Director Toby Meagher (left) is transitioning into power as Michael Reid (right) recognises the need to pass on the torch at his galleries. Image supplied.
With the death of Martyn Cook in April, truly one of the great decorative arts dealers in this country, and then seemingly a week later – the out of the blue deaths of Melbourne art dealers Laraine Diggins and the pioneering Joyce Evans – text messages and calls went around the Australian art world, something along the line of ‘Fuck… have you heard?’. The shuffling off this mortal coil of senior dealers Martin, Laraine and Joyce occurring – as these have – with there being no 55th year for Watters Gallery, makes a middle-aged art dealer such as myself stop and think twice. Once about the death zone I have entered and another moment to ponder succession planning.
Yep, art gallery succession planning. It should be a thing.
My colleague, Director Toby Meagher and I have just completed a gallery equity partnership agreement. This is most unusual, or indeed unheard of, in the art world outside of a family context. In a nutshell, Toby has been brought into the firm as a partner, one who now has a significant share in the business.
Toby is a good 27 years (a generation is 20 to 25 years) younger than I. We have acknowledged and are now prepared for generational change and the thoughtful, considered management transition (over time) of the galleries’ day-to-day activities. I am 57 and we are planning for the next 20 years.
We understand and acknowledge our complementary, yet distinct skills. Toby has been with the gallery seven years, starting as an unpaid intern before moving up through the ranks to Berlin Gallery Manager and Sydney Gallery Manager, and then into his current role as Director. Toby is just as happy jet-setting between the Sydney and Berlin galleries as he is behind the wheel of the van moving stock between the Sydney and Murrurundi galleries on the New England Highway. There is the drive of youth that can propel this business forward.
Toby and I hold to the notion that artworks are visual and social manuscripts, way-finders that leave marks and tell tales of their times. We share an interest in Post-Colonial history. Our interests increasingly overlap, however our responsibilities to the galleries and to each other have tangled quite independently and evolved over time, a bit like a DNA helix. Toby’s distinct but intertwined role focuses on artist management, financial and administrative decision making, on human resources and team leadership, new client development and client service. Toby oversees the Sydney and Berlin galleries and our art fair participation. That’s a lot.
I, on the mirrored axis of this helix, focus on the galleries’ creative and strategic development, on exhibition scheduling, Private Treaty art sales and the gallery’s long-established art advisory role, our private member’s education program Art Signifikant, and marketing and communications. Also with a watchful eye on the ever expanding Murrurundi gallery, and its Concept Store and Big Brown Dog Kiosk and hopefully soon to be, The Big Brown Dog Cantina – Tequila and Tacos. Yeah.
With all that we do, Toby and I seek to develop an art business that lives beyond its founder. I have sought to do this with the Art Month Sydney festival, which I founded a decade ago. I am no longer on the board of Art Month Sydney, and with regard to renewal, change, growth and further development; that is a good thing. I very much want to establish a commercial art gallery based on meritocracy (not family) and one that has longevity. Creating an Australian commercial art gallery committed to development and growth, in the way that the international auctioneer Christie’s has over the last 200 years. James Christie kicked the bucket a long time ago and Christie’s have kicked on.
Toby and I are very much prepared to grow the business of the gallery, with the further addition of the right equity partners. We want our gallery to be a talent magnet, the go-to gallery for the extraordinary capable and ambitious within our industry. Our partnership today is a blue print for openness and expansion, now and going forward.
We see the advantages and need for ongoing, considered artist management. A commitment to our artists and indeed Australian art, over a depth of time. We see our future planning to be a response to the revolving door of emerging and established art galleries that simply close their doors and push out onto the art market a great spill of formally represented artists. You simply cannot be said to manage an artist’s career, unless you take into consideration their estate, and that the same gallery has the capacity over life times to develop and manage an artist’s career from cradle to grave, and beyond.
Within my place in The Old Guard, I see myself as an Old Communist: I very much believe in the value of merit as opposed to handing a business down through family simply because they are family. As the art world moves towards the professionalism and transparency of the broader business world, the idea that a professional, consistent, commercial art gallery can operate and grow beyond its founder is no longer an unreasonable prospect.
