Friday, March 26, 2010
Indy Contemporary Art Auction and Fund Raiser
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I have been meaning to post this for the past several days. Unfortunately I missed getting it up in time for a recent informational meeting discussing this project, that was held last night. All apologies. In an attempt to help raise funds for both local artists, while also raising funds for the Contemporary Art Acquisition Fund for the Indianapolis Museum of Art. I leave this to those artists reading this to decide if this is something you would like to try and/or support. Below is the information available regarding this opportunity. If you have further questions, contact either Mindy Ross or Christopher West who are spearheading this event. Hopefully we see some great art being offered up and we can raise a good amount of money for the acquisition fund.
from the press release:
Mindy Ross and Christopher West are seeking consignments in contemporary art for the first in a series of contemporary art auctions to be held on Friday evening, May 21, 2010 from 5pm to 8pm at Dan Ripley Auctions (2764 E 55th Place, Indianapolis, IN 46220). The auction will include lots cosigned directly from artists as well as pieces from the secondary market and will include a mix of local, regional and national artists.
For more information or to propose contemporary art or design for the auction, please contact either Mindy or Christopher by email using the information below:
Mindy Taylor Ross - artstrategies@me.com
Christopher West - cw@christopherwestpresents.com
Why are we doing this?
To support the growth of offerings in contemporary art in Central Indiana and to support the growth of our Indiana-based artists and organizations in this tough economic time. In addition to helping to generate sales for you, this initial auction has a charitable benefit--5% of the hammer price of each artwork will be donated by Ripley to the Contemporary Art Acquisition Fund at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. We're all struggling and we need to support each other. This charitable contribution does NOT effect your net from the sale. It is a donation given by the auction house from their proceeds.
Why should you consider being involved?
For the same reasons stated above and to work to establish a secondary market record for your work. Additionally, this outlet offers you a new way to reach buyers outside of the Indianapolis-area through Ripley's marketing efforts and his well established network of on-line and phone buyers.
What you can do to help?
Consign great pieces of contemporary art and design and tell your patrons and supporters to come out and buy on May, 21st! We'll be crafting emails to potential buyers who may not know a lot about auctions. We want to demystify the auction process and to have everyone come out, have fun, and BUY SOME ART. This is NOT just for experienced auction buyers.
Here are the details:
- Consignment form is attached. Up to 75% of the sales price is paid out to you! Consignments from individual artists will have a 25-35% commission to the auction house, which is far less then most contemporary galleries are able to accept when working with emerging artists.
- All consignments will be published in a 4-color print and on-line catalogue
- The auction will be advertised in local and national print publications and on prominent on-line sites such as artnet.com
- Sales results may be listed on artnet.com (meaning you too may get listed on artnet.com)!
To propose consignments for the sale send us ASAP the following information via email to the addresses above:
- Digital images of work available for consignment. Please be sure each image is titled to match a corresponding description list. (There are no image size requirements but please be sure it is a good clear image of the work.)
- A Word Document that contains descriptions of each artwork and which clearly corresponds with the names of the digital image files. Descriptions should contain:
- Your contact information [include US mailing address, email address and phone number(s)]
- Title of the work, Year of execution
- Medium
- Dimensions
- The price that you believe you would normally be able to sell this work for in a gallery setting.
- Any descriptive information that you think would be helpful for our consideration and/or for a catalogue description
We will notify you about pieces we are interested in consigning. A consignment form will need to be executed for each artwork.
All artworks will need to be delivered to Dan Ripley's auction house by Monday, April 19th, 2010 so they may be photographs and logged for the catalogue.
When is this Happening?
Thursday, May 20th, 2010--Preview party at Ripley's Auction House (time TBD)
Friday, May 21st, 2010--Live auction here in Indy (time tentatively set for 5-8pm)
And where?
Dan Ripley Auctions
2764 East 55th Place
Indianapolis, IN 46220
Mindy and I hope to hear from you. Please send us an email with artwork you would like to have considered in this sale.
All the best,
Christopher
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6 Responses to “Indy Contemporary Art Auction and Fund Raiser”
March 30, 2010 at 8:20 AM
Would not this be a dangerous situation for artist's and their work's price point if the auction does not result in reasonable sale prices?
If a work, or works, sold for a small percentage of the typical sale price, could this situation be potentially devastating for an artist's future?
I would imagine that there will be an auction record that will be available to the public.
I could use some money right about now, but this seems pretty risky.
Am I looking at this in the wrong way?
March 30, 2010 at 12:45 PM
Thank you for writing.
We probably should clear a couple things up regarding pricing. First of all, this is not a 'liquidation auction' where 'Everything must go!' (trying to use my best TV commercial voice).
We want to work with you and talk about what your work has sold for in the past and based on that decide an appropriate auction estimate. The auction estimate will then help determine where the reserve will be set.
And of course we will be marketing this extensively, both through local media and nationally. Aside from the marketing, we will be encouraging all of our existing clients to attend and ask any participating artist to invite any of their current or potential patrons.
Nothing is without risk, but creating contemporary art or working in the contemporary arts in Indy is inherently risky - the hope is that collectively we can create something special and highlight some of the good things going on here.
Please feel free to add any comments or questions here or email us directly.
Christopher West
March 30, 2010 at 6:41 PM
Will there be a starting price /minimum bid? I see the concern someone's piece could sell for $10? If a reasonable minimum bid is not met will the piece be taken off the auction block?
kz
March 31, 2010 at 9:28 AM
I am trying to figure out why I would submit art and invite my patrons to this auction. If they are able to purchase my work for much less than they purchase work directly from me, then I'd say the patron would feel that they had been paying too much and very possibly would no longer be my patron.
The auction obviously has good intentions and everybody involved should be commended. But I'm not sure if reality will match up with the intentions.
Much of my skepticism about the auction comes from the fact that over the last six to nine months we have purchased, at local auctions, excellent art made by high caliber local and regional artists for pennies on the dollar when compared to current, and former, gallery prices. The good news is that, for these particular auctions, there are no published catalogs of realized prices.
Best of luck with the auction and I hope it is successful.
June 10, 2010 at 6:28 AM
Very nice and informative post. Keep the good work continue. Thanks for sharing.
September 14, 2010 at 1:14 AM
My cousin recommended this blog and she was totally right keep up the fantastic work!
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