Features

On the wall

Research reveals a huge potential market for contemporary arts and crafts, as Elinor James and Gerri Morris explain.

Arts Professional
6 min read

Photo: Frieze Art Fair 2007

Vast potential for growth in the market for buying contemporary art and craft has been revealed through research undertaken by Morris Hargreaves McIntyre in the past five years. The 2004 ‘Taste Buds’ research1 revealed that 4.9 million adults in England had bought original art, and a further 5.9 million people were aspiring to buy – that’s 27% of the population in the market for buying original art. Our companion study for contemporary craft (‘Making it to Market’, 20062) revealed that 29% of the adult population were in the market for original craft: 6.9 million people in England having already bought, and 4.4 million aspiring to do so. There is potential to double the number of people who buy original art, and to grow the market for original craft by 63%, including a strong potential to develop more buyers of cutting-edge contemporary work.

Untapped interest

The art market in the UK is undeniably centred on London. A greater proportion of London residents have actually bought contemporary art compared to the rest of the country: not surprising, given comparative levels of wealth, along with the multitude of galleries, dealers and fairs in the city. However, Taste Buds found that people living outside London are just as likely to be interested in buying original art as Londoners: 8.9 million people living outside London would like to buy, compared to 1.8 million in London. This trend was confirmed by research conducted this year on behalf of agencies in Yorkshire3 and the West Midlands4. There are 612,000 people in the West Midlands who could become new buyers of contemporary art and/or craft, and just under half a million potential buyers in Yorkshire.

What are the barriers?

Our research identified a variety of factors constraining growth of the art market, many of which are rooted in the structure of industry. The high end of the market is governed by the principles of rarity (access to artists’ work is constricted to maintain high prices) and endorsement (work accrues value through peer endorsement, critical recognition, significant purchases and selling through dealers). This model means that art and potential buyers are intentionally kept apart, with potential buyers being put off from making a purchase by the sometimes wilfully mystifying and intimidating way in which contemporary art is presented and sold. Buying behaviour depends heavily on the existing infrastructure for selling contemporary art. To develop the buying habit, people need access to facilities that develop their taste and their confidence and provide routes to making a purchase. These include: exhibitions; information, advice and support on purchasing; and access to ways of buying art which suit new buyers’ needs – commercial galleries, but also fairs, events and open studios.

Regional routes

At the moment, many potential buyers outside London don’t have access to this necessary infrastructure. Across most of England the contemporary art market is relatively undeveloped, lacking the critical mass of suppliers, artists, contemporary art activity, support infrastructure and critical debate needed to develop confidence and value, and to harness the large-scale latent desire to buy art. Outside London, potential art buyers also tend to be dispersed over wider geographical areas, making it more difficult to reach them cost-effectively. Therefore, initiatives that have been successful in developing new buyers in London won’t work as easily elsewhere. London’s highly developed art market means that it can sustain specialist events selling high-value, cutting-edge art targeted at tiny niche markets. Regionally based selling initiatives have succeeded through a combination of strong public investment, strong involvement of local galleries, artists and support agencies, and an understanding of the market, offering a wide range of work for sale to suit a variety of tastes and budgets.

Increased opportunities

Whilst recent restructuring at Arts Council England and the Crafts Council has perhaps overshadowed national initiatives, the past few years have seen an extraordinary groundswell of projects and events across the country, providing potential buyers with more opportunities to browse and buy. Frieze Art Fair has rapidly established itself as the largest selling exhibition of contemporary art in the UK, with visitor numbers increasing to 68,000 last year (an 8% rise on 2006 figures) and gallerists reporting stronger-than-ever sales, including sales from new buyers. A plethora of other highly successful art fairs are also now well established in London, including the Affordable Art Fair, London Art Fair, the Contemporary Art Society’s annual Art Futures and Zoo Art Fair.

This trend isn’t restricted to London. Following its successful inaugural event last year, NewcastleGateshead Art Fair expects to attract between 6,000 and 8,000 visitors this year. The artist-led Brighton Art Fair regularly draws 5,000 potential buyers, and Affordable Art Fair’s Bristol event achieved record sales in 2007.

Other opportunities for buying art have also been gaining strength, including open studios initiatives up and down the country, innovative artist-led events such as the Art Car Boot Fair and a wide range of publicly funded initiatives designed to help potential buyers.

The impact of the Internet

Whilst Internet selling has had a seismic effect on comparable industries (the antiques trade for example), when it comes to buying original art – as opposed to prints and multiples – people use the web as a virtual gallery and directory rather than a virtual shop. Our research in Yorkshire and the West Midlands shows that compared to five years ago far more people are now using the Internet to view art and find out where to buy, although people are still reluctant to buy online. However, rapid technological advances and new selling initiatives could very well alter this trend.

We believe that the public sector needs to play a significant and ongoing role in developing the market for contemporary art. There is a real need for strategic direction – co-ordinating initiatives and investments to create a more holistic approach to the development of buyers. We believe that development initiatives need to include support for artists, buyers, and gallerists and fairs to develop sustainable art ecologies across England.