How Artspan Began, Our Present & Future Goals


 
Artspan Is In The Spotlight
How We Began, Our Present & Future Goals

 
"I wanted to empower artists with full-featured, customizable e-commerce websites that are easy to set up. The sites also needed to be part of an art marketplace, allowing art buyers to find the art easily."
 
Eric Sparre
Artist & Artspan Founder
 
 
We are Celebrating 25 Years Of Artists
Helping Artists With Artspan's Founder
Eric Sparre
 
 
 
 
 
Hi, I'm Eric Sparre. 25 years ago I started Artspan to give artists, including myself, affordable, nice-looking websites to show and sell their artwork, and for the past 25 years, we've been leading this market.
 


 
A little background: I was a working artist for quite a few years and in 1994 was commissioned to do a couple of paintings for a gentleman who had just joined Netscape, the first big internet company. It became clear to me during that visit that the web would significantly impact everyone, including artists.

Triss by Eric Sparre
 
 
They could be empowered in ways we could only guess at. At a minimum, they would be much less dependent on 3rd parties like galleries and critics.
 
 
Broadway &72d
 
 
 
 
So, I paid a developer to build a website. The site was the developer's vision, not mine. I found it ugly, and I could only do one thing to change it - call the developer, which became costly. And, even then, there were millions of art sites, so there was no traffic.
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It was clear to me that many artists would have the same experience, which birthed the Artspan concept: We would offer templated artist websites.
 
The sites had to be easy to set up and manage. They had to be independent but also integrated into an Artspan art marketplace, with an online gallery that was better able to attract art buyers for our members in addition to their individual websites. So that is what we did!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Through the years we continued to upgrade the sites and add new features while keeping them simple and easy for our artists. It's helped that everyone at Artspan is passionate about art.
 
 Artspan's crew is made up of working artists, designers and art market professionals that know exactly what you as an artist are trying to accomplish and personally answer your questions and assist with technical issues.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
We are located between New York and Philadelphia, and our hometown, Lambertville, NJ, is an artist mecca with a long artistic tradition.
 

 
 
 
 
 
We set the standard in artist websites. Our tools are easy to use, and that's key. Our members don't want to become programmers so we have the best on our team to keep Artspan competitive as well as user safe and friendly.
 
 
 
 
Our website packages continue to advance as technology and the art market changes. We continue to offer many critical features such as Prints-on-Demand, Augmented Reality Live Preview and integrated shopping carts at no extra charge. We also share our marketing knowledge and experience with our members with workshops and personalized customer service.
 
 
 To summarize, we're a small company with people who care about art. We understand the difficulties and frustrations confronting artists. We care about our members. We want them to succeed, and we look forward to many more years of serving artists, and welcoming new members ."
 
Eric Sparre
 
 
 
 
 
Artist who have been with us for 20 years or more     
 
 

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