In 2008, Simon Cronshaw and Peter Tullin quit their day jobs in arts sponsorship to become hands-on creative entrepreneurs. Together they spotted the opportunity to capitalise upon the rise of e-commerce and a growing consumer demand for unique gifts and affordable art. They co-founded CultureLabel.com, an online marketplace that brought together 800 of the world’s best museum stores, galleries, creative boutiques, artists and designer-makers. It was one of the first websites to sell art online from non-profit institutions.
“An emporium of desirables”
– VOGUE
“A one-stop shop for creative and quirky commerce”
– The Wall Street Journal
“CultureLabel does the visiting, the curating and the editing for us… A host of possible presents, each one with some real connection to the institution it comes from.”
– Financial Times
CultureLabel became a ‘one-stop shop’ to buy artist-designed gifts, homeware and affordable art – direct from the world’s creative institutions. CultureLabel partnered with hundreds of iconic creative and cultural brands including Tate, Saatchi Gallery, Blur, V&A, New Museum, Southbank Centre, Tatty Devine, ICA, Design Museum, The Photographers’ Gallery, The Prodigy, Royal Opera House, Barbican, Andy Warhol Estate, National Theatre, Chateau Versaille and the Royal Academy of Arts, plus artists such as Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and Sir Peter Blake and emerging art talent from the likes of the Royal College of Arts. High profile brands including Amnesty International and Bestival commissioned CultureLabel to produce exclusive product collaborations.
“Gift-tastic!”
– Sunday Times Style
“Our favourite shop!”
– Maxim
By 2012, CultureLabel had over 4,000 products and a peak audience of approximately 160,000 monthly users. It secured investment from Venture Capital firms and angel investors, led by EC1, and provided a win/win for the arts sector: increasing e-commerce revenues for non-profit institutions and artist-makers, encouraging best practice e-commerce strategies, and introducing new high street audiences to the best of the cultural and creative sectors.
After building CultureLabel for 7 years, Co-founders Simon and Peter stepped away and sold the business in 2014, focussing instead on their new REMIX Summits business to showcase innovation and entrepreneurship across the cultural and creative sectors.
“Cool and quirky”
– Grazia
“An aggregator for the arts – one to watch”
– Wired
CultureLabel lived and breathed many of the principles we now explore at REMIX Summits and is a powerful example of creative entrepreneurship in action. It successfully targeted high street shoppers who may not otherwise go to galleries or museums, driving new audiences and income – directly to the non-profit cultural sectors.