Our Story
I am asking you to help artists
everywhere create more work.
I am Joseph Kinnebrew (http://www.josephkinnebrew.com). I created an idea
that would offer a variety of options to serve artists and others who were
passionate about art.
I am very committed to helping
others and for 2 years have personally financed the building of this
idea. It is AcquisitionArt.com. It is about artists flourishing
by using their special form of creativity and while much of this starts and
depends upon selling their work I can assure you after 45 years of surviving as
an artist it is about a lot more than just selling work.
We are much more than an on line
gallery. The idea of
AcquisitionArt.com is evolving into a multilayered web based service business.
We are still in the early stages but our idea is functional(ing) and has been in beta test since February. There are
many things we would like to share with you.
When you visit the site you can read more about how we pursue our unique
mission. This goes far beyond the usual
approach to selling art. This is an artist's idea about what artists need to work
effectively.
The cornerstone of our idea is that it is uncommonly personal and very flexible. When offering art for sale we
create a one on one conversation between the owner of the art and an interested
buyer. When artists tell their story they are far more apt to sell their work. I
started with what I know to be true from years of experience. Stories
create provenance. Provenance instills pride of ownership and that builds
collections.
We want to reach out everywhere
the Internet does. Yes, we want to converse with the world and yes we
believe this is a 3rd new way to sell art.
We have devoted months of
research to the many things we can offer to help artists survive by reflecting
their highly individual needs. We also include others who simply own art
and want to sell it. On our functioning prototype website (new design coming soon) you can read
about many of these services and we are deeply involved in developing others,
particularly in the areas of higher education, webcasts with information on
demand, logistical support and corporate sponsorship.
It is just all this important
because history teaches us that:
With no art there will be no
memory of us.
The Impact
We are past the idea stage with
a small team and have over 25 prototype artist participants, 7 distinguished advisory
professionals (you can read about them on line) and 3 art advisors. We have been live on the web testing
our idea since February.
This is an evolving project and
like many it moves in fits and starts as we gain expertise, insight, funding
and develop new partnerships and relationships. It is well known that getting artists to act on their own behalf is difficult. We have many aspects of AqA to fund in the months ahead but specifically at this
stage and in this project we are seeking funding to reach out to artists
virtually everywhere and have them present their work in one of our categories
to sell it. These categories can be seen in the sections on line
which are currently limited to "The Collection" and The
MarketPlace" but more have been programed such as photography, prints, student work and ceramics. They are ready as soon as we have
listings. Our initial goal is to have 2500 works of art and fine crafts
offered for sale. Before we can invite
(actively solicit) buyers we must have a sufficient number of art objects for
them to look at, or in other words, have and exciting collection!
We have concluded from the
initial prototype that in this next stage, offering an incentive to existing
sellers to bring other sellers to the project, is a realistic and accelerated
way to grow. The object of having many new works is to create sales which
establishes credibility and creates it's own momentum.
There are many aspects of
survival that we will address, but we believe that selling work is the most
important place to start. Once we can
point to sales many other things will follow.
What We Need & What You Get
We are seeking $7,500 for a
reward program. We will use any and all of these funds to administer and
offer $2.50 to a current project participant for every accepted
listed item by a new artist they bring to AcquisitionArt.com. This will
help us "stock our shelves with inventory" (listed items are listed
for 6 months at no charge).
I feel the time has come to reach
out to others for funding. To date I have funded this project
personally. This includes site design (which needs to be redone), programing, web site, administrative, office, salary and
marketing expenses. I have done this for nearly 2 years because I
think it is important.
All of us here know how to say
thanks and share.
For all our benefactors pledging
over $25 we waive the 15% admin fee for purchases (see below) and say thank you.
We also offer gifts for various levels of contribution... thank you.
I am and we are volunteers with a
passion and know the most important thing you get is more art in your life and
that of others. That is our mission and you can join us. In this
economy and in these times of turbulent change artists have traditionally brought
forth the gifts of insight into things up close and far away. We need
more art and we should not have to subject it to only the uncertainly of generosity
and charity.
We are anxious to tell you more
about our vision and what we have done.
Other Ways You Can Help
AcquisitionArt is not a charity
or non-profit. We act and operate as a business that looks to the future.
I know from years of personal experience the art business needs
affordable, easily accessible and centralized services. To date we cannot
find such encompassing and often critical services elsewhere.
There are many projects for us to
undertake and we hope you will want to hear more from us about these as we get
to know each other. This is a wonderful and eminently worthy journey.
We want to bring greater dignity and opportunity to artists. We
hope that fewer of them won't have to have second and third jobs that they use
to support a few stolen moments in the studio to share and create works for
everyone.
On the web site http://www.acquisitionart.com there is an
important menu item referring to partnerships. Please read this as it can
be very useful to various cultural institutions, which you may have an interest
in. We believe by sharing there will be more art.
..and you can help with your
ideas and suggestions... we can all share in many ways