Once a month an inconspicuous rooftop in Dalston, East London plays host to the latest and much loved endeavour of Art Wednesday: Nice To Meet You. Earlier this year the arts and culture magazine decided to take their online presence also out of cyber space and into the world. At Nice To Meet You, artistic and creative minds are introduced to one another with the help of interesting talks, music and book presentations, and get a chance to interact over food and drink. Intrigued by the brilliant simplicity of the concept, Sleek spoke with Max Bergius, founder of Art Wednesday, to find out more.
Sleek: How did Art Wednesday start? Max Bergius: I was very lucky that my family were big supporters of the arts in Scotland and so from an early age I would be taken to art previews and exhibitions. When I came down to London nearly 14 years ago I didn’t have many mates to hang out with so I would go to lots of gallery openings as I could attend to feed my addiction and get out & about. The gallery curators in London are not nearly as friendly as they are in Scotland but I learnt fast and played the game. Fast forward to three years ago I was trying to get my work-life-balance in check so I took half a day every week and came up with the idea of writing a blog on the art scene. My half a day off there on after became known as ‘Art Wednesday’.
How did the idea for the Nice To Meet You (NTMY) events come about? We realised that we had a lot of really wonderful and interesting people following us on Facebook & Twitter, so in a selfish way we wanted to meet them. When we sat down to work out a format for “Nice To Meet You”, to us it was obvious what to include – food, books, talk and music. Once we worked out the format it was a case of calling friends who could partner and make the evening even better. We approached Claire de Rouen books who have a pop-up bookstore selling all sorts of amazing fashion photography, inspirational and creative books and Luv Luv Luv Records, the label Florence & The Machine are signed to.
At your last NTMY event, Ben Hammersley, editor of Wired, gave a talk about technology and its role for the future. As an online magazine, what would you say are the main benefits and drawbacks in comparison to working in print? It’s a funny one, because, depending on who you talk to you get different answers. Digital benefits allow you to add, upload and of course change anything at any time at the click of a button while with print, once you send the files to the printers there is no turning back. Saying that, digital content is rather disposable and drops off the bottom of news feeds. It’s all about what’s new, what they can see & do that no one else has and always looking forward. Here at Art Wednesday we only print AWE Magazine when the time is right. When we have the content that’s going to make a magazine awesome.
What’s in store for the future NTMYs? Grow slow. Grow strong. We’re beyond humbled with the response from everyone who has come along to a NTMY event. During Frieze Art Week we’re collaborating with Multiple Art Fair and hosting a very special NTMY at Christies on 13th October. Details of which I can’t reveal, otherwise it wouldn’t be a surprise but over the next few months there will be three more NTMY’s with more in the pipeline.
Art Wednesday, Nice To Meet You