Creating MUSA, a platform connecting emerging artist to local venues
AMP Impact Accelerator (Berkeley Impact Venture Partners)
Pad-13 Incubator (Berkeley Skydeck)
About MUSA
MUSA bridged the gap between emerging artists and their local communities by facilitating pop-up events and exhibitions at local venues through its platform. I joined the founders in its early stages in 2019 and worked on developing two MVP iterations and a V2 increment. Over the course of two years, including the pandemic, MUSA grew into a vibrant community of 250+ Bay Area artists and 20 venues and organizations. Through the platform, we enabled over 200 successful events, connecting artists with their local communities and providing valuable exposure and opportunities for emerging talent.
As the product development lead on the artists' side, I was responsible for ideation, validation and refinement of the company's product for the artists; along with structuring and managing the marketing strategy for artist acquisition and retention. This project was my introduction into product design, although I had no formal training, it grew a passion for finding digital solutions for local communities. For the purpose of brevity in this case study, I will focus on issues we found in v1 and solutions we integrated to v2.
Increasing artist's exposure within their communities
The Problem
The hypothesis started with two graduate student's (my two co-founders) capstone project on emerging artists. Through interviews and desktop research, they found that many artists were unable to display and sell their art due to gallery gatekeepers-- bottlenecking artist's success. One issue within the artist's journey to success is that there isn't enough space for artists to display their art and gain exposure outside of galleries. Thus the artist was discouraged, had to work more and had less free time to dedicate to their creative endeavour.
"The opportunity is very valuable. As I have the opportunity to network with people, get others to see my work and sell my work. The more I show the more I can put myself out there." -Artist interviewed
The Solution
We thought of the problem as space: how could we create more space? The opportunity we found was in opening the doors for artists to local cafes, bars, hair salons, dispensaries, co-working spaces, conference centers, restaurants, beer gardens... the list goes on. These spaces were eager to connect to their local community after the pandemic-- the more attention they got, the better their sales-- and they did not rely on the art itself to make a living, unlike galleries. Thus the gates opened.
How MUSA worked
Simplified, this is the product:
User Groups
brush
Artists
they have the art but
they don't have a place to showcase their art.
store
Venues
they have the space to host but
they don't have the knowledge or time to deal with the backend of hosting.
groups
Audiences
they have the interest to see art but
they don't have the reach to know where to find it.
Facilitating two major types of events: pop-ups and exhibitions
Pop-Ups
Temporary events that took the form of booths, where artists represent their artwork for the duration. These were open to a diversity of artists that included traditional visual artists, along with craftspeople and musicians. For this type of event, we had to make sure that artists had the information they needed regarding time, set-up protocol, and offering.
Exhibitions
Month-long (or longer) showcasing of artworks at local venues. In general, these were limited to artists with either wall-hanging offerings or sculptures. Each venue has a different layout, thus we had to make sure that the artists received information regarding dimensions, wall-hanging specifications and set up / set down dates.
System design issues and solutions from V1 to V2
The V1 MVP was done with CMS for website building, which had its limitation. But this process helped us test different propositions quickly and affordably. For the V2, we hired a web dev team in Peru. I worked closely with them for 5 months to create what would be MUSA. In this process, we added the features based on feedback, workshops and check-ins that I conducted regularly with artists and staff.
I1
Artwork tags
One of the value propositions of MUSA is to create tags for upcoming shows. These tags include information on the artist, title and price; and a QR code for audience members to purchase the artwork.
Issue: Our team spent too much time personalising exhibition tags. In V1, we communicated via e-mail with the artists, asking for art work titles, dimensions and prices. Artists struggled to keep up with both channels, and had a waiting time for tag creations-- having to email and wait once more if they decided to switch an artwork. As for our team, we had limited capacity that was inefficiently spent on this.
Solution: Automatization of artwork entry and tag creation. We added a feature in the artist's dashboard to create tags, where they could add artworks that they had in the artist profile, or add new artworks, and then download the tags. With this system, many of our recurring artists had information saved for future exhibitions.
I2
Application Process For Users With Multiple Profiles
MUSA simplifies the application process for artists by allowing them to easily apply to art events with just one click. This is possible with the user profiles that contain the artist's links and artworks, thus helping both the curators (MUSA team) and audience members see their work.
Issue: Some artists had multiple artistic personas, with different mediums, each requiring their own profile.
Solution: We added the possibility for users to fill in as many profiles they want and switch between these on the artist dashboard. This is reflected in the opportunities page, where when users have multiple profiles and applies, a pop up allows them to apply with either users.
I3
Displaying Information For Upcoming Events
Once an event is confirmed with an artist, there are multiple details regarding the event set up, space, hours, directions and so on. Thus we created an artist dashboard with upcoming event tiles that let the artist check on details for their upcoming event.
Reflection
This project lasted two years, and after I left the company it went onto multiple iterations. Ultimately, the business model couldn't keep afloat after the pandemic. Yet as an artist, designer and entrepreneur, I am very proud of the countless people we managed to help; and how much we were able to learn.
In this process, I didn't follow what I would eventually see are common protocols to design apps, yet MUSA managed to achieve a lot from our willingness to push and learn. Our attitudes grounded themselves on passion and adaptability--While we were setting up and down events in person, we wore multiple hats to achieve our goal of creating a business and helping emerging artists gain exposure. Personally, it awoke a passion for a UX framework of thinking, that jumps in and out of the digital products to create impact in our every day lives. In addition, it taught me life through the rise and fall of company needs, adapting to the pandemic and allocating resources into what we at moments considered priorities.