Thesis
Art galleries at the Jersey Shore: sustaining an arts business in a seasonal shore town
Master of Science (M.S.), Drexel University
Dec 2019
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/4vv7-3157
Abstract
Galleries located in coastal regions in New Jersey are exposed to conditions that force the businesses to adopt tactics and strategies to sustain their business models. This is due to factors such as rise and fall in business, changes in customer demographics by season, and finding a variety of methods to generate revenue in a condensed time period. Eight gallery owners or managers in the coastal towns of Cape May, Atlantic City, Tuckerton, and Surf City were interviewed through a series of research questions. Interviews covered topics such as business strategies, programming choices, staffing capacity, their personal choice to work multiple jobs or only run their gallery, social media usage, and other unique solutions their gallery has utilized. There was a great variation in methods of adaptation utilized by each business to cope with the seasonal nature of its location and fluctuating customer bases. Business strategies were not dependent on location, rather there was a loose correlation between age of gallery and strategies. Most gallery owners and managers interviewed had at least one additional occupation or business. Motivations to work multiple occupations were dependent on the owner or manager rather than the town or their corresponding gallery's operational calendar. Staffing for each gallery varied, especially with a distinction between seasonal and year-round employment. Choices of themes, disciplines, and aesthetics for each gallery had a variation in connection to imagery of the town's local iconography and culture. The most common theme and images for works for sale were ocean-related icons and a focus on artists from the region. Strategies incorporating technology, such as social media or websites, were used at every gallery which exposed a variation in each gallery's methods for trying to capture customers and processing sales. Businesses who utilized technology more frequently, with variation in applications and methods, were able to capture more customers beyond the area's peak season. The galleries studied are connected because they experience seasonality as a business in a coastal town, but their solutions are truly unique to their brand identity. The creative solutions discussed in this paper can serve as a starting point for other businesses to apply and adapt to their own business models.
Metrics
38 File views/ downloads
27 Record Views
Details
- Title
- Art galleries at the Jersey Shore
- Creators
- Danielle Adelaide Jonas - DU
- Contributors
- Jean Brody (Advisor) - Drexel University (1970-)Laura-Edythe Coleman (Advisor) - Drexel University (1970-)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Master of Science (M.S.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Number of pages
- viii, 66 pages
- Resource Type
- Thesis
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Arts Administration; Arts and Entertainment Enterprise; Drexel University; Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts and Design
- Other Identifier
- 11333; 991014632568804721