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Why social media marketing is not enough in visual…

At beginning of the pandemic we hired a social media expert. We had been convinced that through the restrictions who forbid opening the gallery, it would be a better way to reach publicity. We had been thinking the whole world will be just virtually anymore, this will sustain after the lock-downs, we will reach more people – and it will be much cheaper than the classic way of acquiring new clients. We installed our web-shop, offered skype and zoom events, and collected likes from all over the world. Now after almost 9 months we have to admit, that we did not reach any new client through social media marketing. And we found out, that we cannot pay bills with likes and shares. As well our artists find out, that something is missing, in spite of all the global appreciation of their works, something essential is missing, something they could buy bread with. Our social media specialist gave us a lot of advice, to find the right hashtags, the right time to post, the right colors to post and so on. Photos, films, jokes, some content which is just indirect related to contemporary art from Central Europe. At the end of the line, our expert analyzes that we are not really in the market. Somehow we had the same impression. The chance to find new clients on social media is not determined by the market, but by chance.

My critic on social media should not sound as comments from frustrated guys, who just simply don’t know how to do it in a proper way. My critic should waken up the sector and encourage us to think, what aside social media is necessary for art-sales. Last but not least, social media can be a marketing instrument, but it can be not a sales-tool.

Surviving in world of contemporary fine arts without social media is simply not possible anymore. It is like the virus of the “Emperors new cloth” catched us all.

So what exactly remains to do? First of all, we have to be aware of the difference between marketing and sales. Marketing can only help to increase the awareness in your target group. But awareness in arts, even appreciation, is not leading mandatory to sales, there is another step, that has to follow. The process of sales has its own conditions.

I assume, that in spite of many social changes due to Covid 19, one important factor remains, that trust and confidence are the most important ones in art-sector. Dealers, galleries and artists trust a lot into social media, it seems that collectors are still hesitating and waiting, they don’t trust in the same intensity. Still it is necessary to win the confidence of the clients. If your clients are the persons, trusting you and believing in you, they will help you as well through hard times.

As a logic consequence of what we said until now, and in paradox to the vibe, everything should be online now, I think, personal contacts are getting more important in very near future. People are getting more and more individual and more and more privat nowadays. Art-Industry cannot ignore it. The times are over, when speechless, black-dressed unfriendly and arrogant people are “running” art-galleries, just proudly showing what they have. Even named galleries are suffering on that problem. The task of sales-staff in galleries is to find out the lifestyle of the client and what would fit the best to him and her. They have to remain friendly and behaving like good friends, even when the discussion is ending without deal. And they have to take the leadership in the sales process, not to let it up to the client, if they buy or not.

The future belongs to the art-seller, who is asking and understanding his clients and winning its trust, even when the instagram and facebook accounts are not showing the most likes in town.

Coming back to social media: Instagram & co. are helping artists to achieve a name amongst other artists, their main competitors. An art-gallery in a city with two million inhabitants might have 50, if it is good organized 10 relevant competitors. Being aware that social-media marketing is just entertaining, but not selling, I have to face the truth, that there I have one up to six million competitors. Even when you combine your social media activities with good content, it will be hard to break through. Meanwhile collectors buy a piece of the artist personality. This is transmitted more intensive in unique artworks than in uniform social-media trends.

Most of the big shots of collectors are not represented on facebook, some of them you even can’t find on the internet, because their access is filtered. They will not involve themselves in the unfiltered world of social media. Of course this idea has a big “BUT” button as well. The art-advisors, curators and secretaries around the decision-makers need social-media to inform themselves about the works, artistic CV, indicators for concepts or criteria to buy. In the front office of the collectors instagram and facebook are checked and filtered.

Do my friends, contacts, the people I am following reflect my self-understanding? Does it reflect the context I would like to be in? Who is my target group, whom I am following and who is following me? At the beginning you will be happy to obtain any follower; later on you should have the courage to clean your list from time to time. Of course in social media, masses are counting. But in opposite to TV-Stars, artists are not under the pressure to win everyone. Less is more, and it is more important that you build your marketplace in your target-group.

From our experience there are a lot of advices to give in social-media marketing, and I am sure other art-dealers have to give that as well: Prepare content for some days or weeks ahead, so you have it, when you will need it. Always be aware, that posting by its own is not enough. It is more important, to involve yourself into the community. Like, share, comment, communicate, take care of postings, stories and catch awareness with being there.

In order to have a strong presence, you have to be online permanent. You have to react and be one of the first to comment share like and repost. The permanent presence is not only in posting but as well in involving yourself into the community.

The threat is that small galleries with small capacities on human resources as well as artists marketing themselves will be selected out, if they are not following the rules. The algorithm will not remember them. But when you are just hanging on twitter & co, there is no more time for the real job of an artist, painting, as well as the real job of a gallery – convincing the right people and selling personally.

This article was published first on November 17th, 2020 on the blog of Thomas Emmerling. The original article can be found here.

The Story of Kunsthaus 7B – Contemporary Arts in…

In the years before COVID 19 the cultural tourism to Transylvania increased steadily. Main destinations had been the Church Fortresses and cities of Transylvanian Saxons as Brasov, Sighisoara and of course Sibiu, who had been European Cultural Capital 2007. Aside the public museums and their offers Kunsthaus 7B in Cisnadioara near Sibiu developed as a center for international contemporary art. It became an important factor in the cultural tourism to Transylvaina with increasing numbers of international exhibitions and visitors. Together with the Evanghelical Church Congregation of the German speaking minority in Transylvania, we transformed the old abandoned School House into an art-space. Surprisingly, the project did not start in one of the big cities with their urban culture, but in a village where values and traditions from the 13^th Century are sustaining unbroken.

How does it came to this project and why seems it to be necessary for Transylvania, Romania and Central-Europe?

My ancestors came from Transylvania, from the German speaking minority in the country between the Carpathian Mountains. I had been born in Germany, grew up in Germany and lived most of my life in Germany, not being so much aware of my roots on the Northern Balkan Peninsula.

In summer 1999 I had been first time in Romania. For me this journey had been very intensive, now I started to understand a lot about the structures and behaviors in our family and even in myself. Aside finding my roots, the trip caused new questions. The breath-taking landscape, the warmhearted politeness of the people, the awesome tasting food, all this had been a surprise for me. And then I asked myself, why people (now from Germany) go for holiday to North of Italy, in autumn for “Törgelen” to taste the new grape-juice and young wine? Why they are not coming to Transylvania?

After some years of travelling through Romania I remarked something particular: It seems to me that Romanian people don’t take culture for serious. They don’t take their own culture for serious. It seems to me, that the reason for that lack of believing in the own cultural productivity lies deeper in history, then in the years of communism. Of course, in times when intellectuals landed up in the Danube-Black Sea Channel, shoveling soil without any protection walls, then it is better no one is aware of the interest in sciences and culture. And on the other side, the officially declared intellectuals of Ceaucescu-Regime appeared helpless – they simply didn’t know how to be intellectual.

The countries along the river Danube are regions with enormous outstanding cultural skills as talents in music, literature, theater and visual arts. There is a long tradition of appreciating this. The Danube Area is one of the most creative areas in the world, evoking genius talents on almost all fields of cultural activities.

I decided to support contemporary-artists especially from Romania. I felt responsible for the people of my country and still I am convinced, that art from Central Europe should be placed again, where it belongs to, into the Center of Europe. Aside taking historical sites as castles and church-fortresses for serious, it is highest time that the Romanians taking their contemporary culture for serious. Art is transporting values and the culture of a land always describes the codes how people are behaving. Who is not caring about the contemporary culture of a country is not taking care, how its people are behaving.

Especially in Romania I found enormous skilled young artists, who preserved the values of the “homo europaeus” as Prof. Victor Neumann called him. The “homo europaeus”  is well educated, world-open, travelling, studying abroad, caring friendships all over the world, speaking several languages, empathic and blessed by a natural courtesy, understanding art in the meaning of enlightenment as something higher focusing the human being and the human reason.

This new generation of Romanian artists stayed abroad.  They know how life could be. They are free of suffering from communist or post-communist trauma, and they are free of the urge in coping western experimentalism. They believe in enlightenment and responsibility and creating a new, more refined time-less and space-less art. I think it is worth to support this artistic movement.

In 2017 I decided together with the Evanghelical Church Congregation of the German speaking minority to transform the old German speaking schoolhouse of the Transylvanian Saxons into an art-space, in order to create an exhibition space for Romanian and international artists. The idea is, that in Kunsthaus 7B as we called it, (the title of the project is a short version of the German word for Transylvania “Siebenbürgen”), artists from the Danube area and other regions of Europe are meeting with cultural interested people from all over the world, collectors, curators, journalists or just tourists appreciating art. With our global network of contacts in the art-world, that had been created through my activities as a collector, Kunsthaus 7B wants to be a stepping stone for artists from the Danube region to international careers. This project would not be possible without the support by the people from the village and the members of the Evanghelical Church Congregation in Cisnadioara.

The project is financially sustained by earnings from art-sales, contributions by the Church Congregation and me. Of course, the Corona caused travelling restrictions in 2020 creates a horrible financial situation for our artists and us. At this moment we are depending more and more on the philanthropic support of families, who support the idea of Kunsthaus 7B and who understand, that it is important for Transylvania, Romania and Central Europe that private cultural projects sustain this period. They are giving us hope and motivation to continue.

This article was published first on October 25th, 2020 on the blog of Thomas Emmerling. The original article can be found here.

The Idea of the Danube Region in Contemporary Art

Guest-author Prof. Dr. Adrian Popescu, Sibiu, Romania, publicist  President of Lobbyart Foundation, founding member of German-Romanian University in Sibiu and for many years Vice-President of the the association of visual artists UAP in Sibiu,  about the idea of the Danube Region, the recent Oana Ionel exhibition “Secret Stories of Danube River” in Vienna and the Private Art Club ART 9TEEN in Vienna and its support for Romanian Contemporary Art. The text had been published first time on Prof. Dr. Popescu’s facebook-site on October 6th, 2020.

A resident of Sibiu supports the strategy of the Danube Region through cultural activities.

Surprisingly or not in times of pandemic, there are still commendable initiatives aimed at economic recovery. Among those who promote such initiatives, we are pleased to nominate the collector and art curator Thomas Emmerling, a cultural lobbyist and more, with an effervescent activity whether we are talking about Europe or America. Thomas Emmerling visited Romania in 2010 and since then he has created a cultural bridge starting from traditional art to the creations of contemporary art. In this framework of cultural exchanges, the exhibitions alternated, being organized in: Sibiu, Cisnădioara, Timișoara, Iași, Cluj, Tg. Mureș, etc. At the same time he held events in Hungary, Germany, Slovakia but also in Austria where since 2018 he has carried out several projects under “ART 9TEEN”, as a result of his cooperation with the Viennese art entrepreneur and collector Alexander Varvaressos.

“ART 9TEEN” is a new concept, much more than an art gallery – a private art club, where business and culture coexist perfectly. Art collector and art dealer Thomas Emmerling, who also resides in Romania, the initiator and director of “Michelsberger Kunsthaus 7B in Transylvania”, based on an older project -related to the countries bordering the Danube- became the supporter of the Danube Region strategy through cultural activities . It is a welcome initiative that brings a new foundation of unity within the EU. The statement is supported by several arguments. The first would be the historical one and here, using archival documents, we invoke Nicolae Bălcescu who, on June 16, 1850, in the letter addressed to Alexandru Zane, referring to the “new continental order” launched a shocking proposal in that moment … namely “Giovine Europa”, formed on the basis of a “pact” … a structure meant to unite the Greeks, Spaniards, Swiss, Romanians and the Slavs of southern Europe, “a Danube confederation to which Napoleon himself I visa ”. This option regarding the “federal plan” is also presented in the letter he sent to Ion Ghica, on April 6, 1850, in which he proposed that this federal form be called the “United States of the Danube”, for which he proposed that the governing act to be implemented by a “Federal Central Assembly”. The second argument concerns the EU itself. Following the example of the “EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region”, the first such macro-regional approach, the EU Strategy for the Danube Region was recently relaunched, based on the efforts of stakeholders in the region to create a habitat in which all 115 million inhabitants to enjoy security, prosperity but also equal opportunities by connecting the Danube region to a network of transport, energy, culture and tourism.

“Secret Stories Of Danube River”

This last aspect is highlighted in the exhibition “Secret Stories Of Danube River”, in the creations of Oana Ionel, works exhibited by the curator Thomas Emmerling in the gallery in Vienna. The artist is known for her original concepts, which transcend political boundaries. Oana Ionel appeals to the memory of the river-symbol of Europe – the Danube, to tell a story about diversity, tolerance and respect for life. In a lyrical-abstract style, the painter describes the Danube as a cohabitation space that allows multiculturalism, from the Black Forest mountains to the Black Sea. “Rivers are alive and have a memory. Memories older than the peoples living on their shores are imprinted in their memory. Rivers do not care about the boundaries set by people”, explains the painter. One of the leitmotifs of Oana Ionel’s paintings is the island of Ada Kaleh, which was swallowed by the waters of the Danube in 1971, following the construction of the Iron Gates dam. In Oana Ionel’s painting, the island of Ada Kaleh is a constant presence and a symbol of diversity and respect for life. Congratulations to the Austrian curator living in Sibiu but also to the exhibitor who draws the attention of the decision makers that quick solutions must be found to overcome the pandemic crisis.