Success Story:
BBA Gallery
BBA Gallery is an ArtConnect member since 2015
How a Berlin-based art gallery used its ArtConnect membership to increase its visibility in the international artist community.
Artists Renata Kudlacek and Nele Ouwens initiated BBA Gallery as a Berlin-based project space in 2015, turning it into a professional commercial gallery in 2017. BBA now boasts an international roster, representing a diverse group of artists — the majority of which are female — from Finland, China, New Zealand, Spain, and the UK, among others.
Since starting out as an artist-run project space, BBA’s mission has remained clear: to champion and “open doors” for artists. The gallery works primarily with emerging and mid-career artists, but they prefer not to use such labels. Talent, passion and potential are more important to the gallery’s founders, who strive to support artists who haven’t yet gotten the attention they deserve — regardless of age or level of education.
To support this mission, BBA runs two annual art prizes — awarding artists with solo exhibitions, cash prizes, online promotion, and more. Since starting out, the gallery has gone from hosting small-scale exhibitions in its own space to building major partnerships with larger organizations. This has allowed them to open up even more possibilities for giving artists the support they need to advance their careers.
BBA Gallery, Berlin
The Challenge
With two annual prizes playing a major role in BBA’s program and resulting in international group exhibitions at crucial points throughout the year — e.g., during Gallery Weekend Berlin — the directors knew that getting their open calls out there would be key.
The artists that are long- and short-listed for BBA’s annual prizes become an essential part of the gallery’s extended network. As BBA offers ongoing support and opportunities to artists selected in their open calls, with some even becoming a part of their roster.
So, to reach a wide pool of talented and exciting artists around the world, the BBA directors started publishing their awards and open calls on ArtConnect when the gallery launched in 2015. Over the years, with the help of its ArtConnect membership, BBA has been able to bring more attention to its program, connect with applicants all over the world, and further build its artist network. Here’s how.
Reaching success
Put your organization in front of an international audience
How do you go about reaching artists from all over the world? By using ArtConnect to post its open calls and events program, BBA has been able to do just that: “Our events and open calls on ArtConnect definitely helped us to become visible in the international artist community.”
With ArtConnect’s focus on connecting artists and art organizations, the BBA directors recognized an opportunity: “ArtConnect is not just a listing but a community. With our public profile we get to showcase all aspects of the work that we do to support artists year-round.” For BBA, promoting their open calls, as well as their space and program as a whole — all in one place — has the potential to open other doors, as well:
“BBA Gallery creates and takes part in collaborations with international galleries and artistic projects on a regular basis — it’s part of our global perspective. And this is also something that ArtConnect offers: the opportunity to discover and network with both artists and art professionals, no matter where they’re based.”
“ArtConnect is not just a listing but a community. With our public profile we get to showcase all aspects of the work that we do to support artists year-round.”
Build trust among the artist community
Founded by artists for artists, it goes without saying that BBA puts the interests and needs of artists at the center of everything they do. Creating a more secure environment for artists in search of opportunities is part of that: “ArtConnect’s verification process was simple and lets artists know that they can apply with confidence to our open calls.”
Increasing transparency and trust in the art world goes a long way towards supporting artists in the advancement of their careers. Plus, with a “verified” badge placed prominently on their profile, organizations bring in more applications on ArtConnect.
For each open call published on ArtConnect, BBA reports receiving a few dozen applications through the platform: “ArtConnect helps us present and promote our art awards program to a whole new audience in a professional and transparent manner, and as a result we see that our prize reaches more artists.”
“ArtConnect helps us present and promote our art awards program to a whole new audience in a professional and transparent manner.”
Increase your reach while saving time for what matters most
As a small team organizing a dynamic program with artists from all over the world, the BBA directors realized they could benefit from an intuitive, accessible, all-in-one tool for promoting their program and open calls. And they found that in ArtConnect.
With ArtConnect, the BBA team has not only been able to publish their open calls and events and share them with a global art community; they’ve also been able to get the added support and tools they need to take it to the next level: “We also use ArtConnect’s promotional tools to give our open calls an extra boost whenever we need to. It’s great to have that kind of flexibility and support,” say the BBA directors.
These tools, along with a dedicated account manager and the ability to easily keep track of the progress of their open calls, have helped BBA get more eyes on their opportunities while ensuring they can spend more time on what matters most: supporting artists.
BBA Gallery
Artist: Nicolas Vionnet
Photographer: Rick Schubert
Next steps
The BBA Photography Prize 2021 will be part of Berlin Photo Week this year — highlighting a selection of photographers from the ongoing open call. The next open call, for BBA Artist Prize 2021, opens for applications in November. Interested artists will be able to find and apply to both of these open calls on ArtConnect.
“We are very focused on creating long-standing partnerships with our networks and partners”, the BBA directors say. “It has been great to develop our collaboration with ArtConnect over the years, and we look forward to continuing to do so in the future.”