enter into each other’s hearts and lives.’
ArtPrize artist host and advocate for the new economy in Grand Rapids, Erica Curry VanEe said the program brought much more to the community than economic benefit.
‘The sharing economy values highly the principles of reducing barriers and increasing peer to peer networks. We believe it to be a vehicle for innovation, community building, and sustainable practices that are both economically and socially beneficial.’
Lease your work
One outcome of the newly mobile and easily accessed economy is a younger generation’s unwillingness – or inability to – put down roots and buy objects. But while this makes selling your work harder, it also opens up a new market in art leasing.
ArtMgt is an art leasing web platform enabling artists from around the globe to lease rather than sell their work to interested collectors. A gold and bronze sculpture by Ebitenyefa Baralaye which sells for $US13,200 can be lease for $US 370 a month.
Founder David Fey sees leasing as part of the new market that technology is enabling. ‘In general there has been a great shift in the way people view ownership, whether that be with clothes, cars, real estate or art. Some of this change has been driven by new technologies becoming available for creating new platforms,’ says Fey. ‘But in many ways these platforms are more a reflection on the increasingly nimble way of living that’s been facilitated by the technology that surrounds us.’
Art leasing provides artists with an additional source of income, which is based on providing the fruition and enjoyment of their work without having to give up ownership. It creates a new market place in people who couldn’t afford to buy or who don’t want to be tied down, particularly for artists working in large media.
Even if in the beginning art leasing can look like a compromise for artists, it can be financially advantageous in the long run.
‘For artists, leasing is a trade-off for being paid incrementally over time, with the possibility of ultimately receiving more for their work in payments than if the work was sold outright,’ says Fey.
From a collector’s standpoint, ArtMgt offers the opportunity to enjoy works of art in an affordable and risk-free way. ‘Some clients move forward with purchasing leased work, but others are most interested in the flexibility of having an art collection that rotates over time.’‘
