Public Art Economy Experiment
Last year on King’s Day in the Netherlands, I took my working table outside and asked people to estimate the value of my art.
If you have never experienced King’s Day, it is a day when everyone wears orange. People bring out furniture, clothes, toys, books, decorations and random objects. They sell second-hand things on the street, bargain and make spontaneous purchases.
So I placed my artworks on my table and asked people a different kind of question:
“If this artwork cost you no money, what would it be worth according to you?”
Why this mattered to me
I am super interested in art economy. I wanted to know what happens when people are invited to think about the value of art outside the usual structures that normally frame this kind of decision.
Would the answer change if I asked this question outside a white cube exhibition space? Of course!
I did this experiment in Baarn, a small town in the Netherlands. I think I interacted with nearly 100 people that day. I collected 32 written numbers in total. I gave participants a small white paper and a pen, so I would not know their answer immediately.
Some people answered quickly. Some people hesitated. It helped when I explained that I was not asking about their personal budget. I was not trying to sell the work that day.
Later in the day I explained the question through different scenarios:
I had an upcoming exhibition and needed help with pricing.
I asked people to imagine they worked in a museum.
Because of this, the answers probably sit somewhere between art valuation and bargain logic. So the experiment was not controlled or scientific.
That made the interaction easier. I think it also made it more fun.
For people who start without a map
This is also important to me because none of my family works in art, creativity or entrepreneurship. I never had a close example of how people build these kinds of careers. So maybe, if you are as clueless as I was, this can be helpful to you.
Making something and posting it online takes courage. Taking your art to the street and asking people to respond to it directly was something else. It got easier.
I still do not have an answer for how these careers are built. Artist careers are often uncertain and experimental. A few years ago, I read Jerry Saltz’s book How to Be an Artist and it helped me a lot.
There is also research asking whether there are patterns in artists’ trajectories. For example, whether the first few or last seven exhibitions can shape the next phase of the work. So maybe you end up in MoMA. Why not?
The work values are in progress
The averages landed somewhere between 42 and 47. I find that interesting. To me, it suggests there may be a mental threshold around that range for what someone might pay to support an emerging artist they come across on the street.
47.2, 42.3 and 46.5 to be exact.
I also find it a little funny that the numbers are around 42. If you know The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, you know.
Maybe we are onto something.
For some art spaces, this is probably trying too much, too direct or too eager.
I do not believe artists are always super serious people standing far away from ordinary life. Maybe when we think about art history, we imagine them differently. Artists are also people.
You can let me know what you think and join my journey.