We were lucky to catch up with Tanner Steslow recently and have shared our conversation below.

Tanner , appreciate you joining us today. Do you think folks should manage their own social media or hire a professional? What do you do?

When it comes to social media – we have chosen to keep our management in house and directly in control of the owners of Square One Gallery.

Prior to the opening of the gallery – two of the three owners (Tanner and Max) had worked together under the company umbrella “The TAX Collection”. As part of this business model which started in 2015 – the goal was to grow a significant following to better help artists reach collectors, institutions and admirers. By 2021, this had grown to just shy of one million followers. It was building this platform that allowed doors to be opened in the art world and what had led to the series of curated gallery shows that would build the foundation for Square One Gallery.

Ted has his own unique experience with social media as well – with an audience of 20,000 followers (collectors, institutions, galleries etc.) he is able to sell his work globally all from the studio in St. Louis. It was through social media that Tanner and Max met Ted and worked together for the first time in NYC in 2019.

We chose to run our own social media as we believe it is the founders and those that are closest that can truly represent the brand image and tightly control the perception of the general public. While the gallery is based in St. Louis – we operate on a worldwide scale and sell pieces throughout the US as well as Europe, Asia and Australia. We feel it is important to appeal to our local audience but to also captivate those who are not able to physically come into the gallery. Whether you are able to come view the works in person or have to communicate via video, photo etc – we want a world class experience for our clients.

Depending on your experience level is what would determine how to proceed with your own social media. Primarily when building an audience – you are wanting to focus on brand consistency (how the visuals are presented) as well as discipline when it comes to a posting schedule. If you are starting from the ground up – it’s also important to personally engage with your audience as well as keep up with the trends so that you are able to stay relevant in the ever evolving landscape of the digital world. We consider social media to be one of the most valuable assets for a company – so if you are not confident and do have a budget for it, it’s never a bad thing to bring in help from professionals.

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?

Square One Gallery is a contemporary art gallery that works with a range of artists from emerging to established in their careers. One of the most important parts of our ethos is transparency and honesty with not just clients, but artists which are our most important asset. In far too many instances in the art market, artists are often treated as disposable by galleries trying to make a quick buck. We believe in cultivating long lasting relationships with artists and clients alike, and putting all of our weight behind each artist we work with in their careers. Our unofficial motto is “Without the artist, there would be no ‘art’” and that couldn’t be more true. Artists are stewards of creativity and we hope to help preserve the integrity of that for generations to come while offering a knowledgeable collecting experience to guide acquisitions in a fair and open manner.”

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

Max and I were curating a group exhibition at a gallery in the Upper East Side in NYC across from the MET museum in 2019. The exhibition was titled “Forces” and centered around art and artists whose practice relates to natural elements. We often find a lot of the artists we work with on Instagram and when we came across Ted, were instantly drawn to his pieces and the various series he was presenting at the time. After meeting at the exhibition opening, the three of us quickly became close friends and kept in touch all throughout the pandemic. As the art market (much like every other industry) was turned upside down, Max and I were constantly inspired not only by Ted’s business prowess, but his kind spirit and care for others. Being art curators, you sometimes exist in the gray area between an artist and their relationship with the gallery or institution they’re showing with so when Ted asked in 2023 if the three of us would ever want to open a gallery together in St Louis, we knew he would be the perfect partner with his lens as an artist and also an entrepreneur. Fast forward to today and we opened our first exhibition just this past April at our new Central West End location. Max and I relocated here for this venture and we’ve been blown away by everything we’ve experienced in the city.”
– Tanner Steslow, Co-owner of Square One Gallery

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Building our audience on social media – between Tanner, Ted and Max we currently have half a million followers between all of our accounts which are associated with the gallery. We have all been working on our personal brands for the past 9 years and have rolled this over into our gallery page. We utilize our existing audiences with “collaborated” posts as well as curate high quality and appealing content to our growing audience.

One of the things we emphasize is video content – creating our own original content and using artist’s studio clips, works in progress, etc. to bring the pieces to life. With the introduction of short form videos (tik tok and youtube) – most of instagram has pivoted to video being the main drive for “suggested” content. Staying on trend with certain audios / songs helps as well and utilizing hash tags when possible.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://squareonegallery.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/squareone.gallery

Image Credits

Photos by Suzy Gorman