More on the SAQA Art Auction
As I mentioned before Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) is holding an auction for a large number of small 12″ square quilts. You can watch the progress by reading the news on the SAQA home page.
This morning I sent the following letter to the board of directors.
[I have been warned by a friend that I should not pursue this matter for fear I will be blackballed by the very influential and powerful members of the board. Apparently I don’t believe the board members are so petty as to behave this way. I suppose I could be wrong - but so be it - I refuse to sit there quietly and say nothing.]
Dear SAQA,
I am extremely concerned by the current reverse auction that saqa is holding.
Several years ago I sent you links to some documents from the society of north american goldsmith’s concerning art auctions, www.snagmetalsmith.org/Publications/Professional_Guidelines/. I’m curious if the saqa board has read them.
I’d recommend the board reading each document in entirety but failing that here are some summarizing points:
III. FINANCIAL IMPACT OF FUNDRAISING AUCTIONS ON GALLERIES
Despite any altruistic intentions, fundraising auctions are dedicated to the selling of artwork and craft, - and in doing so, compete directly with galleries. Galleries operate year-round and must recoup the expenses of renting or buying exhibition space, advertising, inventory, staff, etc. - before they see any profit. Auctions do not operate year-round but benefit from the on-going public awareness generated by galleries. Auctions that sell art or craft at prices far below retail compromise the economic viability of galleries.
A. Revenue deferred or lost. The same people who visit and buy art and craft at galleries are also invited to auctions. Patrons may defer a gallery purchase in anticipation of finding a particular artist’s work at an auction. Or in another scenario, if collectors have purchased a piece by an artist at an auction they may not be interested in buying another piece through the gallery. Given both these examples, frequent auctions impinge or may even exhaust the resources patrons budget for the viewing and purchase of art and craft.
B. Artwork Devalued. Auctions rarely sell artwork for full retail prices. All selling prices of artwork impact the market for art and become part of the provenance of artwork. Abnormally low prices generated by auctions may become the de facto market prices. Retail sales at galleries may be directly impacted - and ultimately the value of artwork in collections and artists’ livelihoods may be affected.
FINANCIAL IMPACT OF AUCTIONS ON COLLECTORSA. Sustainability. If a piece of artwork is just what you wanted and sells well below the retail price, then collectors may have gotten a bargain. But this is a relatively short-term advantage, since this practice, ultimately, is not sustainable. Artists and galleries suffer the cumulative financial impact of frequent auctions, possibly putting them both out of business. This negative financial impact is compounded if the auction is held within the same geographical area as the gallery or the artist’s retail business.
The closing of a gallery impacts the art community–artists, patrons, appreciators and collectors–by removing a location for the discovery and advancement of artists, the screening and selection of art work, and guidance offered by galleries relating to purchase and acquisition.
B. Auction prices can affect collection values. The value of a collection depends on the established value of the artists’ work. This value relies in part on demand for an artist’s work which is a matter of perception. When higher or lower (above or below retail) prices are generated at auction, the established value within a collection may change. Since appraisals for insurance purposes are often based on the recent sales of similar works by the same artist, changes in established market prices may impact appraised value. When generous bidding at auction yields higher than retail sales prices, every one wins. Unfortunately, since artwork sold at fundraising auctions often sells below established retail prices, the collectable value of an artist’s work may suffer.
FINANCIAL IMPACT OF FUNDRAISING AUCTIONS ON ARTISTSA. Artists receive little or no compensation for donated work. Often, there is considerable pressure on an artist to donate work outright - receiving no percentage of the winning bid. Only the most generous auction organizers offer a percentage of the selling price to the artists. Since the work offered at auction typically sells well below the retail price, even with a percentage, the artist only receives an amount far below the wholesale value.
B. Artwork sold at discounted prices in auctions may affect your retail values elsewhere. Every artist should maintain control over the selling prices of his or her work. (Please see the discussion about value in the Discounts document, section II. Some Remarks About Pricing). Since auctioned artwork often sells far below retail price, maintaining control of pricing is impossible. The ultimate result of this discounted selling price is that the value of an artist’s work and the ability of a gallery to command full retail prices for the entire body of an artist’s work is adversely affected.
IV. RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE PROFESSIONAL GUIDELINES COMMITTEEA. Set a Reserve Price
The Professional Guidelines Committee recommends that the auction sponsor set a “reserve price” for work offered in an auction. The “reserve price” is the price below which the artwork will not be sold. This reserve would ideally be 80% of the retail price. The artists should be offered 40% of the retail price for their donations. The art organization will receive 40% of the retail price for fundraising and the collector has the possibility of receiving a 20% discount. Work sold above the retail price (as a
result of generous bidding) creates additional revenue for the auction sponsor.
I find the current auction being held by saqa to fundamentally flawed given the extremely low final bid ($50 /sq foot) and that the artists are not receiving a portion of the sales.
Does the saqa board disagree with the findings in the above reports? If the board disagrees I would like to understand why they disagree (does the board have proof that this information is incorrect?). If the board agrees I’d like to understand why the board is holding an auction that clearly goes against the recommendations in these guidelines.
While I am not a member a saqa, I am a member of the larger art quilt community and I feel the actions of saqa are negatively impacting all of our careers and I would like to understand why a professional organization that is supposed to be supporting their member artists is behaving in a way that is hurting all quilt artists in the long run.
Lisa Call
Posted by Lisa in: The Art World
Tricia McKellar said,
July 26, 2007 @ 7:55 pm
Thank you Lisa! I know some of the contributing artists have worked very hard to establish a solid sales record. It makes me sad 1) to see the artists’ works selling for such small amounts and 2) as a member of SAQA, to be encouraged to support the group and buy the work (the marketing seems inwardly focused, but maybe I don’t have all the details).
alison schwabe said,
July 26, 2007 @ 9:15 pm
Two points - first, 12 inch squares are pretty small - mine sold at a price in line with sales of my larger pieces on a $/sq.ft basis One way I considered my contribution, was as a small sample really, for a larger piece I have in mind, and from some of the works it seems others had the same view. And I think it is important to remember that participation was voluntary; and I felt OK about doing something like that. Living in an isolated situation I have no other way really to contribute to the running of SAQA. But having made a piece, and donated it, I feel under no pressure to buy one… especially as I so far have not been able to afford the several I am dead keen on…$750/sq foot is way above the affordable level of any art piece we buy. Tricia may be right, the daily reportage and exhortation to hop in and buy certainly sounds inwardly focused, and yet I am sure SAQA is using the considerable individual and organisational contacts it has to put this auction before as wide a range of people as possible.
Lisa Call said,
July 26, 2007 @ 9:28 pm
Tricia thanks. I’ve noticed that the majority of the collectors buying the work are indeed members of the art quilt community. There are a few anonymous so one can’t be sure but so far it definitely feels like the net has not been cast very far.
Alison - thanks for your comment. Yes 12″ square is pretty small. I know many quilt artists that sell this size work at $200-$300 sq/ft and more so $50 is a pitiful sum for these artists. Most emerging artists I know are pricing their work at $100/sq ft or more so $50 is indeed low for them also.
What all of this makes me really wonder is - is there really even a market for art quilts? The only folks that seem to buy them are other art quilters and only then at prices that are not sustainable.
Are we all fooling ourselves? Could be saqa is just pointing out the obvious - that there is not an art market for quilts.
Maybe we should just pick up a paint brush instead. Certainly I am tempted just to get away from the inbred art quilt community that supports this status quo. Saqa is supposed to be spreading the word about art quilts and promoting them as on par with other art but it sure doesn’t feel like that is what they are doing.
Olga said,
July 27, 2007 @ 5:09 am
I started a comment, but it went on for so long that I’ve made it into a post on my blog.
Tricia McKellar said,
July 27, 2007 @ 6:41 am
Thanks Alison for your comments. It was indeed voluntary– but it was initially pitched as an auction at some big deal dinner presumably with deep pocket fiber art collectors during the Quilt National festivities. I would have sent my best work, albeit small, not a sample.
Lisa Call said,
July 27, 2007 @ 7:02 am
Olga - your comments were great. Here’s a direct link to the post for later when it is no longer the most current:
http://threadingthoughts.blogspot.com/2007/07/ramblings-probably.html
Tricia - I suspect that initial pitch (work in front of the serious collectors) is what resulted in saqa being inundated with work. Too bad they didn’t follow through with their promise. Now instead of the deep pockets buying the art it is back on the shoulders of the membership to foot the bill.
Even though folks volunteered to send in the work that doesn’t mean it is the right way to hold an art auction. I hear the saqa exec said she doesn’t believe in art auctions but for some reason, even though they realize that art auctions are not good for the art world, saqa stills holds auctions like this. Why not put some effort into doing it right - give some back to the artist, set a reasonable reserve price.
Fund raising is necessary but saqa has repeatedly held auctions with laughable reserves. In this case 10% of the income is coming from 40% of the work selling at ridiculously low prices. It would not be much of a loss of income to set the reserve prices higher and forgo that final small amount of income just to boast that all work sold. They make anything cheap enough someone is bound to buy it - especially with the pressure the board is putting on the members to buy this work to support the organization.
Personally I think there is some work (a large portion) that is absolutely horrible in that auction. If saqa is about art (and not just any old quilt) - why not jury the work and toss out the work that doesn’t make the cut. Or stop calling it art. Truth is most of it isn’t competing with gallery sales because most of it isn’t good enough to put in a gallery.
Diane Clancy said,
July 27, 2007 @ 10:20 am
Fascinating reading and commenting! By the way, Lisa, there are no guarentees with a brush either so don’t trade in your needles too quickly.
Some of these issues of quality, auctions, price, cultivating buyers are universal for most of us artists.
I appreciate Lisa, that you have summarized what those guidelines said. I went over to read them before … and said … later. Glad to have read them through this post (the summaries).
We sure need to hone how we talk with each other about issues to reach resolution - Lisa, this is NOT NOT aimed at you!! I am much more thinking about local issues and these issues and how hard it is for most of us to sit down and work things out. Often it is just the sitting down and power sharing that is hard. And often people don’t recognize the work of those of us who work so hard. Again, Lisa, this is NOT about you!! Much more about building the creative economy in a way that works.
~ Diane Clancy
http://www.dianeclancy.com/blog
Lisa Call said,
July 27, 2007 @ 2:12 pm
Diane - I agree - these issues are probably fairly universal to all artists.
I need to not let theses groups’ unprofessional behavior bother me. I tried to be part of these conversations from the inside but it wasn’t going to go anywhere - so I quit. I doubt I will make a difference from the outside. The rumors I hear indicate that the organization has no interest in change.
I suppose part of the problem is that quilters spend a lot of time in groups instead of working on their solo art careers. Many of them probably have no desire to have an art career and belonging to a group is much more important. Kinda hard to convince those people that their actions might have a more global effect than their small world.
Why keep beating my head against the wall?
Too bad because SAQA could educate their members about how to approach art auctions, as the goldsmith society has done, and be part of the solution instead of continually being part of the problem.
Sheila said,
July 27, 2007 @ 6:06 pm
This post got me curious enough to go look at the quilts being auctioned. As I looked at the wide range of “sold” prices, my reaction was, how demoralizing it must be for those who’s work went for the lower price, particularly when all the sold quilts are shown together like that. I was right back in traditional quilt show emotion; you know, where you enter a quilt you are so sure will win something, and then you see what DID win. Sometimes you understand why, other times not, but either way, it’s such a let down and sometimes you don’t even want to keep creating.
This also reminded me of my experience with the fundraising auction for MAQS during the AQS show. I was stunned at how little was bid on my piece that was well done and hand-quilted, requiring many hours of labor. I vowed never to waste my time like that again. It was obvious people were looking for deals - a lot like ebay. Any guilt they might have about getting something at such a steal is assuaged because - hey, they’re contributing to charity. Then one year I got the chance to attend the auction. Well known quilters’ pieces were heavily bid on and bid up. A few important names that I was familiar with but obviously were not well-known amongst the crowd barely got bid on at all. Again, I was stunned - these people obviously don’t have any idea who that is or they’d be clamouring for her piece, was my thought.
It would appear that SAQA is operating under the traditional quilting mode - preaching and selling to the choir - as well as treating these items as if they were destined for a bizaar sale. Which, now that I think of it, might account for the unevenness of the quality of the work. I agree this is no way to promote a professional art organization.
Elio said,
July 30, 2007 @ 10:31 pm
Lisa,
I have been a long time lurker. I am a painter and am currently represented in 13 galleries.
I applaud you for being so bold and standing up for galleries. I think organizations and even many artists (who sell work via ebay auctions) don’t realize how vital galleries to an artists success.
I love your work.
E
pamdora said,
July 31, 2007 @ 9:01 pm
Hi Lisa, I don’t really have a problem with SAQA trying to raise money. They have identitified some good things they are going to do with the money that I approve of, so I don’t regret donating to their auction.
However, I keyed into one of your basic questions that gets back to the root of it all — is there really a market for art quilts? Or should we all just pick up a paintbrush? Actually I’ve been thinking that for the last several weeks. Somehow I’ve lost interest in the whole art quilt thing and have been painting for the last two weeks (okay, the last two weeks when I had spare time, hehe!) But if you look at the prices that paintings go for compared to art quilts, are we really in the right art business?
Lisa Call said,
July 31, 2007 @ 9:16 pm
Pam - my issue is not that SAQA is trying to raise money - most non profits have to rely on fund raising and usually have good things to spend the money on. My issue is with how they are going about raising that money. I believe there are much better ways they could approach it.
I think many art quilters go through similar ponderings.
Shelia - Thanks for you comment. I can relate to your comments. I watched the movie Mean Girls with my daughter last weekend. The parallels to the art quilt world definitely stood out in my mind.
Elio - thanks for your comments. 13 galleries - wow - that’s great.
Cherry said,
August 12, 2007 @ 9:15 pm
Lisa,
I get disturbed to read and hear fellow artists agree to let their work be undervalued.
It’s the dirty little secret. Women take advantage of each other in the name of fundraising. (I do know there are a few men members)
I believe there is a market for art quilts, as long as they’re art. And many aren’t. they pass as what might be good for the average taste. (But that’s another discussion).
Is it wrong to think poorly of an organization whose funding depends on the unpaid labor of others?
SAQA has a real opportunity here to be leaders and change the way money is raised.
Dare I say raise the price of admission and be done with the fund raising?
Look at these stats from the auction:
12% of the sales of this auction were by non-members ($3400)
88% were purchased by members ($24,350)
If SAQA wants to promote artists, then they should behave more like an art dealer and less like a fellow-artist struggling to “get by”.
SAQA should act like a business and not a charity. Be the leader. Charge for services and then provide them. Go out and make the contacts. Stop expecting members to do the leg work and hire a pro to get this going.
Not the only answer, but a suggestion at best.
Alas, I went to SAQA meeting at QN.
Many still stuck in old mindset, self-appointed leaders of quilt art, with little or no innovative direction.
Cherry