Pablo Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet... Try and think of the most famous artists in history and the chances are British names won’t be the first to come to mind.
But the UK is certainly no artistic backwater. London, Manchester and Glasgow can more than hold their own against Europe’s most cultural cities in this regard.
There are thriving art scenes in a number of towns, too. In St Ives in Cornwall, for example, the streets are dominated by small shops-cum-galleries that have grown up around the Tate Gallery and the arts scene that has burgeoned there since the 1960s.
More people in the UK now go to art galleries than football matches, something reflected in the rise in the number of galleries over the last decade.
Aspiring art gallery entrepreneurs often rent in post-industrial, inner city areas because they're more affordable than prominent retail locations
Virtual shop windows
Most galleries are a vehicle for groups of artists, who usually met at college and subsequently set up a collective to sell their creations. Thanks to the internet, those connections are increasingly virtual.
Websites such as ZeroOneArt.co.uk and the charmingly named Artshole.co.uk act as shop windows for artists. ZeroOneArt says it offers a “fine range of independent artists advertising their own artworks for sale”, as well as “original art and reproduction prints which are available to buy directly, and securely, from the artists themselves.”
Artshole, on the other hand, has a less obviously commercial niche and is backed up by a non-virtual gallery on London’s Brick Lane. Art will always be something people want to see in the flesh.
Brick Lane, famous for Bangladeshi cuisine, trendy bars and the book and film of the same name, is a hotbed of activity for the younger, more bohemian art firmament. The Custard Factory, in Birmingham’s post-industrial inner city, attracts a similar crowd.
Aspiring art gallery entrepreneurs often rent in these areas because they are more affordable than high street locations.
Mainstream artists, or those looking at selling art to the older consumer, might be best suited to market towns off the beaten track or quieter tourist resorts. Just be mindful that in tourist areas the seasonal nature of trade means revenues will fluctuate.
Once an area becomes established, costs shoot up, so it might make more sense to look at even more marginal areas, such as former industrial towns. Finding reasonably priced property is important because it is often quite hard to make a good profit from selling art.
Will Kemp of Benny Browne, an art studio in Congleton, Cheshire, says that the lack of competition and low rents in the area means that getting established is far easier than in London or Manchester.
