Current mass layoffs within the artwork trade have left some feeling out on a limb, and a common feeling of instability has dented the job confidence of many. Whereas the company world usually presents a profession ladder to climb, these within the artwork world usually should forge their very own path with little steerage or suggestions.
Into this breach steps Artwork Market Mentors, the voluntary mentorship programme began by former Christie’s colleagues Cat Manson and Caroline Sayan in 2020. It acquired over 600 mentee functions within the first yr and has matched over 300 people since then. The programme, which pairs folks from throughout the trade on a one-to-one foundation, is launching its 2025 programme now, and potential mentees and mentors have till 31 January to use. New-York based mostly Cathy Elkies, additionally previously of Christie’s and now a non-executive director of the recruiter SML, will even help Manson and Sayan with this yr’s programme.
Whether or not you have got been made redundant or might simply do with some profession recommendation from somebody additional up—or decrease down—the ladder, this is a useful programme in what can really feel a lonely trade.
“Throughout a posh yr, the artwork world stays a difficult place to navigate. With job losses, market shifts and a changeable atmosphere, profession help might be laborious to search out”, say Manson and Sayan in a press release. “We’re happy to open our programme as soon as once more to supply supportive skilled growth; higher, practical entry-level info, whereas aiming to widen common entry. Attracting and retaining expertise is significant to invigorate the artwork world and preserve it related.”
Mentors in earlier years have included a few of the best-known names within the enterprise, comparable to Oliver Barker and Lisa Dennison (Sotheby’s), Dirk Boll (Christie’s), Amy Cappellazzo (Artwork Intelligence World), Jean-Paul Engelen and Martin Wilson (Phillips), Koji Inoue (Hauser & Wirth), Pilar Ordovas (Ordovas gallery), Victoria Siddall (director of the Nationwide Portrait Gallery, previously Frieze), and The Artwork Newspaper’s Georgina Adam and Melanie Gerlis.
The programme is open to those that are over three years right into a profession and, particularly, are going via a shift—maybe they’ve been made redundant, or are wanting to change or progress their position. Different sides of the programme will even be obtainable to college students and post-graduates, and people seeking to make a profession change.
A change in demand
Chatting with The Artwork Newspaper, Manson says she is seeing a brand new form of demand for mentors—folks of their 50s and 60s, a few of whom would possibly themselves have been mentors in earlier iterations of AMM, who are actually asking to be taught from these of their 20s and 30s.
The explanations are twofold, Manson thinks: first, to be taught new digital expertise, but additionally to realize perception on how you can handle a youthful technology, a few of whom have come of age throughout the Covid-induced period of distant working and have completely different expectations of the office.
“There is no such thing as a obligation for the mentor to make introductions,” Manson stresses. “The onus is on the mentee to return to conferences properly ready with questions and a transparent thought of what they want to obtain from it.”
Manson’s former colleague Jussi Pylkkänen, who left his position as Christie’s international president and auctioneer in 2023 and now runs his personal advisory enterprise, is a proponent of the scheme. “I used to be at all times very eager on the mentoring scheme at Christie’s—I had two mentees at anybody time for a yr,” he tells TAN.
“I imagine everybody ought to change job or profession each eight to 10 years however there’s little or no steerage on how to do this. That’s the place mentoring may also help, and I find it irresistible. It’s good for the soul and it really works each methods—I be taught as a lot as my mentees.” He provides: “I feel in case you’ve been profitable in an trade it is best to give again ultimately—in case you’ve received 20, 30, 40 years in an trade, you may assist youthful folks select a profession path that is perhaps extra profitable.”
An thrilling however scary prospect
Certainly one of Pylkkänen’s earlier mentees via the AMM programme is Neil Graham, who left his job as a venture supervisor at British Airways after 13 years in 2020. He’s now a sale co-ordinator on the public sale home Lyon & Turnbull in London. “A profession change is an thrilling but additionally scary prospect and while I used to be fulfilling a lifelong ambition in attempting to enter the artwork world, I used to be additionally stepping out of my consolation zone,” he tells TAN.
“Artwork Market Mentors very a lot got here to my rescue, putting me with a mentor who with intensive expertise of the public sale world which was additionally the place my profession aspirations lay,” Graham says. He describes Pylkkänen as beneficiant along with his time, responding to “late evening panic emails”, explaining how the artwork trade labored and the place the best potential for employment lay.
“Wanting again, I used to be steered away from many dangerous choices and useless ends and as an alternative my thought course of was gently challenged and pointed in course of alternative and ultimately employment,” Graham says, including that Pylkkänen continued to supply steerage via artwork historical past levels, work expertise and internships earlier than Graham joined Lyon & Turnbull.
“Having labored in lots of industries I’ve not encountered something like this scheme earlier than and genuinely imagine it may benefit anyone with targets and aspirations throughout the artwork world,” Graham says.
Pylkkänen is searching for somebody to mentor this yr too—“perhaps two or three folks”—so if you need the possibility to be taught from him or one of many many different mentors, electronic mail a CV and brief abstract of targets to artmarketmentors@gmail.com, placing MENTEE within the topic line.
If you need to volunteer as a mentor, and might spare three hours over three months, electronic mail the identical tackle with a abstract of your profession and a hyperlink to your Linkedin.
Mentor/mentee partnerships and group mentoring periods will probably be introduced by the tip of February.