SKITSE

In the Bikuben Foundation, we work to assist artists in realizing their potential. In 2019, we chose to take new paths in the way doing so. We founded the company SKITSE, an art shop that sells current artists' sketches in the form of material samples or tests and at prices that give more people the opportunity to buy art.

New ways of propagating visual art

The grounds of founding SKITSE was i.a. the study of visual artists' financial conditions in Denmark, which we supported in 2018 together with the Danish Arts Foundation and the New Carlsberg Foundation carried out by CBS. The results of the study indicated that there was a need to rethink visual artists' ability to market their art. We took that recommendation seriously, and when we were contacted with the idea of SKITSE by initiator and visual artist Emilie Kjær, we had the opportunity to try out a new business model, which we hope will benefit visual artists.

You can read the study here.

New art forms available for sale 

SKITSE provides a unique insight into the current visual artists' work process. The shop sells the sketches that the artists have worked on prior to a work or material from their artistic development process. It can be anything from unique line drawings to swatches and test shots. SKITSE is open to many more art forms to sell their art and make e.g. art forms such as performance and video installation that have not previously been suitable for sale to private individuals, available by also selling material and merchandise from the art events.

Half of the profit from sales goes to the visual artist, while the rest goes to operations, lectures and events. All profits are thus channeled back to the art and the visual artists.

Emilie Kjær, a visual artist educated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, is the initiator of SKITSE and ArtBooking and works as the manager of both.