It's one thing trying to find a place in the Washington, D.C. metro area that's within a desired budget. It's another to start thinking about how to furnish the new home and decorate it.
That's where new D.C. startup GoARTful comes in.
GoARTful is an art-subscription service that lets buyers try out a piece of art by a local artist in their home before paying the full listing price. Think of it like leasing a car. Buyers sign up for a subscription service on GoARTful where they pay $15-$50 each month, depending on the subscription type, and, for four months, they can have the same piece of art hanging up in their living room just to see if it works.
At the end of the tenure, if they like it, they can buy the original (in some cases) or a print. GoARTful also offers six-month financing offerings for those who want to purchase the work. And, if the art doesn't fit the space, then the buyer can swap it out for another piece in the collection.
GoARTful also has an app in beta that allows users to see what a piece of art would look like on their wall before picking it out or purchasing.
"There are a lot of artists out there who don't have the resources to build a business on their own," said co-founder Brandolon Barnett. "And on the subscriber side, it's expensive to have local, original art to be hanging up on your walls — that idea evolved to think about how we can have the subscription service."
The founders — Barnett, Meghan Ball, Messay Derebe and Nacho Cerrato — all noticed the growing art scene in D.C. For Derebe, she works with arts nonprofits every day in her full-time gig and grew up playing the violin. For Barnett, he grew up in a musical household. His mother was an opera musician, and he was a practicing musician growing up.
"What makes D.C. a wonderful place to live in is that there is so much art here," Derebe said. "The way to keep the city vibrant is to support those artists, and that's a big part of our objective."
But buying art isn't as accessible for a lot of people. For some, it's the seemingly high price. For others, it's the uncertainty that comes with knowing if a piece works in someone's home.
"Once I moved to D.C. and started looking for artwork for myself, I realized that even as someone who was interested in art and has a decent job, art wasn't really accessible to me," Derebe said.
Derebe has been the point person for artist recruitment to the collection. In their first collection, they have eight local artists with seven to eight pieces from each artist. They also used Derebe's local artist connections to test out and gather feedback on their product.
According to Derebe and Barnett, 33 percent of the subscription price goes back to the artists, and another 32 percent goes towards promotion and marketing. The rest of the funds go back into GoARTful to build and flesh out the company.
Another three percent of that subscription revenue is going into a GoARTful social impact fund, which will focus on supporting art nonprofits and artists both locally and around the world through grant programs.
"We're excited to be a social enterprise," Barnett said. "We want to change the world through art, and that's why we've chosen the tagline that 'art is for everyone.'"
Moving forward, the team is fleshing out their enterprise offerings and eyeing the possibility of bring this model to other art forms. Perhaps a group is looking to have a local band on retainer for events? That's how the music offering would work, once it's planned out.
"We have a vision to be a subscription platform and a connector for arts of all kinds," Barnett said. "Through the subscription, we can democratize access to art."
