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Patina … Opening a Gallery that Defied the Odds
In 1998, with a loan for seed money to finance, Patina Gallery was sketched out on a napkin here in Santa Fe. Opening a gallery like Patina started as a collaboration between Ivan Barnett’s former partner and himself. Barnett was in his early 50‘s at the time of its inception, with already a prominent 25-year career as a full-time mixed media studio artist, having exhibited his works consistently in America, Europe and Asia.
The dream of owning a gallery was something that Barnett had always wanted to attain. That 25 years of previous business experience would prove to be invaluable. Ivan Barnett had the knowledge for what it would take to lead and manage an art gallery in an international arts destination. This knowledge included legal aspects, accounting skills, marketing, and public relations. Leading teams, inventory management, retail staging, and making a business plan were all within his skill sets by the time the gallery would open.
In the winter of 1999, Barnett announced and named Patina, feeling it was the perfect name for a gallery that would exhibit and show the finest of handmade works. Soon thereafter, the moniker “soul-stirring works” was attached to the gallery. This standard of quality would become critical as a “branded vision” statement for Patina Gallery.
Opening a Gallery
Not long after “Patina equals beauty over time” was added, a new layer of curated focus to what the gallery would be known for. All curatorial decisions would be measured with these handful of words. The gallery itself opened in the summer of 1999, after four months of non-stop build-out work on its historic destination in Santa Fe. This included two thousand square feet of exhibition space and another thousand feet of back-end space, for offices, inventory, and storage. As fate would have it, the space itself in Santa Fe’s historic downtown Gallery District had once been Santa Fe’s most important art gallery decades before.
Launching and opening a new business is always a daunting task. By this time, Barnett had already launched two successful “new studio” launches in his home state of Pennsylvania.
Honeymoon Stage
Patina was now in its “honeymoon stage.” In many ways this was the easiest stage. Of course there are never any guarantees with a new business. It’s all a risk, especially in the months leading up to a launch because capital is going out and little is “coming in.”
Patina opened with much anticipation that summer. The town had not seen a gallery like it before. Patina came out of nowhere and quickly became Santa Fe’s hottest destination. Something was in the air; the mix of fine art and fine craft was unusual. There was the important addition of fine handmade studio craft jewelry. Other media were also part of the curatorial mix. Clay, textiles, turned wood and mixed media, and other unusual works that were eclectic in nature, even marvelous folk art. Ivan Barnett quickly found unusual ways to “mix the works” and create an aesthetic tension yet to be done in Santa Fe.
At the end of 1999, still feeling the elements of a “sugar high” launch, Patina had paid down its initial seed investment! Within the first full year, the Gallery was already producing about six to eight, one person, exhibitions, each with their own innovative themes. Here the story of an artist’s life was integrated into the entire exhibition.
First Major Crisis: 9/11
Patina faced its first major crisis, when in 2001 the World Trade Center was attacked causing global travel to come to a halt! This brought the gallery to its knees. For months, this global situation could have easily caused the gallery to close.
However, Barnett insisted that they had to push through. They did indeed do this, not without many a sleepless night. Thank goodness for the fan base that helped propel the gallery toward solid incremental growth the next few years. It was also becoming very clear the digital world was beginning to chip away at traditional brick and mortar client behaviors. It became so obvious, when, by this time, that the smart phone was becoming clients’ shopping helper. Barnett was taking notes carefully. Deep concerns were occurring and solutions were still not obvious.
Mid 2000
By the time the gallery celebrated its fifth anniversary in the mid-2000s, its yearly gross sales topped one million dollars. By this time, Patina had a handful of sales associates, a full-time bookkeeper, a full-time graphics person, a part-time copy writer, and a couple of administrative support people. Patina became one of Santa Fe’s favorite destinations, while at the same time, becoming a national destination, representing artists from several different countries, including Europe and Asia. Jewelry Arts became a featured category in the approximately eight exhibitions happening per year.
Community collaborations were also taking place with the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the International Folk Art Museum, and the Santa Fe Symphony. Another important supplement to the gallery’s vocabulary was partnerships with arts and craft schools around the country. They provided access to new clients and collectors. These were the Anderson Ranch, the Penland School, the Haystack School, and others. The gallery held private VIP events where Patina went on the road always in search of new “fans” and added revenue.
Most small businesses, such as a gallery, reach plateaus between five and ten years into their growth and the dropout rate gets very high. Maintaining consistent high standards, and simple exhaustion become very common along with financial strains. In the midst of this, reinvention is often overlooked, and growing pains catch up causing cracks in the passion.
In 2002 Patina had its first website, which for many years was only a catalogue. It took a decade to finally bite the bullet, and start from scratch, with an entirely new modern website. Barnett searched for months to find the right developers and finally struck gold in 2015. In tandem with this decision was his commitment to retain a full-time, in house photographer.
The global Financial Meltdown of 2008
Crisis number two hit. The global financial meltdown of 2008 was a huge gut punch! The massive stock market shift affected consumer sentiment in a big way since opening the gallery. That said, new strategies were in the mix from a marketing standpoint for the next few years. They made adjustments . Yet, sales still hovered at one million all the way through 2010 to 2015, a giant shift.
What was new in consumer spending habits was unfolding, smart phones were the rage, and it became an issue with gallery sales. It was such a stumbling block that clients were asked not to use their devices while strolling in the Gallery. E-commerce was rare at that time.
It was now time to take things to a much higher level. The notion of being able to “sell works online” became top of mind for Barnett. At this point, Patina Gallery celebrated 15 years of business. Sales now approached one and one-half million in gross revenues. However, organic growth had become harder and harder.
A Moment of Truth
In 2016, a moment of truth took place in terms of “scaling the sales.” Ivan Barnett determined to push through to two million by the time the Gallery had its 20th birthday. He knew in order to hit this benchmark, some key business model strategies had to happen. What to do?
Several intense meetings were about to take place, all with his outside “wizard circle” of industry experts, Harvard Business Press authors, hardware design executives, and a new web team, among others. Three key decisions came out of several meetings over a 12-month period.
One, make a full commitment to a brand-new website where fashion and e-commerce were part of the equation. (This was a two year “lift.”) Second, acquire a cultural like-minded Santa Fe institution to fully connect to. After a full year of back-and-forth phone calls to the world-renowned Santa Fe Opera, they finally were able to meet with them. Ultimately, sex appeal was about to transform Patina Gallery. The Opera collaboration brought celebrity status to Patina Gallery. Third, retain a full-time in house “Patina storyteller.” Barnett was insistent that a deeper level of storytelling was necessary for all things Patina.
By 2018-2019, through a combination of these three key initiatives, Barnett drove Patina sales toward two-million-dollars. 2019 was already heading toward a very strong year at the gallery, including a European buying trip and exclusive arrangements with more artists. It was glorious.
A 100-Year Global Pandemic
Here we were on the verge of a major celebration at the end of 2019. However, a month later, the world would change due to a 100-year global pandemic! Now what? Here before Barnett was the single most debilitating event that he had ever experienced in his entire career. He was in shock for a solid week. However, there was no time to spare. A small army of Patina specialists needed guidance. The clients needed care-taking, and of course the stable of 50 or so artists all needed to be comforted.
The gallery would not see any “walk in traffic” for almost 12 months. The world had come to a dead stop. Nothing moved! After huge soul searching and a couple of global calls to the smartest people Barnett knew, he formed a plan. The five years of web refinement and development were about to be tested. Fully formed e- commerce was about to take over sales at Patina Gallery. The bones of the structure were in place. The gallery was already used to shipping globally so all they needed to do was get the Patina shopping cart up and running. By the spring of 2020, they were already operating as a full e-commerce gallery.
2020: Thriving Amid Crisis
Despite global disruption, Patina’s clients embraced the new platform. They were already ahead of many competitors. The e-commerce transition paid off, resulting in one of the gallery’s best years. No staff members lost their jobs, and 2021 proved to be a successful year.
The key lesson throughout Patina’s journey of opening a gallery was the importance of anticipating change and staying ahead of the curve. Even in the most challenging circumstances, adaptability and resilience allowed them not only how to survive but to thrive. As 2022 concluded, Patina remained strong, and continued to evolve and set the standard for galleries worldwide.
