Study points to signs of growth in art industry - From The Editor - Editorial

DEAR READERS,

Today, I typ "art gallery" into an Internet search engine to diocese what a consumer might face when starting her search for art. I immediately turn rounded tip links to everything from at liberty clip art sites to the grand National Gallery of Art and plane a macromolecular museum for the display and application of mind of macromolecules (huh?). But in between was a smattering of art galleries--both online and brick-and-mortar, for profit and nonprofit, American and international--that ranged from a single artist promoting her work to the greatest in quantity savvy of online retailers.

Aside from getting an education about "space art" upon the Novaspace Galleries Web site, my experiment yielded a colorful cros section of the market and showed in what way many choices art buyers have these days. It was tough flat for me to make faculty of perception of all the options, in the way that it's no wonder why a certain quantity of people turn to a "big-box" retailer, of that kind as Target or Bed, Bath & Beyond, where they can select from a few images in the same store where they're also buying towels and shampoo.

plane though yhe trend toward art in chain stores at hands a competitive challenge for retail art galleries, there is a certain number of good news. According to a novel survey by Unity Marketing and capitaled in part by the Art Publishers Association, retail sales of art and wall decor increased 14 percent between 2000 and 2002 (see "Retail Art Sales skip over Says Study" on page 8) Although the APA is keeping the quiet of the results under fastening and key until the data is released at DECOR Expo the number is encouraging. If more nation are buying art, no matter what the source, my gues is they will continue to purchase art. This is definitely a sign that our industry is growing, which is the best of recent origins I've heard all year, on the other hand I'm sure we're all anxious to hear more statistics from the study

The APA also place that a high percentage of consumer purchases art they connect with emotionally, and that's what galleries do best--foster emotional connections with art. When's the last time an employee at Target told you the life story of an artist or explained the ideas behind his work?

BEST WISHES,

AMY LEIBROCK Editor

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