Yallery Blog

Artists will find Yallery to be unlike any other art-focused website. We are not trying to replace their website or solicit their art for a “Virtual Gallery.” Yallery is a community where artists, their patrons and their galleries are connected through real art.

Art Hosting
The primary “socialization” activity on Yallery is the hosting itself. Yallery’s Artist “Catalogue Mosaic” enables artists to publish and share their entire catalogue with patrons, collectors and galleries from next door and around the world.

When combined with Yallery’s Studio & Catalogue Management application, the artist’s Mosaic represents their career, contextualized — Artists may view works by artwork title, year produced, category, year acquired, consignment location or collector name, while visitors to their Mosaic may group and view works by artwork title, year produced or category.

Art Interlinking
The next major “socialization” activity on Yallery is art “Interlinking”. Interlinking is how Yallery connects artists and collectors. The artworks displayed in the artist’s Mosaic are virtual representations of art that may be in the artist’s own inventory, reside in collections, be consigned to galleries or loaned to shows.

Artworks in a Collector member’s “Collection Mosaic” are actual artworks that are possessed by the collector and can link back into the Catalogues of Artist members. Linked artworks are given a grey tile background in the Mosaic.

Artworks in a Gallery member’s “Inventory Mosaic” are actual artworks that have been consigned by an artist (member or non-member) into the Gallery member’s Inventory. Inventory artworks link back into the Catalogues of Artist members. Consigned artworks are given a green tile background in the Mosaic.

Artist Narratives
Registered Artist members may publish text narratives for each artwork they publish into their Catalogue; Premium Artist members may publish text, audio and/or video narratives for each artwork in their catalogue. If an artwork is consigned to a Gallery Member or possessed and linked to a Collector Member, the narratives are automatically populated in the other member’s “Art Info Page”.

Artwork Comments
Every Artwork on Yallery may feature a comment stream, where members can discuss the artwork.

Detail Images
Premium Artist members may add up to five detail images to each artwork. Detail images help people appreciate the finer details or unique process in an artwork.

Exclusive Forum
Premium Artist members receive their own discussion Forum, they may use this resource as they see fit.

Event Management
Premium Artist members may create and publish their events in their Public Dashboard calendars — Invites may be sent to members and non-members and RSVP state followed from invite to event.

Personal Calendar
Artist members may also subscribe to the Event Calendars of other Artist and Gallery members. The Personal Calendar provides members with a single interface into infinite events on a local, national or global scale.

Identity
Artist members are provided with the same range of identity and location options as other members, but Yallery recommends that Artist members use their real name (unless the majority of their work is created under a collective, organization or partnership known by another name) and City as their location selections.

The Future
There are other Artist-directed features coming as we implement Yallery’s Beta plan. Stay tuned.

Unlike most art sites on the Internet, Yallery is not trying to render the traditional gallery obsolete. We at Yallery believe the traditional art gallery to be the “live performance venue” of the primary art market. As the live performance venue, we believe traditional galleries are the best place to find new art and artists, and experience art for the first time.

We have preserved a role for galleries within Yallery as the de facto source of “primary market” art. Yallery does not encourage artists to compete with their representation. However, if an artist does not have traditional gallery representation, they are welcome to sell their artworks directly into the Yallery marketplace.

If both the Gallery and Artist are Yallery members, an Artist may use the Yallery Consignment tool to designate art from their Catalogue as consigned, and automatically populate a new artwork within the Gallery member’s Inventory Management System and Public Dashboard “Mosaic” that links back to the Artist’s Catalogue Mosaic. If the artist is not a Yallery member, then the gallery member must upload the art images and information into their Inventory and Management System and Mosaic like any other Yallery member type.

As members and non-members browse through the Collections and Catalogues of collectors and artists, works available for sale at galleries are featured within the Artist’s Catalogue Mosaic with a tile background color that identifies the artwork as being consigned for sale to a Gallery (can be either a member gallery or non-member gallery).

Artist Narratives
Artists may publish text, audio or video narratives for each artwork they create. These narratives transfer to the Gallery’s “Art Info Page” if they are consigned the artwork.

Artwork Comments
Every Artwork on Yallery may feature a comment stream, where members can discuss the artwork.

Detail Images
Gallery members may add up to five detail images to each artwork. Detail images help people appreciate the finer details or unique process in an artwork.

Exclusive Forum
Galleries receive their own discussion Forum, they may use this resource as they see fit.

Event Management
Gallery members may create and publish events in their Public Dashboard calendars — Invites may be sent to members and non-members and RSVP state followed from invite to event.

Personal Calendar
Like Artist and Collector members, Gallery members may also subscribe to the Event Calendars of Artist and Gallery members. The Personal Calendar provides members with a single interface into infinite events.

Identity
Although Gallery members are provided with the same range of identity and location options as other members, Yallery recommends that Gallery members use their Organization name and City, State/Prov and Country as selections.

The Future
There are other Gallery-directed features coming as we implement Yallery’s Beta plan. Stay tuned.

I’ve discussed art and collecting with other people who own and acquire art and after meeting many different collectors, there may be three primary types of art collection experiences.

The Private Collector
A “Private Collectors’” art passions are very personal to them. Private Collectors acquire their art through dealers and prefer more intimate art events to public showings. Their art is a discrete extension of their life that they rarely share outside of their home. This collector likely will not wish to Socialize their art on Yallery. If this collector becomes a member of Yallery, they may not make any of their artworks publicly viewable by others.

The Social Collector
“Social Collectors” enjoy sharing their art with everyone around them. Social Collectors bring their art into every environment they inhabit — work, home, friend’s homes, everywhere. Social Collectors visit a lot of galleries and attend show openings. Art appreciation is a very public extension of who they are as a person. Social Collectors will share a majority of their collection with the world through Yallery — looking forward to linking to the artists they collect and contextualizing their collections with artists and other collectors.

The Accidental Collector
“Accidental Collectors” possess art — sometimes a lot of art — and they don’t know anything about the art other than from who or where they acquired it. These art owners have never thought of themselves as collectors and may consider the art they own to be just another possession. The origin of artworks owned by Accidental Collectors be vacations, gifts or a spontaneous decorating-related purchase. Another common source of unidentified art is inheritance. We at Yallery believe that the Accidental Collector will be able to Socialize their art to identify artists, learn information concerning the provenance of their art and eventually the value, both monitary and historic.

We hope that Social Collectors and Accidental Collectors will enjoy the a range of opportunities Yallery provides them to socialize their art.

Art Hosting
The primary “socialization” activity on Yallery is the hosting itself. Yallery’s Collector “Mosaic” enables a Collector to share their entire art collection with friends, family and the world.

Art Interlinking
The next major “socialization” activity on Yallery is art “Interlinking”. Interlinking is how Yallery connects Collectors and Artists. The artworks displayed in an Artist member’s “Mosaic” (the gallery display area on a Yallery Public Dashboard) are “virtual” representations of art that may be in an artist’s own inventory, reside in collections, be consigned to galleries or loaned to shows. Artworks in a Collector member’s “Mosaic” are actual artworks that are possessed by the collector.

Artwork Interlinking provides Collectors and their collections with a path into and out of an artist’s body of work. When multiple collectors have interlinked works within an artist’s Catalogue, this creates a context greater than any single relationship. Collectors can use their link into Artists’ Catalogues Raisonné to locate “lost works”, reference and connect with other collectors interlinked with the artist. Collectors may reference the collections of collectors with mutual taste and interest in the search to learn about new artists.

Collector Narratives
Collectors may publish a textual narrative to every artwork they possess. Collector Narratives are published within the Collector’s “Art Info Page”.

Artist Narratives
Artists may publish text, audio or video narratives for each artwork they create. These narratives transfer to the Collector’s “Art Info Page” if they possess the artwork.

Artwork Comments
Every Artwork on Yallery may feature a comment stream, where members can discuss the artwork.

Favorites
All members have the ability to add the Public Dashboards of other members and individual artworks to their personal “Favorites” list.

Detail Images
Premium members may add up to five detail images to each artwork. Detail images help people appreciate the finer details in an artwork or in cases where an artwork’s provenance is unknown, or an artist’s name unknown, multiple images may assist in identification.

Exclusive Forum
Premium members also receive their own personal discussion Forum. Members may use this resource as they see fit.

Personal Calendar
Collectors may subscribe to the Event Calendars of Artist and Gallery members. The Personal Calendar provides members with a single interface into infinite events.

Identity
Although a Collector may wish to share every detail about their art collection with the world, they may not wish to be personally identified or linked to the collection. Yallery provides every member with a sliding scale of “Location” (Country only, State/Prov + Country, or City + State/Prov + Country) and “Identification” (Member name, Real Name, Organization Name).

The Future
There are other Collector-directed features coming as we implement Yallery’s Beta plan. Stay tuned.

As we look forward to launch, members have been asking how Yallery will segment membership types. Yallery is a for-profit business and we wish to have some revenue to support our operation while also supporting everyone who wishes to Socialize their art. We have decided to offer both free “Registered” accounts and subscription-based “Premium” accounts to artists and collectors. Gallery memberships will be a premium subscription.

“Premium” accounts’ Dashboard and Artwork Info Pages are always ad-free. Feature-wise, Premium members will access the full functionality developed for their membership type — including the complete artwork management toolsets for Artists, Collectors or Galleries. Premium members also receive a private Forum, where they can maintain discussions with other members. Premium Artists and Galleries may use the Yallery Event Management application to create and manage the event/opening/show invitation creation and management process.

We are offering all Beta members a “Premium”-level membership at no cost* until the first anniversary of our public launch.

Premium Members who join after our public launch will receive a 90-day trial period before they are billed for their subscription. Our subscription fees will be billed yearly and will be priced based upon the membership type. None of our memberships will require the payment of a “set-up charge” or “account creation fee.”

“Registered” account subscriptions for Artists and Collectors are free, but will be supported by one display ad located on their Public Dashboard” and a single display banner ad on each of their Artwork Info Pages. Registered members are able to store and interlink unlimited artworks, but the Private dashboard artwork management toolset is reduced. Other “Premium” features are absent as well.

We will be retaining our “Authenticated Member” membership for people who don’t require any art hosting or management services but wish to participate in the Yallery community. We hope this will help us keep the level of random (and not so random) spam and other abuse down to a minimum.

Lastly, once we launch, Yallery will be navigatable by everyone with or without an account.

* Certain optional launch features will require the payment of transaction-based fees that are not included in the “Free Account” agreement.