Email + the art world = endless trauma

In the past, the exchange of insider information and art world gossip had an air of leisure, of mystery, of glamour – think ‘hushed tones in oak-panelled clubs’ and ‘whisperings in glass-clad corner offices’. In 2024, gone are the days of gossip-filled phone calls and long sexy lunches. Instead, we’re slaves to The Inbox. Unforgiving and unchic, Outlook and Gmail are the cruel masters that govern our comms, with everything from making sales and solidifying connections hinging on our ability to remove “sent from iPhone” while pounding out emails after a few glasses of Sauv B at the Private View.

As with all modern(ish) marvels, the ability to email anyone at any given moment has pros and cons. For an industry built on personal relationships, we have even further to fall when mistakenly disclosing private correspondences to our entire mailing list. The art world relies on discretion: secrecy shrouds high-profile collectors, PRs keep secrets and oil the cogs, while curators remain cagey and aloof about the Big Things Coming, and artists… well, they email when it suits them. As for the gallery assistants, email is just one long, white-knuckle ride of diplomacy and preventing the ‘exclusive’ price list from falling into all the wrong inboxes.

 

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Email operates on its own tonal wavelength, particularly in the arts, one peppered with pass agg, faux formality and suppressed egos as unhinged creatives pretend to perform Official Business. Familiarity can breed quickly when you’re bumping into the same people on the streets of Soho every week, so it’s always a joy to receive the cursory “hope you are well” or god forbid “nice to e-meet you” via email from someone you saw shitfaced mere hours earlier. Equally “Happy Friday” has a different ring to it when you know the sender was manic posting from the after party the evening prior and is currently documenting their crippling hangxiety on their close friends story.

But even in the face of such unbridled creativity, the art world remains loyal to the uptight email tone inherited from our forefathers. But when the work chat gets too off-brand, the chain can rapidly spiral into who’s sleeping with whom before being abruptly brought back to business with an apologetic “sorry I do actually have a work question”. The cosy (claustrophobic?) nature of the industry also makes for tense comms at times and a sense of performative detachment is required when sending an overly enthusiastic interview request to that artist you ghosted. Passive aggression is the emailist’s secret weapon and even the most happy-go-lucky among us can’t ignore a tactical cc’ing of a superior or an increasingly persistent “kindly following up.”

While many are reluctant to relive their past email-related traumas – “You couldn’t waterboard this out of me” – or unwilling to speak on the record – “I’ll tell you as long as this goes NOWHERE” – a few insiders were ready to unpack the fuck ups.

Aside from horrible typos in an important pitch or sending Dear [First Name] to the entire client list, the most common faux pas seems to be getting caught chatting shit. While the art world is notoriously cagey, everyone likes to gossip. It’s all well and good to dish the dirt in a quiet corner at the PV, but when it seeps into the inbox, and your words are condemned to Outlook, there’s no telling where they’ll end up. As the saying goes, “Never write anything down you don’t want read in court”.

One source learnt the hard way. Forwarding an email to a colleague from a particularly pushy PR, they added the line, “who does she think she is????”. Except they didn’t forward it, they replied to said PR. “The relationship wasn’t great or particularly personal after that”. Similarly, as confirmed by another anonymous source, the art of email is tricky to master and it’s hard to row back from “not bcc’ing a whole (borrowed) press contact list while trying to PR a charity exhibition in East London and getting called out by a b-rate model”. Alongside bitching about people on the wrong chain or dragging them while they’re still on the team’s call (personal experience), it’s easy to slip into over-familiarity. Networking is essential in this game, but shouldn’t usually extend to “accidentally sending a calendar invite for a personal and embarrassing doctor’s appointment” to an “important contact”.

Often, we can be dragged into these things unwittingly, as revealed by the PR lurking in the chain of a rival organisation. “I think I got added to the thread by accident, it’s between an organisation that never got back to us and another PR but it’s gone on for far too long for me to say anything now. I’m watching press releases go back and forth…” Occasionally it’s enthusiasm that gets the better of us and it’s best to avoid “triple emailing an established photographer and then repeatedly following up till I got blocked.” Equally, a desire to be helpful can dull the discerning eye, as was the case for another source, who received an email “from one of the directors asking me to pick up £200 in Amazon iTunes gift cards.” Only after scouring central London for an appropriate outlet (these were lockdown times dear reader) did they realise they were being scammed. A classic scheme for the wide-eyed Gallery Girl.

Sadly for the gossips and scandal-fiends among us, the general consensus is we’ve been burned too many times and are learning to triple-check. However, through age and experience comes wisdom and adaptability and many continue to successfully navigate firing off press packs mid gallery dinner. “I do all my emails at the rave,” one artist imparts, “I’ve done emails at Adonis.” The Inbox is a fickle beast, a minefield filled with blanket emails and scope for scandal, so whether it’s leaking a screenshot of a client’s payment plan or failing to mail merge, stay safe out there kids.

 

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