Even as far back as the 1980’s, when I moved to New York City to attend graduate school, the scuttle-butt was that Minnesota has a large and active arts community, but Minnesotans do not buy art, bring it home, and put it on their walls. As Minnesotans, we love art events. We have many theaters that people attend with regularity, whether that is the Guthrie, Ordway, or the many smaller theaters. Every weekend, in the summer, we have endless festivals. We have movies in the parks and live music at just about every brewery that has sprung up on just about every corner. We have both the longest running open studio event (Saint Paul Art Crawl) and the largest open studio event (Art-a-Whirl) in the country. Since the tragic murder of George Floyd, murals have boomed and are everywhere. And we have world-class art museums, large and small. Despite all this love of the arts, Minnesotans have not brought art home and put it on their walls.
I heard this back in the 1980’s and I have witnessed and have continued to hear this into the 2020’s. It is something I have been telling people for decades. But this year, I am considering that I might have to change my position.
What have I been hearing and witnessing?
It began this summer, when I was talking with a gallery owner in Des Moines, Iowa. He had mentioned to me that there is a Minnesota artist (who still lives in Minnesota) who had a museum show last year and sold $400,000 of art in a month. Most of those sales were regional. Those types of numbers are unheard of in Minnesota. Or at least they used to be. This caught my attention.
Late in the summer, I attended the Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts Exhibit. I noticed a lot of red dots as I ambled through the largest and oldest annual art show in Minnesota. The show annually exhibits more than 300 Minnesota artists and has been running for a phenomenal 112 years! I checked with Jim Clark, Fine Arts Superintendent, to see if sales were increasing. He informed me that sales “have steadily increased in the last 13 years, and have grown to be significant.” He went on to say that “sales numbers have almost tripled since 2011, this year (2023) the total was just shy of $140k.” Not only is this exhibit the oldest and largest annual exhibit in the state, it is the biggest money-maker, as well. Clark also said that buyers “are established collectors as well as many first time art buyers.”
In the fall, while talking with Suzie Marty, owner of Everett and Charlie Gallery, (where I am a gallery artist) she mentioned that her gallery has consistently been selling more art year-to-year since she opened in 2018. Everett and Charlie is a small gallery in the Linden Hills neighborhood that specializes in art made by local Minnesota artists. When I followed up with Suzie about her experience, she shared that her gallery has seen a 12% - 20% increase each year in gross sales. With spending per client rising by 14% over last year. Going into the holiday selling season of 2023, she has already surpassed her numbers from 2022. Another sign that the trend is continuing.
Marty said that Minnesotans are looking for statement pieces, wanting one or two impactful pieces instead of many small pieces and that her clientele is equally split between first-time buyers and repeat clients. Also, Minnesotans are interested in original artworks, not reproductions. With their interest in larger more expensive statement-pieces, clients make several visits before deciding to purchase.
Personal friends of mine, who are artists who have had shows this year, have shared that they have had decent sales from their shows. Us artists are always trying to make things rosy, because for so long things have been so bleak. It has not been uncommon to have so few sales at an exhibit that the artists don’t even cover the cost of materials. Yet, a painter will perk right up and say “I sold some,” even if it was only one. But these friends have shared quite confidently, and confidentially, that the sales have been pretty good.
And what about these vaunted open studio events that happen throughout the year? The word on the street (or in the studios) has always been that there are few sales at the Minneapolis Art-a-Whirl and that there are even fewer at the Saint Paul Art Crawl. But this year, artists in the massive Northrup King Building (NKB) in Northeast Minneapolis shared with me that some artists on the first and second floors do pretty well. If you have a studio on the fourth floor there is definitely a distance and fatigue factor that hampers sales. NKB is a massive complex of ten buildings that house more than 300 artists.
There are several other artist warehouses in Northeast Minneapolis that participate in Art-a-Whirl as well as several other open studio events like Art Attack, First Thursday, Second Saturday, Holiday Markets and the like. There are so many sales events that one would think the crowds and sales would be diluted. But, last week I talked with an artist in the Casket Arts Building who shared that at the last event the crowd was down, but she ended up selling sixty percent above her sales target.
This brings me to the Saint Paul Art Crawl.
This year I was expecting a dip in sales. I had no exhibits lined up going into 2023 and I had switched galleries and figured it would take a while to build an audience with the new gallery (Everett and Charlie). As a Saint Paul artist, I participate in The Crawl and am not able to get around to other studios and check in with artists. So, I share only my own experience of The Crawl. This year, the majority of my sales came from The Crawl. Both the Spring and Fall Crawl brought more sales than last year. Honestly, if I wasn’t seeing an increase in sales of my own art, I probably wouldn’t be writing this article. But my experience is confirming what I had been hearing elsewhere. Many of my buyers are first-time art buyers who are just beginning to think about collecting. This year, I also had some long-term collectors dip their toe back in the pool.
Of course, the Minnesota art scene is vast and complex. As they say in the commercials, “individual results may vary.” We have lost some important art venues over the last several years. Burnet Gallery, for one, recently. We have lost many artists who have decided to hang up the smock and move on to other activities because the bills weren’t getting paid. But I am definitely sensing a change.
Having spent so much time here in Minnesota, as an artist, I am wondering what has been the catalyst.
As Minnesotans cling less to their puritanical religious roots, are they realizing that bare walls, which represent moral discipline and frugality, are not effective at making one happy? Perhaps we are discovering that surrounding ourselves with objects of beauty and meaning creates a foundation of happiness from which we can build a good life.
Perhaps it was the pandemic. As Minnesotans could not partake in their beloved arts events and spent more time staring at their walls, they realized this pent up need for aesthetic interaction could be relieved by purchasing paintings, prints and photographs and putting them on their walls. Thus, creating a new behavior that has continued beyond the lock downs.
Or maybe it is that we are a liberal state that values individual expression and our policies have created a very good economy. Through this additional wealth, Minnesotans are learning that they can surround themselves with art that expresses and shares their view of the world, that helps give incarnation to their inner voice.
Maybe it is something else completely. As an artist, I don’t quite trust it yet. But I am changing my mind. Minnesotans do love their art events, and (I can’t believe I’m saying this!) they also buy art, bring it home, and put it on their walls.