Why shouldn't I wait for things to 'go back to normal' with galleries and art shows?

Waiting for things to return to how they were is a losing strategy because markets fundamentally shift during major disruptions. This pattern repeated after 2008—artists kept saying the market never came back and nobody was buying art anymore, while online sales were actually growing significantly. They just weren’t participating in where the market had moved. Major economic events cause wealth transfers and permanent changes in buying behavior. People tighten belts, search for options online, and discover they can buy directly from artists. If you wait five to seven years hoping offline channels recover, you’ll eventually realize the market moved without you. The ‘dinosaurs’ who refuse to adapt will find themselves completely left behind, wondering why nothing works anymore.

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Asked by an artist hoping for a return to traditional sales · Answered by Nick Friend · art-marketing-podcast · 2020-06-09