Notes on Jennifer Kostuik’s talk at VISA
Vancouver gallery owner Jennifer Kostuik gave a talk at VISA (Vancouver Island School of Art) on Thursday (2/26) evening. Despite a technical glitch beyond her control (the projector stopped working, mysteriously, about 5 minutes into her presentation), and irrespective of a really laid-back, unstructured presentation style (yours truly sometimes prefers tighter, thesis-oriented talks), Kostuik offered some real insights into both the gallerist’s life (why do it?) and the artist’s relationship with the gallery.
I took a few notes. They are impressionistic, but without additional polishing, here they are…
Kostuik began by affirming the importance of promoting living artists. Sure, you can open a gallery and sell the work of dead people, but it’s really important to stake a claim in living culture – and then promote it. She talked about how she’s a hard worker, but that she ended up owning her own gallery because she’s not terribly well-suited to working for other people. She has her own vision of what art is good, what to promote, and while she initially thought she might be an art consultant, she couldn’t – in the end – promote artists she didn’t believe in.
So: opening her own gallery was the only way forward.
[Editorial aside: This is interesting because of a theme she brings up later, that of entrepreneurialism. Kostuik is an entrepreneur – a cultural entrepreneur and a business entrepreneur. It’s great that she began her talk with a discussion of her own willfulness, her desire to be in charge, and how that relates to her own creativity and artistic/ aesthetic sensibilities.]
She emphasized that you take on people because you believe in them, but also because you believe you can sell them.
[Editorial aside: how refreshing to hear someone in BC or in Victoria talk about selling and business like it was a noble thing to do and not something akin to spreading smallpox infested blankets….]
Kostuik emphasized something that artists should be able to understand readily: business, she said, is all about relationships.
She expects artists who pitch her to have done their homework – to know in advance whether or not their work would be a good fit for her gallery. She was quite clear about what she likes and what she looks for, and her emphasis on building the relationships between her and her artists (and her clients) was something that the audience (I’m guessing over 90% artists) needed to hear. Know who you are, what you have to offer, and pitch to someone who can help you and who will be helped by you.
I couldn’t help but think of some of the comments regarding “the pitch” that I’ve read by various venture capitalists: do your homework, know who you are (what you’re offering, and who you’re offering it to), and understand that in business it’s all about relationships.