Art Production
We produce art projects end-to-end, putting business excellence in the service of art.
We challenge the all-or-nothing nature of the art world.
We give each project a standalone entity, so that the artist creates it,
the sponsor lives it, and we make it a reality.
The artist decides on their career without sacrificing their ambition.
The artist is the owner of their own work, and it falls to them alone to decide the business strategy that best represents it: a linear creation over time, a succession of projects, each a standalone entity, or a combination of both.
To decide that strategy, true to oneself, is to have control of one’s career.
Giving each project a standalone entity makes it viable, artistically and as a business, to work project by project.
Each one is designed to sustain itself, with its own business, communications, and physical production, and with no considerations other than the success of the project and its contribution to advancing the artist’s career.
The project can be as artistically ambitious as it can sustain, since it depends on no outside financial structures or business strategies.
Making a project like this a reality calls for a partner who takes charge of its production, leaving the artist the strategic decisions on their career.
The sponsor is part of the project, not simply making a transaction.
The mere purchase of work does not fulfill a sponsor with a vocation for legacy, who seeks purpose and connection with what they admire. They want to choose the artist and the project they identify with most, and to live the process at their side, involved, not as a spectator of a result already finished.
Giving each project a standalone entity makes it possible.
The sponsor chooses, project by project, where to get involved and to what extent. They are with the project from its conception, step inside it, and live it from within.
They remain bound to the project, which becomes part of their legacy.
Salas Santamaría makes the project a reality, with no agenda other than seeing it through to success.
Our only agenda is the project, because our business model rests exclusively on its success.
Salas Santamaría is born to turn ventures with a standalone entity into reality, and is designed for exactly that. That is why our agenda is transparent.
Career decisions belong to the artist, and investment decisions to the sponsor.
What we earn depends on the project, and the project alone.
We also act with the mindset of partners that defines Salas Santamaría, getting personally involved and taking responsibility for the project’s success.
We make the art project a reality, leading its production end-to-end: business, communications, and physical.
Salas Santamaría is built, from its inception, as a business platform to turn projects with a standalone entity into reality, especially in the art world.
We specialize in turning an idea into an operating business.
Our business model centers its value on the creation of business venture, one at a time.
We decide and execute as partners. We align with the other founding partners and, from there, we take the lead and answer for the result.
SSurge® is our proprietary methodology. It brings together the best practices of the disciplines that create companies and adapts them to projects that must have a standalone entity.
We produce with the authority of someone who has led large-scale business projects.
The territory from which Salas Santamaría operates is the intersection of the professional experiences of its founder, Juan Salas, forged at the helm of his family business and in leadership positions at global corporations.
We lead the project end-to-end with the mindset of a business owner. We decide with the agility and responsibility of someone with skin in the game.
We plan with the rigor of strategic consulting, on the best practices of the global consulting firms where Juan Salas has led projects (Booz & Co. and Accenture).
And we execute with the ambition and standards of excellence of the major global corporations where he has held leadership positions (Oracle and Accenture).
We put business excellence at the service of art.
In the age of massive standardization by AI, as companies and leaders with a humanist vocation we must devote our best resources to advancing human authenticity.
And in its purest form, art.
Juan Salas has made this conviction his own, and from there founded Salas Santamaría.
He brings everything he has learned at the forefront of the global technological transformation to turning into reality ventures that bet on human authenticity as a competitive advantage.
With our partners, we share more than just a project: the vocation for a legacy.
We conceive the ideal of each project, and create around it the structure that makes it a reality.
Making the project the axis of the model allows us to conceive it with no limit other than the ambition of its founders and the resources the project can raise
We reconcile ambition with what is possible and make the project a reality. We assemble the coalition of actors, raise the resources, and lead the execution.
As specialists in venture creation, we give each one a standalone entity with the highest business excellence.
Every project is unique, but the way we make it a reality is a replicable, scalable methodology.
Every project is unique, but the way we make it a reality is a replicable, scalable methodology.
We orchestrate the entire production of the project, to make it a reality with fidelity to the vision shared between the artist and the sponsor.
The artist’s desire for greater control over their career without reducing their ambition, and the sponsors’ desire to live art projects from within, mark a new dynamic in the art world.
Producing a project in this model demands bringing together, under a single leadership, the communications and sales of a gallery, the execution of a production company, and a business architecture tailored to the project.
Salas Santamaría is born precisely to provide the business response to this new dynamic and to make art projects a reality, orchestrating their production end-to-end.
Business
production
production
- We design its business model.
- We shape its legal structure.
- We raise and structure its capital.
- We measure performance against the plan and deliver the return.
Communications
production
production
- We create the narrative and design its press and media strategy.
- We earn the endorsement of those who give the project legitimacy and reach.
- We direct the specialist vendors.
- We measure the project’s public impact.
Physical
production
production
- We translate the artist’s vision into production specifications.
- We direct the production process.
- We transport the work to its site.
- We erect the work and leave it ready.
- We care for the work while on view and manage its removal.
Budgetary rigor and fidelity to the work govern every production decision.
SSurge®, our venture creation method, structures the production of the art project across its four phases. It turns the idea into a work of art.
The SSurge® Method for the Production of Art Projects.
01
Analysis
02
Design
03
Construction
04
Closing
Analysis
First step
We conceive the ideal of the project, with no limit other than the ambition of its founders (Artist and/or Sponsor).
Milestone reached
Ideal project defined
Second step
We identify the productive resources—artistic, financial, and material—available to the project.
Milestone reached
Project resources identified
Third step
We balance ambition with the project's possibilities and define a viable project.
Commercial
Communication
Material
Milestone reached
Viable project defined
Design
We create a custom structure for the project that brings it to life, defining every activity in detail.
Commercial
- Business model
- Legal structure
- Financial structure
- Measurement and return
Communication
- Narrative and strategy
- Endorsement and scope
- Direct to specialists
- Measure its impact
Material
- Specifications
- Production process
- Relocation
- Installation
- Support and withdrawal
Milestone reached
Designed project
Construction
Once the final project is validated by all three parties, we take charge of building it and bringing it to life.
Commercial
- Legal structure
- Financial structure
Communication
- Narrative and strategy
- Endorsement and scope
- Directing specialists
Materials
- Production process
- Relocation
- Installation
Milestone reached
Project comes to life
Closure
Only the tasks that didn't make sense before the project existed remain: measuring what it produced and supporting its decommissioning.
Commercial
- Measurement and return
Communication
- Measure its impact
Materials
- Support and decommissioning
Milestone reached
Project completed
