State Of The Art

Julia Kaganskiy, Director of New Museum’s multidisciplinary development program, NEW INC, has had a fascinating journey into the world of art and tech with a number of amazing stops along the way. Her ambitions led her from a childhood dream of becoming an arts and culture editor, to a dream job that unifies all her interests in one melting pot bubbling with creative thinkers and innovators. In this episode, Julia shares how experiences as diverse as heading VICE's Creators Project to transforming the landscape of Coachella (before art was a given there), perfectly positioned her at the intersection of art and tech and informed her leadership at NEW INC. Julia also delves into the value of creative thinking in tech, what artists bring to the table as divergent thinkers, and how NEW INC is putting the training artists receive to use in innovative ways outside of the traditional artist studio. - About NEW INC - NEW INC gives creative practitioners the tools they need to build sustainable practices and launch projects that impact, promote, and amplify culture by exploring new ideas at the intersection of art, technology, and design.

“Is Art for Everyone?”, a discussion about how tech is disrupting the traditional art world model originally recorded live at The Battery in San Francisco on April 11th, 2018. Our panelists include Erica Gangsei, head of Interpretive Media @SFMoma, Jen Bekman, Founder of 20x200, and Andrew Herman, founder of French Girls & MiniCanvas. These guest speakers offer a comprehensive and insightful overview of what “art for everyone” means, how tech is democratizing the arts, and what accessibility barriers artists and collectors face today. Together they answer questions like, how has technology democratized the art world? What roadblocks have they seen in their diverse fields? And, is “art for everyone” a concept that has or can be embraced by all?

Scott Belsky is like Batman: he’s not the hero we deserve, but he’s the one that we need. Creatives can be unorganized and idealistic. They tend to not be the most business oriented people. Scott has spent his entire career creating and improving tools, frameworks, and infrastructures that help make ideas happen. His work helps creators treat themselves more like businesses, and makes creative people and tools accessible to more businesses. His work is maybe best epitomized in the founding mission of Behance: connecting the best creative talent to the best opportunities. This episode is nourishment for your creative soul. - About Scott Belsky - Scott Belsky is an executive, entrepreneur, author, and investor (and all-around product obsessive). He currently serves as Adobe's Chief Product Officer and Executive Vice President, Creative Cloud. Scott's passion is to make the creative world more productive, connected, and adaptive to new technologies. Scott co-founded Behance in 2006, and served as CEO until Adobe acquired Behance in 2012. Millions of people use Behance to display their portfolios, as well as track and find top talent across the creative industries. After Behance's acquisition, Scott helped reboot Adobe's mobile product strategy and led Behance until 2016, when he spent a few years as an investor and advisor to multiple businesses. Alongside his role at Adobe, Scott is a Venture Partner at Benchmark - a venture capital firm based in San Francisco, an early-stage investor, and is co-founder and Executive Chairman of Prefer, a referrals platform that empowers the careers of independent professionals (aka "Soloists"). You can follow Scott on Twitter or Instagram @scottbelsky. - About Vango Studio - Vango Studio makes the entrepreneurial side of being an artist easy and efficient, saving artists an average of 4 hours per week. In addition to powering artists with an award winning marketplace, we offer artists the ability to create their own website with little to no maintenance, distribute work across platforms, and access detailed insights about their collectors and what is selling across platforms. Follow Vango on Instagram @vango and @art, and visit www.vangoart.co .

Before exiting her own start up (Art Remba) to co-found and become CEO of Absolut Art, Nahema Mehta did stints working for the Supreme Court, Merrill Lynch, and Sotheby’s. Her cross disciplinary life makes her the perfect person to run Absolut Art, a company dedicated to becoming the place people go to buy art, that also happens to be the little brother of that well known vodka company. In today’s episode Nahema and Ethan talk about Absolut’s incredible 30 year history supporting artists, why it’s important to tell artists’ stories, and how to create a seamless art experience, from discovery to display. - About Nahema Mehta - As co-founder and CEO of Absolut Art, Nahema spends every day bridging the gap between artists creating and people collecting by refining art buying through patented design. As a philanthropist, she works with passionate humans to empower over 100,000 young girls through education and healthcare. She's lived and worked across 4 continents and benefited from an interdisciplinary career path, having worked for Chief Justice Roberts, Merrill Lynch, and Sotheby’s before founding and exiting her own startup, Art Remba. She shares learnings along the way at conferences like Fast Company's 2017 Most Creative Minds and Innovate46 at the NASDAQ.   - About Absolut Art - At Absolut Art, our goal is to inspire more people to live with contemporary art. We get that the scene can be intimidating, but we’re not. We personally trek across the globe with respected curators to scout trailblazing artists that are loved by locals and collected by museums like MoMA. Then we bring their incredible work straight to your walls - signed, numbered and professionally framed. Simple. - About Vango Studio - Vango Studio makes the entrepreneurial side of being an artist easy and efficient, saving artists an average of 4 hours per week. In addition to powering artists with an award winning marketplace, we offer artists the ability to create their own website with little to no maintenance, distribute work across platforms, and access detailed insights about their collectors and what is selling across platforms. Follow Vango on Instagram @vango and @art, and visit www.vangoart.co .

We're excited to bring your our Art and Tech panel, originally recorded live from the podcast stage at SXSW March 15, 2018. Our panelists were Erica Gangsei, head of Interpretive Media @SFMoma, Nahema Mehta, Co-Founder and CEO of Absolut Art, and (State of the Art Alumni) Andrew Herman, founder of French Girls & MiniCanvas. Our panelists got on like three peas in a pod and tackled some of the major questions we try to answer here at State of the Art. Questions like, how has technology democratized the art world? Has has the maturation of the art ecosystem changed the experience of buying art? And what's more important, sexy work, or un-sexy work? -About Erica Gangsei- Erica Gangsei, is Manager of Interpretive Media in the Education department at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She researches, writes and co-produces educational multimedia materials such as audio tours, artist video interviews, podcasts, kiosk-based and online interactive features, and onsite educational spaces. Most recently, she curated ArtGameLab, an exhibition at SFMOMA of crowd-sourced game prototypes. Her professional research interests include crowd-sourced and assignment-based artwork, alternate reality games, institutional critique, and avant-garde culture as an engine of broader social and political change. She is also a sculptor, performer, conceptual artist and stop-motion animator, and have exhibited widely in the Bay Area and nationally. She is active in the Bay Area independent art community and recently concluded a term as co-President of Board of Directors of the Lab, an interdisciplinary experimental non-profit art space in San Francisco’s Mission district. I studied Philosophy and Fine Arts at Amherst College and Sculpture at the San Francisco Art Institute. -About Nahema Mehta- As cofounder and CEO of Absolut Art, Nahema spends every day bridging the gap between artists creating and people collecting by refining art buying through patented design. As a philanthropist, she work with passionate humans to empower over 100,000 young girls through education and healthcare.  She's lived and worked across 4 continents and benefited from an interdisciplinary career path, having worked for Chief Justice Roberts, Merrill Lynch, and Sotheby’s before founding and exiting her own startup, Art Remba.  She shares learnings along the way at conferences like Fast Company's 2017 Most Creative Minds and Innovate46 at the NASDAQ. -About Andrew Herman- Andrew Herman is co-founder of the mobile app French Girls. Now located in San Francisco, Andrew was a mechanical engineer by training from Scranton, Pennsylvania. He grew up an avid guitar enthusiast and closet art fan. In 2014, he launched Easyl, a marketplace for original art which then transpired into French girls, an app that enables users to discover and create digital art inspired by photos from the community. He is now responsible for technical oversight of the app. Find Andrew on Twitter and Instagram.   - About Vango Studio -  Vango Studio makes the entrepreneurial side of being an artist easy and efficient, saving artists an average of 4 hours per week. In addition to powering artists with an award winning marketplace, we offer artists the ability to create their own website with little to no maintenance, distribute work across platforms, and access detailed insights about their collectors and what is selling across platforms. Follow Vango on Instagram @vango and @art, and visit www.vangoart.co .

In Jonathan T.D.Neil’s decades long career, he’s been an art critic, an art educator, an art consultant, an art historian, and even an architect. His diverse background makes him uniquely suited to comment on macro trends in the art world, and lead him to start a brand new interdisciplinary MA in Art Business, and Information Systems and Technology at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, Los Angeles; where he is the Director, and Head of Global Business Development. In today’s episode, he and Ethan chat about what makes Sotheby’s different from other art schools, what his hopes are for graduates of his new MA program, and where he sees the art world going in the near future. - About Jonathan T.D. Neil - Jonathan T. D. Neil is head of Global Business Development for Sotheby’s Institute of Art and founding Director of Sotheby’s Institute of Art – Los Angeles, a partnership with Claremont Graduate University, the Getty Leadership Institute, the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management and CGU’s School of Arts and Humanities. He also serves as Associate Editor for  ArtReview magazine. From 2011-2015 he was editor of the Held Essays on Visual Art for The Brooklyn Rail, and from 2008 until 2014 he was Executive Editor at The Drawing Center in New York. In 2005 he co-founded Boyd Level LLC, a private curatorial firm and consultancy that specializes in contemporary art. Jonathan has a PhD in 20th-century Art History from Columbia University and a B.Arch from Cornell University. He has taught courses on modern and contemporary art and architectural history, the international art market, critical writing, critical theory, and the history of photography at Columbia University, Parsons The New School for Design, and the Sotheby’s Institute of Art in New York. He is a member of the New York Chapter of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA). Jonathan can be contacted directly at jonathan.neil@cgu.edu. You can follow him on Twitter or Instagram @jtdneil. - About Sotheby’s Institute of Art - Evolving from a small connoisseurship program begun by Sotheby's Auction House in 1969 Sotheby's Institute is now the leader in art business education and object based learning. - About Vango Studio -  Vango Studio makes the entrepreneurial side of being an artist easy and efficient, saving artists an average of 4 hours per week. In addition to powering artists with an award winning marketplace, we offer artists the ability to create their own website with little to no maintenance, distribute work across platforms, and access detailed insights about their collectors and what is selling across platforms. Follow Vango on Instagram @vango and @art, and visit www.vangoart.co .

In this episode Ethan chats with Christina Steinbrecher-Pfant, artistic director, of Viennacontemporary art fair. They touch on the hackathon hosted by Viennacontemporary and other art groups and startups as well as the future of tech at art fairs and how Viennacontemporary tries to help their attendees. Viennacontemporary Viennacontemporary is an international fair for contemporary art in Vienna, Austria. Since 2015, it takes place annually in the fourth week of September at the Marx Halle, located in St. Marx, a part of Vienna's third district. Besides its focus on Central- and Eastern Europe viennacontemporary presents international and Austrian galleries showcasing young and established contemporary artists. You can find them at www.viennacontemporary.at/en/ or @vc_artfair on instagram and twitter. About Vango Studio Vango Studio makes the entrepreneurial side of being an artist easy and efficient, saving artists an average of 4 hours per week. In addition to powering artists with an award winning marketplace, we offer artists the ability to create their own website with little to no maintenance, distribute work across platforms, and access detailed insights about their collectors and what is selling across platforms. Follow Vango on Instagram @vango and @art, and visit www.vangoart.co

Moenen Erbuer has founded not one, but two art tech startups. In this episode he shares his uncommon views about the art world: how it works, who it caters to, and if it is capable of change. He also shares what might be in store for the future for PRNCPL. About Moenen Erbuer Moenen is the co-founder of Curiator.com and PRNCPL. He is a visual designer, born and raised in Brussels, with extensive experience in the research, design and development of interfaces for a variety of products ranging from financial trading software to commercial web applications. Before starting Curiator, Moenen worked at AKQA, a digital innovation agency, where he was the creative lead on the Google account, and worked on a wide variety of clients like Lego, Coca-Cola, Thomson Reuters and Cinemax. About PRNCPL PRNCPL is a new technology platform for the art industry. The primary focus of PRNCPL is to help art fairs manage their data, and to create the best possible digital experience for its galleries, collectors and visitors. PRNCPL is mostly a back-office platform only accessible to the art fair team, but during Art Düsseldorf in November 2017, we’ll be launching an important first public-facing extension of our platform. Find them at www.prncpl.com About Vango Studio Vango Studio makes the entrepreneurial side of being an artist easy and efficient, saving artists an average of 4 hours per week. In addition to powering artists with an award winning marketplace, we offer artists the ability to create their own website with little to no maintenance, distribute work across platforms, and access detailed insights about their collectors and what is selling across platforms. Follow Vango on Instagram @vango and @art, and visit www.vangoart.co

Everybody knows Ello; but few people understand the roller coaster ride that brought Ello into the public eye and then took it back to the art world. In this episode Ethan talks with Ello Co-Founder and CEO, Todd Berger, about the turns Ello took over the course of its development, what the Ello community looks like now, and what is in store for the future of Ello. About Todd Berger Todd Berger is a cofounder and the CEO of Ello, The Creators Network. He has spent the past 19 years practicing contemporary graphic design, conceptual art and brand strategy. Along with his business partner, Lucian, their design studio, Berger & Föhr is internationally recognized and they have extensively exhibited and published around the world. About Ello Ello is The Creators Network, a publishing and collaboration platform connecting and supporting a global community of artists. Founded in 2013 by a collection of artists & designers, Ello re-imagines the future of creative work by providing a contemporary forum and virtual workplace for artists, brands, agencies, publishers, and their fans. Find them at Ello.co About Vango Studio Vango Studio makes the entrepreneurial side of being an artist easy and efficient, saving artists an average of 4 hours per week. In addition to powering artists with an award winning marketplace, we offer artists the ability to create their own website with little to no maintenance, distribute work across platforms, and access detailed insights about their collectors and what is selling across platforms. Follow Vango on Instagram @vango and @art, and visit www.vangoart.co

Send Me SFMOMA is the perfect storm of genius in art and tech. It makes exploring art fun, interesting, and accessible. In this episode, Ethan talks with Jay Mollica, creative technologist at SFMOMA, about how the app came to be, what the response was, and what's next. About Jay Mollica Jay Mollica joined SFMOMA in July of 2015. As the museum's Creative Technologist, he pursues innovative and experimental digital initiatives while also maintaining and extending wonderful existing projects such as Open Space. One of his goals is to bring SFMOMA's collection to the public in new and perhaps unexpected ways, this manifests itself in projects like the viral texting service Send Me SFMOMA. About Vango Studio Vango Studio makes the entrepreneurial side of being an artist easy and efficient, saving artists an average of 4 hours per week. In addition to powering artists with an award winning marketplace, we offer artists the ability to create their own website with little to no maintenance, distribute work across platforms, and access detailed insights about their collectors and what is selling across platforms. Follow Vango on Instagram @vango and @art, and visit www.vangoart.co

Art can save lives. And for both Brandolon Barnett and Messay Derebe art did save their lives. And art brought them together. Now they want to bring art to everyone by making it accessible and affordable to dip your toes into the art world. Hence goARTful was born. This startup allows individuals or companies to rent art from local artists and switch out the art as much as they want. Brandolon Barnett, co-Founder and co-CEO Brandolon has a love for music and the arts that comes from his time as a performer, his love of anime and photography, and graduate research into the importance of the arts for economic development.  Brandolon holds an MA in International Studies with a specialization in International Economics from the University of London SOAS. He brings to Artful a wide range of experience within the social enterprise and social impact space. He has successfully managed NGO programs in major US markets and on the ground in 5 countries, worked as as analytics manager for Frontstream/TRUiST, as a senior researcher with the Council on Foundations, and as a corporate social responsibility consultant with Global Impact.  He has also acted as the first Director and leader of Growfund (mygrowfund.org), shepherding a $1 million seed investment in the startup and bringing the platform from 160 to thousands of potential users in its first year. Brandolon is a respected speaker on topics related to diversity in philanthropy, impact measurement, impact investing, giving trends, and social innovation. He has been invited to speak at the 2014 Conference for Sustainable Cultural Heritage Management in Rome, the 2016 conference of the Association for Corporate Contributions Professionals (ACCProf), the 2016 Blackbaud Conference, 2017 SXSW, 2017 SOCAP, and other venues.  He is active as a volunteer, and loves his hometown NBA team the Dallas Mavericks. Messay Derebe, co-Founder and co-CEO Messay is a passionate believer in the transformative power of the arts having seen their impact on her own life. She has committed her career to expanding access to arts for all.  She is part of the Program team at the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. Previous to this Messay worked and volunteer with several performing and visual arts organizations around the country in Pittsburgh, PA, Dallas, TX, and Washington, DC. This experience included work with the The Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, and Washington Performing Arts.  Messay began her career in finance working as an auditor with Ernst & Young but left that path to pursue her true passion of supporting artists and arts organizations. Messay holds a Masters in Arts Management from Carnegie Mellon University. She earned her undergraduate degree from Southern Methodist University with majors in English Literature and Accounting. Messay also volunteers to support arts in her committee. She serves as a member of the steering committee for Emerging Arts Leaders DC and in other capacities. She is originally from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and calls Texas her adopted US state. About Vango Studio Vango Studio makes the entrepreneurial side of being an artist easy and efficient, saving artists an average of 4 hours per week. In addition to powering artists with an award winning marketplace, we offer artists the ability to create their own website with little to no maintenance, distribute work across platforms, and access detailed insights about their collectors and what is selling across platforms. Follow Vango on Instagram @vango and @art, and visit www.vangoart.co

Patreon is a game changer for artists and creators. Their goal is to help people get paid while doing what they love. In this episode Carlos Cabrera, VP of Data Science and Operations at Patreon, talks about where Patreon started and where Patreon is going. He gives us some tips and insight on what works on Patreon and what doesn't. And he talks about the rationale behind last December's proposed fee changes, why users were so upset, and what is coming next. About Carlos Cabrera Carlos is the VP of Data Science and Operations at Patreon. He himself joined Patreon in May 2015 after completing an MBA at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. His professional experience includes statistical modeling of natural catastrophe risk, management at a music technology company, and strategy consulting. He also plays the drums for Pomplamoose, the band co-founded by Patreon's CEO Jack Conte.  About Patreon For creators, Patreon is a way to get paid for creating the things you’re already creating (webcomics, videos, songs, whatevs). Fans pay a few bucks per month OR per post you release, and then you get paid every month, or every time you release something new. Learn more about becoming a creator on Patreon HERE. For patrons, Patreon is a way to join your favorite creator's community and pay them for making the stuff you love. Instead of literally throwing money at your screen (trust us, that doesn’t work), you can now pay a few bucks per month or per post that a creator makes. For example, if you pay $2 per video, and the creator releases 3 videos in February, then your card gets charged a total of $6 that month. This means the creator gets paid regularly (every time she releases something new), and you become a bonafide, real-life patron of the arts. That’s right--Imagine you, in a long frilly white wig, painted on a 10-foot canvas on the wall of a Victorian mansion. And imagine your favorite creators making a living doing what they do best… because of you. You can find Patreon on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @patreon. About Vango Studio Vango Studio makes the entrepreneurial side of being an artist easy and efficient, saving artists an average of 4 hours per week. In addition to powering artists with an award winning marketplace, we offer artists the ability to create their own website with little to no maintenance, distribute work across platforms, and access detailed insights about their collectors and what is selling across platforms. Follow Vango on Instagram @vango and @art, and visit www.vangoart.co

She is an angel investor! She is an art collector! She is a podcast host, and a blogger, and a foodie, and a mom. How does Joanne Wilson do it all? Simple. With her super powers! In this episode Joanne tells us about how she got the name 'Gotham Gal', why she collects art, what she looks for in investment opportunities, and what she thinks is the biggest business opportunity in the art world today. About Joanne Wilson Joanne got her start in retail and wholesale. During the 1990s’ dot-com boom, she worked on the media side of the technology industry. She has chaired a few nonprofits and has sat on numerous boards in a variety of fields. She has been a-stay-at-home mom, she has been a working mom. A city dweller, a suburbanite (albeit briefly!). These days she finds herself in a different career, another turn in the road. In 2007, she made her first angel investment. Since then, her portfolio has grown to include more than 90 companies. She has also focused her thesis on female entrepreneurs — a decision that is more practical than philanthropic. Women founders tend to be tenacious and thorough. They ask questions and listen. They are great leaders. Her female founder thesis led her to create The Women’s Entrepreneurs Festival. This event is an incredible combination of inspiration, information and validation. Year after year, their goal has been to create an intimate setting and a spirited agenda designed for robust conversation and purposeful connections. You can keep tabs on everything she is up to at gothamgal.com or on twitter @thegothamgal and be sure to check out her podcast Positively Gotham Gal on soundcloud. About Vango Studio Vango Studio makes the entrepreneurial side of being an artist easy and efficient, saving artists an average of 4 hours per week. In addition to powering artists with an award winning marketplace, we offer artists the ability to create their own website with little to no maintenance, distribute work across platforms, and access detailed insights about their collectors and what is selling across platforms. Follow Vango on Instagram @vango and @art, and visit www.vangoart.co

Daniel Doubrovkine is currently CTO at Artsy. Daniel's experience with art is a far cry from what most of us have encountered. Growing up in the Soviet Union his father would use books to take care of the family's needs. In Daniel's life art has been his currency, his healthcare, his passion and now part of his career. In this episode, Ethan and Daniel talk about what art is going to be in the future, how artists are entrepreneurs, and how the experience around art will change. About Artsy Artsy’s mission is to make all the world’s art accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. We are a resource for art collecting and education. Artsy features the world’s leading galleries, museum collections, foundations, artist estates, art fairs, and benefit auctions, all in one place. Our growing database of 800,000 images of art, architecture, and design by 80,000 artists spans historical, modern, and contemporary works, and includes the largest online database of contemporary art. Artsy is used by art lovers, museum-goers, patrons, collectors, students, and educators to discover, learn about, and collect art. You can find Artsy at Artsy.net and on Instagram, twitter, and facebook @artsy About Daniel Doubrouvkine Daniel Doubrovkine (aka dB.) is a seasoned entrepreneur, technologist, CTO at Artsy.net in New York, the largest online fine art marketplace and publication. Daniel graduated from University of Geneva in late 90s with a degree in Computer Science, and founded and sold Vestris Inc., an early stage technology start-up right after college. He joined Microsoft as Development Lead, was Director at Visible Path, then Architect and Development Manager at Application Security. Daniel is the creator and maintainer of many popular open-source projects and a lifetime artist. You can find Daniel at www.dblock.org or on twitter @dblockdotorg About Vango Studio Vango Studio makes the entrepreneurial side of being an artist easy and efficient, saving artists an average of 4 hours per week. In addition to powering artists with an award winning marketplace, we offer artists the ability to create their own website with little to no maintenance, distribute work across platforms, and access detailed insights about their collectors and what is selling across platforms. Follow Vango on Instagram @vango and @art, and visit www.vangoart.co

Art.com is all about helping people get art they love on their walls. According to Art.com CEO Kira Wampler “blank walls are the enemy.” Kira has been at Art.com for just over a year. She brings experience from an impressive background in leadership at customer driven startups including Lyft, Trulia, and Lytro. In this episode she shares her thoughts about knowing your customer, tech adoption, trying out different kinds of art, and the future of the retail experience. About Art.com Art.com is the largest online retailer of art. Their main goal is to help people find the art they love so they can love their spaces more. They have a billion images to choose from including limited-edition prints and hand-painted originals. They also offer home accessories and framing options. For more info visit art.com or find them on facebook, twitter, and instagram @artdotcom About Kira Wampler Kira Wampler has been CEO of Art.com for just over a year. She brings more than 20 years of marketing and product leadership experience from her previous work at Lyft, Trulia, Lytro, and Intuit. She is a self described OG social media user and her dog was recently named the most powerful puppy in tech. You can find Kira on twitter and instagram @kirasw About Vango Studio Vango Studio makes the entrepreneurial side of being an artist easy and efficient, saving artists an average of 4 hours per week. In addition to powering artists with an award winning marketplace, we offer artists the ability to create their own website with little to no maintenance, distribute work across platforms, and access detailed insights about their collectors and what is selling across platforms. Follow Vango on Instagram @vango and @art, and visit www.vangoart.co