This New Art Subscription Plan Will Bring Much-Needed Color and Connection into Your Home
Throughout millennia of human history, art has served as an emotional North Star for those looking for comfort, context, hope, joy, and connection during especially difficult times. But the coronavirus pandemic, which has forced galleries and museums across the world to temporarily close their doors in compliance with shelter-in-place directives, has made engaging with art much more difficult.
To be sure, many museums are maintaining connection with the public via virtual tours and social media campaigns, and some auction houses can still proceed with online sales. But the cancellation of gallery openings and studio visits, not to mention the loss of art institution revenue from ticket sales and fundraising events, poses a mounting threat to contemporary artists.
“One of the worst parts about this crisis is the lack of physical interaction with other people, and I'm concerned about the loss of appreciation for an artist's touch and the personal connection that comes when an artwork is viewed in person," says Kate Werble, founder of New York–based Kate Werble Gallery.
“The ability to process what is happening around us in this extraordinary period can come through viewing an artwork that’s been made now,” says Werble, noting that contextualization is one important mission her gallery has been able to serve during other periods of crisis. "Our shows have the ability to flip one’s understanding of things just with the act of looking."
But this crisis presents challenges to the typical ways galleries show new work. So, Werble has worked with her artists to develop a unique solution for people to physically engage with contemporary artwork: an art subscription buying plan, through which artists will ship pieces from their studios directly to buyers’ homes over a period of four months.
Here's how it works: For $2,000 paid in four monthly installments, subscribers will receive a unique work from three different artists every five to six weeks, with the final work arriving at the end of the four-month subscription. Subscribers will select one of three groups of works: sculpture, painting, and a mixture of sculpture, painting, and photography. (There are only 15 subscription plans available for each group.)
Importantly, the subscription plan also aims to shore up funding for the creation of new works while the world stays home under quarantine restrictions. Proceeds from the subscriptions will go directly to paying artists' studio costs and gallery overhead during the crisis.
“My role as a gallery is to support living artists and to help people discover artwork,” says Weble. “This project gives us something to look forward to. We are all just excited to be able to work and to allow people to have a physical connection to artwork made for them.”
Plans are available for purchase beginning April 15; the first works are expected to ship out mid to late May.
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