Arts and the Economy: Andrew White


"How will the recent economic events affect
you, your org, and/or your industry?"


Andrew White
Owner, Lot 1433 Gallery

When the housing market drops, the art market follows in a chain reaction. Art purchases are some of the first things to go when people have any money concerns. When art sales drop, artists produce less art. Less art production means less art supply buying which hits the retail outlets relatively hard. I have also found that it is harder to show new work by artists because of this. Many artists want to show older work or drop out of shows because they have not produced new work. Then the shows suffer and in turn sales are affected again. I just curated a show that opened this past Saturday. Not one piece sold. In my years of showing art, this has never happened. This does not mean that the opening was a failure. Actually it was very well received. It just proved that, well, the housing market is worse than ever.