Art Gallery Business Insurance

Art galleries are places where people can come to view and buy works of art: sculptures, paintings, prints, and other types of art are typically for sale. As the owner of a business, which sells products to the consumer, you need to be covered in the case of an accident. Running an art gallery is safer than many businesses, but it is not free from unexpected occurrences. To protect yourself, your business, and your assets, you need to have a comprehensive small business insurance policy.

General Liability

Property Coverage

Workers Compensation

Art Galleries General Liability Insurance

The basic type of coverage you will have in any commercial insurance policy is general liability. This gives you broad protection from a variety of incidents. It can cover your expenses when someone is injured in your gallery, when a customer sues your business, or if someone entering your gallery loses or has personal property damaged. There are many things that can happen that you will not expect and general liability is designed to cover most of them. The three main areas of coverage include:

Premises Liability – Your premises, or your gallery space, is a place where customers, employees, mail carriers, delivery workers, and others come and go frequently. You and your business are liable for injuries and damages that occur there. The premises liability portion of your business insurance will cover your costs if a visitor falls on a wet floor, has wine spilled on their dress, and in many other instances.
Products Liability – The products liability component of your commercial business insurance protects you from complaints lodged regarding the products you sell. If, for instance, a customer purchases a painting and the equipment for hanging it, a faulty piece may cause it to fall from the wall and cause damage. In that case, you will be protected from costs for repairs and litigation.
Completed Operations – Your business insurance will also come with completed operations coverage. This covers you in the case that your customers have a complaint after the completion of contractual work.

Art Gallery Business Owners Policy

As a business owner, you have several needs for your commercial insurance. You can package them all together into a business owners policy, or BOP. A BOP will come with general liability to which you may add coverage such as coverage for additional galleries as you open them, employee dishonesty coverage, protection of electronic data, and many other types of coverage.

Workers Comp Insurance For Art Galleries

You likely employ one or more people in your gallery, which means you are required to carry workers compensation as part of your small business insurance. Workers compensation covers costs associated with an employee’s illness or injury that results from working for you. This could include an accidental injury in the gallery or an illness caused by exposure to materials in the building. The coverage includes medical costs as well as missed income for recuperation time.

Art Gallery Commercial Umbrella Policy

In the case that a drastic event occurs and causes extensive damage, you may wish to have commercial umbrella within your business insurance policy. If an event is serious enough, it may cause damage, the costs of which use up your general liability limits. With commercial umbrella, you will have additional funds to make more repairs and to get your gallery up and running again.