J
Jane Brumfield
Once worth it but not now and beware the expensive buy out on the contract
Once worth it but not anymore and beware their auto renew I joined Artsy with a gallery at the beginning And at that time it felt like a breath of fresh air and a really useful tool for galleries It was sold to me as a way of helping collectors find the galleries that would best support their tastes and it felt like a real partnership between Artsy the gallery and the collectors I stayed for two years and it would have been longer but I closed that gallery During that time I only sold enough work through the site to pay for the subscription but not make a profit on the investment The coverage and profile I got made it feel worth it A couple of years ago I opened a new gallery and joined artsy again I was surprised that they had got rid of the selection process and how many galleries were on it It appears their focus is online domination of the visual arts in the same way Uber has taken over the taxi business Gone is the sense of them supporting your business and there are so many galleries it is hard to get noticed It is labor intensive if you want to get anything productive out of it - as labor intensive as running your own website and inventory system - so you are in fact having to do everything twice If you don t have a website that supports an inventory system or you are so big that the subscription and staff time uploading and documenting exhibits is considered no big deal it might be worth it but it no longer made financial sense to me Which brings me to a word of warning They have an automatic renewal on the contract which means you can only get out of the contract at exactly the right time you can t miss it by a day or you head right into another year-long agreement and an expensive buy out