2025 might be filled with art opportunities.
How will we know what to do with them?
We hope your holiday and New Year were as relaxing as ours. Besides spending time with family, Miriam enjoyed watching college football bowl games and the new playoffs. Her alma mater lost its bowl game (Roll Tide), but she’ll support them regardless of their record (and this year was tough!).
The new year has already brought art opportunities. We were approached by three organizations over the holiday break about showing Miriam’s art. Here is how we evaluated each one:
The Museum
The first opportunity was a museum in New York City that wanted to curate a small show for Miriam along with a digital exhibit catalog, and a cover spread on their magazine to their collectors. We say “museum” because this was the name they gave themselves. Everything looked fancy on the surface, however, on closer examination, they were no more than a small vanity gallery whose sole purpose was to make money off artists through a digital brochure and pay-to-exhibit scheme Nothing illegal per se, just that the actual value of their offering in terms of exposure to collectors, marketing online, or physical exhibit appeared to be all smoke and mirrors. We passed.
The Corporate Art Advisory
The second opportunity came in the form of an art service that connects businesses, interior designers, institutions, interior designers, etc. with partner/affiliate artists to sell their original work or reproductions of their work. Their corporate client was opening a couple of locations in Alabama, and the art services company thought Miriam’s Alabama-centered work might be a good fit for reproductions.
While the profit from the sale of a couple of reproductions would be less than a couple hundred dollars, the potential Alabama exposure of Miriam’s work would have some limited value–a right market with a well-known corporate client. There were two issues:
First, the images of Miriam’s art submitted for consideration would also be part of a larger art services catalog of images. And while Miriam would retain the copyright, those images could then be selected by any client for any project in the future. We didn’t want to grant this blanket use of her images for reproductions and were able to negotiate to only have the images considered for this specific project.
The second problem though was that up to three years! after using the art advisory service, Miriam would not be able to work with any of the companies or clients this corporate art service worked with. This is a type of “non-compete” clause commonly found in business with employees and to some extent governs artist-gallery working relationships. Most non-compete clauses for employees are already under serious pressure with the FTC ruling in 2024. For freelancers, which most professional artists are, non-compete clauses are difficult to justify in 2025 much less enforce.
In our case, we were only interested in providing artwork images for consideration for a specific client, for a specific project (new locations) in a specific area (Alabama). Once that client’s project was complete, we wanted the freedom to engage any corporate client we saw fit regardless of whether or not they were an existing client of the art services advisory. Unfortunately, we have not secured an exception to that three-year post-engagement non-compete clause and have passed on this opportunity (for now).
The Non-Profit Gallery
The third opportunity over the holiday came from an art historian writing a book about an artist who attended the Art Student’s League in New York City shortly before Miriam. This artist was part of the early abstract expressionist movement, ran in the same circles as well-known abstract expressionists like Rothko and Pollack, but died in his 60s and his work remained unknown to the public. The author-historian reached out to talk to Miriam about her perspective on the New York City art scene in the 1950s since she was there at the end of the decade.
The author-historian is also a curator and exhibitions lead for a very nice non-profit gallery in a small town in Pennsylvania. She felt a solo show there of Miriam’s work would be wonderful and offered to help us submit a proposal and curate the show. We were encouraged by her interest in Miriam’s work and willingness to help us.
We thought carefully about this special opportunity but ultimately declined for these reasons: First, we would need to bear the shipping cost for the show to PA and it would be substantial. Second, neither Miriam nor I could travel that far due to her health to attend the opening. Third, we are focused on having Miriam’s work seen and exhibited in the Southeast, particularly in Alabama where she spent most of her life painting. To invest in a show in another state at a great distance, such an exhibit would need to significantly elevate her art profile and/or be assured of sales to make it profitable. This opportunity would have been a better fit if it was located in Alabama or Tennessee.
The Lessons We Carry
With each opportunity presented to show Miriam’s work to the public, we are grateful. Not every artist gets this opportunity, and we recognize this privilege should not be taken for granted. However, we also know that Miriam, her career, and her work is not like most artist careers.
So, we evaluate each opportunity presented by asking ourselves questions like:
- Is this a scam? (unfortunately, we must start here)
- How valuable is this opportunity in terms of elevating her status as an important Alabama woman artist in the 20th and 21st centuries?
- Can we afford to ship and show the work and cover the cost with sales?
- Will this grow our collector base?
- Will this increase public exposure to her art?
- Will this improve scholarship and understanding of her art?
- Will it encourage or help the community in which it is shown?
- Will it create potential opportunities down the road?
- Is the organization trustworthy and capable of handling her art, the education, the finances, and the transportation of her work?
- Are we enthusiastic about the opportunity?
- Will this opportunity add value for existing collectors of Miriam’s work?
Not all opportunities are equal or a good fit. We hope that this email provides you insight into how we work through opportunities regarding Miriam’s art collection.
