COLLABORATION IN THE ART MARKET: the CONDO network

Art fairs play an essential role in today’s contemporary art market. However, the dominant art fair model in place and the pace of art-fair participation posits several challenges for galleries, particularly those which do not belong in the top-tier end of the market. These challenges include facing a structure of fair which replicates the ‘winnertake-all’ characteristic of the art market, incurring massive financial and logistic costs, as well as maintaining artistic reputation while focusing on commercial success. Small and mid-sized galleries are facing these challenges by coming up with alternative solutions via collaboration models. Gallery-share initiatives are a particular form of collaboration in the art market, in which galleries share resources and create a platform to show and sell the work of their artists. These alternatives to established art fairs enable galleries to develop partnerships and expand their network, while advancing both their commercial and artistic purposes. This study focuses on Condo, a galleryshare initiative launched in London in 2016 which has grown to expand globally. The Condo network is analyzed, using Social Network Analysis (SNA), in order to determine whether network building and collaboration can be termed as success factors