Meet the first-year college students who started a platform for digital artists

As a passionate digital artist, Anuskha Balaraj, a student of Babson University in Massachusetts, USA, had realised the impact the pandemic had on digital artists. 

“COVID has been a challenge in the sense that it limits personal interactions to share the depth of talent we will likely represent over time. However, we try our best to be opportunistic even in the most adverse situations. So, we took the pandemic as an opportunity to strengthen our skills online, and this proved to be an advantage when it came to recruiting talent on a more global scale,” Anushka says.

Not wasting any time, Anushka and Sumitra Natesan, her childhood friend, started The Leap Gallery in Bengaluru in 2021. 

What does the platform do? 

The platform aims and focuses on discovering highly talented, young, digital artists, and helping them gain visibility to build their brand as artists and creators. All this while trying to fulfil the mission to create a global network and community of potential artists who strive to give life to their passion.

“We started up through our network that expands to several corners of the world.  The main challenge we are facing is the discovery of young creator talent while defying multiple social norms that both young entrepreneurs and digital artists face,” Anushka says. 

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Multiple alternatives 

Both Anushka and Sumitra describe themselves as creative individuals with an eye and interest for art since a young age. 

“Over the last year, the two of us have gone through several alternatives for operations and have constantly reinvented ourselves to make the business, more specifically the digital platforms, more flexible, noticeable, and accessible to our clients and collectors all over the world,” Sumitra says.  

The duo are both first year college students, with Anushka studying entrepreneurship in the US and Sumitra studying business at Christ College, Bengaluru.

Early days 

The Leap Gallery is in the early stages of revenues, and according to the young founders, it is “currently focusing more on building the network of artists we represent and gaining visibility from the audience.”

“As for traction, we are starting to gain a substantial online following with the help of collaborations and tie-ups with artists as well as art lovers. We have a good market for our products around the world, and we hope to see this growth escalate positively in the years to come. We are happy but consistently aim for higher,” Anushka says.

Digital art marketplaces are very new and an emerging field. Traditionally, art has been sold by older established galleries.

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What about NFTs? 

With “nonfungible token” or NFTs taking the world of digital art by storm, how do the young founders see this trend panning? “

We want young artists to cultivate a young buyer audience globally. We will also look to explore the NFT space once the regulatory environment around cryptos and NFTs are clear here,” the duo maintain. 

According to them, as a gallery, they stand out by adopting one unique aspect: being futuristic. 

“The focus is on change and progress, and we enjoy being part of it. We have stepped out of our comfort zones to challenge ourselves, which is a feature we feel makes us different from a lot of galleries out there,” Sumitra says .

According to the current model of business, customers can buy a high-quality print of a digital art work through The Leap Gallery (TLG).

The team of five works closely with a very efficient printer with years of experience in the field. The final product is then shipped and safely delivered to the door of the art collector 

“We have had happy reviews from all our customers to date and love how they show off their piece of TLG. We aim to consistently grow and build our artist base and explore ways to open new and more channels of buyers who appreciate digital art. We also wish to promote digital artists and give them the same respect and fame conventional artists receive,” conclude the young founders.