Public media project on the Business of Art and the Art of Doing Business
A New Zealand internet channel of videos exploring the business of the contemporary art scene is now online. Featuring
more than 20 10 -minute interviews with artists, dealers, collectors, curators and others from New Zealand and
Australia, Studio Channel Art Fair (www.lettingspace.org.nz/studio-channel-art-fair) provides an independent media discussion considering the value of different relationships, and who holds the power in
the art scene. It has been set up to allow interviews to be dispersed freely as creative commons through the internet.
Public art producers Letting Space set up studio for two days at the end of The Cloud on Auckland's waterfront during
the Auckland Art Fair to, as they say, "consider the business of art and art as a business; one that ebbs and flows as
much as any other industry in New Zealand.”
“The people we interviewed are society change-makers, helping transform how we see ourselves and the way we do things.
We want to celebrate that and provide some insights into the process of presenting and exchanging work in the art
market.”
As writers Jim and Mary Barr (http://www.overthenet.blogspot.co.nz) record on their blog: "Former dealer Marshall Seifert calls the Auckland Art Fair a “hyped up tap dance" and Venice
Commissioner Heather Galbraith says she was there “more for conversation than looking.” Artist Scott Eady admits that
“you have to work a lot harder to be visible” when you're based in Dunedin and Sue Gardiner of the Chartwell Trust
explains how Trust founder Rob Gardiner looked to Denmark's Louisiana Museum of Modern Art for his public/ private
model. And not to forget, Auckland Art Gallery curator Ron Brownson reminding us that the Auckland Art Gallery is “not a
contemporary art museum”.
Studio Channel Art Fair is an experiment in the way the public programming that accompanies exhibitions operates. Rather
than longer-form public presentations, the project responds to the shorter, networking series of social exchanges that
occur on the floor of an Art Fair.
The full list of interviews is:
Sait Akkirman, documentor
Jennifer Buckley, art fair director
Ron Brownson, Curator
Scott Eady, artist and teacher
Judy Darragh, artist
Lisa Fehily, dealer and collector
Heather Galbraith, University head
Sue Gardiner, collector and writer
John Hurrell, critic
Lonnie Hutchinson, artist
Paul McNamara, curator and dealer
Anna Miles, dealer
Richard Moss, collector
Matt Nache, dealer
Anna Pappas, dealer
Reuben Paterson, artist
Dick Quan, collector
Marshall Seifert, ex-dealer and collector
Jonathan Smart, dealer
Francis Till, artist and dealer
Tracey Williams, curator and artist
ENDS