Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Neville Parker. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Neville , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
I opened my first gallery in 1995 selling both my own creations and other people’s art.
Before I embarked on my journey as a full time artist and gallery owner I was running a mid sized engineering company. And before that I was managing a chain of retail electronics stores.
I found the lesions I learned in display and retailing ( selling techniques, merchandising and understanding customer service) coupled with the lesions from people management and production planning and manufacturing were an ideal base for my gallery career.
I have what my friend calls an aggressive curiosity. My desire to explore ideas and concepts and my willingness to put my preconceptions aside have meant I am open to explore new markets and ideas with a passion to understand and learn.
When representing artists you are their spokesperson and cheerleader. You must be able to listen to their ideas and reasoning behind a work and then if necessary, rephrase their story in a way that honors their voice but that is useful for marketing and informing a consumer. One of the greatest values a gallery offers is that we are seen as both a quality filter and a qualified recommendation of an artist and their works.
This means the gallerist must keep informed about the trends and happenings in the art community. A strong sense of purpose and a clear marketing plan is necessary to ensure the right art is selected and the right relationships are fostered.
When I first started out I was keen to offer representation to too broad a group of artists and it took me a while to hone my craft. Once I understood where my market was. What my skill base was suited to and what the market opportunities were things became clearer and my business thrived.
In New Zealand there is no business association or alliance group of dealer galleries so there was little to no help in finding out about best practices or systems. If I was able to access information about tax law and commission rates along with contracts and exclusivity I would have had a much easier time settling my plan and offering a higher quality service.
I now mentor 4 local galleries in an effort to help strengthen and build a strong creative sector and encourage those gallerists to do the same.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I have been both a sculptor and gallery owner for 30 years.
As an artist I am lucky enough to have had consistent access to a market through my own galleries and this has allowed me to explore many different ideas and materials without the need to hunt out new and specific representation. I identify creatively as a sculptor but I am also an illustrator and am presently learning the art of the jeweller.
As a sculptor I predominantly work in steel and stone. My steel works are both civic and household scale and involve me carving the steel. This technique is quite unique and has led to me traveling to Australia as well as Canada to share and teach my techniques. My stone work is predominantly mid sized Pacifica inspired figurative work.
As an Illustrator I specialize in comic pen and ink animal based works. One of my passions is drawing stacks of sheep and I believe I hold the world record in sheep stacking with a personal best tally of 54 sheep in a single stack and 187 sheep in a multi stack group effort.
As an art gallery owner I get to explore and access a completely different set of creative energy and processes.
For a number of years I have established, built and sold art galleries as my business model.
Developing a gallery business is a very creative and collaborative process. I love the thrill of identifying a gap in a market. Finding either a physical location where there is a lack of supply or a segment of the creative community where there is no competent representation and then building a business to fit.
Over the years I have had 8 galleries and have explored everything from a craft driven pottery and functional art based space, to fine art prestige focused spaces and even a gallery/sculpture park experience. The act of researching a market, identifying a need and then looking for a suitable location is thrilling.
Creating a ‘style identity’ and formatting a marketing strategy involves looking at what is already in the market and finding unfulfilled needs and then designing a way to present that solution to a targeted group or community sector.
The style or look of a gallery and its location will then help attract artists and creatives who wish to access that market.
Over the years I have represented well over 600 artists. My present gallery is a craft arts gallery that specializes in glass, jewellery and sculpture and represents over 50 artists from all over New Zealand.
It took over 8 months to find a gallery location that had a courtyard garden for large sculptures and great natural light for the glass but we held out knowing the location was 50% of the businesses potential success.
I have a business partner in this gallery and she is a jeweller with 30 years experience. This makes the sculpture and jewellery focus make sense as these are two of our personal strengths. We both continue to supply other galleries with our works as we recognize different galleries in different markets allow us to access more consistent personal income streams. And it allows us to keep a connection with the greater market place.
If you are interested in what we are doing you can find us on facebook and instagram as Church House Gallery.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
I am firmly of the opinion it is the job of creatives and artists to lead the way in a social ecosystem that embraces creatives.
I often find myself on the outside of both my identity groups, that is to say, my business cohort and my creative one. This is because both find me to be somewhat different from the norm. I see this as a bonus and wear it as a badge of honour. However I find the stereotypes to be boorish and unhelpful.
The idea that a creative based business is somehow leaching off the creatives is just not true. For a gallery to survive it must meet the needs of its creatives and its buying community. Galleries ( or at least mine ) only earn a commission if they make a sale. Artists must stop seeing galleries as the enemy and too often I hear artists describe us as gatekeepers. Once upon a time this might have been true but now with the internet and social media the market has been democratized. Galleries are but one of the options a creative has to access a market. They do however add value, elevate an artists brand and contextualize an artists market position in relation to their peers.
Equally too many cafes and other business use the arts to bolster their appeal by peddling the idea that an artist needs exposure and should be happy to put their art anywhere it might be seen. Many of the art fair type of events also market to artists fear of not being noticed, instead of focusing on getting the artist seen by the right people. I see many fundraisers featuring work donated by artists but never lawyers or dentists. Artists are vulnerable and often isolated within their practices.
If I was to be able to change anything it would be to see more parents view the arts as a viable primary career and not one you need another qualification as a “backup” to engage in. To see the artists and creatives believe in their worth and ask for better deals in their dealings with the business world. And finally to see more artists lean into the business sector and open their own outlets. A gallery is a creative enterprise and artists are super qualified to do this kind of thing.
Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?
I see NFTs as yet another fad. I believe for a while they will muddy the water and then just like Video and Floppy Disks they will disappear from most peoples lives.
There is no ignoring the fact that there is some interest at the moment but I believe the need for physical, tactile validation when dealing with an art piece will mean the physical art world will have a renaissance on the back of these trends.
People will cease to trust digital works at some point and will look to the physical world to place their prestige and value. Just as bricks and mortar houses will always be needed, a wall or shelf will always look better when adorned with something a human invested skill and effort in.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Churchhousegallery.com
- Instagram: Churchhousegallery
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092523754386
- Other: The Art Wonk Podcast available on all major pod servers. A podcast about arts marketing and interviews with contemporary artists from all around the world.
Image Credits
Pictures by Neville Parker/ Maike Barteldres