Community: How Collectors Are Learning About and Buying Art

Art collecting has evolved beyond solitary pursuits, with enthusiasts and collectors increasingly engaging in communities to deepen their understanding and start their collections or investing in art. This article explores how collectors form communities to participate in the art ecosystem and form groups to acquire artworks, highlighting diverse collector groups from Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as those participating in fractional art investment.

How Art Collector Communities Are Changing the Art Market

Some collector groups were founded in a particular location and expanded to include people from multiple jurisdictions. These collector groups also exist virtually or engage in person.

While we acknowledge that many companies and platforms facilitating transacting in art create groups of their patrons, the groups listed here are outside of that. We have grouped the list of art collector communities based on the countries in which they were founded.

Connecting Through Collector Groups in Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe, the UK and the US

South Africa

BMW Young Collectors Co and Collectors Co

A collaboration between BMW and FNB Art Joburg, the two companies developed the BMW Young Collectors Co. initiative to champion Africa’s art market by cultivating new patronage. The intention is that this patronage will grow the support systems artists have.

One of the initiative’s objectives is to forge a culture that makes engaging with the local creative economy second nature for its members.

BMW Young Collectors Co is aimed at CEOs, founders, and entrepreneurs under 40. The initiative exists to develop a new generation of art collectors by affording them access to first-hand social experiences with the country’s leading artists, galleries and patrons. Their first event was held in April 2021 at Nicolas Hlobo’s studio.

In February 2024, BMW and FNB Art Joburg extended the collaboration. They launched BMW Collectors Co for art enthusiasts aged between 40 and 50, passionate about expanding their understanding of art and fostering connections within the community.

Black Collectors Forum

Founded by marketing executives Andile Magengelele and Tshepi Mohala, the Black Collectors Forum is an informal platform where black people are invited to talk about collecting, appreciating, investing and the philanthropic aspects of art. With no funding, the Black Collectors Forum get-togethers occur when the founders’ resources allow.

In an interview in 2019, Magengelele provided this contextual reminder to underscore the importance of such collectives for creating sustainable relationships of patronage with art: “[Pre-1994,] Black artists were neglected by museums, collectors and art galleries; Black people weren’t even allowed into galleries and museums. Black artists were exploited, in terms of their pricing. Post-1994, there were no boycotts, but [black] people were still not going to museums and galleries.”

Capital Art Trips with Soul Traveller Tours

Capital Art is a provider of art collection management software. They makes it easier for art collectors to document the details of their art collections. Soul Traveller Tours pioneers group travel in Africa and creates extraordinary adventures that spark human connections, personal insights, local awareness and the courage to be yourself. The two companies have collaborated since 2022 to curate trips to various art events. Two previous trips have been centred around ART X Lagos and 1-54 Marrakech art fairs. While the art fairs are the jewel in the crown of the trips, the groups also experience food, fashion and culture in the cities where the events occur.

Woza ART

Woza ART is about building a community of art enthusiasts, focusing on inclusion and diversity. “In the modern era, art in the African context has lost its core intention. If we speak about the origins of art, the process of creation and expression of ideas was of utmost importance. However, with the rise of commercialisation, art has become a commodity,” says Cameron de Bruyn, one of the founders of Woza ART.

Woza ART contends that it is vital for art in the African context to focus on liberation as a community; that only through connections and spending time with fellow art enthusiasts who share the same sentiment can everyone, especially artists in the community, break through these barriers and become what they truly desire.

With friends and colleagues he has met along the way, Cameron has started to develop a community of like-minded individuals.

The first official event hosted by Woza ART was at the Johannesburg Art Gallery. This location was selected due to it being in an “interesting” part of town: walking distance from Park Station for those travelling by Gautrain, being next to the King George Street (or MTN) taxi rank, and within the Joubert Park precinct which also houses The Greenhouse, with the famous Hillbrow suburb nearby.

Their last event held in honour of Human Rights Day (21 March) was an exhibition by artists based in Pretoria. With the help of Dr Martina Jordaan from the University of Pretoria, Woza ART was able to be put in contact with artists from the Mamelodi area, giving them a space to shape their stories. The exhibition “NXT: Strike Art At?” was an exclusive preview of what it means to be human in an ever-changing world.

Zimbabwe

Young Collectors Network

The Young Collectors Network is a virtual community founded by two friends. The friends are art collectors under 40 based in Harare, one in private equity and the other a corporate CEO. The founders are “building a community of enthusiasts: some who have started collecting, some who have established collections and some who are keen on learning and everything in between.”

The group has five structured objectives and comprises collectors, art enthusiasts, artists, gallerists, and other ecosystem participants, mainly based in Zimbabwe, Europe, USA/Canada and South Africa, but also from as far afield as Malaysia, New Zealand and Costa Rica.

Harare Art Meeting

Led by Valerie Kabov and Marcus Gora from First Floor Gallery Harare, the Harare Art Meeting, typically held in Harare’s sunny winter months (July or August), is an in-depth experience to engage in contemporary Zimbabwean art in its context. Despite being a small country of 14 million, the Zimbabwean art community is defying all expectations with a small but growing collector base, representation by many artists in major museums and international biennales, and Zimbabwe has maintained a pavilion at the Venice Biennale when many other economically strong countries miss the opportunity to flex their soft power.

The team has welcomed international visitors to Harare for this curated selection of studio visits, collection visits and exhibition viewings since 2017.

United Kingdom

KIISA Collectors Series

The KIISA Collectors Series is a series of events held at and on the sidelines of various art events around the world. They convene collectors, patrons, curators, gallerists, and academics. Past editions have been held in Los Angeles, Liverpool, London, New York and Lagos. In general, the schedule consisted of studio visits, gallery exhibition visits, art fair previews, engaging discussions on various topics and visits to notable collectors’ homes.

KIISA is an Art Investment and Advisory company focused on developing transformative solutions for the Modern and Contemporary African & Diaspora art market. KIISA develops, curates and supports the Contemporary and African & Diaspora art market and ecosystem through investment products and strategic, innovative platforms that foster engagement with investors, collectors, patrons, art professionals, arts organisations, and the wider public.

Nigeria

The Collection

Founded by Jubril Enakele in 2017, The Collection is also a virtual group for collectors and curators of African Art. When established, its purpose was to create a platform for art collectors in Africa to share information about visual art and build a community where collaborations can occur to support the art ecosystem across Africa. Most members are based in Nigeria, the UK and the USA/Canada.

The group has two rules. The first is that all materials shared on the platform must relate strictly to visual art content ONLY. The second rule is that there should be no direct selling of art from the collectors’ respective collections on the platform.

Content shared by the group includes details regarding upcoming exhibitions, exhibition catalogues, auction news, art fairs, residencies, exclusive art events, opportunities for philanthropic support and notable articles about art.

United States

ARTNOIR

ARTNOIR started as a group of friends organising “field trips” to museums, galleries and art fairs around the globe. This way, the seven founders discovered the power of numbers and friendship to make traditionally exclusive art world spaces feel colourful, inclusive and welcoming.

They have been holding experiences since 2015 and invite artists, enthusiasts, curators, forward-thinking organisations, storytellers, designers and patrons to join their NYC-based global collective.

Commissioner

Founded in 2017 by Dejha Carrington in Miami, Commissioner is a membership program designed to democratise art collecting. It offers tiers ranging from patronage to collector memberships, allowing members to commission artworks from local artists annually. This initiative fosters a community where collectors engage deeply with artists, making art ownership more accessible. ​

The Benefits of Joining Art Collector Communities

Shared Knowledge: Engaging with collector groups provides access to a wealth of knowledge and diverse perspectives, enhancing one’s understanding of art.​

Networking Opportunities: Building relationships within the art community can lead to collaborations, mentorships, and deeper involvement in the art world.​

Group Buying: A New Approach to Art Collecting

Group buying of artworks is not uncommon. Such initiatives democratise art ownership and strengthen community ties among collectors.

South African Art Collector Communities Investing in Art Together

In South Africa, art enthusiasts have formed stokvels to collectively purchase artworks, making art investment more accessible and fostering communal appreciation.

A Stokvel is a type of credit union in which a group of people enter into an agreement to contribute a fixed amount of money to a common pool periodically.

Stokvels are not unique to South Africa; they exist worldwide. They are also known as Chama in Swahili-speaking East Africa, Tandas in South America, Partnerhand in the Caribbean, Cundinas in Mexico, Ayuuto in Somalia, Hui in China, Gam’eya in the Middle East, Kye in South Korea, Tanomoshiko in Japan and Pandeiros in Brazil – to name but a few examples.

C&C Art Stokvel

C&C (an abbreviation of Chickpeas & Champagne) operates similarly to traditional savings clubs, pooling resources to acquire pieces. The group meets once a quarter and has a formal written constitution. The group’s name comes from the fact that at each meeting, a host serves lunch, and the lunch must include a dish with chickpeas and offer the guests champagne (or South Africa’s excellent sparking wine).

At each meeting the hosting member is gifted an artwork as a token of gratitude for hosting.

Participants take turns having the artwork on display at their homes for six months on a rotational basis.

Mithasa Art Stokvel

This group was started to exploit the growth in the market for African art and contribute to this growth by allowing Africans to own art. The vision is to create a fund to drive the creative economy and help local artists gain recognition. The first step befor creatiing a fund was to start a stokvel.

The stokvel launched on 27 February 2024 and arranges art-themed events for participants monthly. This art stokvel’s contributions are managed using an app provided by a stokvel manager and offered by an investment company founded by Saki Zamxaka. Zamxaka is an art collector with a significant art collection himself. The selection panel for purchasing the art would be one person from the investment company and at least three individuals familiar with fine art.

Platforms Enabling Fractional Art Investment

Masterworks

Masterworks is a platform that allows individuals to invest in shares of high-value artworks by renowned artists. Scott Lynn and some partners founded the platform in 2017, fuelled by the realisation that it should not only be the ultra-wealthy who should profit from art. By acquiring ‘blue-chip’ artworks (by artists such as Banksy, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Lynette Yiadom-Baokye and Yayoi Kusama) and offering fractional ownership, Masterworks provides investors with the opportunity to participate in the art market without the need for substantial capital. Users must invest a minimum of USD 15,000 to participate in an initial offering. ​Holding periods for the works exited have ranged from 36 days to 1,398.

SplitXchange

Launched in April 2022, SplitXchange (formerly known as ARTSPLIT until it broadened its fractional investing platform to other asset classes beyond art) is an African art tech platform that introduces co-ownership and lease auctions for investment-grade African artworks. Operating in Nigeria and Ghana and set to launch in South Africa as well, SplitXchange aims to redefine art ownership by allowing its users to co-own and lease artworks, thereby making prestigious pieces more accessible to a broader audience.

Some artists in whose works participants can trade now include El Anatsui, Irma Stern, Bruce Onabrakpeya, Aboudia, Ndidi Emefiele, Ablade Glover, Ben Enwonwu, Gerard Sekoto, and Peju Alatise. ​

Why Art Collector Communities Matter

The landscape of art collecting is becoming increasingly communal, with enthusiasts forming groups and leveraging innovative platforms to engage with the art ecosystem. Whether through local collector groups or fractional investment platforms, these initiatives democratise expanding access to art through shared resources, build networks, drive cultural appreciation and foster a more inclusive art community.

How are you participating in any art collector communities in your city? Please share your experiences and insights with us.