The Gallery Project

Description

A young entrepreneur is considering options for starting an art dealership. Everyone has some commonsense knowledge of what an art gallery is, yet very few have realized how competitive the art market is and what it takes to succeed in that industry. The price of a painting can be anywhere between $50 and $500,000, and that price typically does not depend on the objective properties of the artwork itself. This is where the art dealer plays an important role. The budding entrepreneur has to make strategic decisions regarding which segment of the art market to serve (high or low brow?), where to start his business (mid-size hometown or large city?), how to deliver the art to market (by opening a traditional art gallery, by partnering with retail locations such as restaurants to put the artworks on display or by organizing temporary exhibitions in rented spaces) and whether he should ally with a local arts collective.

Learning Objective

·To reflect on a variety of topics that are core to strategic thinking: competition and competitive advantage; market size; key success factors; cash flows; value chain; value creation, capture and distribution; entry barriers; alliances. ·To introduce the notion of status, which is key to understanding why people buy art at all, why some art galleries are more popular and why some artists are more expensive.

Keywords

alliance art canada Strategy