Good practice:

JOYA Barcelona – new ways of selling in a fair

Since its first edition, JOYA Barcelona main goal has been to promote art jewellery. The 12th edition of JOYA focused on the incorporation of new technologies in traditional crafts, however, the current global pandemic situation made the organizers rethink its goals and commitment to the artistic community.

This commitment led them to reinvent it to continue being an exhibition space and meeting point for the artists nowadays. Almost all contemporary jewellery fairs in Europe had to cancel their 2020 edition. But JOYA Barcelona was not cancelled. It changed the format and offered a service to exhibitors in an unprecedented way. The impossibility of presenting their pieces in person in Barcelona, made them change the traditional fair format, to an exhibition format combined with a previous sale of the pieces to professionals, together with an online sale and auction for the public.

The financial resources were the salaries of the people who organized both the pre-sale and the online sale: 5 people were necessary.

The creativity and flexibility of the JOYA team has allowed making this exceptional edition of the fair profitable for the participants and the organization: 215 pieces were selected for the exhibition. 130 of those have been previously selected or acquired by national and international galleries or museums and 10 pieces were sold online at a later stage. A total of 140 pieces sold out of a total of the 215 exhibited pieces.

The main uncertainty was the current situation, the galleries hesitated to select since many had to close their doors for a few months due to the pandemic, but in the end they decided to bet on the creations.

Almost all contemporary jewellery fairs in Europe had to cancel their 2020 edition. JOYA Barcelona was not cancelled, it changed the format and offered a service to exhibitors in an unprecedented way. The creators sent the pieces from their home countries, they were exhibited and almost half of them have been bought or located in national and international galleries or museums.