Free tools that simplify daily gallery management

01Managing collector relationships

The relationship with collectors is the lifeblood of any gallery. Knowing who bought what, when, at what price, what preferences they expressed, when they were last contacted: this information constitutes a capital that, when well exploited, transforms a one-off sale into a lasting relationship. Many dealers continue to manage this information in their memory, in notebooks or in a rudimentary spreadsheet. This approach works as long as the number of collectors remains small, but it rapidly becomes unmanageable as the gallery develops and the contact file exceeds a few dozen names.

Google Sheets and its equivalent LibreOffice Calc offer a solid foundation for building a structured collector file. The advantage of Google Sheets lies in its accessibility from any device and the ability to share the document with gallery staff. A well-constructed spreadsheet with columns for name, contact details, purchase history, artistic preferences, date of last contact and notes on the collector's tastes effectively replaces client relationship management software for a small or mid-sized gallery. The essential point is to keep this file updated after each significant interaction: a collector who returns three months after a first visit will be pleasantly surprised if you remember their interests.

For galleries wishing to go further without spending, HubSpot offers a free CRM that tracks interactions with each contact, records email exchanges and schedules follow-up reminders. The free version is limited in advanced features but broadly covers the needs of a gallery seeking to professionalise its client management. The interface is intuitive and getting started requires no particular technical skills.

02Archiving and managing works

The inventory of works is one of the most time-consuming and most neglected tasks. Each work entering the gallery, whether on consignment or purchased outright, must be photographed, documented (title, dimensions, medium, date, price) and tracked until its sale or return. Errors in this inventory can have serious consequences: lost works, disputes with artists over consignments, inability to reconstruct a piece's history for a certificate of authenticity.

Google Drive or its alternative Nextcloud (free when self-hosted) offers organised storage for photographs and documents associated with works. A clear folder structure — one folder per artist, one subfolder per work containing high-resolution images, technical specifications and consignment documents — allows instant retrieval of any information. This organisation, which seems elementary, is absent in a surprising number of galleries where photographs of works are scattered across hard drives, USB sticks, emails and mobile phones.

Notion, in its free version, can serve as an inventory database with entries per work including images, metadata, status (in gallery, on consignment, sold, on loan) and movement history. Its visual interface, which displays entries as an image gallery or spreadsheet, suits the visual nature of gallery work well. Airtable, in its free version, offers similar functionality with an enriched spreadsheet interface that suits dealers accustomed to working with Excel files.

03Communication and newsletters

Regular communication with collectors, journalists and institutional partners is a development lever that many galleries underuse for lack of time or resources. Sending a monthly or bi-monthly newsletter informing recipients of current exhibitions, upcoming fairs and news about represented artists keeps the gallery in the mental landscape of its interlocutors. A collector who receives a polished newsletter each month retains your gallery in their field of vision, even if they are not buying immediately.

Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) offers a free plan allowing up to three hundred emails per day with customisable templates and open-rate tracking. Mailchimp, in its free version, allows mailings to a list of five hundred contacts with basic segmentation tools. Both platforms suffice for the majority of small and mid-sized galleries, whose mailing lists rarely exceed a few hundred active contacts.

The editorial and visual quality of the newsletter matters more than its frequency. Galerie Kamel Mennour sends polished newsletters combining a strong image, a short text and a link to the site. Galerie Almine Rech offers editorial content that goes beyond the simple announcement. These examples demonstrate that an effective newsletter does not require a large budget but rather attention to content and presentation. A poorly formatted email with blurry images and approximate text harms your image more than it serves it.

04Accounting and financial tracking

The accounting of a gallery, even a small one, cannot be improvised. Tracking sales, consignments, artist commissions, fair costs and running expenses requires a structured tool. Wave, a free accounting platform, manages invoicing, expense tracking and financial report generation. Its interface is designed for small businesses and adapts well to the specificities of the art trade, where cash flows are irregular and a single sale can represent an entire month's turnover.

Google Sheets can again serve as an intermediate solution for galleries that prefer not to multiply tools. A sales tracking spreadsheet, linked with the collector file and the inventory file, offers a consolidated view of the gallery's commercial activity. The essential point is that financial information be centralised in a single tool rather than scattered among paper invoices, emails and handwritten notes. Consignment tracking deserves particular attention: each work received on consignment should carry a reception date, an agreed price and a payment schedule in case of sale, and this information must be immediately accessible should the artist enquire.

05Project management and exhibition preparation

Preparing an exhibition involves numerous interdependent tasks: selecting works, writing the press release, printing invitation cards, organising transport, coordinating hanging, planning the opening, sending invitations, coordinating with the photographer for installation views. Coordinating these tasks, often done from memory or through email exchanges, benefits from being structured in a project management tool.

Trello, in its free version, allows creating a board per exhibition with columns for preparation stages (planning, in progress, completed) and cards for each task, assignable to team members with deadlines. This simple but effective visualisation prevents oversights and allows every team member to know exactly where preparation stands. A dealer who has forgotten to order invitation cards two days before the opening knows how a simple tracking tool could have prevented that situation.

Asana, another project management tool, offers a free version integrating task tracking, calendar and team communication features. Its interface is more comprehensive than Trello's and suits galleries whose team includes several people who must coordinate their daily work.

06Social media presence

Social media has become an essential communication channel for art galleries. Instagram in particular is the art world's network of choice: its visual nature makes it a natural tool for showing works, exhibition views and gallery life. Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, with several hundred thousand Instagram followers, has demonstrated that an active social media presence can contribute to a gallery's international reputation. Galleria Continua, based in San Gimignano, Havana, Beijing, Rome, Sao Paulo and Paris, uses Instagram to showcase the geographic diversity of its activities and to create a visual narrative that transcends the boundaries of each space.

Managing several social networks simultaneously (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn) can be streamlined through free scheduling tools. Later, in its free version, allows scheduling Instagram posts in advance and previewing the feed before publication. Buffer offers a free plan managing three social accounts with post scheduling. These tools enable the dealer to prepare a week's or month's communication in a single work session, rather than posting on the fly with the interruptions and lost time that entails.

07Connecting these tools into a coherent system

The challenge is not to accumulate tools but to connect them in a logical workflow. A simple and effective system might be organised as follows: Google Drive for image and document storage, Google Sheets or Notion for inventory and the collector file, Brevo for newsletters, Trello for project management and Buffer for social media. These five free tools, combined, cover the essential administrative and communication needs of a gallery.

The key is discipline: each incoming work is immediately photographed and recorded in the inventory; each collector contact is added to the file with their preferences; each task linked to an exhibition is created in the project manager. This initial rigour requires an adaptation effort but produces, within a few weeks, a time saving and peace of mind that frees the dealer for what truly matters: looking at art, supporting artists and building lasting relationships with collectors.

Artedusa partner galleries already have, through the platform, an online presentation and sales tool that integrates naturally into this ecosystem of free tools, handling the international showcase that the dealer no longer needs to build alone.