From makeup and clothes to drones, cameras and BBQ grills; social media sites are full of people reviewing branded products for the masses. But while you can find thousands of YouTube channels with various product unboxings and reviews, I constantly fail to find channels about art, that aren’t “how to” videos or focusing primarily on craft and techniques.
The only one so far is The Art Assignment, produced by PBS. It focuses on art history, sociology and philosophy with innovative approaches like their Art Cooking series, where the host Sarah Urist Green prepares “art meals”, inspired by various art movements and artists. But, unlike a lot of other topics such as photography, dance and music, for us visual artists, there really isn’t anything good on “TV”.
While hundreds of thousands of viewers are yearly switching off their televisions for YouTube and on demand services like Netflix and HBO GO, the trends are all pointing into one direction: movie stars and talkshow hosts are slowly but steadily dying out and being replaced by YouTubers, vlogers and podcasters.
The big question isn’t if it’s too late to start building your presence on social media, because even today there are new radio stations popping up around the world and the technology is almost 100 years old! (For comparison YouTube is going to be 14 next February.) The real question is, how come everyone of us is still not producing regular content and using the miracle of free, direct distribution that is social media to grow their art business?