PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release: November 15, 2010

New online community lifts the veil on the Canadian art market
Two friends mix business with pleasure and shake things up in the online art world.

Vancouver, BC. theartmarket.ca announces the launch of its website - an innovative and comprehensive online guide to the Canadian art world.  Providing a 2.0 response to the Canadian art scene, the aptly named theartmarket.ca intends to break down the barriers of access between casual art lovers and the art world.  By hosting free profiles for artists, arts organizations and their events - this site will allow conversations between people that previously may not have connected - linking emerging artists and established ones, art collectors and people who just love art.  

A year and a half ago, Vancouver natives and lifelong friends, Merete Kristiansen and Kate Barron, were discussing their frustration with the current state of the Canadian art market. Unfamiliar with Toronto, Kate an art lover moved to the city often regarded as the centre of the Canadian art world, and needed a resource like theartmarket.ca. Merete, a graduate from Sotheby’s Institute of Art, second generation gallerist, and daughter of a world-renowned art dealer, realized a disconnect in her industry. Rather than simply complaining about the Canadian art community, the two friends decided to enter into a business partnership and change it.  

The resulting website is a visually pleasing, easy-to-use online space connecting everything from storied Canadian galleries and museums to local grassroots arts movements. Canadian art lovers, artists, galleries, auction houses, museums, schools, awards, and foundations have a promise from Merete and Kate that the site will stay true to their vision and will remain free – no selling, no cuts for them, just a great national resource. Contemporary art blogger and Toronto International Art Fair co-ordinator Maggie Rust tweeted, “Two brilliant women and one tremendous idea! @theartmarket_ca.”

theartmarket.ca will serve many purposes, but the founders hope its biggest benefit will be to close the gap between the less-informed, but nonetheless interested art lover, and the art events, galleries and shows that struggle to communicate to this large, untapped market across Canada.

This site is going to be a game changer, and the two founders are sincerely passionate and determined to get you on board with their idea. Utilizing social media to grow their audience, theartmarket.ca thinks getting your foot in the door should be a lot easier, so they’re going to open it up and let you in.

Create your free profile on theartmarket.ca & follow theartmarket.ca on Facebook and Twitter (@theartmarket_ca).

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For more information, and media inquiries, please contact:

Kate Barron
(604) 290-3260
press@theartmarket.ca