How to Build the Business of African Art (boAA) and help make African visual artists more prosperous
It’s a cliche now that good ideas, “aha!” moments, or obvious but previously inscrutable realizations, can often appear to you in the unlikeliest of times or places. At 7:15AM, my brain otherwise focused on my 10 kilometer walk goal, my feet navigating the morning rush: kids walking to school, cars and impatient drivers negotiating and honking for space on the road, I had three realizations hit me, one after another. They weren’t entirely new but they hadn’t been so fully formed.
The first was: it was time to build something at home. I have been a freelance journalist for most of my career, reporting on the visual art and cultures of first, Nigeria, and increasingly West Africa, but almost exclusively for foreign publications. Early in my career, this felt like the thing to do: to make a name for one’s self. At the same time, I had always complained and pontificated about the dearth of publications at home, or in the region who covered arts and culture with depth, style, and the gravitas afforded to subjects like politics, business, sports, or the super sexy “sustainable development.” It occurred to me while walking, that I had put in enough time and had earned some professional and financial freedom to take a little risk, and help close the gap I often can’t shut up about.
The second realization was a question: what to build? The first thing that initially sprang to my mind was a trade journal. The African visual art — and culture industry — though woefully underreported and under resourced does have some already existing digital titles concerned with critically engaging what artists produce in reviews, analysis and reportage. BUT there — to my knowledge — was no platform that looked end to end at the visual art industry covering its critical and commercial sides but specifically its stakeholders: artists, curators, gallerists, the media itself, museums, philanthropists; those who are directly invested in its growth. This meant, for instance, covering not just what the art addresses, but artists’ evolution over time, what happens when their work goes to market; applying investigative techniques to art coverage; documenting and archiving.
The third realization — and I’m properly sweaty now, slightly dizzy and deliriously excited: why does this matter? I did not find this answer on my walk. It came much later when I decided to apply and was accepted into the The Entrepreneurial Journalism Creators Program at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY — and I heard and properly understood the term, “value proposition” for the first time. Thanks to the extensive lessons by Ariel Zirulnick. So after 100 days in this incredible, work-affirming, brain-stretching, perspective-shifting program, here’s my value prop and a summary of my media product:
I am trying to help African visual artists:
- Who do not often understand the vague, complex machinations of the art market which thrives on the wealth of their creativity.
- Whose work isn’t always deeply engaged with and documented by local publications and media who work in the same contexts and environments as them.
- Who do not have a community they can share with and draw inspiration from; and especially do not have links to more established artists who can teach a generation behind them how they made it.
Here’s how I’ll do it and what I will cover:
- Business Intelligence Analysis, insight, and actionable information about the art market, enabling artists make better decisions about the commercial side of their practice.
- Editorial Coverage and Archiving Investigations, research-led essays, critique, review of regional art history, art movements, styles; building an accessible archive of artistic production on the continent.
- Community Developing a digital community, multimedia archive, and study of older, established artists sharing advice and how they made it; to help with creative inspiration and career progression of younger artists.
Up until this point, this may all have read as easy, smooth, straightforward. It was not. Before this program, I definitely could not have written this post with what I hope is clarity; which is exactly what the program gave me. A road map on how I could do what I wanted, how to get started, The value prop isn’t the only thing I learned. There’s more:
- Service, Not Product. Or maybe a little bit of both.
You’ll notice in my second realization I said I wanted to address all stakeholders in the art industry and by the third, I am focused on only one: visual artists. (Well, for now, anyway) This important piece of clarity and streamline came from the program and one session in particular with Jeff Jarvis who said journalism is a service, not a product, content, or even storytelling. He stressed on checking our egos at the door, focusing not on what we know as journalists but rather what the market — in this case, artists — need. This means deeply listening to the audience and producing something that will help them accomplish the goals they already have. I tested this out, speaking to several stakeholders and it seemed to me visual artists — of all the stakeholders — have the most pressing, urgent needs that must be solved quickly; and have an impact on the broader art industry. Speaking to visual artists I learned they operate in a flawed system where curators, gallerists, collectors, and other stakeholders depend on their creativity; and yet they are sometimes the least supported. One artist said to me in a conversation, what artists need is “information, not news” to better understand the industry. They need to be able to: Ask for better terms in a contract; Decide what dealers to work with; Choose gallery representation. Another said it’s crazy how artists do not seem to have opinions about the art industry (at least shared publicly) — that is they do not always share successes, failures, breakthroughs that others might learn from. My media product hopes to serve these needs.
2. Stick close like a friend — distribute and deliver personally
Through this program, I realized something that should have been obvious: many content creation media platforms give too much power to third party platforms and /or do not take advantage of developing a closer relationship with their audience. Before the program started, I thought I was going to reproduce my idea of a website, or build a page on a social media platform and try to drive traffic to it. The former is not necessarily consistent with how people prefer to consume news these days. The latter… well if Instagram shuts down today, you have to restart your platform elsewhere. I’ve decided instead to explore an email newsletter that goes directly to the audience, and am also considering exploring distribution via messaging apps where group chat debates go down, where connections between family and friends are fostered. The plan is to make the product a part of the audience’s lives. Many thanks to Dan Oshinsky and Amanda McLoughlin for this important insight.
3. Permission to not be perfect
One of the EJCP’s biggest gifts to me was my mentor Andaiye Taylor. Notably, she never asked me to prove myself — which is sometimes the experience when you’re a double minority in a space (Black, African). She cheered my idea from the first call. She was open and transparent about her own venture and drilled into me an incredibly difficult thing: letting go of perfection. Under her tutelage, I’ve become comfortable with the idea of starting small, going at my own pace, being hawkish and vigilant about being overwhelmed, and taking on too much. Being comfortable with failing. She openly shared ideas and plans that she hasn’t got to try and encouraged me to adapt them into my media service. Being a solopreneur, the odds are already against you somewhat. You can make it easier on yourself by “not letting perfect be the enemy of good.”
What I’m doing next
If you’ve stuck with me up until this point, I am currently at the stage of further, deeper audience listening, better understanding what the audience wants to see, and how this can benefit them. I even created a short pitch:
If you know an artist based in English-speaking West, Central and East Africa, share this survey with them. You can follow my journey, ideas and to see how this evolves over at: @arotinwa on Twitter, and @ayodejirotinwa on Instagram.
Wish me luck!
