Friday 24 February 2012

The New Economy of Art

Artists need new business models, not hand-outs:
how best can lawyers help them?
On Wednesday 14 March a debate is to be held at Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London, WC1R 4RL.  The title of the debate is "Market Matters" and it's the first in a series of events under the banner of The New Economy of Art -- a collaboration between Artquest, the Contemporary Art Society and the Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS). According to the promotional information,
Market Matters will explore the complex and overlapping motivations behind various kinds of ‘art market’ from commercial galleries, private dealers and auction houses to art fairs, online selling and gift economies. The debate will provoke thinking about how artistic practice intersects with and creates its own economies.

Speakers Louisa Buck, Kate MacGarry and Matt Roberts will set the scene before an open dialogue with the audience.

This debate is part of The New Economy of Art – a series of open discussions that focus on the economic developments and opportunities in the cultural sector that impact on artists. It will share knowledge and provoke action to enable artists to influence the future ecologies and economies in which they operate".
The debate runs from 6.30pm to 8pm and is followed by drinks. Admission is for the very modest fee of £4.  For more information click here; to book online click here.

Given that lawyers have such an important part to play in helping to transform "opportunities in the cultural sector" into some sort of income for artists and designers on one hand and commercial purchasers and licensees on the other, it's hoped that there will be plenty of them in attendance.

1 comment:

mathinker said...

> Given that lawyers have such an
> important part to play

Ouch, that sounds bad. Unless you were talking about those fictional rainbow-hearted lawyers who work for nothing? When will people learn that adding expensive middlemen is not necessarily (and probably in reality, rarely) beneficial?

Not, of course, a direction I think would be widely pushed by DACS, I suppose.