About Us
It’s no secret that many talented artists outside the exclusive, mainstream art world struggle to show their work. The current gallery model, while benefiting a relatively select few artists, leaves most with fewer means to express themselves in the market. SHIM Art Network is building a new model that serves the undiscovered creative talents of the world.
SHIM fills gaps.
Our company was inspired by the rise of the shared digital economy. Innovative startups like AirBNB, Zip Car, and Uber have discovered a booming marketplace inside already existing industries. Rather than building more infrastructures, these companies found new opportunities for what already exists.
SHIM uses similar strategies to disrupt the art world gallery model. Here, we find ways in which more users can access gallery space without having to rent it outright or create a gallery of their own. Our goal in bringing the shared economy to the art world is to allow our users access to the enormous amount of capital, both creative and actual, currently being expended on autonomous ownership.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is SHIM Art Network?
SHIM Art Network is an arts exhibition service company that fills the gaps in the art world, providing essential digital and analog infrastructure and resources to artists, curators, galleries, universities, and other organizations through our Exhibitor Groups. Via membership in a SHIM Exhibitor Group, artists can access durable and sustainable online visibility via SHIM’s platform on Artsy.net and invitations from their Exhibitor Group to show their work in analog exhibitions hosted by SHIM in partnership with galleries, pop-up spaces, and art fairs around the world.
What is an Exhibitor Group?
SHIM is a network of Exhibitor Groups, each led by a Group Connector in charge of organizing and facilitating the group’s activities, and each with its own membership of artists represented by the group according to its stated mission and goals. SHIM’s Exhibitor Groups come in all shapes and sizes and are built for a variety of reasons; an independent curator or existing artist collective might build a group to represent a small, curated group of artists, a commercial or non-profit gallery director might build one to represent and expand their own gallery roster and ability to exhibit, or an individual or organization might build one to promote and represent a wider constituency or category or artists dedicated to a specific medium, geography, or identity.
Every artist who joins the SHIM Art Network becomes a member of one of our Exhibitor Groups, either via open application or direct invitation/referral, or by applying to be a Group Connector and building a new Exhibitor Group from scratch. Through SHIM’s network, our groups and their individual members are able to collaborate, build community, and share resources and infrastructure for their projects that they would otherwise be unable to access by themselves, as well as an ability to fully capitalize on their work; by building our model on standard membership fees rather than sales commissions, 100% of every sale made through SHIM’s gallery exhibitions, art fair presentations, and online platforms goes directly to the artist and the Group Connector in charge.
What are the standard SHIM Exhibitor Group Membership Benefits?
SHIM Exhibitor Group Annual Member Artists, besides any additional benefits that may be provided by the Group Connector at their own discretion, all receive the same core benefits from SHIM, which include the management of the group’s annual cycle of quarterly online group exhibitions via SHIM’s partnership with Artsy, the world’s largest and most sophisticated e-commerce platform and discovery engine for fine art, as well as the organization and promotion of analog exhibition opportunities offered to our Exhibitor Groups in partnership with galleries and art fairs around the world.