Art Accessibility: The Future of the Art Sector

"Painting is just another way of keeping a diary," says a famous artist. 

What happens when this diary remains hidden from the world? How do the artist's creativity and magical painting oil strokes become seen by collectors and artists? 

In 2022, the global art market performed higher than predicted. Today, it is currently at 68 billion U.S. dollars in market size! 

Sadly, some individuals have little or no means to tap into the opportunities due to ignorance, poor resources, and more. The current market is not open to the masses but to a specific audience. Is it true that not everyone can become a collector, and even more so a part of the society of collectors?

This article will discuss how art accessibility will shape the art market and NFA Space's role in this. Let us start by analyzing the art market trend in 2024.

Brief Overview of the Art Market Trend in 2023-2024

The art market houses a rich blend of creators, buyers, and sellers who actively contribute to building the sector. The high use of art contributed to the massive 36.8m volume of art transactions worldwide. 

Today, the United States is leading the art market with new trends and advancements. Thanks to this, the market is projected to increase by 3% every year. 

The current market promotes online sales platforms to boost art reach and adoption. Also, technological advancements (for example, NFTs) are boosting the private art sales sector and single-owner art collections. What's more? 

Today, art adoption is spreading from the U.S. into regions like Asia and Africa. In 2023, big players in the art market, for example, the museum sector (in the United States) recorded a 2.6% increase in market size. It shows positive growth and adoption of art through creators, collectors, and institutions. 

Sadly, in 2023, the art market decreased in demand and value. What happened to the booming art market of 2022? 

One of the reasons for the slow growth in the art sector is poor accessibility! 

What Hinders Art Accessibility Today? 

Art for all, all for art! 

How does this popular art notion make you feel? 

Art accessibility is the idea that art should be available and enjoyable for everyone, regardless of their background, abilities, or location. The current art market has its potential untapped and preserved for only selected people to benefit.

1. High Cost

Today, the high cost of living and spike in inflation have affected the cost of producing and marketing art. It makes it difficult for artists and collectors to create, buy, or view art. What's more?

Viewing artworks in art galleries necessitates significant fees from creators and collectors alike. The expense involved in producing, marketing art online, and offline leads to low adoption and poor accessibility.

Unfortunately, the high cost of accessing art today has led many to opt for an AI art generator, thus lowering the creativity of artists. 

2. Poor Art Diversity and Inclusion

Assuming an artist is about to buy a new painting online from "Envisions Art Gallery". The artist clicks to order but gets directed to a new webpage that features various forms of the same art. He can buy in braille, soft copy, or printed copy despite his race, color, or ethnicity. 

These options allow more artists and collectors to access the art despite their backgrounds. 

Sadly, The art sector lacks diversity and inclusion! 

Emerging and mid-career artists are abandoned in the shadows, paving the way for the top artists to shine. 

On the other hand, art institutions like NFA.space give equal opportunity to their artists irrespective of their background. While scrolling down the NFT art gallery at NFA.space, there is a unique thing to notice on our artist's bio. NFA Space artists are selected from different races, thus boosting art diversity. 

The lack of diversity in art bans artists and audiences who do not fit the dominant norms of gender, race, sexuality, class, culture, or disability.

3. Poor Awareness 

You may ask, what is awareness of art?

Is it possible to buy a product you know nothing about? You will likely be unable to identify the product when you see it and talk more about deciding to buy it. The same applies. 

Lack of education and awareness about art limits public knowledge. What's more? 

Individuals with zero knowledge about art are less likely to appreciate and engage with art. Today, this is common in the latest trend to adopt contemporary art. Those with little knowledge of contemporary art will find it difficult to appreciate, engage, and invest in it.

4. The Elitism and Exclusivity Of Art Institutions

Gone are the days when art was available for the masses. Today, many art galleries favor a group of influential collectors, dealers, curators, and critics. Sadly, these selected sets are privileged to decide what is valuable, relevant, and worthy of attention in art. 

Although they may have high art expertise, they hinder other creative minds from partaking in the art process. It leads to poor art accessibility. 

Or are we talking about the area of art exclusivity? 

Some art institutions today ban marketing any of their artist artwork sold in their galleries. This means that other galleries cannot display any painting of their artist. All of their artist work is displayed strictly in their gallery.

Although this strategy may create scarcity of the artwork, it also limits the audience and visibility. The result is poor art accessibility! 

These factors create a gap between art and the people, diminishing art's potential to inspire, communicate, and transform. The art market needs to adopt more democratic, participatory, accessible approaches for making, sharing, and experiencing art.

What can act as a catalyst to fill the gap and make art accessible? 

Major Catalyst Boosting Art Accessibility 

Do you support the notion - "NFT for artists"? 

If you recall, one of the trends in the art sector is the growing use of online sales channels and virtual exhibitions. Another major trend is the high adoption of technological tools like Blockchain, AI, and AR (Augmented Reality) in art. 

These trends are expanding art reach, diversity, transparency, and efficiency. Among the trends, the primary catalyst boosting art adoption is Blockchain technology! 

Blockchain houses complex sections like smart contracts and cryptocurrencies like NFTs. NFT art gallery works to give creators and collectors more power over their work. The experience of Amy Kilner comes to mind in this section of the article. What made her experience stand out? 

Case Study - Amy Kilner

In 2020, Amy Kilner experienced a roadblock to her 10-year graphic designer career. How did she overcome this?

For Kilner, the pandemic in 2020 was a blessing to her career because it moved her to try different creative art. In her earlier adventure during the pandemic, she started attempting 3D designs. 

Thankfully, in 2021, she first heard of NFTs from her client. After this discovery, Amy realized that a whole art world existed in the NFT sector. In January 2023, Amy decided to focus on NFT arts while still working on traditional art. The result? 

Amy now earns way more than she did as a graphic designer! 

Thanks to NFTs, Amy can mint her work and have maximum control. NFA.space wants this for every artist out there! 

NFA.space empowers traditional artists to control their physical artwork through blockchain technology. This unique blend of blockchain and arts will boost art accessibility now and in the future. How so? 

The Role of NFA Space in Boosting Art Accessibility

At NFA.space, we plan to develop the idea of democratization of art through blockchain technology. Thanks to this approach, art will fulfill its role and carry out its mission- influence people in its original frame.

Democratization strives to enhance art accessibility and inclusivity for a broader audience, creators, and perspectives. It contests traditional views of art as elitist and exclusive, celebrating its diversity and creativity instead.

One of the factors that allows democratization in arts is technology, such as the internet, blockchain, and more. This blend with technology provides new tools, platforms, and opportunities for artistic display. 

NFA's approach includes breaking down all the traditional barriers to allow more artists to embrace digital arts. The highlight of this offer is that anyone can partake and choose to be a collector. We are working to make the art market easy and more accessible for everyone.

Moreover, democratizing art will positively impact creators and motivate them to design.

NFA Space artists have more control over their work because they know when their paintings are traded from their selling price to percentage profit.

Conclusion

Art accessibility is not only a matter of social justice but also a key factor for the future of the art sector. As you have learned, democratizing art can benefit artists, audiences, society, and the economy. Technology like blockchain makes art more available, affordable, and diverse. 

It will enrich art cultures, foster creativity, and empower artistic voices. 

The art sector has the potential to grow and thrive when art becomes more accessible to everyone. Creators can showcase their work to a wide range of people who can appreciate and support their artistic vision. 

Collectors can discover new, exciting opportunities to invest in art and uncover emerging artists. Meanwhile, the general public benefits from art's positive effects on well-being, culture, and education.

Art accessibility is the future of the art sector, and it is up to us to embrace it and make it a reality.