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Can Virtual Platforms Help Chip Away 'Exclusivity' from the Art World?
by Annabel Keenan
The Immigrant Artist Biennial Offers a Lesson in Perseverance
Requiring an email to enter, Gladstone Gallery viewing room platform allows for visitors all around the world to see their shows. Screenshot, online version of 'Jill Mulleady: Decline & Glory' installed in Brussels.
The worldwide, months-long lockdowns imposed as a result of Covid-19 transformed the way in which institutions could present artwork and challenged one of the fundamental elements of the art market: exclusivity. Galleries, in particular blue-chip galleries, thrive on exclusivity. From the design of the spaces to the interactions with clients, blue-chip institutions build their brands by creating a sense of being inaccessible. Public openings and viewings are often second offerings, the first picks already passed around a select group of targeted collectors and museums. The same can be said for art fairs. The works on the walls of a fair are often pre-sold and are rotated out of the space by the end of the day, lending an air of just having missed out to a client who hesitated. Regardless of whether works are for sale or not, oftentimes the only people who have the privilege of seeing any of these pieces are those who can afford to travel to the fair, buy a ticket (or receive a VIP pass), and pay the inflated hotel costs for their visit. With Covid-19, the entire operation of the art world has changed, and the result of this change might be the very degradation of exclusivity that the industry needed.
Accessibility and inclusivity in the art world are major issues in nearly every sector of the industry. The very model of a blue-chip gallery is that of the white cube—austere, white walls, often-windowless spaces designed by famous architects. These spaces are specifically designed as psychological barriers, cold, unwelcoming spaces that ensure the people entering the room are only those who are invited and entitled to be there. The stereotypical gallery staff consists of older, white, male directors with white, male salespeople and young, white, female assistants. The stereotypical roster of artists is much the same–older, white men, some white women. While these sectors are slowly changing, they are inevitably controlled by the institutions themselves. Current and former employees of many galleries have fought against the lack of diversity within the art world, most publicly through social media, such as the Instagram account @cancelartgalleries that collects and reports anonymous stories of racism, exploitation, and other abuse in the commercial art world. A similar account for museums has forced management at several institutions to address issues of discrimination and has even led to changes in staff. The final element of the art world, the viewers and the collectors, is where we have seen a shift in the last decade, and much of this shift has to do with the galleries' decreasing control over their audience with the increase in participation of the general public.
With Covid lockdowns, the idea of galleries as public spaces was completely eliminated. No longer could anyone wander into a gallery to view their current offerings. The little accessibility that the public space of the gallery offered was removed. However, as much as galleries operate privately, selling works that never see the public eye, they inevitably need the element of the general public to survive. Recognizability in the art world is paramount for branding. A large turnout of young, hip, Instagramming people can push a sale across the finish line. Without the physical space of the gallery, online viewing platforms have become crucial to maintaining a gallery's relevancy in addition to its sales.
While the ability to attend art fairs and exhibitions increased as a result of the shift to digital, the question remains whether increased accessibility translates to increased sales.
At the beginning of the pandemic, galleries and large art fairs clung desperately to the status quo. Basel Art Fair waited months to cancel their in-person summer fair held annually in June in Basel, Switzerland. While fair organizers originally postponed the summer 2020 edition until September, pressure and concerns from participating galleries led to its cancellation altogether. They did the same for the Miami iteration held in December, waiting until it was absolutely clear that an in-person fair was impossible, and then opting for an online version of the international event. Suddenly, the elitism that these fairs depend upon began to chip away. Without the costs of travel and accommodation, the pool of people able to view what these galleries had to offer expanded dramatically.
While the ability to attend art fairs and exhibitions increased as a result of the shift to digital, the question remains whether increased accessibility translates to increased sales. Without reports from individual galleries, it's unclear how well-attended the virtual spaces really are, but Art Basel's mid-year UBS Global Art Market Report gives an idea of the impact of Covid-19 on art sales. With 795 galleries and 360 high-net-worth people surveyed, the report has shown that sales, in general, were down 36 percent in the first half of the year, but that there was a rapid increase in digital sales. According to the report, online sales represented 37 percent of the total sales volume compared to just 10 percent last year. New clients represented 26 percent of online sales, suggesting that there is indeed a benefit to the increase in outreach possible with the online platform. On the contrary, Art Basel's parent company, Swiss MCH Group, reported a loss of 55 percent of its own business in the first half of 2020 compared to 2019.
Screenshot, Hauser and Wirth's online exhibition Mark Bradford Quarantine Paintings featuring "Q1," 2020.
While there is no doubt that virtual exhibitions and online viewing rooms cannot replace the experience of being in front of an artwork, there is something to be said about the increased accessibility that comes with this virtual territory. Hauser and Wirth, for example, created virtual exhibitions for their Frieze Masters and Frieze London booths, allowing anyone who visited their website to see their presentation without any cost. Included in their booth was a new work by Mark Bradford, part of his "Quarantine Paintings," thus giving an opportunity for collectors and non-collectors alike to see the artist's new work. While Hauser and other galleries are embracing the virtual platform, it's unclear if this is a temporary adaptation to the current environment or a shift altogether. The question here is whether the leaders of the art world want to become more accessible.
Screenshot, GalleryPlatform.LA.
For some galleries, the use of virtual platforms presents the opportunity to expand their outreach to a wider audience. In Los Angeles, galleries came together immediately after lockdown to address the shift to online viewing and created an entire website to collectively display their online shows. Launched officially on May 14th, the website, called GalleryPlatform.LA, presents 10 gallery viewing rooms and one curated project each week. The platform, which states its purpose as "to promote engagement with the local and international art audience," now consists of 81 LA galleries. A similar program called 8-bridges was created in October in the Bay Area.
Online viewing spaces were already in use before lockdown, often privately as a tool to attract clients who were not able to see the show in person. Sometimes taking the form of a PDF or a password-protected website with images and information, these viewing spaces are more direct in their function—to sell artwork. Gagosian, for example, has experimented with online viewing platforms over the last few years. Some of the viewing rooms were standalone shows and others complemented art fairs, as was the case with their viewing room created to coincide with the Los Angeles iteration of the Frieze Art Fair that took place in February of this year. The works in this viewing room were each displayed with props to give a sense of scale, but there was still no doubt that their function was to sell artwork. Visitors to the viewing room had the ability to live chat with a specialist at any hour, thus ensuring no sales were missed.
Unlike this concept of a purely sales-focused viewing room, the virtual spaces that galleries are now using in place of the in-person experience balance this necessary role of a sales tool with the entertainment value of an exhibition. Los Angeles printmaking studio and gallery Gemini G.E.L., for example, created a walkthrough film of their exhibition "John Baldessari: 30 Years at Gemini G.E.L." both for their GalleryPlatform.LA project and to complement the exhibition page on their website.
Similarly, Hauser and Wirth has set up their virtual exhibitions so that videos of the artists working and text about the works are interspersed among images of the pieces themselves. For their new exhibition on the artist Amy Sherald, the viewer can read about her practice and view a video of the artist working before seeing the new gouache portraits. Compared to the webpage for the gallery's show of the artist's work from September and October of last year, the current virtual exhibition is more engaging and comprehensive. Whereas the previous exhibition page offered installation shots and select images, the virtual show takes steps to feel more like an interactive experience.
In addition to galleries extending their outreach, art viewers themselves can expand their interest and engagement through virtual platforms. With the ease at which online exhibitions can be accessed, there is less of a participatory commitment for the viewer. One can easily view an exhibition that one may not have been willing to dedicate the time or resources to see before. People can now view an online tour or join in on a virtual performance piece that they would normally not have allotted time for. Moreover, viewers who might not have felt comfortable breaching the psychological barrier of the white cute no longer have that physical threshold holding them back. While there have not been reports of expanded viewership, the simple fact that people can easily view a show in Brussels while sitting in their home in New Jersey at least allows for greater accessibility.
At the end of the day, blue-chip galleries will continue to offer works privately and the general public will continue to be in the dark about the very existence of many incredible works of art. Indeed, there is no doubt that private offers and still being made and private virtual viewing rooms exist. While this exclusivity is inevitably a fundamental characteristic, even an important sales tool, that helps galleries build a brand and make a profit, the breaking down of exclusivity has opened the art world to new methods of participation and consumption. If there is a lesson to learn from Covid-19 lockdowns, it is that virtual exhibitions can serve a purpose to complement physical viewing spaces with additional resources like video and text to expand the art world's outreach and broaden the viewer's own activities.
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Annabel Keenan
Writer, Cultbytes Annabel Keenan is a New York-based art advisor and freelance writer. While her art career began in the museum world, she has shifted to fine art sales, first as an assistant at Gagosian, and then as an associate at the legendary printmaking studio Gemini G.E.L.. As an advisor, Annabel specializes in prints and multiples, and aims to make the process of collecting art more accessible. She has held positions at the Broad Museum, the Morgan Library and Museum, the American Academy in Rome, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. She holds a B.A. in Art and Architectural History from Emory University and an M.A. in Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture from the Bard Graduate Center.
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D'Amore-McKim welcomes 12 new full-time faculty
The D'Amore-McKim School of Business is pleased to announce the addition of 12 new full-time faculty to its accomplished academic roster of innovators, scholars, researchers, and leaders. In addition, the school celebrated two faculty who were visiting professors who are now tenure-track assistant professors.
The D'Amore-McKim School of Business welcomed 12 new full-time faculty to its accomplished academic roster of innovators, scholars, researchers, and leaders. In addition, the school celebrated two faculty who were visiting professors who are now tenure-track assistant professors. In a time unlike any other faced before, D'Amore-McKim remains steadfast in growing its community of prominent experts and pioneering scholars who set the standards in global business education.
Our faculty continue to generate impactful research and serve as leaders in their fields by increasing their research productivity and holding positions on editorial boards of top-tier journals.
Their extensive industry experiences and timely business research make them essential in furthering D'Amore-McKim's unique ability to bridge the gap between world-class academics and meaningful business application.
Delivering education powered by experiential learning, D'Amore-McKim faculty develop enlightened leaders of the tomorrow who will shape the future of business in a landscape defined by digital convergence.
Meet our new tenure-track faculty
Shuyang Wang
Assistant Professor, Accounting
PhD in Accountancy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Wang's work addresses how private equity investments affect financial misreporting, how regulations and inter-firm information externally shape misreporting decisions, and how executive compensation plans incorporate financial information.
Saptarshi Mukherjee
Assistant Professor, Finance
Ph.D. in Finance, New York University Stern School of Business
Mukherjee's research focuses on household finance and corporate finance. He is particularly interested in understanding how households allocate their financial wealth; how macroeconomic frictions affect their wealth allocations over time; and how these behaviors contribute and have contributed to the widening wealth inequality observed worldwide over the last few decades. In corporate finance, Mukherjee is interested in understanding how secondary market conditions affect firm decisions and dynamics. His current teaching interests at D'Amore-McKim include corporate finance and financial mathematics.
Amy Pei
Assistant Professor, Marketing
PhD in Marketing, University of Southern California
Pei's two main areas of research are influencer marketing and social media. In her line of research about influencer marketing, she studies how firms can optimally manage influencer reviews through paid affiliations; how disclosure requirements affect both the firm's strategy and consumer welfare; and when and how style influencers affect consumers's preferences. In her line of research about social media, Pei studies the unintended consequences of curation algorithms in the presence of misinformation. Her research findings have broad implications for firms, consumers, and regulators.
Shawn Bhimani
Assistant Professor, Supply Chain & Information Management
Ph.D. in Operations Management, University of Leicester
Bhimani's research is at the intersection of supply chain labor, risk and corporate social responsibility (CSR). He is focused on preventing forced labor (i.e. human trafficking) in supply chains. He uses quantitative (econometrics, game theory, optimization) and qualitative techniques to help companies, governments, and NGOs stop modern slavery in supply chains. Bhimani has taught supply chain and operations management at multiple top-tier universities for Ph.D., MBA and undergraduate courses on the subjects of operations and supply chain fundamentals, sustainability, ethics, statistics and optimization. He is a current faculty member at D'Amore-McKim, transitioning into a tenure-track position.
Meet our new non tenure-track faculty
Dan Sunderland
Professor of Practice, Accounting
MBA, University of Chicago
Sunderland recently retired from Deloitte & Touche, where he served as Chief Auditor, after a 38-year career. He has served a variety of clients directly, including Fortune 50 clients, and regularly interacted with a variety of regulators and boards.
Jim Campasano
Assistant Teaching Professor, Finance
PhD in Finance, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Campasano studies empirical asset pricing with a focus on options. He is currently examining how the term structure of implied volatility impacts the pricing and returns of equities and equity options.
Mark Muzere
Visiting Associate Professor, Finance
PhD in Financial Economics, Washington University
PhD in Mathematics, Northwestern University
Muzere's research focuses on international finance, investments, and corporate finance, while teaching interests lie in financial management, investments, corporate finance, and economics.
Michael Enright
Pierre Choueiri Family Professor in Global Business, International Business & Strategy
PhD in Business Economics, Harvard University
Enright is a leading expert on international competitiveness, regional economic development, and international business strategy. He has written definitive works on the strategies and organizations of multinational companies, the impact of foreign firms on China's economy, regional clusters, and the competitiveness of national and regional economies.
George Yip
Distinguished Visiting Professor, International Business & Strategy
Distinguished Faculty Fellow at the Center for Emerging Markets
DBA in Business Policy, Harvard Business School
Yip's research interests focus on frontier issues for managers, especially in international business. His current focus is about the rise of innovation in China and how both Chinese and foreign companies can manage that phenomenon. Another current focus is global account management by multinational companies.
Ravit Heskiau
Visiting Lecturer, Management and Organizational Development
PhD in Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management, University of Toronto
Heskiau's research is focused on employees' multiple identities and roles, and how the interface between work and non-work roles can be leveraged to promote performance and well-being. She studies theory-based interventions that empower individuals to manage the work-life interface.
Myles Garvey
Assistant Teaching Professor, Marketing
PhD in Supply Chain Management and Marketing Science, Rutgers Business School
Didem Kurt
Visiting Associate Professor, Marketing
PhD in Marketing, University of Pittsburgh
Didem's research interests include shopper behavior with a special focus on social influence, inequality, and religiosity. Previously, she served as an associate editor at Frontiers in Psychology.
Shubhro Sen
Visiting Professor & Executive-in-Residence, Marketing
PhD in Marketing, Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley
Assistant Teaching Professor, Supply Chain & Information Management
PhD in Information Systems for Data Science, University of Massachusetts Boston
Lee's research areas include business analytics, social media, decision models and their impacts on organizations and society. She is the founding Vice President of the Association of Information Systems (AIS) Doctoral Student College. She is an active member of AIS and the Academy of Management. She has served as a reviewer for many journals and conferences, including the Journal of Information Organization, The Data Base for Advances in Information Systems, AOM Annual Meeting, and the International Conference on Information Systems.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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The Pacific Ocean is hosting a hurricane party. It is the first time three, category four storms exist in one ocean basin at the same time.
The staff currently at Kure has remained on island as they are safe from the high winds. However, many of the field teams that were working on the other Northwestern Hawaiian Islands were evacuated as a safety precaution.
So far on Oahu the storms have given us a few rainy days, but mostly the storms have created an incredible humidity. The kind of sticky, heavy air that everyone feels compelled to mention in order to excuse his or her sweat.
It's in this heat that we are moving all of our field kit and the many buckets I keep mentioning from base to the ship that will transport them all the way out to Kure. When you only have the opportunity to restock a field site twice a year, there are an incredible amount of items to pack.
There seems to be an endless amount of buckets to get onto the ship, so we form a chain. As I pass bucket after bucket to Andy, I realize that the repetitive motion and the heat is a lot like the hot yoga sculpt class I took the night before. I can't decide if the heat and humidity is making our work harder or just into a better calorie burning activity.
Either way, this trip is beginning to feel very, very real. In just over two weeks we fly to Midway, where this ship will meet us and take us the rest of the way to Kure.
Earlier this week, we spent an entire day fitting our oversized gear onto trailers and in truck beds in order to bring it to the ship. This is the second day of loading the boat and the whole process feels like we're playing a life-size version of Tetris.
There are large plastic guzzlers that four of us end up rotating every possible direction as we double check there are no loitering bugs and figure out the best way to stack them on the trailer and later onto the boat.
There's an oven that we put together to make sure it works before cocooning it with pillows and bedding. The plywood is swaddled like a baby in tarps to make sure it doesn't warp. Next to our stacks of field gear, we look like hoarders.
After each full day of moving heavy items, I have very few words. It's a satisfying but exhausting task. Earlier this week, after overloading the trucks and trailers with as many items as possible, one of the donors to the Kure Atoll Conservancy stopped by to meet the team. His enthusiasm for the project is infectious. It was nice to sit and listen as everyone talked story about how they met and the magnitude of work that has been accomplished on Kure due to this man's generosity.


I have many ideas that I want to share and discuss over the coming months. I have many miles to travel and many meals to eat. I have soooo many shows to catch up on as well.
Join me in disconnecting from the social networks, and connecting in a more intimate way. Good luck on the coming year!