Today we’d like to introduce you to Marta de Movellan
Hi Marta, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I started my career in Marketing at Sotheby’s auction house in London while I was writing my Master’s Dissertation. While I was there, the 2008 financial crash hit, and everyone I knew back in New York had lost their jobs, being recent hires right out of school. My boss at Sotheby’s connected me with Reiber PR, a boutique international public relations and communications consultancy specializing in visual arts and design. I ended up spending five incredible years working in PR for visual arts clients across Europe such as the Fondation Cartier, Istanbul Biennal, V&A Museum, galleries, art fairs, and more.
I decided that I wanted to get more experience in-house, so I moved back to New York to work for a renowned commercial art gallery in Chelsea that specialized in mid-career living artists, co-running their communications. Our team of two had no manager, and we were expected to not only do PR but also manage the gallery’s website, social media, and even events. I was in WAY over my head.
I was living in a city that I had been away from for 6 years, I had no idea where the cool places were anymore and was being told to plan 200+ guest parties. I had a solid understanding of social media, but I now needed to figure out how to get a WeChat account in China for the gallery we were opening in Hong Kong. I had some web experience but was now expected to manage a WordPress site that required coding knowledge. I was the walking epitome of “trial by fire” and “fake it till you make it.” But it was an education that became the foundation of the knowledge that I built my business on today. By the end of my time at that gallery, I was running the department, handling image rights and reproductions, and managing six people globally between their locations in New York, Hong Kong, and Seoul.
Another very well-respected gallery then recruited me to run their global marketing and communications, a role that no one had stayed in for longer than a year. The gallery’s two founders had incredible individual reputations in the art world, but as gallery co-founders, they were still getting their feet wet. Within my first six months, I helped them expand their existing locations in New York and London to include Zurich and Hong Kong, and later Paris and Palm Beach. I was doing all the marketing work that I was doing previously, but also fostering relationships with museum patron groups and running video production. It was an all-encompassing, full-time job where I juggled staff and projects across multiple time zones. In one year, we opened 15 exhibitions, participated in 9 art fairs, announced 2 new locations, 2 new artist representations, and 2 new senior staff members.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I was flying home to visit my parents for a weekend on March 13, 2020 when COVID-19 struck, and I ended up spending the next six months on their farm in Kentucky.
The high-end commercial art world is centered around international travel and the flow of collectors. If you’re thinking of spending $13m on a painting, you want to do your due diligence and see it in person before buying. And during the early days of COVID, not even private jets were able to take off. Working with Hong Kong, we had witnessed the lead-up to this and had already had preparatory pay cuts, but everyone still panicked. I was working from 5 am to 11 pm every day, brainstorming and building creative solutions to more effectively showcase artworks virtually so that when collectors could travel again, we’d hopefully be one of their first stops to buy. We doubled our video production, creating Ken Burns-style shorts of stills with audio overlay since we couldn’t film paintings in person. We created virtual viewing rooms, experimented with 3D scanning technologies, and built apps. I was overstretched, over-demanded, and exhausted.
At dinner one night, my father (a native Spaniard who still hasn’t lost his accent) sat me down and said, “Marta, you have no life. All you do is work. I think you need to seriously rethink things.”
While initially offended, I decided he had a point. And that I needed to leave the art world and New York. So I packed up my apartment, shipped everything to be stored in my parent’s basement in KY, and started figuring out my next move. One of my best friends had moved to Texas so she wouldn’t have to give birth to her first child in a New York hospital at the peak of COVID and convinced me to come to visit her in Austin.
I had gone to university in Dallas and never imagined myself moving to Texas again, but Austin was so outdoorsy and open that it almost felt like normal after months of isolation. No one was required to be back at work, so I could still work for the gallery from there while I figured out what to do next career-wise.
On a positive note, marketing is one of the most transferrable skills, but if you aren’t sure what you want to do, that also means you are posed with an overwhelming amount of options. Art is super niche; I was almost entirely self-taught and used to working in an extremely non-corporate environment. Researching different industries and interviewing for different roles was daunting. I didn’t know the corporate lingo, everyone assumed working for a gallery just meant working in a museum – it was another big lesson in communication.
After another year, I was still trying to decide what I was going to do, was still working for the gallery, networking in Austin, and not finding any career inspiration. I was completely unenthusiastic about working for someone else. So on the advice of a business coach, I gave my notice to the gallery and just started consulting. At first, I was only going to focus on art-related clients, but as many entrepreneurs do in the beginning, I quickly pivoted to meet demand. Friends had started businesses that were taking off post-COVID and needed help with social media or websites, and it snowballed from there. Studio Movellan was officially formed in December 2022, and I have been fortunate enough to work with clients from all types of industries and almost exclusively by referral.
We’ve been impressed with Studio Movellan, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Studio Movellan supports small businesses with their digital marketing and content strategy. Our comprehensive approach provides guidance and tools to build audiences, increase engagement, and develop leads while training you to operate and maintain your platforms.
Being a small business ourselves, we know what it’s like to wear all the hats. And that marketing is often the first one to fall by the wayside. Our mission is to make social media, email newsletters, and websites feel less daunting and to help entrepreneurs actively maintain their online presence so that they can focus on growing their businesses.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
It’s never too late to learn something new! Technology and the digital marketing landscape are constantly changing, so you have to be open to adapting.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://studiomovellan.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/studiomovellan/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/studiomovellan
- Twitter: https://x.com/StudioMovellan
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@studiomovellan
Image Credits
Photo: Elyse Marie Photography
