What happened to our relationship with art?
As children, we were closer to our creative selves. Our ability to express ourselves with art and design was intuitive, free-flowing. We were never in our heads about it. It was natural.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve watched close friends and family distance themselves from “Creativity” as a concept, then “Art” as a value, then the “Art World” as an industry.
What’s left is this little red pool of people, with a strong affinity towards one another as like-minded individuals. But something about it isn’t quite right.
While it is fun to be in the little red pool for a period of time (for your ego), it is not doing the artists or the world of art any favors for us to all stay there camped out. We need to be the ones prying open the doors and changing the conceptions about “art” as an experience, an industry, and a career. We need to challenge the current paradigm and build a new system.
And what’s weird about this to me, and why I am building Cohart, is because most of this is in our heads. If we take a step back, it looks a little more like this:
The majority of us are creative.
The majority of us enjoy art.
A lot of people own art.
And there are a fair amount of us who actually make art (and there would likely be more if the system worked on behalf of artists).
Where do you fall on this graph?
If you are creative, how do you cultivate your creative voice and find mentors for inspiration?
If you enjoy art, how do you know exactly what you like?
If you buy art, do you know the story behind the work you purchased?
If you make art, do you want to know your audience and understand how they think about your creations?
We are working to solve those problems. We are taking a few steps back — away from art as an asset or as a stock to be traded. Away from the ego-side-of-it-all. And away from perpetuating the same system that has dis-empowered most of us to date.
Art is fundamentally about our human experience.
Artists, creators, and designers build the world we live in & collectors, advocates, & buyers help to bring the visions to life. Cohart is a place for these relationships to be made — for community to be fostered.
Join the conversation — share your values, perspectives, artwork, collections, designs, half-baked ideas, feedback, critiques, comments, and stories with one another.
