Art Papers’ Sylvie Fortin Talks About Upcoming Auction
by Gray Chapman
Sitting down at a rickety table on the top floor of the old Moreland School, Sylvie Fortin manages to appear calm and collected—despite the fact that her publication’s largest annual fundraiser is just days away. “At this point, we have it downpat,” says the editor-in-chief of Art Papers, a nonprofit magazine devoted to international coverage of contemporary art. “It’s almost like a ballet, just setting things in motion.”
Aggregate #17, by Laura Bell. Click the image for more.
The annual Art Papers art auction nets the publication an average 25-30% of funding each year, representing a formidable chunk of cash in an economy that isn’t treating nonprofits too kindly. The eleventh annual auction happens this coming Saturday, February 6, and despite the dismal time of year, Fortin says things are looking good so far. “Ticket sales are up 200% from last year, and so many people have been willing to help,” she says. Catching up with Art Relish in the midst of event-planning, Fortin gave us the lowdown on this year’s auction, including some of the big attention-getters up for grabs.
This will be auction #11 for Art Papers. Is it down to a formula at this point?
Well, we try to keep it fresh because that’s the only way you can have a successful event. So we do change things every year, but in terms of the coordination of things, it makes things a lot easier because we have a base of people who we can just call on.
So what has evolved this year?
We’ve been working very hard to raise the caliber of the work on view. We understand that there are many auctions around the city, and they each have a place. The thing that we can do that the others can’t do is have this broad national and international reach. So that’s where we’ve been focusing, so that we are not tapping on local artists constantly. This way, it allows us to give back to the community, and include local artists, but in a national and international context. And then, because of the caliber of the work, to attract collectors from elsewhere. The event has lots of room for growth, but it already bar-none the most important visual art event in Atlanta. But it could always be bigger. Each year is a step further. We could bring in work at $100,000 apiece, but are there the buyers out there? So it’s about growing our audience, educating our collectors, reaching out to artists, over time.
Has it been difficult planning a huge-scale fundraiser like this, given the current economic situation?
Yes, but our position is, “let’s plan for the worst but act for the best.” The response has been tremendous – we have more people on our host committee than we’ve ever had. We’ve reached out to museum directors and gallerists throughout the Southeast, understanding that we’ve never really done that effort and with them comes a lot of other people. It’s also a way to partner. We’re always talking about being efficient with our resources, so we’ve got Joe Bankoff and Michael Shapiro, Gayle Andrews (director of the Birmingham Museum of Art), and we have museums in Tennessee and North Carolina as well. So that’s been one way to change the strategy and to partner, outreach, and bring in more people. As for the caliber of the work, the pricepoints have stayed the course, so we have artworks available from $50 to $15,000, understanding that there’s a full range of buyers out there. And it’s important not to undercut the value of the work for artists. We have to understand that we’re playing with the market value of the work, and therefore their subsistence, for a long time. So we’re very conscious of that. We don’t want to bring their prices down, because that will stick with them for the next ten years. This is an economic crisis right now, but the impact on someone’s career is huge. So we’re considering these multiple things simultaneously.
Stop to Talk, by Meg Aubrey. Click the image for more.
Art Papers is a print publication, and it covers the visual arts, and it’s a nonprofit – three things that are being truly slammed by the economy right now. Has it been very tough this year?
Yes, it has been very tough. But again, one of the things that we’ve done over the past few years is expand our reach. So we do have support coming from throughout the U.S., as well as throughout the world, through foundations that are national and international. And yes, the economic crisis is global, but it’s unequal in its globalness. Yes, it has been difficult, mostly in terms of advertising revenue. As for the rest, we’ve been able to navigate the situation pretty swiftly and efficiently. And again, it’s understanding that we have this huge network. That’s our strength. We have an amazingly huge network around the globe of people with a lot of goodwill who love this publication. This year, we asked them to help. We usually don’t. But this year, we were a lot more outgoing in terms of, “You love us, we love you too, but right now, we need a little bit more help!” And people came out. So we’ve been focusing on our network and our relationships so that they continue to be deep and far-ranging. That’s going to help us now, but when we come out of this, we’re going to be stronger.
How important is the annual auction to your funding?
It’s anywhere between 25-30% of our annual funding. So, a huge amount is riding on that.
And so far, are the numbers looking good?
Yes! Ticket sales are at 200% of what they were at last year. There are two parts to it: there’s the art-purchasing part, which is a big chunk, but there’s also just the “coming to the event and drinking” part. And that’s equally important. Right now, the only thing we can measure is the attendance. So far, yes, ticket sales are the best we’ve ever seen. We do still have to keep going, but right now it’s looking very good. For a lot of people, this is a big annual thing that’s on their calendars year after year. The other thing is that people realize now that we do bring in amazing work of tremendous quality that they can acquire – because when you go to New York, often the dealer won’t even give you access to it. It’s a very selective world. So we bring it here and make it accessible. And two, it’s very reasonably priced. So people know that if it’s in the auction, it’s good, which is one thing that we have developed over the past few years – the increase in quality. The word on the street right now is, “if it’s in there, you don’t have to worry whether is good.” That’s been where we’ve been steering it. I understand that if you’re a young collector, it’s very difficult. You can be a super smart person in whatever world you operate in, but you enter the art world and it’s so opaque, you have no idea if they’re taking you for a ride. So we wanted to take that out of the equation, saying, “Art Papers is a publication that has a tremendous amount of respect, and because of that network, we’re able to get great work.” And if you come to the auction, there are going to things at every price point but they are all going to be good. That has meant that it’s become an invitational event instead of just anyone submitting anything, so it’s made a little bit of difference.
Marginal Waters #MW4, by Doug Ischar. Click the image for more.
Have you felt a broader community interest level in the event?
Yes, in two ways. Each year I try to talk to people at the auction and make sure that there are people there for the first time. I think it’s a lot of word-of-mouth, friends telling friends that this is a really great event, and that’s a big part of it. The other thing is that we have a lot more media partnership this year. For example, we know that people intown know us well, and that’s not as big an issue, but people outside the perimeter might know us less. So we’ve made an effort to reach out in that way because a lot of people there are very interested in the arts but may not know about us. We’re trying to be as inclusive as possible.
How difficult is it to ask artists to contribute some of their work?
I think there are probably two main reasons that artists contribute their work: one, to help Art Papers. They can’t necessarily give us money, but they can give us work that we can sell. And the other reason is that we do expand markets for them. I know from artists who tell me that someone bought their work at the auction and went on to buy three more of their works. That’s why the event is much bigger than Art Papers. While it’s significant to our budget, it has this broader community impact that puts money in artists’ pockets. The crucial point will be, “How much money can people actually invest in art?” And that’s something we’ll only know after that night. I was at Art Basel in Miami in December, and the sales were fine. I think possibly, the people who buy art aren’t just everyone – you have to have some disposable income. I’m fully cognizant of that. It seems like that group of people might have a little bit of money, or maybe psychologically they just need to get back to normal somehow, and we’re a really cost-efficient way to do that.
Any favorite pieces in the auction?
We certainly have some big names involved. Cathy Daley contributed a drawing of a woman dancing – a lot of people have responded to that. Another is by this New York artist, Luca Buvoli, who just opened a big show at the Guggenheim in Berlin last Friday. It’s a big intervention on the facade, and what he gave us was a preparatory drawing, which is amazing. Mel Chin is also giving us a piece. Mel doesn’t usually do things for auctions, maybe once or twice a year. He doesn’t really make objects that much, but we’re getting a piece by him. Last year it sold for $4,000 – $5,000. Those are some of our biggest attention-grabbers.
The Art Papers Eleventh Annual Art Auction will be held Saturday, February 6, at Mason Murer Fine Art. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the door. A special Collectors’ Preview will take place Friday, February 5, with a $100 ticket purchase.
Gray Hardeman Chapman is a writer living in Atlanta.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Leave a Reply