Aartzy is an e-commerce platform
for paintings, photography, sculptures, and prints. Initiated in 2018, the
platform has since expanded its reach to include a broad spectrum of artists.
The platform was originally
launched to function as a market hub for Sri Lankan artists to showcase their
skills and make sales without a daunting overhead. What has made the platform
truly special is that, in addition to it being the only such dedicated space
for Lankan artists to come together, the platform prioritizes those artists who
lack the resources to get online themselves.
Why create Aartzy?
Aartzy Founder Janaka Perera,
with his over two decades of experience in sales, marketing, and business
administration, stated that regardless of not being an artist himself, he
clearly understood the hardships local artists must endure.
He shared with us the inciting
incident which led to him taking time off his well-established career to launch
this platform.
"We were looking to buy some art
for a colleague's parting gift, and we chose a rainy day with heavy overcast to
go in search of this item and, of course, we made our way over to green path.
There, considering the unfortunate weather, we found just one artist who was displaying
his work from the back of a van due to the rain, and we got to talking, which
is when he shared with us that he is a third-generation artist and his entire
family relied on his earnings to survive and that it is extremely tough. This
is when I got to thinking: Is there any way I could help?" he said.
Janaka said that regardless of
the product, marketing is the same, adding that despite it requiring just a few
interested parties, in Sri Lanka, there simply remains no independent platform
for artists to promote their work. There are very limited ways to get
visibility for one's work - have an exhibition, art fairs like "Kala Pola",
etc. - and these are not sufficient and are not all year round.
He also said that when developing
his online platform, which was a no-brainer from a marketing perspective, he
had to take into consideration the fact that Sri Lanka as a market is not yet
mature enough to buy art online. Art is not considered an essential product and
negotiation is in a Lankan's DNA.
Janaka shared that it is
frustrating to see those people who love art leave it behind because they are
unable to generate a sufficient income to live on, adding that he firmly
believes that artists should only have to focus on creating while a third party
should focus on the marketing component.
"If the artist has to be
concerned about all the other elements, then their creativity suffers, work
gets commercialized, they become influenced by market conditions, etc.," he
said.
How the platform works
Essentially, you appoint your
Aartzy contact as your representative, a collaborative partner who takes care
of all the elements necessary to get eyes on your work and make a sale. Janaka
shared that initially the way they brought artists onto the platform was to
painstakingly go through their personal contacts and meet with each one in
person.
"We initially reached out to
artists in and about our area, made appointments with them, and visited their
homes, studios, etc.," he said, sharing that initially there was some
resistance, only until they came to realize that the intention here is to
purely benefit them. He said that once a few artists began to come on board,
then they were able to create a network of interested artists by word of mouth.
Aartzy is especially suitable for
artists do not have the means to go online by themselves. Janaka stated that
they build the artist's profile from the ground up. They photograph the
artist's work; process them; create titles; write descriptions; and upload,
promote, and co-ordinate all the way until a sale is made and the work is
delivered to the buyer. Aartzy will co-ordinate on behalf of the artist and all
the strategies will be discussed with the owner of the work.
He said that creating an artist's
profile is imperative as artists must have a clear and evident identity - it is
one of the primary requirements - and they put in a lot of groundwork to create
this for their artists, so that once they have created this profile, the
artists themselves can promote their Aartzy profile on their personal
platforms, if they wish.
In their services, in creating
this artist's profile, they take great care to present the work in their best
light, with their team attending to color-balancing and placing the artwork in
different backgrounds for the ease of the buyer, while also advising the
artists on strategy.
Janaka said that Aartzy exists
primarily to create value for artists' work. If you are to consider traditional
galleries, an artist must concede up to 50 % of their earnings from their sale
to the gallery, and on top of that, they will pick and choose the work the
artist is allowed to display. With Aartzy as a platform, artists will be given
two options: They can either opt for providing a commission on sales where all
administrative work will be provided free of charge, or include the commission
price on top of the price of the painting, which is what many opt for, he said,
adding that this way the artist is able to receive their expected price.
He said that they make it a habit
to not negotiate on this expected price and try more to build a pricing
strategy around this price.
"The expected price is very
important. It is the inherent value appointed by the artists to their work, and
it is theirs to have," he said, adding that most artists are not well to do;
this is to survive and we mustn't take advantage of this vulnerability.
Aartzy during Covid-19
Janaka shared that at present,
they are operating with a small team of just five individuals who work on
referencing as it remains easiest to get someone on board when referred to by a
known party. He said that they have adopted a transparent, trustworthy approach
and their actions speak louder than words.
Things had really changed during
the Covid-19 pandemic period; their concept became somewhat of a necessity
during that time as many artists suffered losses and opted to go online, and
since then, they have grown exponentially.
He also added that the platform
has begun to function as an inspiration hub for artists looking to improve and
grow in their creative pursuits, and even when they are presented with work to
be featured on the platform, they make a suggestion to explore their
featured works so that the artists can better themselves and present the best
version of themselves when they come on board.
Aartzy, having started as a
platform which was primarily focused on locals and Lankan expats, has since
expanded to include international artists as well. However, Janaka stated that
their focus remains on growing Sri Lankan artists and they especially promote
to expats in Australia (which has Lanka's largest expat population), New
Zealand, the US, Canada, and recently Europe.
He said that all Sri Lankans around the world want a little bit of home, and therefore cultural paintings especially tend to become popular among these expats.
The complete article can be found at http://www.themorning.lk/say-no-to-taking-advantage-of-our-artists/
Dimithri Wijesighe (The Sunday Morning, 2020)