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Regional - 8th Feb 2005 NEW INTERNET SERVICE LAUNCHED TO ENABLE MORE PEOPLE TO VIEW ART AND HELP REGIONAL ART GALLERIES AND ARTISTS INCREASE SALES· Survey conducted at London Art Fair shows that 40% expect to spend more on art in 2005 than they did in 2004. A new service is launched today - The Online British Art Gallery (www.obag.co.uk)– designed to give regional art galleries access to new customers and enable potential art buyers from all over the UK to view more of their art. The most comprehensive art search engine available on the net, it enables buyers to search for art held by the galleries who subscribe to the service. Galleries, who must have a retail presence in the UK, have the opportunity to display art from their current and future exhibitions. At time of launch, 45 galleries based all over the UK from Inverness to Padstow, are displaying artwork on the Online British Art Gallery. Buyers can search for art using 14 different criteria including artist’s name, size of artwork, style, price through to regional location of each gallery. Once a buyer has found a piece of art they like, they then make contact directly with the gallery, either by using the contact information available on the site or through links provided to each gallery’s own website. The service, which is free to buyers, has something for experienced art buyers and complete beginners alike. For beginners there is an educational section describing the history of art, art styles, materials and commonly-used vocabulary. For more seasoned buyers or collectors there is the ability to search on individual artists. Art buyers have the reassurance that all galleries listed on the site have a retail presence and are both established and reputable. Iain Cross, Managing Director and founder of The Online British Art Gallery commented “It’s effectively on-line art dating – we act as matchmaker by providing the facilities to get the initial introduction underway. It’s up to each gallery to develop the relationship directly with the buyer and make a date to view the art in person. Serious art buyers don’t want to buy art on-line, but they do want to use the internet to research and locate it – the fact that 78% of respondents in our survey used the internet to research art demonstrates there is strong demand for this new service”. When asked what they perceived as the main advantage of the Online British Art Gallery, 38% thought it was time saved by not having to access the web-sites of individual art galleries, 23% thought it was the ability to tailor their search using any of the 14 criteria available and 27% thought it was the ability to get to know the art galleries in their local region. Cross concluded “By subscribing to the service regional art galleries have a great opportunity to increase their customer-base around the UK. In turn art buyers located outside the UK’s main city centres, no longer have to wait for the next art fair to come to town and have the opportunity to access good quality art 365 days a year”. ENDS For more information please contact: Sally Brown pressoffice@obag.co.uk Notes to Editors About the Online British Art Gallery (www.obag.co.uk) Launched in February 2005, The On-line British Art Gallery (www.obag.co.uk) is the most comprehensive art search engine available on the net. It is an on-line art dating service with the sole goal of introducing interested buyers to art galleries that are exhibiting specific works of interest. Art galleries located around the UK display their art on the site. Potential buyers register to join the service and can then search for pieces of art using 14 different criteria, such as galleries most local to them, individual artist or by the type of art they want, such as still life or watercolour. Once a buyer has found a piece of art they are interested in the site enables them to discover the name of the gallery selling the piece. They then contact the gallery direct to arrange to view the piece in person, either using the contact information on the screen or via links to each gallery’s own website. The gallery then arranges for the buyer to view the art and is responsible for making any sale directly with the buyer. The Online British Art Gallery has been designed for researching and locating art, but not buying art on the internet. About the survey The survey was conducted at the London Art Fair on 22nd and 23rd January and attracted 80 respondents.
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