THE INSPIRATION PLACE PODCAST
Charlotte Troisgros:
This is Charlotte Troisgros, from Carre D’Artistes and you’re listening to Inspiration Place podcast with Miriam Schulman.
It’s The Inspiration Place podcast with artist, Miriam Schulman. Welcome to The Inspiration Place podcast, an art world insider podcast for artists by an artist, where each week we go behind the scenes to uncover the perspiration and inspiration behind the art, and now your host, Miriam Schulman.
Miriam Schulman:
Today we are so happy to have Charlotte Troisgros. Charlotte has been working as Head of America for Carre D’Artistes for three years. There are two galleries in New York City, one gallery in Philadelphia, one in Sedona and two in Mexico. She is also in charge of opening more galleries. I don’t know if these are across the country or around the world. Charlotte, you’ll be sharing that with us today. The work consists of selecting the artists for the gallery with the artistic team in France, hiring and training the teams, and making sure the brand image is respected and ensuring a great customer experience in each gallery. The overall concept is to democratize contemporary art by making original and one of a kind paintings accessible to everyone. So welcome Charlotte. I am so happy to have you with us today.
Charlotte Troisgros:
Thank you, Miriam.
Miriam Schulman:
So Charlotte, I first wanted to share with you and also our listeners how I stumbled across the gallery in Greenwich Village. I had a friend visiting me from Portland, and I wanted to show her the New York Greenwich Village scene. I had no intention that night of collecting any art. I do sometimes collect art even though I am an artist. And when I walked in, what I learned was I could start collecting art by any of the artists in your gallery for only $150, and that was really exciting because you have a lot of talented artists. So I thought, “Okay, this is something I’d like to do.” And of course I ended up spending or, I would just let me say, investing a lot more than that, as I went, I found a piece a little bit larger to invest in. So I would love for you to share with us the pricing structure inside your galleries because I’ve never seen anything quite like this before.
Charlotte Troisgros:
I know, yes, we have four different sizes, like a small size, starting at $150, until $630, six hundred thirty, and then we have larger sizes, going until … starting at $1,200 and going to 7,000, 8,000. So this is still affordable. In each gallery we have between 10 and 15 artists, and we have a rotation of, yeah, it’s every month. So, each month we receive a new artist, we welcome a new artist in the gallery, and the artist is going to stay one year in average, in the gallery. We have 35 galleries around the world. So for the artist, it’s a great opportunity to be displayed in Moscow, in New York, in Sedona, in Mexico, in Shanghai, in Paris.
Miriam Schulman:
Okay. You’re sharing a lot of information all at once. I want to back up and break down some of the things that you said.
Charlotte Troisgros:
Okay. Yeah, sorry, sorry for that.
Miriam Schulman:
No, no, this is very exciting to me. So first of all, I want to make sure everyone understands that, when I went into the New York gallery, and you say there’s 10 artists in every gallery, is that right?
Charlotte Troisgros:
Like in … between 10 and 15. In the New York location, in Bleecker, in West Village, you have 19 galleries, but this is a gallery with the largest amount of artists inside.
Miriam Schulman:
Oh, interesting. Okay. So what’s interesting is that in most galleries I go to, the pricing is dependent on each artist. So let’s say you see two paintings the same size, but they’re by different artists. They could be different prices. But in this-
Charlotte Troisgros:
Yes.
Miriam Schulman:
… gallery, it didn’t matter which artist it was, if you wanted the first size, which I think was six inches square? Is that right?
Charlotte Troisgros:
Yeah. It’s five inches square. Yes. The first size.
Miriam Schulman:
Yeah. And I think they’re based actually on the metric system. So it’s probably a centimeter or so.
Charlotte Troisgros:
Yes. Yes.
Miriam Schulman:
Okay. So no matter which artists you choose, each of the beginning sizes was $150 and all of them were square, which could you translate the name of your gallery for us Americans, it’s French?
Charlotte Troisgros:
The name is Carre D’Artistes. That means a square of artists. Artists squared.
Miriam Schulman:
It’s perfect. So each of the artists had these squares in each of the different sizes. And there was a variety of art within, I would say a certain aesthetic, different styles. But …
Charlotte Troisgros:
Yes.
Miriam Schulman:
Yeah. I … at least in the gallery I was in, I found them kind of … nothing really fell too far out of the range of a certain kind of aesthetic that …
Charlotte Troisgros:
Yes, you can have a landscape from South of France. You can have mixed media artworks, you can have oil, acrylic, very, very different styles and techniques.
Miriam Schulman:
And the other thing that was interesting is that each of the pieces were either … the painting was either on like a canvas paper, or a square and they were matted. Would you like to explain how it’s displayed? Like those bins that you have by each artist and by size?
Charlotte Troisgros:
Yes, so we have one display per artist. In each display you have 40 artworks. So 10 of each sizes and you have four sizes. In each display you have the … you can find the biography of the artist, and the artist’s portrait, because for us, it’s very important to promote the artist before all. So that’s why we display the biography because we want that every customer entering in the gallery can clearly identify one display belonging to one artist and to know the story about the artist. So, yes.
Miriam Schulman:
All right. And then there’s something else that you said that was very interesting before. So you said that you rotate the artists, now, well I just want to clarify what you mean by that. So for example, the artist that I collected, C. Bost, do you mean that she is in your New York gallery for a year, and then perhaps you rotate her to Sedona or Mexico?
Charlotte Troisgros:
Yes, yes.
Miriam Schulman:
Okay.
Charlotte Troisgros:
That’s it.
Miriam Schulman:
So you rotate the artists from location to location within your family of galleries, yes?
Charlotte Troisgros:
Yes, exactly. Yeah. If we have some artworks remaining, we send these artworks to another gallery, or we send them back to France and the France send them to another gallery in the world. Yeah, it depends.
Miriam Schulman:
Okay. So then there’s a couple of questions I have that it’s kind of more from the artist’s point of view. How much art is each artist contributing to you? And I’m assuming it probably varies by how popular they are, but how much art would a typical artist be producing per month for you, for your gallery?
Charlotte Troisgros:
It depends on which artist. We have some artists are very, very successful and these artists can send every month 20 new artworks, although one need to send new artworks every two months. It depends. But at the beginning of their exhibition, they send 40 artworks.
Miriam Schulman:
Okay.
Charlotte Troisgros:
So then when we start to sell some, we call the artist or send some email. We communicate a lot with the artist, to ask them if they can send more artworks. We take into account the time they need to produce new artwork. So if it’s oil, we know that we will need more time. It depends.
Miriam Schulman:
Okay. And then how did your gallery or how did you … I’m not sure who came up with this idea of the standardized pricing.
Charlotte Troisgros:
Carre D’Artistes has been created by two art collectors, and they wanted to break the rules of traditional art galleries by opening the door, putting some music on, displaying the pricing, and to promote more affordable artworks. So, they wanted that everyone, even people who don’t know anything about art, could find an artwork they like, a painting they like for them, or just a piece or to complete their collection, but they wanted to please everyone, and that anyone coming into the gallery feel comfortable.
Miriam Schulman:
Okay.
Charlotte Troisgros:
Take some pleasure. That’s the most important of all.
Miriam Schulman:
Yeah. Well, I did feel very comfortable when I went in there. The girls you had working there the evening … I should say, young woman, the young women who were-
Charlotte Troisgros:
Yes.
Miriam Schulman:
The evening I came in they were very informed on the process. They were very friendly. They answered my questions, and of course I ended up walking away with a piece of artwork. So, it’s certainly the way …
Charlotte Troisgros:
This is really the site I met you, Carre D’Artistes around the world, when you’re entering the gallery Carre D’Artistes, you just need to be welcome, to receive some information about the artist, because they are not here to talk about themselves, so we are here to do it, and to show you some artworks, to understand what you have in your room, what you like, what you don’t like, and to show you, to introduce you to some artworks and artists.
Miriam Schulman:
Yeah. And I really appreciated also the transparency of the process. It also made me feel comfortable right away.
Charlotte Troisgros:
Yes.
Miriam Schulman:
Yes. Now, one question that people have been asking me is, what is the most popular size?
Charlotte Troisgros:
The most popular size is, I would say, 10 inches per 10 inches.
Miriam Schulman:
And what is the price of that size artwork?
Charlotte Troisgros:
It’s 350.
Miriam Schulman:
Okay.
Charlotte Troisgros:
So that’s perfect because you know, you don’t need a big wall to exhibit it. If you have in a room a lot of room, you can buy two pieces or three pieces. So you make a diptych or triptych, you can also exhibit this size with a photograph you already have or paintings you already have, and make kind of a collage. So you can use this size very well in your room.
Miriam Schulman:
Now, because you have restrictions on the size and the prices for the artists, I’m assuming that the artists don’t have to have an exclusive with you and other … and these artists show works on canvas and are represented in other places, is that correct?
Charlotte Troisgros:
Yes, that’s it. We don’t have … for the artist, all the price depends on the size. So regardless if the artist is famous or not, you will have the same price. We have the exclusivity in terms of sizes, but not for the artist. The artist is free to be exhibited somewhere else.
Miriam Schulman:
Yes.
Charlotte Troisgros:
And some artists, they come to the gallery to paint live, to perform live. And when they do that, we exhibit also the large sizes. So the large sizes are one meter per one meter, 80 centimeter per 80 centimeter, so yeah, I talk in centimeter because I’m French and it’s easier for me, but so four times a year or five times a year, we have an artist come in and painting live during one day. So we invite all of our customers, and we make a big event around that, and two months before, we exhibit the large sizes to start promoting more the artist, and also exhibiting larger sizes. At the beginning the concept was only on the small sizes, but we had to adapt ourself because some customer, they also want large pieces. So that’s why we needed also to answer to this offer and to this demand for it, and to meet this need.
Miriam Schulman:
And then are your artists also all from France or do you use local artists in addition?
Charlotte Troisgros:
We have in each gallery, we try to have a one third of American artist. We are still prospecting some new artists, but in each gallery, you have one third of French artist, one third of international artist and one third of local artist. That’s what we try to do in all the gallery.
Miriam Schulman:
That’s terrific. And then I also was curious about how you came up with the specific prices, because there’s a lot of talk about the psychology of certain numbers. Like do you make the price 197, do you make it one 199? I noticed you didn’t really play with that 97 or 99 pricing, that it was rounded numbers instead.
Charlotte Troisgros:
Yes, because for us it’s like, we are not doing like marketing trying to get the customer at 99 or something like that. One price and very clear, and we don’t increase or touch the price fees often. We try to adjust the pricing depending on the pricing in France, and to count the transportation, but that’s it. And so, we are an art gallery. So we are between retail and art gallery, but we are not completely retail so we don’t want to follow the code of retail stores with the 99, with discount on our stock. We never do any discount on the artworks.
Miriam Schulman:
That’s fantastic.
Charlotte Troisgros:
So, there is one part of retail but not completely.
Miriam Schulman:
Gotcha. And then how do you market, you know … I’ve stumbled upon you just on my foot, but are you marketing the gallery on social media, or using print ads? How do you get the word out about your galleries?
Charlotte Troisgros:
In France we have a print ad, and because French is the first … France, sorry is the first market of Carre D’Artistes, but here in the US we do more social media, Instagram, Facebook, a lot of newsletter. But we don’t do so far any marketing in the print ad or … So we are more like on social media and we can get really like the customer entering in the gallery. We don’t get a lot outside the gallery.
Miriam Schulman:
All right. Well-
Charlotte Troisgros:
You know what I mean? We don’t make a lot of promotion so far. We really want like … first we improve the customer experience before being able to make any big marketing operation that are very, very costly.
Miriam Schulman:
Yes.
Charlotte Troisgros:
Yes.
Miriam Schulman:
But I do want to point out to people who are listening, so the gallery that I visited in New York, it’s in a prime location. And so my presumption is that these other galleries are also positioned in places where you would get similar amounts of foot traffic and people coming in. They’re in the mindset of holiday.
Charlotte Troisgros:
Shopping.
Miriam Schulman:
Is that correct?
Charlotte Troisgros:
Yes. We can get only location where you have a lot of foot traffic, a high foot traffic, and people doing shopping. We are not a destination. We are on the way of people doing the shopping, going shopping.
Miriam Schulman:
Yes.
Charlotte Troisgros:
So, we prefer to invest more in the rent, the location, than like targeting space a little bit far, far away where you are going to market a lot to get people coming to your place. This is a choice. This is a strategy of the brand, and we really prefer to do that. And if you are looking at the other location in the world, we are always in a shopping area. Always.
Miriam Schulman:
Yes. Okay. So then I guessed right, so you’re investing in the rent to give you the best foot traffic for shoppers rather than in Facebook ads to mass market. So you’re getting … you’re putting your gallery in the right place for people who are walking by, your ideal customer walks by your gallery. That’s wonderful. So Charlotte, thank you so much for this conversation. I really enjoyed talking to you.
Charlotte Troisgros:
Thank you, Miriam. Thank you for having me.
Miriam Schulman:
Would you tell our listeners again, where they can find your galleries across the world? Just because I assume that’s the best place they can come find you and visit your art galleries.
Charlotte Troisgros:
Yes, you can find the gallery in New York. You have two galleries in New York, one in West village, 41 Bleecker Street, one other in SoHo, 42 Prince street. You have one in Sedona, one in Philadelphia, two in Mexico, and you have in Europe, in France, in Italy, in Germany, in Netherland. You have two in Russia and you have one in Shanghai, one in Korea, and one in Hong Kong, that’s opened last week.
Miriam Schulman:
Fantastic.
Charlotte Troisgros:
And I think that’s all. And in Spain, sorry.
Miriam Schulman:
Well, congratulations. Thank you so much again for spending this time with me.
Charlotte Troisgros:
Thank you, Miriam.
Miriam Schulman:
Let me know if this pricing strategy or anything we talked about gives you ideas on how to price your art. Let me know on Instagram or Facebook, you can find me at SchulmanArt there or drop me an email at miriam@schulmanart.com, or as always, you can go to the show notes for this episode, schulmanart.com/5 for everything related to this episode, and if you liked the show, telling a friend and subscribing yourself, or helping a friend subscribe on iTunes. Until next time, I’m Miriam Schulman. Have a great day.
Thank you for listening to The Inspiration Place podcast. Connect with us on Facebook at facebook.com/schulmanart, on Instagram @schulmanart, and of course on schulmanart.com.
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