On the 25th May 2018 - in less than 60 days - The General Data Protection Regulation comes into effect. It affects everyone and every organisation having data transactions with individuals who live/work in the European Union.

This blog post is about resources I've been trying to pull together about GDPR - for artists and art organisations - societies, charities, schools, galleries etc.

This means it INCLUDES:

• ART SUPPLIERS - all those artists / art organisations - wherever they are located - aiming to market art and art-related services to people located in the EU
• SUPPLIES FOR ARTISTS - all those organisations - wherever they are located - aiming to market their goods and services (eg art materials, websites) to artists and art organisations located in the EU.

NEW PAGE Today I'm launching my new resource page about General Data Protection Regulation ​for Artists and Art Organisations. - which is very much a work in progress.  You can find it in the Office Practices section of the website. The art organisations include: art societies, art galleries, art dealers and art schools.

Previously, I've written two long blog posts on Making A Mark: 

• Got the GDPR Jitters? 10 things you need to know as an artist / art society / art gallery
• Is your art organisation or business ready for GDPR - the replacement of the Data Protection Act? ​

The NEW PAGE includes links to useful resources not included in the blog post and builds upon what I've previously written. I'm still looking and still finding new resources which might be helpful - but you may have to do a lot of reading.

RECOMMENDATION: Besides the links to the publications and resources produced by the Information Commission (first section), the section I'd suggest people take a look at is that relating to Issues for Art Organisations. It includes a very useful document written by The Arts Society providing guidance to its branch societies.

I'm also hoping to develop a section for "Artists as Sole Traders".

The one thing I have discovered is that more and more information is being published the closer we get to 25th May - and it's likely that a lot more will emerge as issues are tested in the courts thereafter.

​Bottom line - this is a live issue for anybody who is creating transactions involving the personal data of anybody living in the EU.

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I've always maintained that Damien Hirst's real talent lay in marketing and selling. For me he is a classic example of an artist whose ability to work out how to market his art - and to manipulate the art market for his benefit - considerably outweighed his talent as an artist.

This article is a "must read" because it highlights how Hirst has fundamentally challenged the notion of:

• how art is sold
• the role of the art gallery
• the relationship between artist, art gallery and art collector
• how much the artist gets when his or her art is sold to a collector

It also focuses on the fact that by moving art sales to "direct sales" between artist and art collector, a considerable amount of art market data has moved out of the reach of those who purport to know about 'value'. All they know about now is the amounts which are in the public domain because of art sold at auction. That's not always where the important sales are done any more.

Hirst is obviously an artist operating at the very high end of the market. He's ripped up the rule book and started to reinvent the art market.

After partnering with an auction house in 2008 to create a gigantic sale of his work, in 2017 he partnered with a Francois Pinault (the French luxury goods billionaire) and took over two museums to create an enormous thematic show and made the Venice Biennale an explicit commercial venue for buying art.

One has to ask to what extent artists operating further down the food chain can do the same thing:

• make what they want,
  
• sell it where they want - and
  
• dictate their own prices?
  

To my mind it's perfectly possible - but only if artists hone their marketing and selling skills as well as those related to creating art and partner with the right people and platforms.

We've already seen it to some extent with the achievements of those who have created a credible art business by selling direct to collectors online.

Now we need to see whether artists start partnering with venues to sell their art in new ways - just like Damien Hirst...

Like I said - it's a recommended read for those who acknowledge that marketing has a lot to do with how value is created in the art market.

[UPDATE: This new section and this blog post have been revised since first published]

Back in August I indicated I was developing a new section for the Art Business Info for Artists website.

I've now published the NEW SECTION page which I'm calling PRACTICE  as shorthand in the main menu.

However it's full title is PRACTICE - How to be a successful artist - and it's about what else you need to do to become successful besides making art!

I'm grouping content into three areas - outlined below and publishing contents as I finish each new section.

Live links are shown in red

Business Habits

• Starting Out - TIPS for an Emerging Artist
• Moving On - Being a Professional Artist (coming soon)

Real Life Business Practices

• Studio Practices
• Office Practices. This page identifies future content - and published content to date e.g. How to back up image files
• Time Management

Learning Opportunities

• Art Schools in the UK
• Art Business Courses
• The Best Books about the Art Business for Artists (coming soon)

In terms of future development of this section, it would be especially helpful to know what are the things that

• matter most to you
• you find it most difficult to find out about.

I've included forms on the published pages if you'd like to make any specific suggestions as to what you'd like to see included and/or prioritised.

I'll be developing more content for this new section over the winter so....
if you want to keep up with more developments and new content
I suggest you
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Here's some of the things it has highlighted this week:. I'll continue to do periodic round-ups - but you'll see the news first on the Facebook Page!

Art Competitions

• a reminder that art competitions are a great way to raise your profile
• link to an explanation of the Call for Entries for the 3rd Derwent Art Prize for Pencil Art

Art Exhibitions - Private Views

• I went to an art exhibition this week which was extremely well attended from 11:00am in the morning to when it finished in the evening at 8:00pm. I'm going to be commenting next week on my main blog about the reasons why I think this happened

Art Market

• This is an Artsy article about Figurative Painting’s Market Boom, in 5 Charts

Commercial Art & Licensing 

• This is the blog of Henri Davis who is an independent retail adviser - the sort of person who provides tips about retail trends and who advises stores about licensing art. (LOTS of you were very interested in this from which I take it that stories about licensing and retailing art would be of interest)

Communication

• Can you learn anything from the different approaches that artists use to create an artists statement - about themselves and their art? I shared the page on this website which provides examples of what famous artists say about themselves and how they say it

Money and Tax

• I highlighted a webinar last week run by HM Revenue & Customs about Simpler Income Tax for the Self Employed -  for UK tax-payers with self-employed income (and expenses!)

Selling Art Online
​This week I did a couple of blog posts which summarised the messages from the  The Hiscox Online Art Trade Report 2016.

• Selling Art Online 2016 (Part 1: Key Points) looked at the key points and trends in selling art online in the last 12 months
• Selling Art Online 2016: Part 2 - Online Platforms identified which were the main platforms used and preferred for selling art under £10k in the last 12 months

SEO

• I highlighted 

Social Media

• Did you know that Instagram is revising its algorithm so it will reorder content in your feed? Check out Tech Crunch's article about the impact it has had
• I highlighted a video that Facebook has made about News Feed: Getting Your Content to the Right People

Techies & SEO

• I highlighted an infographic providing a great BIG SEO checklist - in 75 tip boxes - for optimising how your website appears online and in response to search queries.
  
• Did you know you can test out how your website looks on other people's computers, tablets and phones - no matter what the size?

Websites

• Periodically I will post websites what impress me. This week I took a look at Wolf Khan's website and the slideshow of images on the landing page made me go "Wow" - how about you?

Yesterday I 'soft' launched a NEW Facebook Page associated with this website.

You can find it at ​https://www.facebook.com/artbusinessforartists/ Before I formally announced it had some 60+ likes. Since going public earlier this afternoon it has now got over 200 likes in its first 24 hours.

The rationale behind the new Page is explained in Making A Mark on Art Business and Marketing.

In summary - the intention is that this should provide an easy of keeping up to speed with interesting news and updates about matters relating to:

• the art business 
• marketing in real space and online
• techie matters about the law, money, tax and being online.

The content will include posts by me and will also share posts by others. However the content will always be focused on the type of topics indicated above.

Some of what you see on the Facebook Page will also be the subject of posts on this blog. Some items will relate to new links and updates to the website.

Bottom line - it's a different way of keeping up to date with what's happening - and the speed of change in the environment in which artists have to operate these days.

If you have a Facebook account and you'd like to keep up with it you can link to it by 'liking' the page. It should then appear in your news feed - and will continue to do so if you regularly indicate an appreciation of what is posted.

(Note about how Facebook works: If you just look and do nothing then chances are it will disappear from your news feed in time. Your Facebook news feed is always configured to present you with information you like looking at and respond to!  It does NOT contain every new item on every page you have ever liked.)