patron of the arts
a person who supports with money, efforts, or endorsement an artist or artistic endevour.
Wealth is not required to be a patron of the arts.
Anyone with an interest in the arts is aware of the rich patrons who buy the expensive art objects, people like David Walsh who built the fantastic Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) to open his remarkable collection to the public. To many people they are the quintessential chardonnay sipping millionaires buying art to glorify their own names, and making the artists famous as a result.
During the Renaissance every artist sought a patron who would commission art for churches, public spaces and their homes. These commissions kept the money rolling in for the artist and his apprentices. Patronage not only provided an income, it brought the artist’s work to the attention of other patrons. For all his natural talent, Michelangelo’s stature owed much to his close association with the Medici family who commissioned his early work including his famous statue of David. Through Medici patronage, Michelangelo achieved the notoriety to win his Papal commissions like the Sistine Chapel ceiling. It took vast fortunes to commission these works, and artists strove to exemplify the status of their patrons through ever greater feats of artistic brilliance.
Today fame and fortune as an artist can be as simply as a photograph of their work posted on a Tumblr blog. It can propagate across hundreds of personal blogs, social media and art fan sites to take on a life of its own, going viral and reaching the attention of millions of people and launch an artist’s career.
Art Collecting Groups
Last year the Newcastle Regional Gallery hosted an exhibition comprised of the art collected by a local group called Hawkesbury One. This group set out to develop a collection of emerging Australian artists in the first decade of the new century. The collection is stunning, edgy, scary but most importantly helped establish many of Australia’s finest new artists. Along the way, the members developed their palate for visual arts, developing new tastes for video art, installation art and styles that confront us with their raw emotion.
In this essay for the Griffith Review, Steven Alward describes the joys and complications of collecting art as a group, the legal and social barriers that they overcame to produce this collection. As part of a group, they gained access to works that they could not afford as individuals for the bargain price of $2000 a year. This is a fantastic way to provide your patronage to the arts if you can find a group of people who share your passion and vision for a collection.
Four simple ideas to make you a patron of the arts.
Finally, here are four simple ideas that anyone can pursue to be a patron of the arts:
- Buy the work of young artists. Every artist needs to make their first sale, go to local art fairs and art school exhibitions and be amongst the first to buy the work of an young artist.
- Become a member at a major gallery. Membership of a major gallery in your region provides an avenue to meet like minded art lovers, and often provide a myriad of ways to improve your knowledge. Free guided tours, art lectures and an opportunity to contribute to their acquisition plans. Then share your knowledge with friends and family, tell them about the exciting new artist you met last week and encourage them to invest in art.
- Volunteer. Many galleries rely on volunteers, and it is a simple no cost way to give something to the artistic community. Many people provide a lifetime of service to the arts through volunteering, and often they are amongst the most knowledgeable people at your gallery.
- Become a life model. Okay, this is not for everyone but emerging artists need subjects for their art and cannot afford to pay professional models. It can be physically demanding work but imagine your image hanging in the great galleries of the world.
Learn to love art.
There is a scene in Iron Man where billionaire Tony Stark buys a painting because it is expensive therefore he must have it and sends it straight into storage. Obviously he loved the idea of owning expensive art more than the art itself, despite the millions he spent Tony Stark is no patron of the arts. He treats it as an investment with no desire to support the development of artistic endevour. If you truly wish to be a patron of the arts, learn to love it, be challenged by it and most importantly promote what you love and help other people to find great art.
I’m trying to create a sense of wonder so that visitors can allow themselves to have fun rather than trying to be smart.
David Walsh discussing his vision for MONA