The Art Innovators Alliance is an alliance of forward-thinking art businesses committed to advancing the art industry through innovation & technology. Created by eight founding members: ARTA, Articheck, Artlogic, Art Frankly, Art Money, Tagsmart, Vastari and Verisart. Diana Wierbicki, global head of Withers’ Art team, sat down with Edie Meyer of Vastari, one of the founding members, to speak about the background of the Alliance, her insight on the art and technology industries and looking ahead.

Diana Wierbicki: Edie, thank you for taking the time to speak with me. Our team is very excited for the launch of the Art Innovators Alliance. We are looking forward to getting to know you and all of the other founders and members. To start, could you tell us some background about how the Art Innovators Alliance was established?

Edie Meyer: We realized that although each of our businesses is quite different within our community, we faced common challenges in making positive changes in the art industry and wanted to put together a group of companies that would share information and knowledge in an effort to change the way people do business and the way they think. By working together, we can all help to promote each other. The nice thing is, we are all different types of companies, so we are not competing against each other.

D.W.: That’s great. Hopefully there is more that you can do as a collective.  What are the hopes for the Alliance and what are some of the goals that you have?

E.M.: We would like to help promote innovation and technology in the art world. It can be a bit slow to adopt technology and new ideas into this field. We hope to support change, which is inevitable- it doesn’t have to be scary. Another goal is to engage with the new generation of collectors and business owners to whom technology is second nature. To those who are creating their own cannon. That being said, many of our companies have clients of all ages who are also embracing innovation and new technology.