Art Marketing Myth #5 - Use an Online Virtual Gallery to Display Your Art (Clint Watson)

FineArtViews - The AMP Newsletter

Hi There,

I've been pondering Justin Timberlake's song, "Mirrors".

Fine mirrors are a marvel of modern engineering and craftsmanship: To create one, you must take two different ingredients (the glass and the silver), and combine them exactly in the right way and at the right time. And then you must put in the hard, tedious work of polishing the mirror until you have a perfect reflection.

Similarly, moving to the metaphorical, I don't believe soul mates are born "destined" for one another. It would be beyond tragic, with eight billion people on this planet if soul mates were born. You would have a 1 in 8,000,000,000 chance of meeting your soul mate.

No, Hollywood stories aside, it's not as simple as "meeting the right person", because, like mirrors, soul mates aren't born, soul mates are made.

The two souls must, of course, attract, but once they come together, like the glass and the silver, in the right way and at the right time, they begin the hard, but joyful work of polishing: The process by which those souls make two reflections into one.

More to come... on to art topics...

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Enjoy,

Clint Watson

In today's article, I'll dive into another important art myth and the truth behind it. Click here to catch up on Myths 1 - 4 now.

By the way, I shared all of these art marketing myths and their truths on Twitter first! For my latest thoughts on art marketing, posted daily please follow me there.

Myth #5: Use an online virtual room to display your art.

The Truth: These are just annoying and slow, use the web in its native format.

Gallery owners and artists needed to swiftly adjust their marketing approach during the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. People were no longer visiting traditional galleries to purchase artwork which meant they needed to redirect all attention to selling their art online.

Online virtual galleries, like the one pictured below, started to pop up all over the internet as a way to offer art collectors and potential buyers a "gallery experience" from the comfort of their own home.

If you're not familiar with these online virtual galleries, they are very similar to taking a virtual home tour on Zillow in that you can "walk through" the space as if you were actually standing in the gallery itself.

In a virtual online gallery, the room is set up much like a gallery would be with the artists' work displayed. As you make your way through the "gallery" you're able to view the artwork on display.

It sounds like a great concept, in theory, especially during a time when people were spending more time than ever before browsing online.

There are several issues with these online galleries which is why I urge you not to utilize them.

The first being that people who are searching for art online aren't necessarily looking for that "gallery experience". Sure, they want to connect with the artist and the artwork but there are other ways to do that without requiring them to browse through these virtual rooms to view your art.

These online rooms also lack functionality for the user and ultimately end up turning potential buyers away if the program lags or isn't working properly. And even when these programs DO work, they are extremely slow compared to more web-native approaches.

The purpose of your website is to provide an easy way for interested buyers to view and purchase your artwork.

People would much prefer browsing through your "gallery" of work on your website where they can easily navigate to each piece of artwork and learn more about it without the hassle of "walking" through an online virtual room.

This option offers a much better user experience than sending them off to an online virtual gallery.

Virtual galleries are an attempt to re-create an offline experience online. But that is a misguided attempt because viewing art online is a new, different experience.

Virtual galleries "horseless carriages." of viewing art online.

Car makers quickly learned that automobiles needed to be designed in a new way for the new era and should not harken back to the older design of horse-drawn carriages. The same principle applies to viewing art online. Forget trying to recreate the offline experience and, instead, optimize for the best ONLINE experience. Your site visitors will thank you for it.

Stay tuned for next week's article where I'll discuss Myth #6: You Need "Brand Values".

Until next time, remember that Fortune Favors the Bold Brush.

Sincerely,

Clint Watson

BoldBrush/FASO Founder & Art Fanatic

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