A prototype has launched in time for this weekend's South End Open Studios, in partnership with United South End Artists, and promises to be expanded upon significantly in coming months to cover Greater Boston. Available as a free download, it provides visitors with GPS-enabled, interactive maps highlighting studio locations, sharing artist profiles and pictures of the work on view. It even offers users a little history of the neighborhood.
This is the Boston story you'd think we'd hear more often, in which high-tech industry meets consultancy expert meets artists – a potent cocktail of innovation if there ever was one. New Art Love, a nonprofit, hopes to be the missing link between artists and the art-curious, would-be supporters of their labor and creative vision if they only knew where to look.
The idea germinated when artists Liora Beer, founder of ARTMORPHEUS, and Kelly Sherman, an ICA Foster Prize winner, met at The Lab at Harvard's "Experience Economies: Innovate or Die." Management consultant Daniel Goldsmith, upon joining their team last May, submitted the concept to MassChallenge, the world's largest start-up competition and accelerator program. On the 14th floor of a highrise overlooking the ICA, the threesome worked with MassChallenge's mentors and start-up community to conduct consumer research with artists and collectors, and quickly began building tools to help people discover and learn about art and make purchasing work they have fallen for more straightforward.
Ms. Lonely-Hearts reports that New Art Love is currently in a pre-funded mode and is <3 looking for a partner <3 who shares their team's excitement to create meaningful connections between artists and art-lovers, and the engagement to leverage the art market for social impact.
We hope they meet their match and look forward to seeing what New Art Love does next.
How to fall in Love:
Visit NewArtLove.TourSphere.com from a smartphone to download the New Art Love mobile app and plan your Open Studios visit. Or, come the weekend, look for the New Art Love logo +!<3 and QR code throughout Boston’s South End.
The website
NewArtLove.com will provide a centralized location for studio visitors to review the work they have seen, reconnect with the artists and make a purchase. Share your email there to be updated when they go live this Saturday.
You can find two New Art Love information desks this weekend at the Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont Street, and at the corner of Harrison Avenue and Wareham Street.
New Art Love's website
Follow them on Twitter and find them on Facebook.
South End Open Studios run Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 September from 11am to 6pm
All images are courtesy of New Art Love. Logo designed by Ben Spear and The Brand Hack
