Essay on Globalization and Art Market

Globalization can be said to be the process whereby people, companies or governments from different countries interact normally for the purposes of trade and investments. Globalization has been made possible by the good infrastructural connections for example roads between different countries, the successful ship travels between countries via oceans and sophisticated information technology. Information communication has contributed much support towards globalization. It has enabled instant communication among members from different countries. IT has indeed turned the whole world into a global village. Through the possibilities of instant communication, people from different countries are able to exchange ideas. Traders are able to study the markets of different regions. They gain the knowledge of gaps of certain products in certain markers (Dancygier and Walter 2015). Awareness of such gap gives a good opportunity for business as traders from one country can decide to supply the products that they have learned to be scarce in another country’s market. Globalization has also been facilitated by policies that have built trade blocks. Various countries allow cross-border trade with people from different nationalities with reduced restrictions. The art market is a phrase that implies the exchange of works of art between different people. Sellers of works of art have the aim of making money while buyers aim to make their houses smart, be entertained and so on. Art is a process whereby human beings express their imagination through applying their skills to produce visual products such as paintings, sculpture, drawings or to produce works to enhance the beauty and give emotional power. Songwriters, drama producers, are good examples of artists. Their works convey certain messages, are sources of recreation and give emotional support. Globalization has caused positive as well as negative impacts on the art market.

Positive Effects of Globalization

            Globalization has led to increased revenue collection from business transactions concerning works of art. More people are aware of the locations from which they can acquire various works of art (Crane, Kawashima and Kawasaki 2016, p. 29). As a result of this awareness, people travel long distances so that they can acquire the works of art in the places in which they have located them. They supply money to the sellers of the works of art. On the other hand, sellers may become aware of places that they can supply works of art to places in need of these products yet they are not available. They supply the products or hand them over to tradesmen to supply. This leads to more money exchange and more revenue collection as the target population is wider than before. A good example is that, East African countries have realized great need of handmade ornaments in South Africa. They supply the products and get good income. Below are images of handmade necklaces that have high market demand.

Handmade necklace woman wearing handmade ornaments

            Globalization has continually promoted the independence of African women. Market for art work has been broadened by globalization. Women get encouraged to make a living from works of art. African women have from the past been marginalized in that they are not given education and skills. They remain much dependent on men. However, various players have encouraged women to join form groups whereby they can produce handmade crafts and sell them at modest prices. In this way, they produce jewelry, bags, ornaments, clothes and foot ware. For example, Ethnic Supplies in East Africa has come up as a result of such arrangements. This is helping the women to be financially stable.  

 Handmade bag 

            Globalization has led to increased players in the art market. Initially, the players included producers and consumers.  As of now, other players include tradesmen, transporters, and security personnel and so on. Globalization is continuously making the art market to be more diverse new developments that were not in place before arise. As a result of this market diversity, producers cannot manage to do all that the market demands. The target market has continuously increased. The demand for products of works of art has become so high. This has led to increased need for work specialization. The producer needs not be the supplier for he cannot manage. Thus, the producer may decide just to be producing the works of art and handing them over to suppliers. Some works of arts for example jewelry are very expensive. Additionally, this requires the entry of security personnel who ensure that the goods are secure from robbers and pirates. Pirates have been known to be high jacking large vessels as they supply works of art, thus the need for security personnel.

            Globalization has enabled interaction of artists from different parts of the world. The artists exchange ideas. Artists from different parts of the world perform their works in different ways. When artists interact, they learn from one another. An artist can learn how he can come up with a product using an easier way, which enables saving time and resources. Exchange of ideas has also taught some artists to introduce the use of equipment in the processes of making their artistic works. This has led to accuracy, consistency, effectiveness, and efficiency in the production of artistic works. More beautiful and more meaningful works of art are being produced as a result.  

             Globalization has led to the development of newer ways of shopping artistic products. In the past, the shopping of artistic products would involve the physical access of the market location by the potential buyer. When the buyer accessed the marketplaces, he would walk across the products checking if there would be any eye-catching one to him. When the buyer noted the one that he liked, then the negotiation process with the seller would commence (Crane, Kawashima and Kawasaki 2016, p. 20). This would take more time and energy used when traveling and checking the displayed products physically. With globalization, it becomes difficult for a potential buyer to travel across the borders to check these products. It also becomes difficult for the seller to transport a lot of his works to far countries with the hope of making sales yet he is not sure whether the target population will be interested. This has led to online shopping. Globalization has made the art market to exploit the opportunities that ICT presents. Online shopping is facilitated by online shopping sites. The sites present photos of the artworks, their prices, and different specifications. They provide photos from different views and information on sizes. If the buyer is interested, then he orders for the piece of work online. The seller plans on the delivery which is the point where the payments are made. This reduces time, energy and resources wastage. The seller transports a piece of art that they are sure it will be sold out (Peltoniemi 2015, p. 64).

            Globalization has led to the people learning about different people’s culture. When people learn other’s culture, they gain an understanding of why the particular community behaves in a certain way. When one learns the culture and the history of another community, he appreciates it and gains the interest of learning about the community more (Sassen 2016). One of the best ways that people learn of other communities is through interacting with their pieces of arts. This boosts the sales of the works of art since the people from outside would like to have a feel of the community’s way of life. 

            Globalization has enabled countries to earn foreign exchange mainly through tourism activities. The global village has led to increased awareness of different artifacts that can be found in different countries around the world. Most of these artifacts were made by people who lived in ancient times in history. The artifacts are great works of art. They are filled with the mystery of how it was possible for the ancient people to construct them yet they were only in possession of simple stone tools (Dancygier and Walter 2015). Examples include the Moais which are found in the Eastern Islands located in the Pacific Ocean. The areas are occupied by the Rapa Nui community. Other artifacts include the Egyptian Pyramids that have been in existence since ancient times. This has in a great way attracted tourism activities in such areas leading to host countries earning foreign exchange.

            Globalization has led to specialized careers in the world of art markets. Just like in fashion which not much about it could be said in the recent decades, yet today it has arisen much interest, so is art. Globalization has continuously proven that art is a live world on its own. Globalization and exchange of ideas about arts has driven to great interests in works of art. More to this, globalization has led to the demand for artistic works which have proven that art is indeed a field that people can benefit from it in terms of careers. Lovers of art are conducting research about production of various works of art (Crane, Kawashima and Kawasaki 2016, p. 35). With the knowledge that they gain, they come out and produce magnificent pieces of works. The arts fetch for them substantial amounts of incomes. There are many people that have made careers out of works of art. A realization has come that it is not only what people refer to as “white collar jobs” that are standards jobs. Most enjoyable work that a person can do is his passion. People are transforming what they are passionate about into jobs. Many people are passionate about art. This artwork is being transformed into people’s careers (Velthuis 2015). With the support that globalization offers, the people are contented by their careers.

Negative Effects of Globalization on Art Market

            Globalization is posing a risk of some pieces of art becoming extinct. Some pieces of arts, unfortunately, fail to find their way into the global market display. Some places are so remote that people have less knowledge on ICT. Such people are ignorant of the many advantages that ICT has brought forward. The people are unable to exploit the said ICT opportunities. They fail to place their artistic products in the ICT display. Thus, only limited people are aware of such people’s artistic products (Alexander and Bowler 2014). On the other hand, the people who exploit ICT opportunities make their products known and exploit huge market areas. This discourages the artists from the remote areas who end up thinking that their products are not worth it. They lack market, are discouraged and give up on their work. This puts their communities’ works of art at a risk of completely getting lost and forgotten.

            Globalization has also posed a risk of stealing artistic ideas and products from the humble communities by greater communities. Some East African communities have complained of their artistic product being stolen and patented in China. The said product is a bag that is made of woven fibers. The bags are beautiful and are used by a person when carrying goods (Turner and Holton 2015). It is alleged that some Chinese people noted that the product is nice yet it is not patented. Consequently, they started making the bags, selling them and patented them as their own product. This has led to them benefiting from the product unhealthily. This is one of the many allegations that are not known by many. Stealing of such ideas and benefiting unhealthily has been associated with globalization for some countries are perceived as though taking advantage of the less knowledgeable countries that do not have much knowledge (Peltoniemi 2015, p. 64).

            Globalization of the art market posed more demands of museum-quality works of arts. Collectors of artwork are increasingly becoming knowledgeable about the quality and styles of artifacts. Museums continue to compete with the private collectors of artistic materials. This is making museums to have to rely on donations and sponsorships to run in these economic times that have proven to be filled with stiff competition (Crane, Kawashima and Kawasaki 2016, p. 35).

            Globalization has led to competition that has really affected the pricing of artistic works. When competition is high, it causes the sellers of artistic works to be forced to lower their costs so that consumers can find them more favorable. In most times, there is no price control when it comes to art. When some entities lower their prices, the demand for artifacts that are highly priced massively goes down. Most of the emerging artists are offering their products at a lower price yet they may not be of quality when compared to the higher priced ones. This makes the sellers offering their products at higher prices to stay with them longer (Sassen 2016). Thus the market for artistic products is being perceived of having many risks as a result of being very unpredictable.

Conclusion

Globalization is a very conspicuous aspect of today’s economies and markets. With education which is making people interact more, relocate more, international interaction will continue occurring. With the incoming of ICT and major opportunities that it has presented such as communication, globalization cannot be deterred. Globalization has brought more advantages than disadvantages in the art market. Globalization has led to more revenue collection in the art market, incoming of more players in the market, build of more careers in the art market and so on. On the other hand, globalization has brought forward some risks in the art markets. For example, globalization has led to risks of some pieces of work of remote communities getting extinct, theft of ideas and more. With the fact that technology will continue supporting globalization and governments will continue opening their borders in support of trading activities between countries, the art markets should align themselves in a way that they will benefit from globalization. For example, governments should ensure that their intellectual property and indigenous knowledge is preserved. Communities should be taught on patenting and how to exploit opportunities presented by ICT. In this way, they will experience the benefits of globalization.

References

Alexander,V. D. and Bowler, A. E., 2014. Art at the crossroads: The arts in society and the sociology of art.

Crane, D., Kawashima, N. and Kawasaki, K. I., 2016. Culture and globalization theoretical models and emerging trends. In Global culture (pp. 11-36). Routledge.

Dancygier, R. M. and Walter, S., 2015. Globalization, labor market risks, and class cleavages.

Peltoniemi, Mirva. ”Cultural industries: Product-market characteristics, management challenges and industry dynamics.” International journal of management reviews 17, no. 1 (2015): 41-68.

Sassen, S., 2016. Global networks, linked cities. Routledge.

Turner, B. S. and Holton, R. J. eds., 2015. The Routledge International handbook of globalization studies. Routledge.

Velthuis, O., 2015. Globalization of the art market (emerging art markets).