I’ve been meaning to write a blog post on this subject but reading Emily speeds entry on Debut contemporary reminded me to get on with it. I be interested to know if any other artists have had dealings with debut contemporary. http://www.debutcontemporary.com/
Here’s what they offer, Samir Ceric,
“Kingmaker” (International Life Magazine) of creative talent… launches DEBUT Arts, having already discovered some of the big names of the new Young British Art movement in the past decade.The DEBUT Arts licence fee will entail exhibition space, an 80% net profit from all sales facilitated by the gallery, be it for a piece of art or a commercial deal and most importantly guidance and mentoring by a team of industry professionals and much more. Artists will be prepared with a business savvy mind whilst they maintain their artistic freedom and creative licence. The gallery space is based in the area populated by some of the leading international collectors, curators, art & business professionals. The likes of Simon de Pury of Philips de Pury, Damian Hirst and many other art industry heavyweights are either based locally and/or are often seen around. (that sounds a bit weird I thought!)
The minimum time an artist can sign up for appears to be three months at a cost of around £95 a week from what I could read the details. After being invited to come to London for an ‘interview ‘ I immediately responded with an e-mail which included this,
…As your central aim is to support emerging artists, it would concern me that you are only able to represent a specific stream of artists,i.e. those in financial situation where it is possible to meet the fees, and I’m sure you are aware of the artists in many situations and from many backgrounds where this is inaccessible to them and therefore of the amount of talent that is excluded…
This was part of the reply…
Essentially, we are all about passing on the tools and the know-how in order to equip you better for your own career, giving you a much better chance to succeed and not only live off your work but achieve a very comfortable standard of living doing what you are passionate about. Hence an investment from your end is needed and will in most cases be off-set by a few sales the gallery will facilitate on your behalf for the duration of the programme. However access to all these experts we have onboard and their invaluable expertise and knowledge worth thousands of pounds will be available to you, if you were onboard. Hence we often tell all talented and ambitious artists that if they are really serious about their careers, they should be looking at ways in which they could earn, borrow or save an extra £95 a week, because this scheme represents a unique opportunity for them to invest in their own careers. If artists invest by going to art schools and spending 3or 4 (or even 6) years studying, surely £95 a week over a 3-month long period on the professional development course might be the best investment they’ve ever made.
Interestingly, I am linked to an artist through Facebook, mentored by their Gallery I guess under such a scheme. They clearly do do what they say as her work is constantly on show, in a variety of venues, and talks and multi-disciplinary events are organised around her work. She seems to be at a constant flow of career development talks and seminars and her online presence is very high. I will be interested to see what evolves from all this constant promotion though. Does anyone else have any experience of this organisation? Like Emily, I immediately heard alarm bells ringing.
