Culture Label
Can culture and consumerism really be happy bedfellows? Peter Tullin certainly thinks so. He is one of the founders of CultureLabel.com, a new online platform bringing together the best artist –designed and limited edition products from the gift shops of over 60 well-known galleries and museums. We talked to him about why they’re the new “Amazon for Culture.”
When I first looked at CultureLabel.com I had two conflicting thoughts. One : what a good idea to allow consumers to buy gallery and museum products without even setting foot in the gallery or museum and two: isn’t that negating the whole point?
“No,” explains Peter, who seems to have already given this consideration. “ It’s just another way into culture. It’s the only site where you can buy memberships to galleries or art societies in one place, for example.
Artists still put their heart and soul into the products they create, it’s not just mugs and postcards any more. We’ve got the V&A, Royal Academy, Tate, the British Museum all promoting their products but also their artists. And consumers want products with meaning, or a story.”
He has a point. Artist Stuart Semple – whose collaboration with The Prodigy, - The Prodigy V's Stuart Semple - on limited edition print Thunder can be found exclusively on CultureLabel - has long made T-shirts, jeans and even balloons, bags and stickers. Are these any less important or relevant than his canvasses?
Perhaps they’re more so, as they’re available to a wider audience. Semple is one of a new generation of artists who recognise that culture is consumed ( there’s that word again ) in new ways, with more immediacy and, lets face it, costing us less money.
Like him, Tullin recognises this cross-over between shopping and art; or high and popular culture.
On the site there are truly stylish and desirable products: emroidered pillowcases by Louise Bourgeious ( Tate ) Zaha Hadid vases ( Royal Academy ) and Mark Lecky limited edition prints ( ICA.) He further explains that cultural powerhouses have become stand-alone brands in themselves.
Tullin was National Account Director at arts development agency Art & Business, so saw first –hand the increasing clout galleries such as Tate and V&A were gaining:
“ I used to bring in arts sponsors and noticed how there was a shift in power between the business and the arts organisation. It wasn’t Tate with a begging bowl any more. In Superbrands ( a yearly round-up 500 of the strongest brands based on expert and consumer opinion ) last year they were ahead of Manchester United and Vodaphone.
This got me thinking about changes in how we look at culture. Then I discovered that on the final day of Tate Modern’s Olafur Eliasson’s Weather Project exhibition, more visitors were there than at Bluewater.”
So how did these insights turn into CultureLabel?
“ Myself and the three other founders David Gilbert ( Former MD of Curry’s and Waterstones ), Florian Wupperfeld ( Creative Director on House, the magazine for members club Soho House ) and Simon Cronshaw ( Former Head of Research at Art &Business) were never quite comfortable in one world ( business ) or the other ( arts.) We’re cultural entrepreneurs.
"We looked into these culture brands and found out why they were doing so well. The lottery changed the buildings, plus their catering has improved significantly. You can now get Conran on the South Bank; and the Saatchi advert for the V&A “ An ace café with quite a nice museum attached” really summed things up. The other thing was retail. The museum shops were doing extremely well, but this didn’t translate to their online shops: mainstream consumers weren’t making that leap to their websites. As we all know, online is the future, so we offered to reflect the museums’ offline retail success on the web.”
Initially these culture ‘brands’ resisted. They’d been approached by other online platforms including Amazon themselves, but were concerned that their integrity may have been diminished.
But CultureLabel genuinely addresses this, as it’s only about cultural products. And it’s a great way for these institutions to find new audiences and get themselves up-to-date and engage with a demanding, tech-savvy and sophisticated public.
What next for the site?
“ We’re talking to international galleries and museums, and taking the site to a mass market. CultureLabel sits in a similar place to ethical shopping. Think Oxfam Unwrapped ( a popular initiative by Oxfam allowing consumers to buy charity gifts such as goats and bags of seeds for African farmers ) which has become a worthwhile movement. Similarly, we’re offering products with a story.”
And who doesn’t want to have a little piece of art, a quirky necklace, a beautiful book that isn’t mass produced, that someone has actually thought about.
After all, our cultural love affair may be blossoming, but we still love to shop.
www.culturelabel.com
Loma-Ann Marks
