Startup Art London 2014
Transforming? I wouldn’t say that but very interesting. It’s always good to see the ideas non-art people come up with for the Art World, I don’t think any of the ideas where game changing but what is, is the idea of getting an art business fully funded instead of trying to do it on a shoe string or on a grant from The Art Council.
I think our favourite project was probably Nymphea or Arhio which apparently came 4th !
The winners of Startup Weekend Art London, an event with the aim of encouraging technology-based entrepreneurship in the arts, were announced at the accelerator Wayra last Sunday. After 54 hours of planning, creating, testing, questioning, developing and designing, eight teams of entrepreneurs pitched their business concepts to a panel of seven judges: Jonas Almgren (CEO, Artfinder), Kati Price (Head of Digital Media, V&A), Tak Lo (Director, Techstars), Glen Mehn (Partner, Bethnal Green Ventures), Bernadine Bröcker (Founder, Vastari), Patrick van der Vorst (Founder, ValueMyStuff) and Stephan von Perger (Associate, Wellington Partners).
The Wallto Team
The first prize for the overall winner went to Wallto, a startup that wants to connect artists and coffee shops so that both can benefit from the exposure and an attractive environment respectively. The prize was $20,000 worth of credit on Google Cloud Platform as well as a one-hour coaching session from Bethnal Green Ventures, where judge Glen Mehn is Partner. The team of eight was the largest at the event, where teams of a minimum of two people were allowed to pitch at the final event, with most groups averaging three to five members. Elina Gough from the winning team was delighted with the results: “Winning has given us a confidence boost to pursue our vision of making art accessible to more people.”
It was smaller teams – each made up of three members – who won the prize for Best Business Model (receiving £500 of service credit with the legal firm General Standard) and the prize for Best Pitch (a bottle of Arganic oil). Nymphea (Best Business Model) would provide a crowd-funding platform for museums focused on donations from art lovers who want to see their favourite works restored and exhibited. Tuor (Best Pitch) uses augmented reality to allow buyers to view what a painting would look like on their wall, which they can also share with friends and family before deciding to make the purchase. Although many teams had prepared slick presentations and websites, it was Tuor’s ability to provide a simple yet functioning example of how their app worked that won over the judges.
Stephan von Perger, Associate at Wellington Partners and judge at the event commented on the high design quality in the room: “Come to Startup Weekend Art if you want to hire a designer. Some really good looking prototypes and mockups here.”
With several experienced coaches attending including Ezra Konvitz (Co-Founder, ArtStack), Marzia Niccolai (Technical Program Manager, Google Cultural Institute) and Marcos Steverlynck (Co-Founder and CTO, Rise Art), the participants were able to seek advice and test their ideas against experts and some leading names in the fields of arts, entrepreneurship and technology. iMakr made their 3D printers available for the weekend, providing inspiration and quick prototyping for teams working on 3D-printing edible artworks and making 3D printers more accessible for artists.
Luba Elliott, event director, said: “Traditionally, the art industry has been low in technological and business innovation. With this event, we encouraged participants to bring their ideas and experiences from the arts and other industries to start new companies and solve some of the most pressing problems in the art world. During the event, we received an incredible amount of positive feedback from the participants – regardless of whether the teams won, they certainly learnt something about the roller coaster journey of starting a business and the additional challenges specific to the arts industry.”
Startup Weekend Art London was a 54-hour event held at the accelerator Wayra to encourage the use of new technologies and business models in the arts sector. The event attracted over 70 entrepreneurs, designers and commercially-minded art enthusiasts, with some flying in all the way from Italy, Germany and France. Following on from the success of previous Startup Weekend events, where now well-known products such as Zaarly, Planely and Cloudbot apps were born, Startup Weekend Art London saw attendees develop ambitious new businesses for the arts sector from scratch. These explored the new opportunities of funding, making, sharing and enjoying art and culture as made possible by the latest technological developments.
Off the back of this success, the organising team of Startup Weekend Art London will continue to run related events and has already agreed to take part in seminars at the UAL and the Courtauld Institute to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation in the art world.
Keep Up to date: @SWArtLondon
