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Artsy
Company typePrivate
Industry
  • Fine art
  • Internet
Founded2010 (2010)
FounderCarter Cleveland
Headquarters
New York City
,
United States
Number of employees
90 (2015)
Websiteartsy.net

Artsy is a technology startup company based in New York City that intends to make all art freely accessible online. Its public website lets viewers browse over 230,000 images of artworks from close to 3,000 gallery and museum partnerships, including the New Museum and Guggenheim. It also covers major art fairs including Art Basel and Frieze. Visitors can search by art style, era, and description through over 800 traits hand-selected by a group of art historians for the Art Genome Project, a recommendation algorithm that decomposes artworks into their constitutive qualities and recombines them to predict user taste.

Artsy earns revenue from gallery monthly access fees and from benefit auction commissions. As of January 2015, Artsy has received $25.9 million in venture capital and has a 90-person staff. Carter Cleveland, Artsy's founder and CEO, began work on Artsy as a Princeton University undergraduate. Initial funding came from his savings, family, friends, and an entrepreneurship competition at his college. After creating a prototype, Artsy found angel investors and made its debut at TechCrunch Disrupt in 2010, where the site won an award. Artsy went offline for changes and raised $7.25 million from super angel investors and a Series A funding round. Artsy launched in October 2012.

At the site's launch, journalists noted that Artsy's image database was far from fulfilling its goal of displaying all of the world's art. Yale School of Art Dean Robert Storr was skeptical of the site's selection and taxonomy project, though the Cooper–Hewitt Design Museum's Seb Chan felt that Artsy served to expand the public's taste rather than to change art world institutions. Artsy changed its name from Art.sy in 2012 after journalists questioned the legality of using a Syrian top-level domain in light of sanctions against the country.

Website

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Artsy is a technology startup company that intends to make all art freely accessible online. The site launched in 2012 as a public website that lets browse and discover images of fine art[1][2]—over 230,000 as of 2015, from nearly 3,000 galleries and museums. The website displayed 37 art fairs in 2014, including Art Basel and Frieze.[3] Visitors can search by art style, era, and description. Individual pages for each artwork contain information about the work and artist.[2]

The website also recommends art based on user taste, similar to the music and film recommendation services of Pandora (Music Genome Project) and Netflix, respectively.[1][2] Artsy's software is based on what the company calls the Art Genome Project, a art discovery algorithm that decomposes works of art into 170 constitutive qualities and recombines them to predict other art users might enjoy.[4] These qualities, known on Artsy as "genes", can be either objective (time period, geography) or subjective ("globalization", "contemporary traces of memory") qualifiers. The Project's algorithm learns from over 800 genes manually input and rated by a 12-person art historian staff. The prominence of each gene in a work is graded out of 100. The algorithm then draws inferences to distinguish between labels (e.g., the stylistic differences between figurative Renaissance painting and abstract drip painting) and predict other artwork the user might appreciate.[1] Visitors select their favorite works and then receive recommendations in a Netflix-style feed.[2]

The site also connects art collectors and galleries.[3] Some works are listed as "for sale" and connect interested visitors with art dealers.[2]

History

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Carter Cleveland began work on Artsy (originally Art.sy[citation needed]) as a Princeton University undergraduate. In his junior year, he posed "a social network for artists" as a group project idea in Brian Kernighan's computer science class, and was personally encouraged to try entrepreneurship in Ed Zschau's class.[5] Inspired by Pandora's Music Genome Project and the Netflix Prize, Cleveland set out to make a website for "all the world's art" in the beginning of his senior year.[5] Cleveland used his savings from a hedge fund internship the previous summer as Artsy's initial funding. He also received money and Palo Alto office space from the Princeton Entrepreneurship Club's Tiger Launch competition, where his website won second place and the audience choice award.[5] Cleveland also received help from his parents, an art writer and a financier.[1] After graduating, Cleveland worked on Artsy in Palo Alto and raised money from family and friends to stay afloat. When this funding ran out, Cleveland returned to New York and went to "every tech event ... every single night", meeting other area entrepreneurs and showing the Artsy prototype to angel investors.[5] He received many rejections before an investor was interested, after which it became much easier to secure funding.[5]

Artsy debuted at TechCrunch Disrupt, May 2010

The original Artsy product was a social website for sharing images of fine art. Through the site's custom search, users could find art by traits such as era, artist period, size, and price, and then connect directly to an art dealer. The site also planned to recommend art based on users' friends with Facebook integration. Gallery participation formed the backbone of Artsy's initial strategy.[6] Artsy debuted at the May 2010 TechCrunch Disrupt, a conference where startups present their products before venture capitalists.[4] When questioned by the judges about consumer and gallery interest, Artsy replied that their funding came from those frustrated by current offerings and that their main competitor was Artnet.[6] Despite not making the finals, Artsy won the conference's Rookie Disruptor Award, presented by Yahoo's Raymie Stata.[7] With $160,000 in seed capital, Cleveland took Artsy offline and changed target audiences from the general public to art dealers and collectors. He changed site features geared towards young people to instead appeal to older and affluent collectors.[4] Cleveland began negotiating with major galleries to put their artwork on the site, and Larry Gagosian[4] and John Elderfield became advisers to the company. Joe Kennedy of Pandora also served as a consultant.[1]

Artsy announced in November 2010 that it had raised $1.25 million from super angel investors Eric Schmidt (Google), Wendi Murdoch (News Corp.), Jim Breyer, Charlie Cheever (Quora), Jack Dorsey (Square, Twitter), Dave Morin (Path), Keith Rabois (PayPal), and Dasha Zhukova, led by Thrive Capital's Joshua Kushner. The funding hired engineers to build the company's Art Genome Project, which was originally planned with 170 "genes". Artsy company planned to debut in early 2011,[4] but by November 2011, the company had only launched a small private beta test. The same month, Artsy closed a $6 million Series A funding round led by Peter Thiel and again including Thrive Capital, Murdoch, and Zhukova. The funding went towards new hires. Artsy now planned to bring galleries onboard before launching. By late 2011, 180 galleries were signed up.[8]

Launch

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Artsy publicly launched on October 8, 2012, as a free database of 20,000 fine art images from 275 galleries and 50 institutions.[1] As of 2015, the collection has since grown to over 230,000 images from over 2,500 galleries and 400 museums and foundations, including the New Museum and the Guggenheim.[3] The Art Genome Project provides search and discovery features alongside the database. The project's leader, who held a doctorate in art and architecture, led a 12-person team to develop and standardize the 800 "genes". The algorithm depends on the curatorial input, which Artsy engineering lead Daniel Doubrovkine described as more crucial than the technical end.[1]

In mid-2012, journalists began to question the legality of Artsy's Syrian .sy country code top-level domain name in light of mid-2011 sanctions against the country in civil war.[9] The company responded that the domain had been pre-purchased years in advance for its accessibility and short character length.[10] The domain name was difficult to obtain and involved granting power of attorney to a Syrian law firm and having verifying Cleveland's signature with the Syrian embassy. When Artsy's website experienced unexpected downtime and issues with its "art.sy" domain registration in early 2013, the company permanently moved to "artsy.net".[9]

Of the estimated 150,000 galleries worldwide, Artsy reaches 1.6%. Artsy's gallery outreach includes educating galleries on how to leverage the Internet to their business's benefit. With collectors, Artsy fielded $5.5 billion worth of prospective purchases in 2014, a fourfold annual increase, though the company does not log the inquiries that end in sales.[3]

As of January 2015, Artsy has received $25.9 million in venture capital and has a 90-person staff. The company has two revenue streams: monthly access fees for galleries, and commissions on benefit auctions. Art galleries subscribe to the Artsy platform for what Fortune described as a low fee. Artsy CEO Carter Cleveland says the company has "a history of undercharging for things" and expects to raise rates commensurate with the platform's value to galleries. Art fairs are not charged for the platform. Artsy's commissions from benefit auctions are small. Clients include the Brooklyn Museum Artists Ball and the Whitney Art Party.[3]

Artsy is one of four services integrated in a Tumblr feature that lets users easily buy items from their feed.[11]

Reception

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External videos
video icon "How the Artsy App Is Expanding Art Awareness", Artsy CEO Carter Cleveland on Bloomberg Television

The New York Times noted Artsy as the first company to offer recommendations for art as Pandora and Netflix do for music and film.[1] TechCrunch compared Artsy's technique of assembling deals before launching to that of music streaming startup Spotify.[8] Fortune compared Artsy's role to that of Demand Media's Saatchi Art. The latter platform directly connects artists and collectors, while Artsy serves as a middleman between galleries and collectors. The magazine was unsure whether the industry was interested in Saatchi's democratization, and noted the industry's "old-school, relationship-drive" nature.[3] At the time of launch, Yale School of Art Dean Robert Storr was skeptical of the Art Genome Project and was "sure it will be reductive".[1] The Cooper–Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum's digital director Seb Chan felt that Artsy would serve to expand the general public's taste rather than to replace art books and viewing galleries. He added that Artsy and galleries both facilitated "serendipitous" discovery of new art and connections, and that web was just another approach to browsing.[1]

At the time of the site's launch, the Times wrote that Artsy was farther from its goal of making all art freely viewable online than the Google Art Project, which was offered a collection double Artsy's size.[1] Yale School of Art Dean Robert Storr criticized the site's selection, which he described as "littered with really terrible art that nobody should be directed to".[1] At launch, Rip Empson of TechCrunch noted that Artsy's expensive works listed for sale were ironic considering that the impetus for the site was Cleveland's difficulty finding artwork for his dorm's walls. Empson listed a lack of content and an uncertain business model as Artsy's key limiting factors, but appreciated the project's ambition.[2] At Artsy's earlier debut, TechCrunch's first impression described the website as "niche", though fitting for the art world and still of benefit to the public with its online galleries. One TechCrunch Disrupt judge found the idea unoriginal and compared it to nextmonet.com: "this is well done, but exclusive to access to art isn't huge".[6] TechCrunch listed Paddle8 as a competitor as well as on-demand printing sites Art.com and Zazzle.[2] The Pinterest-style art discovery startup Curiator debuted at TechCrunch Disrupt 2013 in direct competition with Artsy.[12]

TechCrunch described Artsy's super angel investors as among the "industry's most serious".[9]

Slate criticized Artsy for ignoring the politics of purchasing a Syrian domain name and its associations with terrorism. The magazine reasoned that the domain name's annual renewal was in violation of United States sanctions against the country.[10] TechCrunch wrote that the switch to another domain represented the choice for reliability over cleverness.[9]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Ryzik, Melena (October 8, 2012). "Online, a Genome Project for the World of Art". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 18, 2015. Retrieved July 18, 2015.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Empson, Rip (October 9, 2012). "Two Years In Coming, Art.sy Finally Brings Pandora's Genome Project To The Wacky World Of Art". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on July 19, 2015. Retrieved July 19, 2015.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Griffith, Erin (January 22, 2015). "A bold, new direction for the fine art industry: online sales". Fortune. Archived from the original on July 17, 2015. Retrieved July 17, 2015.
  4. ^ a b c d e Schonfeld, Erick (November 24, 2010). "Art.sy Raises $1.25 Million From Schmidt, Murdoch, Dorsey, And Super-Artsy Angels". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on July 17, 2015. Retrieved July 17, 2015.
  5. ^ a b c d e Carter Cleveland: Artsy [Princeton Entrepreneurs]. Princeton Engineering. January 5, 2015. Retrieved July 19, 2015. Origins: 3:42. Starting work: 5:00. Seed money: 8:44. {{cite AV media}}: External link in |postscript= (help)CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  6. ^ a b c Siegler, MG (May 25, 2010). "Screw The Gallery, Discover The Next Great Picasso At Art.sy". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on July 18, 2015. Retrieved July 18, 2015.
  7. ^ Wauters, Robin (May 26, 2010). "Art.sy Wins The TechCrunch Rookie Disruptor Award". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on July 18, 2015. Retrieved July 18, 2015.
  8. ^ a b Schonfeld, Erick (November 3, 2011). "Art.sy Raises $6 Million Series A From Peter Thiel, Thrive Capital, Wendi Murdoch And Dasha Zhukova". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on July 18, 2015. Retrieved July 18, 2015.
  9. ^ a b c d Taylor, Colleen; Cutler, Kim-Mai (January 3, 2013). "Art.sy Now Showing Permanent Redirect To Artsy.net As Conflict In Syria Escalates". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on July 21, 2015. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
  10. ^ a b Pendle, George (August 13, 2012). "What's in a Name? Art.sy, the much-hyped online startup, has a Syrian domain name. Could it be violating U.S. sanctions?". Slate. Archived from the original on July 18, 2015. Retrieved July 18, 2015.
  11. ^ Perez, Sarah (March 27, 2015). "Tumblr's Mobile App Will Now Add 'Buy,' 'Pledge,' And 'Get Involved' Buttons To Select Posts". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on July 18, 2015. Retrieved July 18, 2015.
  12. ^ Lunden, Ingrid (September 10, 2013). "Curiator Is A Pinterest-Style Marketplace To Help You Discover, And One Day Buy, The Art You Like". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on July 18, 2015. Retrieved July 18, 2015.

Further reading

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