Identifying Venues for Fine Artists

For the entire Fine Art Marketing course please visit:
http://art-and-art-history-academy.usefedora.com/

A lot of artists when they first begin to make art start thinking about where to sell it. I know my first fantasy was that I was going to be able to show it art museums and become a famous artist who showed in New York galleries. This may come true for some people but for the majority of us it doesn’t. Partly because were not hooked up with the right social set and also because we don’t know what were doing. The first part of understanding how to become an artist’s understanding exhibition venues.

It’s important to understand these two questions.

What do museums and galleries do?  

What is their role or mission?

Museums and Galleries

Museums and galleries have different missions. In short, museums are exhibition spaces that are designed to educate, however, art galleries do sometimes do that but the bottom line is of course the bottom line, selling the art they are exhibiting in order to make a profit.

There are exceptions to this. For example, I worked with the gallery called Arthaus and the gallery manager James Baci explained to me that even though a show I had, which was very popular and had hundreds of visitors, didn’t make much money it was okay with him because he sold a lot of art as a consultant. In effect he looked at it as long-term advertising and educating people about my art. Most galleries won’t take a risk like that on you unless they think that they can sell all your work. Annette Schutz and James Baci at the Arthaus Gallery are exceptional Galleries’s who were very kind and care about their artists.

The Art Museum

Art museums have two different kinds of exhibitions. They often showcase a permanent collection and they also have traveling or visiting shows. The visiting shows are often designed as a type of “blockbuster exhibition” which has to bring an audience in because a static permanent collection often doesn’t bring in a lot of people. A blockbuster show needs to have an artist and it or a group of artists who have immediate name recognition and are notorious. Meaning that they have a lot of notoriety. They have a proven track record of having reviews written about them and they also have a big sales record and a lot of collectors. If you’re reading this that’s probably not you.  Here’s an outline of some of the artists with links to the shows that I discussed in the video.

Bill Viola

Robert Mapplethorpe

Andre Serrano

Blockbuster: Historical, Tut, Impressionism, Picasso and Matisse

Art Galleries

Of course there is a range of different kinds of art galleries and museums and they range from really well attended and well-funded and popular to the absolute duds like the PEZ Museum in Redwood City.

One venue that a lot of artists like to show in when they are first beginning are community art centers and art leagues. These places are fine however there’s a lot of politics involved for very little sales and even though they’ll hook you up with the community it might not be a community that’s very nurturing. I know this is contrary to popular belief but you should really think about this. My experience with community art centers and art leagues is that there are a bunch of people vying for attention and competing with each other and it leads to really bad politics.

Here are some examples,

Community Centers,

Livermore Art Association,

Pacific Art League

Art Clubs

Probably the best venues for you to sell your work are commercial art galleries and these come in a variety of missions and levels.  The nice thing about commercial art galleries is that they want to sell your work as much as you want to sell your work. However, often if they are not of the highest variety they really don’t know much about marketing and don’t have the social positioning or authority to make an artist career unless there are really high and art gallery. Even today, my suspicion is that art galleries may be not as efficient at selling your work as they were in the last 50 years. Something I’ll get back to later in this series is that I believe that if you’re a mid-level artist it’s probably better to sell your own work out of your studio and on the Internet.

Here are some examples of high and art galleries.

Marlborogh Gallery

John Pence Gallery

Modernism

Gallery Henoch

Middle Level Art Galleries

Middle level art galleries are a better bet for an artist who is making high quality artwork and beginning to get some recognition. They are often just as hard to get into as high level art galleries. In order to do this you’ll need to put together a package that includes a resume, press releases, images of your work and probably some throwaways like exhibition cards and postcards. I’ll return to this later on in this series. I also addressed this in my class online.

Shooting Gallery/White Walls (Groovy)

Jenkins Johnson

Bryant Street Gallery Palo Alto

Bryant Galleries

Consignment

Hang Gallery

ArtHaus

Vanity Galleries are galleries that you don’t want to get involved with. The way that you can tell a gallery is a so-called is a so-called “vanity gallery” is that they charge you to exhibit your work there. Basically they’re not taking a risk on you and so they’re not gonna work very hard to sell your work. Of course there’s always exceptions to this rule but I would stay away from vanity galleries.

Online Galleries

In my experience I really feel that online galleries are the way to go. Especially for an artist is just starting out and for mid-level artists who have a body of work and are having a hard time moving the work. Here are some examples of online galleries and spaces that are alternate places to show your work and sell them.

Etsy (My favorite)

Source for list: http://theabundantartist.com/15-ways-to-sell-your-art-online/

1. ArtPal – Fast-growing FREE gallery to sell art and buy art. No membership fees. You receive 95%-100% when they sell your art. ArtPal earns money only when they sell your art. Sell any type of art. ArtPal also has a free Print-on-Demand service.*
2. Etsy – a community of artists who make hand crafted pieces.  See our post on How to Sell Your Art on Etsy.
3. Artsy.net – a massive, venture-funded online gallery that sells art from thousands of artists from all over the world. “Artsy’s mission is to make all the world’s art accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. We are a resource for art collecting and education.”
4. Ebay – the world’s largest auction site.  Follow @ebayart on Twitter to get an idea of what kind of art does well on ebay.
5. Amazon – the single largest directory of online stores, Amazon turned itself into one of the world’s largest retailers by creating a platform for anyone to sell anything.  There are literally thousands of stores that use Amazon as their main source of sales.  If you make handmade jewelry, Amazon has a section just for you on their front page.
6. Imagekind.com – high quality printing & framing, community, and marketing tips. See Imagekind Power Selling Tips.
7. Cafepress.com – for designing shirts, other screen printed things
8. Craigslist – in certain cities, people use Craigslist for everything.  In Portland, I have seen everything from couches, to cars, to beautiful pieces of art for sale.  Think of it as the world’s largest classified ad.
9. Artfire.com – a little bit like Etsy, but with a different focus. ArtFire’s Community Directed Development asks their artists to tell them what kind of features and products to build.
10. DailyOriginal.com – feature one piece of art each day on the site.
11. EmptyEasel.com – the most comprehensive guide to selling paintings on the internet.
12. Art.com – One of the largest sites for selling art online.
13. FineArtAmerica.com – sell prints at any price you want to set
14. Foliotwist.com – ready made art websites w/Paypal shopping cart built in
15. Yessy.com – One of the oldest, most popular sites for selling art online.
16. (BONUS) One on One Business Coaching for Artists – if you are very serious about your work and have the money to hire a professional.
17. (BONUS) Iamattitude.com – alternative clothing marketplace

A list of 250 places to sell your work is here:

http://www.artsyshark.com/125-places-to-sell/ 

For the entire Fine Art Marketing course please visit:
http://art-and-art-history-academy.usefedora.com/

Just a share. Finding a gallery that has art similar to yours and how to apply to that gallery by email.

Just a share.  Finding a gallery that has art similar to yours and how to apply to that gallery by email.

Storing Packaging and Shipping Flat Art - Also I reposted my other how to market videos. (THIS IS NOT A SELF PROMO JUST A SHARE)

This is just a share about how to save some money shipping art.  I've figured out where to get boxes and also some ways to store, package and ship my work.  It's not a promo about my work.

#4 Art Marketing: Introduction to Various Venues to Exhibit In

What do museums and galleries do?  What is their role or mission?

• Museums and Galleries
• Permanent vs. visiting shows
• introduce/educate/aggravate/inflame
• Bill Viola
• Robert Mapplethorpe
• Andre Serrano
• Thesis for shows (money and public outreach)
• Blockbuster: Historical, Tut, Impressionism, Picasso and Matisse
• Legion and de Young
• Cantor Center
• Different kinds of museums/galleries.
• Art, History, Tech, Natural History, Private (Pez)
• Community Centers, Livermore, Pacific Art League, Clubs
• Commercial
• Different levels of galleries.
• High end
• Marlborogh Gallery
• John Pence Gallery
• Modernism
• Gallery Henoch
• Middle
• Shooting Gallery/White Walls (Groovy)
• Jenkins Johnson
• Bryant Street Gallery Palo Alto
• Bryant Galleries
• Consignment
• Hang Gallery
• ArtHaus
• Vanity Galleries
• Online Galleries
• Etsy.com
• The Artists Alley SF

#3 Marketing your Art: If you want to sell art, you should buy some art to see how it feels.

In my last two blog posts I suggested that quality of artwork was the most important thing that you could start with in terms of marketing your art. Just to insert a quick aside into this post, I also suggest that you buy some art from other artists to see how it feels for the customer who is buying art online or in an art gallery. If you bought art from someone else and you had to spend money on it you’ll get a good idea of how it feels to have to part with that money.

I think it problem that most of us have is that we actually believe that somehow our art is more special than other people’s art. This may not be the case. Developing a sense of what it’s like on the other side of the purchase will help you to understand how hard it is to actually push the button or pull the trigger on a purchase. Meaning you’ll understand how hard it is to actually spend some money on art.

My own personal anecdotes about buying art have a lot to do with seeing someone’s art that I thought was incredibly powerful and longing to own it but not having enough money to buy it. One example of this is that around 25 years ago when I was in graduate school I visited an artist studio. The artist who I’m still friends with is named David Tomb.  (http://davidtomb.com/)

David’s work was so incredible to me and so head and shoulders above everything that I ever did that I totally wanted to own a piece. I had been to some of his shows in San Francisco at important art galleries. So when his girlfriend invited me for a studio visit I was in awe of his work. I didn’t have a lot of money because I was still in school and I asked him if I could buy one. At that point I didn’t even know which one I wanted I just knew that I wanted to own a piece of art by the guy. I offered him $200 because that was the limit that I could afford and I figured it was the least offending amount. He accepted, and I walked out of his studio with the piece of art, but I didn’t have my checkbook or any cash on me and I still hadn’t paid.

A couple of weeks later, his girlfriend asked me to write him a check, it was really painful writing a check for $200 to someone for their art when I wasn’t selling any of my own and I found myself feeling envious, a little offended that I had to pay money, and I also realized how he must feel having not gotten a check in a timely manner. It taught me what it felt like to part with the money and how he must’ve felt, embarrassed probably to have to ask me for the money through his girlfriend.

Since then I’ve consistently had people ask to buy artwork from me and ask for me to do commissions. I’ve been trying to get my head around doing commissions because they’re harder than making art that just comes from me. I’ve been doing it, but often, after I’ve made the art people have a hard time going to the website where I sell the art, Etsy.com, and actually paying for it even though they commissioned the work. It’s a kind of friction that people don’t expect to have when they ask to have a piece of art made. When this happens I always think about how hard it was for me to buy a work of art and so I have empathy for those people.

So over the last 25 years or so my wife and I have amassed a small collection of art that I really like. What I’ve noticed is that I sometimes feel angry that I have to pay more for someone else’s art than I pay for my own. There’s a little devil on my shoulder saying, “why is this artists work worth more than mine?” And I always have to think about what it must feel like for other people to spend money on my work. My compromise, is that I have a price point that I’m willing to pay for art and the limit of what I’m willing to pay is usually in the $50-$300 range. This limits the kind of art I can buy but it also means I can buy more art. Sometimes I buy are online and am a little disappointed with it and the quality of the art doesn’t stand up to close scrutiny. Other things that can bug me are that sometimes people don’t pack the art well and I’ve gotten works of art that have been damaged in shipping.

The take away that I want you to have from my comments above is that to be an artist I think it’s important to experience the process of buying art from both sides.

#2 Art Marketing and Prices (It's nicer to be nice.)

Marketing and Prices

Main ideas:

One, always be nice, gracious, and appreciative of clients, collectors, support people, and the people who run the galleries that you show in. You have to be sincere and you have to really understand that they’re doing you a favor.

Two, don’t overvalue yourself or your artwork and only when you start selling everything that you make should you really consider raising your prices.

There was a movie work when Eastwood once said, “A man’s got to know his limitations.”

I think the same is true about valuing oneself and one’s work as an artist. I know that in the last 50 or so years we’ve all been brought up to be the kind of people who value ourselves. However, in an age where everyone gets a trophy for showing up to sports practice and games, sometimes we tend to overvalue our worth and the value of our art.

Please don’t be offended but we are not all Leonardos.  

Starting with behavior, we all including myself have to realize that there are probably at least hundreds of people who can do exactly what we are able to do. Competition is stiff. 

In my experience running a gallery at the school where I teach, Ohlone community college in Fremont California, I ran the art gallery for couple of years. My experience is that a lot of artists who I showed were very “entitled.” They weren’t really gracious nor did they roll with problems that happened in exhibiting in my rinky-dink on important little community college art gallery. Often they acted like my students were unimportant.  (These students are actually long term clients who may buy your art long after they graduate.)

People who exhibited acted kind of snarky at times especially with my students who were helping. 

Say it again, "The same audience who could buy there art in several year's time."

As a gallery director I can call them on it but all these people overvalued my gallery but also overvalued the experience of showing in the gallery. I guess what I’m trying to say is they should’ve been a hell of a lot nicer and a lot less demanding. 

Of course there were many of the artists who were totally cool, gracious, and were sincerely grateful to have a show.

I’m not trying to be arrogant, however, I’m really good at being super cool and gracious when I am given a show at art galleries. I don’t get huffy and I don’t get demanding with the gallery directors. I don’t worry about how the work is being hung because they know what they’re doing and I have to trust them. 

I also really try to be empathic with the demands that they have to deal with both in terms of money and in terms of the demands of their customers. I felt that any gallery show that I got was a gift because the gallery itself was taking an enormous risk on me by spending a month of their walls to show my work. If you look at how much commercial space is cost sometimes there is much as 50,000 a month. Of course in smaller towns, which have less important galleries, the overhead is really much smaller however the cost that that galleries laying out our proportionate to the cost of living in that area. 

When you factor in advertising, the fact that they man the gallery for eight hours a day, and the aggravation that they have to put up with and the ass kissing that they have to do with both the artists and the client to come in I think 50% is a little small of a percentage for them to take on selling my work.

The lesson is they are outlaying a ton of money and time to represent you and if you’re snotty arrogant and demanding that I can ask you back unless you make double their rent that month. I learned that I needed to get over myself and I needed to get over how much I thought of my work. The bottom line is I don’t think I ever really covered a gallery’s expenses by having a one person show at a gallery.

Okay let’s talk about pricing.

In galleries since they have to make so much money to cover their overhead, rent, advertising, and other incidentals they have to charge a lot for your artwork. If they charge $5000 and only sell one painting at $5000 and their rent is $10,000 they are screwed financially. So most galleries do try to inflate your prices and try to get more money. When I was young man, about 15 years ago, I showed it a very commercially successful gallery. I didn’t understand the things that I was talking about above and so the gallery would ask me how much I wanted for painting and I would say $300, the gallery would then mark the painting up to about $1200 and I would get a check for $300 for my painting. I didn’t understand at the time that that was okay or cool. And so I raise my prices to $600 and they had to compensate by raising it even more. It was kind of like a cold nuclear war. Of course I lost the war because eventually I out priced myself and was no longer a deal for my collectors.

Now I’m showing online on Etsy.com. Almost all of my work is priced below $100. Friends of mine often tell me I need to raise my prices. I did a little while ago and the result was I sold a lot less artwork. When I looked at my inventory, from a supply and demand kind of orientation, I have nearly 500 works of art for sale and it doesn’t look like I’m going to sell out of my inventory anytime soon. Even though I’m getting a lot of pressure from my wife and my friends to, “get what I deserve for my work.” I am still warehousing 500 works of art.

I’ve decided that when the demand for my art work exceeds my inventory that is when I will raise my prices. I do sell a lot of work usually about 10 to 15 things a month but I’m always in the studio working. I also try to give away at least 10 to 15 works of art a month and the way that I do this is that I often throw in an extra work when clients by a painting or drawing I give them something of the same subject and size. I don’t tell them that I’m in a do this. I also spend a lot of time on Facebook looking at photographs of dogs and primarily Chihuahuas. I love dogs and so I’m always sitting around at night drawing these pictures and so I Facebook message the people whose dog it is and a lot of times I’ll send it to them for free.

I guess the takeaways from what I’ve been discussing are,

One, always be nice, gracious, and appreciative of clients, collectors, support people, and the people who run the galleries that you show in. You have to be sincere and you have to really understand that they’re doing you a favor.

Two, don’t overvalue yourself or your artwork and only when you start selling everything that you make should you really consider raising your prices.

I totally understand that a lot of people can disagree with me on this and think that I’m not valuing myself enough but if you give something to someone and they feel that they got a deal and you are both satisfied with the transaction you both win instead of you running out and saying “I won I won I won!” Both of you get to say, “wasn’t that a nice experience.”

Oh yeah.  Here's a sample of how I price my work.  YES size counts!

http://kenney-mencher.com/
Kenney Mencher

18x24 Painting $128
18x24 Drawing $118

16x20 Painting $98
16x20 Drawing $88

11x14 Painting $78
11x14 Drawing $68

9x12 and 8x10 Painting $58
9x12 8x10 Drawing $48

8x8  $38