We’re excited to share a new interview with Stefanie Idrobo, who runs the art platform Art Will Save Us. Learn more about the mission behind her business and the artists she is excited to be working with currently!

Stefanie was born in Ecuador then grew up and studied marketing in Spain. At the age of 21, she went to London to expand her network and experience working for a transnational company. She then moved to Mexico City where she worked as a brand manager and started her first digital marketing agency.

Her love for art started while she was walking around London discovering little galleries and being introduced to artists that were worth seeing. After she moved to Mexico City, a city with more museums than any other city in the world, she started looking for Latin American artists to start her collection and found that there were many very talented ones but that it was not that easy to find them. That’s when her two passions merged and she started her own project helping artists to improve their digital presence and find opportunities to advance their careers. After a year, she decided to start promoting Latin American artists and selling pieces to collectors in New York, Mexico, Perú, and Ecuador.

Tell us about your background. Where did you grow up and how did you first become interested in art?

I grew up in Alicante, Spain. A little city on the Mediterranean coast, full of street art. My interest in art was always there, in school I took all the art classes possible, music, plastic art, drawing (but to be honest I’m not really good at it). My little sister is a plastic artist as well and she was always doing creative things for the house or to give to my parents so it was really cool to see how she transformed anything into something beautiful. It was like a magic trick she was doing and I think that’s why I was interested at first. Then I had the chance to go to Madrid and London, where I spent most of my time in museums and little galleries. But it was in Mexico City, one of the cities with the most museums in the world, where I put all my attention into it and when I began my professional career in art.

Did you study art in school? How did you get started working in the art industry?

I didn’t go to art school. I did study some art history and other activities like music, or plastic arts, but I was not very good at that. Since I was very young, I was into dancing. That was my artsy side.

Even when I was really interested in art, visiting museums and galleries, I never really thought about making a career out of that because I didn’t know all the possibilities. Since I’m not an artist, I never really knew exactly what other paths I could take. But a few years ago I started hanging out more with artists in Mexico City and that’s when we started creating content and putting efforts together to create something to actually sell. I found out that my marketing and sales skills could be beneficial for the industry. And without even knowing it I sold the first piece of an artist of mine and I was receiving my first commission (that, of course, I took as an art piece because I was starting my own collection). That’s when I decided to be more serious about it. My heart and mind were always thinking of creative ideas to promote art, and well a couple of years later that’s my main income.

When did you launch Art Will Save Us and what is the mission of your platform?

This project was an idea that was built within two years, but the pandemic pulled it out quicker than expected. In April 2020, I started the platform with the idea of promoting emerging art from Latin America on an international scale, but it evolved into a more open platform with more artists every day. We want to help artists that are alive to make a living out of it and continue creating. My sister Ariana Idrobo is a co-founder and that makes the platform also be oriented towards the artists’ interests.

ArtWillSave.us is an initiative in the form of a digital sales platform, the main objective of which is to provide support to visual artists and creators. We help collectors to start or grow their collections while supporting emerging artists.

Can you share some of the artists you work with and what kind of projects you do?

I have a wonderful roster of 15 amazing artists on the platform from three different countries. From paintings to photographs, I enjoy discovering talented new artists every day.

The artists I work most directly with are Hiram Alarcón, a Mexican painter who creates beautiful contemporary pieces with inspiration from the old Italian and Spanish artists; Eugenio Di Bella, a Mexican multidisciplinary artist that is working on a full creative concept that tries to unify all humans in one; Luis Morejón, a young Ecuadorian painter just starting his career but who has had wonderful feedback from different collectors and curators; and Ana Paula Vergara, a Mexican painter and illustrator who creates beautiful aesthetic pieces that mix her memories and personal experiences with her passion for nature.

As for projects, we are trying to keep the interest of collectors alive, so we are presenting virtual exhibitions via 3D viewing rooms that try to recreate the physical experience of visiting a gallery. The complement of the music is very important in our exhibitions and for that, we have a collaboration with Yellow Tree Studio, directed by the amazing musician and producer Ome Uriel Durán, where we try to match up the pieces and spaces with the music you’re hearing while visiting the online gallery.

Another important project we are working on is an online art auction where we are going to create a more personal and direct experience for the collectors and artists. We are putting together an auction that is going to be happening in three different countries at the same time. It’s going to be happening in June and more information and the registration can be found on our website artwillsave.us.

Share a bit about your curatorial practice. What do you look for when considering new artists to work with?

I keep learning day by day and that’s why this industry is where I see myself the rest of my life. I’m currently studying art history and the art market and also another curatorial practice course where I’m trying to understand the basics for doing this. But to be honest, I’m doing it with my gut and heart and I just try to keep my eyes open to look for new artists every day and learn from them. The more art you see the more your eye starts to define itself.

I think there’s always a market for every artist and every piece so when it’s a matter of working with someone new I try to be honest and think if I have the access to the market they’re into. I have to know all the artists I work with, talk to them understand their vision, and the ‘why’ of their practice. Then I analyze what can I offer them and what can I commit to, and if that aligns with the goal they’re looking for then we start working together.

For me, the most important thing is that whatever they’re doing comes from them being honest with what they want to do and also that they’re thinking about art as their main thing to do as well.

What do you have planned for 2021? Any goals for this year and beyond?

It’s hard to think that we are getting close to the middle of the year, I feel like from last year we’re running against the clock. But for this year our goal is to expand to more countries and do our first physical exhibition hopefully by the end of the year.

We are going to be implementing new experiences online to recreate the experience of enjoying art in person and we are going to launch our monthly chat sessions with potential collectors who want to start their collections and artists who want to improve their digital presence.

As we did last year, we are going to continue collaborating with brands that want to support artists as Zoé Water in Mexico, and with other platforms that are looking for the same goal as BLOC Art in Perú.

I think our main goal will remain the same and that is to put collectors and artists together in an honest space where you feel confident introducing yourself to art even if you think you don’t know a thing about it and we become the platform that provides that space.

Years down the line, I would love for us to become the platform that can help emerging artists to live for and from art and for people to use our platform to appreciate art more, because that is what makes us human. In the end… Art Will Save Us all.