Today we ask Curator founder, David Norris about the new service for artists, Curator HQ launching soon.

So why have you created Curator HQ?

Well currently at Curator we work closely with a very small number of artists, just 10 in fact at the moment and we physically have all of the work we show in our Store, in our possession so that we can take it out to the events and exhibitions we organise, and to Home View appointments. So we sell the art ourselves directly to customers. And we’re going to continue to do this, and grow the number of artists slowly.

Thing is though since we launched we’ve received literally 100’s of requests from artists wanting to join us, asking for advice and feedback.

How is Curator HQ different then?

The fundamental difference is that customers will view the artists’ work on our site and contact them directly to buy it. That way we can work with a large number of artists who want to be associated with Curator, share what we stand for and what we offer.

And what are you offering with Curator HQ?

I have to admit I’m extremely excited about this and I could talk for most of the day about plans I have for Curator HQ, but I’ll stick to a couple of the main ones!!

Each artist will have a detailed personal profile which will give them a host of options and make sure they can project themselves in the very best way for them. It will be easy for customers to contact them directly via email, their web site or phone and the artist specifies which they prefer. If a customer wants to buy a piece of work they do so directly with the artist. We are not involved and we do not charge any commission whatsoever.

But that’s really just the start. From launch we will be providing about 20,000 words of really tangible, practical help and advice that will be extremely useful to artists wanting to improve and sell more. Each artist will have a Dashboard where they can access the various services.

In addition to the services, by being on our site artists will benefit from our constant, 24/7 marketing drive. We invest heavily in marketing Curator and traffic to the site increases daily.

I assume this is not a free service so what does it cost?

No it’s not free. There are plenty of free listing web sites out there and artists should not confuse Curator HQ with them. Monthly membership is £9.99 but we are currently offering a 50% discount to those who pre-register, so they will pay £4.99 for each of their first 3 months. There’s no catch here, it’s just that when we launch on 22nd March we want to have artists live on the site rather than launching with an empty page!!

So what should artists do next, and what if they don’t like the service when it’s live?

Firstly they can cancel at any time. If they choose to pay one month at a time and they don’t want to continue, they just cancel. By pre-registering they are only securing their option to join at the discounted rate of £4.99. There is nothing to pay at the point of pre-registering. We will contact them nearer the time to see if they want to join.

You can pre-register for Curator HQ here, enabling your discount.