We took our name from the motto on the Birmingham Coat of Arms: FORWARD.
Starting out in Moseley, 2010, we began representing a group of locally based artists, many of whom have gone on to become internationally collected.
Eleven years ago we moved into the city centre and are now in our second venue in Canon St.
We have built our reputation as International Art Dealers and include some of the biggest names of 20th Century art on our books.
We are committed to continue to move FORWARD with our support of both artists and collectors, continuing to bring the best of today’s contemporary art world to Birmingham.
strength
Over 30 years of collective experience within the team.
Knowledge of the current day market.
Well regarded amongst the locally based artists we have worked with in the past and continue to work with.
opportunity weakness threat
The development of Birmingham continues apace.
New apartment complexes open every year
A lot of new walls are being created in need of beautiful artwork
© SDQ 2025-26
An ageing group of artists on our books whose productivity is slowing to one or two pieces a decade.
Competition from fresh, new independent artists selling through social media, etsy or their own websites.
Galleries are considered elitist, only for a certain “class” of people, Seen as a luxury item, only for the few.
A need to have specific knowledge about artists and art and a certain financial level in order to enter these establishments
response
To take advantage of the identified opportunity and tackle the second weakness we found, and address some of the threats highlighted, we propose an event:
New Art Fair 2026
Acquisitions responsible for approaching and negotiating contracts with new artists to cover the event and future representation through the gallery.
Events responsible for securing a suitable city centre venue for the event and sourcing catering and entertainment for the evening.
Sales responsible for all enquiries to buy stemming from the night itself and in the following two months, aided by Marketing.
Marketing will orchestrate the six month build up to the event in the following ways è
© Adobe Stock / aziseptian
“Jack & Jill”
• Age range – 25 to 32
• Moved to Birmingham for work
• Several years into their first job
• First time home owners or on the cusp of becoming ones in the next 12 months
• University educated but not necessarily in the arts
• Social media users, but are beginning to move away from reading daily posts on Facebook or Instagram towards weekly or monthly newsletters via email.
• Podcast listeners
• Gig goers
• Have an awareness and appreciation for art but wouldn’t consider themselves “gallery folk”
• Will attend art shows at the Icon, BMAG or Centrala if recommended by trusted sources.
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social media approach
Six months before the event , utilising our existing Instagram account, we will begin to produce posts advertising the night ahead.
The posts will be a mix of static images with captions and shortform videos, highlighting the fact that the exhibition night will feature new, up and coming artists, selling unique pieces in
an informal environment. All posts will feature a clear callto-action directing followers to our email sign up page on the website.
The hashtag #NewArtFair will be introduced and used on all posts.
Our goal is to increase email newsletter sign-ups by 60% by this method alone.
A range of flyers will be produced and left in the public spaces of the new apartment blocks in Birmingham City Centre, with permission. The flyers will incorporate QR codes that can be scanned and will lead to our email newsletter sign-up page.
Utilising existing relationships with the local press we will gain articles and interviews in
Birmingham Mail, and features on BBC Midlands Today or BBC Radio WM. These may also include interviews with senior members of the Marketing Team, or Acquisitions or our owner himself.
Our goal is to increase web traffic to our website by 60% through these methods.
search engine optimisation (s.e.o.) approach
Utilising existing relationships with the local art community we will gain coverage online of the up-coming exhibition.
We will target art influencers, bloggers and online pundits to provide articles promoting both the gallery and the up-coming exhibition.
Top of our list is the weekly email newsletter “I Choose
Birmingham”, which analysis has shown prior articles by them have lead to an increase of web traffic of 70%.
We will be aiming for similar figures on this project too.
In addition, as part of their negotiations, the Acquisitions teams will request those artists that sign-up for the event also post about it in the run up time.
Four months before the event our monthly newsletter will become fortnightly in their frequency. All will feature banner call-to-action links for the readership to sign-up to attend the exhibition.
As the months progress and we get nearer to the exhibition the newsletters will begin to feature
biographies and samples of the local artists already signed up by the Acquisitions team.
We are looking to achieve an 85% open rate of this newsletter over this period, with a 100% click through rate to sign-up for tickets to the event itself.
one month to go....
With just a month to go until the night of the exhibition we will create and deploy a specific weekly email to the segment of our readership who have yet to sign-up to attend the event.
The tone of these newsletters will impress the urgency of the matter to sign up for tickets.
More of the artists will be featured in these emails.
Deadline for ticket sign-up will be one week before the date of the event to allow the Events team time as they prepare the venue and instruct the caterers.
Our goal in this process is 85% of the recorded segment.
Around the room, on the bar and by the door will be small posters encouraging attendees to take photos and post them on their social media using the hashtag #NightOfTheArtFair
Our thanks go out to the three teams involved with the build up to this exhibition opening. It’s now time to sit back and enjoy the night and let the Sales team do what they do best.
immediate post event
In the days following the event the marketing team will be busy on our Social Media channel posting photos from the night and gathering tagged photos.
Alongside using the established hashtag #NewArtFair we will also use the hashtag we introduced
on the night: #NightOfTheArtFair
Our goal in this process is to gain further awareness for the gallery and that these sort of event are taking place and instil a “Fear Of Missing Out” in those who did not attend as the first seed towards the next event we hold.
In the first few weeks following the exhibition night the Sales team will contact all those attendees that expressed a wish to make purchases of the art on sale.
Following that period the Marketing team will tailor emails based on the data held of those that attended but have yet to make a purchase, in order to guide them to the Sales team who they may have missed on the night.
One month after the exhibition we will release a digital copy of the catalogue created by the Acquisitions team to those who did not attend after signing up to do so or those that never signed up. The catalogue will also note which pieces have already been sold and are no longer available. Our goal here is to help maximise the Sales teams chances of reaching their own prescribed targets.
continuing the relationships
In an ideal world we would like to record a lot of data concerning the attendees of the exhibition. Not only their personal details but also which artist did they buy; how much did they spend; what style of art did they purchase; what size was the picture they purchased and so forth.
All this data would enable us to fully personalise future contact with the customer, allowing us to tell them about future shows by that particular artist, or making them aware of pieces of art in a
similar style or at a similar price to what they have already paid.
As it is the law is very strict on what information we can and can’t keep, and also the period of time we can keep the information for as well.
Going forward we will provide our monthly email newsletter to all those that sign-up for it, tailoring it’s contents as new exhibition come up or new artists sign up to be represented by the gallery or in the run up to the next Art Fair.
As well as each micro conversion we have mentioned before, we are looking to achieve these main goals with this Art Fair:
Have the event well attended alongside an 90% increase in sign-ups to our email newsletter. Increase sales by 60% over the two month period following the Art Fair.
Increase the amount of artists represented and showing in the gallery by 40%
Have a great night and increase the love of art and artists by 100%
Make the homes of Birmingham more beautiful.
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