Fair Art Fair is a match-making app connecting artists to art buyers

“There is no ‘Art World’ without each player, so we wanted a ‘World’ for all of us”, claims Stacie McCormick, the founder Fair Art Fair and of Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop. McCormick’s new app looks to create a fairer art world and equip artists with the tools they need to sustain their art careers.

As a Master’s graduate, she struggled to find a clear path to a workable, sustainable idea of how to survive on her art practice, she tells me. For emerging artists in particular, the art world can be rocky, if not treacherous, terrain. The Fair Art Fair is part of an emerging bulk of new platforms designed to give emerging artists and creatives a much-appreciated foot up the ladder. Websites like The Dots and Avant Arte come to mind.

Taking after its name, the app is dedicated to creating a fairer world for artists, encouraging the arts as a serious career path. In a world where “Artists as a group of professionals have abdicated their power to third parties”, Fair Art Fair hopes its digital environment “removes the need for the middleman – empowering both the artist and the collector”.

Fair Art Fair is setting the standard for the art world with zero per cent commission on artwork sold, meaning artists take home every penny their work is worth and helping to keep their practice alive. “We feel we are liberating artists and collectors alike”, exclaims the founder.

The app is designed for four distinct user groups – artists, art lovers, curators and the ‘art curious’. The app, which can be used both on the web and mobiles, allows subscribers to discover, organise, share, showcase, buy and sell artworks, and connect with each other.

“The app is actually born from needing all the tools to operate the gallery”, she explains. Although “the existing technology provides some amazing tools”, McCormick claims, “none of these offer a full circle of tools, connections, communication, support and sales”.

McCormick hopes that the app will “enchant through all its exhibitions and the art on show”. More than anything, though, she says the aim is that art lovers and artists can “connect in a way that hasn’t been possible before.” The app is built to be a world where a prospective buyer can transparently find artists, directly contact them, and buy pieces without commission. McCormick also hopes that the subscription model has the potential to create revenue for expansion, grants, prizes and, ultimately, “to allow us to develop local hubs where we look forward to providing gallery spaces for Fair Art Fair artists to have physical exhibitions too.”

The app is subscription based and McCormick hopes that “everyone understands that their subscription is a contribution to support the whole group, and all profits will always be circled back into the community”. The app launches on 31 July 2021.