Castle Galleries 20 Years of Excellence
Interviewwith Ian Weatherby-Blythe Managing Director for Castle Galleries
This October, Castle Galleries celebrates 20 years of delivering style, quality and creativity to its clients. What made you decide to go into the fine art trade? The impetus behind Castle Galleries was that I felt there was nowhere in the UK for ordinary people to buy high quality art from. As a born retailer, managing my own business from the age of 16, I identified a gap in the market and vowed to make fine art accessible to the masses. Today, Castle Galleries’ ethos to provide a welcoming, comfortable environment to enjoy art is encapsulated in its motto: ‘Your World, Our Art’. Castle Galleries can be found in cities and town centres across the UK. Where did you get the inspiration to open galleries in easily accessible, high street locations? Prior to 1995 when Castle Galleries first opened, there was nowhere that ordinary people could get access to great, affordable art. I decided to open an art gallery that I personally would feel comfortable buying art from. Starting with just one gallery based on Bards Walk in Stratford-upon-Avon, this model has proved extremely successful for Castle Galleries and we are now soon to open our 35 th gallery in Birmingham’s luxury retail outlet, the Mailbox. Our galleries are all located in high footfall retail destinations, helping us reach as many people as possible with our life-enriching product. Castle Galleries is operating in an increasingly competitive marketplace. What is the key to the brand’s success? The thing that sets Castle Galleries apart is our passion – we are passionate about our artists, passionate about our work and passionate about our clients. And we love art – our 150 gallery staff throughout the UK have a huge amount of knowledge about the industry and are committed to sharing this with each and every person that steps into one of our galleries. From one gallery in Stratford-upon-Avon, Castle Galleries now has over 30 galleries nationwide. What do you consider to be its biggest success over the past 20 years? Castle Galleries has succeeded in breaking down barriers for two
decades – I am extremely proud that we have played a pivotal role in making great art much more accessible to average people in this country. Before Castle Galleries existed, I believe the art world was much more ostentatious and unapproachable. We have worked hard to make art approachable and friendly in everything that we do – from our welcoming sales approach to the way we describe artworks in our marketing materials. The financial crash of 2008 saw consumer shopping habits change dramatically. What effect did this have on Castle Galleries? During the recession, when people had less disposable income to spend, we noticed that clients tended to favour quality over quantity. So although people weren’t buying as many pieces, what they did purchase was of a higher value – therefore we saw a slight decrease in our limited edition sales, but an increase in original sales. And this trend seems to be continuing…years ago people would buy lots of smaller pictures for the house, now they tend to buy one or two statement pieces from a reputable artist. You can boast two decades of success in the fine art market. In your experience, how has the market changed in the last 20 years? The biggest change has to be, quite simply, that far more people collect art than ever before; collecting art is no longer just seen as an elitist thing to do. We’ve seen our customer profile become increasingly diverse as people’s shopping habits have changed – particularly with the advent of online shopping. The internet has made art accessible to more people than ever before – and people can even buy our art today without setting foot in a gallery thanks to our online retail offering. We have also seen an increase in enquiries from China, as the Chinese market continues to fuel growth in the fine art trade. In recent years, the global art market has hugely increased in value, leading some to see art as investment. But buying art is a very personal thing – you should always buy art because you love it, because it speaks to your soul. Styles and fashions are constantly changing. Have you seen a change in the type of products people are buying
6 FIN e ARTC o LL e CT o R AUTUMN2015
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