The last time we spoke with artistic husband-and-wife duo Dorota and Steve Coy, better known as the pair behind the Hygienic Dress League, they were deep into the NFT craze. Now they’re working on a new way to leverage technology with an app that puts more money into artists’ pockets.
ArtClvb is a social media platform and marketplace app that would allow artists to sell their work directly to collectors and eliminate the need for emerging artists to have gallery representation. While most galleries take 40-50% of profit from art sales, Dorota says ArtClvb would only take 15%. Chris Kaufman, the co-founder and former chief creative officer of StockX, a Detroit-based online marketplace for sneakerheads, is another ArtClvb co-founder.
“Galleries, traditionally, their overhead is much higher,” Dorota tells Metro Times. “Steve and I, we’re artists as well and it’s hard to put your heart and soul into something and not get as much out of it. So we thought, can we change the model a little bit where the artists make most of the money since they created the work? Could that work?”
She adds, “The art world overall is kind of broken the way it functions because artists are relying upon galleries. Galleries build artists [up] to get to a certain level. Museums play a big part in the ecosystem as well of how artists get picked in relation to the galleries that they work with. So it’s complicated, and 99% of the artists don’t make it to that level… The art market only works for the 1% on top.”
Artists would upload their work to the ArtClvb app for collectors to purchase. The plan is also to give the artists 5% in royalties from any resales done through the app.
“Artists are the only creatives that don’t receive royalties,” Dorota says. “Musicians receive royalties. Writers receive royalties. But artists do not. So we were really interested in changing that.”
ArtClvb is still in the beta phase and the full version is expected to be available later this year. Development is estimated to cost over $1 million, according to Dorota. So far they have secured grant funding through Detroit’s TechTown and other organizations, but there’s still a lot left to go.
For now, to add an in-person layer to the social platform, the Coys are hosting an event series called Studio Deals where collectors can tour participating artists’ studios and get a behind-the-scenes look at their creative process.
The next Studio Deals will be on Saturday, March 16 from 2-5 p.m. with 30 artists across 19 locations in Detroit. Upon signing up (for free) participants will receive a map of all the open studios where they can visit the artists and buy their work at special in-studio-only prices.
“I am always intrigued by folks who are attempting to make a change they feel is needed,” says participating artist Cyrah Dardas. “I like that ArtClvb is made for artists by artists to create a new solution to how people can connect authentically with artists and makers, learn more about their practice and all of its intricacies, and possibly support that artist’s craft.”
Fellow Studio Deals artist Martyna Alexander adds, “It’s important to have open studio events like this so artists can form personal connections with people interested in their work, invite people into their space to see their practice firsthand, and obviously have a way to sell work that might not fit in the exhibition space, like smaller series and experiments. Social media is a great way to share what you’re working on but seeing art in person is the only way to truly know a piece.”
Other participating artists include Gretchen Adel, Justin Bean, Habacuc S. Bessiake, Kaleigh Blevins, Dustin Cook, Caroline Delgiudice, Sam Dienst, Kaysi Grimes, Erik Handerson, Ryan Herberholz, Scott Hocking, Nick Jaskey, Barber Kennedy, Steve Kuypers, Ivan Montoya, Emillia Nawrocki, Jaime Pattison, Michael Polakowski, Sarah Rice, Michael Ross, Emily Schnellbacher, Rosie Sharp, Phillip Simpson, John Sippel, India Solomon, Oshun Williams, and Sophia Wojnovich.
Dorota wants ArtClvb to be a place that not only connects emerging and mid-career artists with collectors, but makes collecting art more accessible and affordable.
“Sometimes I go into a gallery and it’s very intimidating to ask prices, because you just assume, ‘I can’t afford it,’” she says. “We’re trying to break that model down so that it creates more transparency and it’s more democratic. We want everyone to experience going to our events. There’s something for everyone in our club.”
This weekend is ArtClvb’s third Open Studios event. For now they plan to do them every three months or so and then eventually expand to monthly.
“It’s been really successful and it’s so nice to send artists 85% of the money that they earned,” Dorota says. “We hope to continue every month where it’s like, it’s Studio Deals Saturday and people just automatically will know what to do, and then they can look at the map to see who’s participating.”
To receive the map for Saturday’s Studio Deals, you can sign up for free via Eventbrite. An afterparty for Studio Deals will take place at Collect located at 1454 Gratiot Ave.
For more information about ArtClvb, see artclvb.xyz.
