5 Questions to Bernadine Bröcker
We met with the Founder & CEO of Vastari Bernadine Bröcker and asked her 5 questions.
Bernadine Brocker, Vastari Group’s CEO and Francesca Polo, Vastari Group Executive Director
What is your favourite art app?
I go through phases. My favourite used to be ArtStack, but right now I’m really in love with the Google Arts & Culture app.
Of course, the Articheck app for iPad is also indispensable.
What was the last exhibition that you liked?
I find every exhibition fascinating. But the last time I was really moved in front of a piece was during the “Painting the Modern Garden” at the Royal Academy. They managed to borrow an early Monet painting from the Hermitage and I don’t know why, but it moved me to tears to see it.
Jeanne-Marguerite Lecadre (Lady in a Garden) by Claude Monet, 1867 Photo © The State Hermitage Museum.
When was the turning point of your business?
In the art world, it’s all about trust, and unfortunately trust is built over time rather than any money or work you can throw at it. So we have been very patient at Vastari and over the past 4 years we have focussed on building up our business in a trust-worthy and ethical way.
It has been a series of ups and downs, and we had to take some drastic decisions on a corporate level in May last year (2015). Luckily, it has been paying off now. It was as though at the point it turned into 2016, it was as if the world knew that our trade had been going for 4 year and we started getting requests from people we didn’t know and museums who used to ignore us started to write back.
Perseverance and patience pays off, after all.
What advice could you give for start ups in the art world?
Do not underestimate the time it takes for the art world to warm up to new technologies and ways of working, but also be confident that it is possible.
Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC, 'Through my fish eye' Photo © Pablo Raw
What is your next art destination?
Washington DC! We are going there for the annual MuseumExpo at the American Alliance of Museums conference and I am really looking forward to visiting the Hirshhorn, the National Gallery of Art, any Smithsonian I can and the Newseum (designed by Ralph Applebaum Associates where I used to work), as well as finally meeting face-to-face the American museum professionals who have been using Vastari’s system for years.