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Anna Shvets (www.annashvets.art) is a prominent figure in the international art and culture scene and .ART Domains ambassador based in Ecuador. As CEO of TAtchers’ Art Management (www.tatchers.art), CCO of Fuelarts, and founder of Art Ambassadors, her expertise spans contemporary art theory, integrating art with science, business, and new technologies. Her focus on the interplay of art and environmental humanities in unique global locations has marked her as a visionary in her field. Among her remarkable experiences, a life-changing encounter stands out: meeting her future husband, artist Paul Rosero Contreras, during an Antarctic art expedition. This serendipitous meeting not only sparked a personal transformation but also led to a series of collaborative art projects around the world, underscoring her belief in the powerful synergy of art and life.

Could you briefly describe your journey to founding TAtchers’ ART Management?

Since childhood, I’ve been fascinated by the idea of connecting cultures, which led me to dream of becoming a diplomat. After university, my career began as a press attaché for international cultural events, and soon, I was organizing corporate events around the world. By 26, driven by experience and ambition, I co-founded TAtchers’ MICE Management, focusing on cultural events and collaborations with embassies and global brands. Our company quickly found success with various events and PR support.

However, my passion for art called for a deeper commitment. This led to a split with my co-founder and a journey to Italy to study Art Management, immersing myself in the rich art culture of Venice, Florence, and Rome. Those two years were transformative, empowering me with knowledge and experience that soon translated into numerous art projects. And I relaunched the company as TAtchers’ Art Management.

For over 15 years, TAtchers’ Art Management has been thriving, and I am immensely proud of our journey and the dedicated team of Ksenia Listikova, Maria Bazhenova, and Veronika Smirnova.

Can you share a particularly challenging project or situation in your career and how you navigated through it to find a solution?

To date, I would call the Antarctic Biennale 2017 – the most challenging endeavor in my professional career. I was the producer and director of the project. It was an expedition on a research vessel to Antarctica. 90 people from all over the world – artists, writers, musicians, IT specialists, journalists, scientists and researchers. The author of the project, artist Ponomarev, had been nurturing the idea for many years, and in its implementation, there was a lack of a corrosive “badass” art project manager. They recruited me as I had relevant experience and knew already about the concept from Alexander, whom I met several years ago in Venice, where I lived at that time. What was challenging in this project? Almost everything that I needed to manage, control, and bring to reality. Several years of production period I worked 24/7 in all time zones simultaneously.

It was important to get UNESCO support (and I got it). Very active fundraising on all continents, it was necessary to take into account the legal and corporate requirements of the participating partners and sponsors, remaining an independent art project. Extremely complex logistics – “venue” was changing three times a day, as the ship was constantly cruising, the weather varied constantly, and the “wildlife” representatives also dictated their conditions. In terms of communications, we needed to take into account all the cultural peculiarities of 30 countries’ representatives (trustees and advisory boards, the team, and the expedition participants) as well as the Antarctic Treaty 1959 in terms of biosecurity and respect to Antarctica.

How do you ensure that TAtchers’ ART Management stays innovative and competitive in the dynamic international art and cultural industry?

Staying updated in the art industry involves sourcing information from experts, reports, and trend-watching services. We invest in learning new technologies and tools as needed and apply this knowledge practically. Continuously researching and following market trends, we believe in the value of constantly expanding our knowledge.

One more thing, our priorities it is not just to stay innovative and competitive. What is also important for TAtchers’ is to support selected humanitarian art initiatives. Those who focused on the following topics – antiwar, social justice, ecology. If we can somehow participate in making this world a better place – we do it.

What are the specifics of the LatAm art market?

Thanks for this question. I have lived for about 6 years already in Ecuador, with Paul and Dos Islas Estudios we are actively participating in art life locally, in the Americas, and internationally. I must say that I really admire LatAm artists – they are vivid, curious, bold experimenters. They are most likely to offer non-trivial artworks to the art market as they are not spoiled with money or decorativeness of “Art Basel” kind of art.

It is important to underline that the cultural landscape of Latin America is a diversity of cultures. The cultural heritage of the region is fueled by indigenous cosmovisions, local visual traditions, spirituality, narratives of decolonization, race, gender, and ecological emergencies, ArtTech experiments make a delicious mix for contemporary art endeavors.

Speaking about the LatAm art ecosystem. There are many many galleries. Quite a lot of art fairs – arteba (Argentina), Feria de millón (Colombia), Latitude Art Fair (Brazil), Material Art Fair (Mexico), PArc (Peru), SP Arte (Brazil), Zona Maco (Mexico) and others. “Anthropologically”, there is the habit of living with Art – in the apartments and houses of ordinary people – is a common thing.

In recent years, the Latin American art market has experienced remarkable growth and gained visibility in the global art market. Analyzing leading auction houses sales we can see the appetite for Latin American art is on the rise among European and American collectors. There is a strong steady flow upward in price increments, signaling a continued international acceptance of their quality and value. I’ll put some statistics. Latin America contributed a sum of 79.3 billion U.S. dollars to the global art market in 2018. According to the source, this figure is predicted to rise to 96 billion U.S. dollars by the year 2023.

How do you navigate the intersection between art and business, ensuring that creativity is not compromised while also maintaining financial sustainability?

In my work as a producer many years ago I established the rule – our task, as art managers, is to help art take place, to provide an art project with opportunities to exhibit, to attract partners, to announce with dignity, to receive maximum coverage of the opening and progress of the project. The primacy of art is law. But yes, sometimes, gently and respectfully, you need to help the artist feel that the project, for its feasibility, must also have respect for its business components – obligations to partners, first of all). Modern artists, fortunately, have already learned to play by the rules of the business world.

As a business mentor, what are some common challenges that emerging artists and art managers face, and what advice do you often find yourself giving?

I’ll be short here:

•     Constancy and discipline every day,
•     Dedicate time to audit, thinking, analysis, benchmarking, scheduling,
•     Combine “down to earth” practical approach (ex. passive income, plan B, etc) with inspiration and improvisation

With your skills in digital innovation, how do you see technology further influencing the art world, and how is TAtchers adapting to or pioneering these changes?

Taking into account that the art world is a rather conservative sphere, nevertheless, we see how technology is increasingly taking over it and this process will certainly continue. More and more technological services will help art take place – online and virtual galleries, multifunctional marketplaces, digital twins, AI tools for artists and art managers, cryptocurrency art auctions and humanitarian initiatives, and so on. We always master new technologies in our projects, experiment, and try to educate the artists we work with.

How do you perceive the ethical considerations emerging from utilizing AI in art, especially when it delves into topics like consciousness transfer and digital immortality? 

Despite some panic among old-school artists regarding artificial intelligence, we see the growing interest in this tool as a very positive phenomenon. This is a challenge for an artist, but certainly an interesting one. Teaching a neural network, formulating a problem, and getting the desired options out of a billion possible ones is a very interesting adventure for an artist. The digital immortality born of this experiment will certainly be studied by anthropologists of the future.

How have you evolved as a leader and art strategist over the years, and what have been your key learnings? 

I secured my first leadership position in the international events department before I was 25, and I’ve always prioritized learning and investing in my education. This approach has been vital to my success. In my journey, I’ve adhered to three main principles: maintaining discipline, as the order is crucial even in the flexible world of art; focusing deeply on my chosen field to continuously grow my expertise; and remaining open to collaboration, always valuing the insights of my team and experts in related fields. This blend of self-discipline, focused development, and collaborative spirit has been instrumental in shaping my career.

What advice would you give to young artists and/or professionals looking to carve out a career in the intersection of art, management, and international cultural projects?

I would recommend using every day to learn something new – techniques, and tools, to network with passion, find colleagues and like-minded people around the world, to learn languages and cultures, this helps to be prepared for every situation and meeting, not be afraid to go to distant countries and take on challenging projects.

Are there any upcoming projects or initiatives at TAtchers’ that you’re particularly excited about?

I am thrilled to continue to work on humanitarian initiatives that we were supporting, such as Art Ambassadors, ArtSI – Art and Social Impact (www.artsi.art), and Culture under Pressure (www.cultureunderpressure.art). In May we launched an exhibition that contains some documentation from our ongoing Dark Paradise project — www.darkparadiseproject.art

The next big milestone of this project by Paul Rosero will be in 2024 when it will be exhibited in Los Angeles (USA) in the frames of the Pacific Standard Time project (www.pst.art), organized by the Getty Foundation.

In 2024 we are launching 3 educational programs for art managers and artists. The first is devoted to strategies in art and creative industries. The second will take you into the world of international art PR. And the third one in the Art Tech segment, is dedicated to art in the digital dimension.

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