I Did It Utterly Differently
I’ve Always Been, Well, Different
My approach to selling my own work has nothing to do with the strategies outlined in this list. I invented my own system, and I’ll tell you about it:
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I received this suggestion from a fellow artist who has been doing the following in Chicago. I’ve started doing it in Columbus, OH and it appears to be working out quite well.
I located an upper-end coffee house with no art on the walls. Well, fine art that is. I approached the owners and discussed hanging my work there and offered to give them 20% of any sales I made for compensation.
The coffee house has the main room on the ground floor and another room on the 2nd floor. Each room holds approx. 15 large framed prints. I’ve been able to have two running shows from two different suites of images. This allows me to show a more complete set of prints from a given suite than showing in traditional galleries.
If I’m doing a group show in one of the galleries I show in, I normally only have 2-4 prints per show. Even a solo show only allows for 10-15 prints total. Clients would invariably ask what other prints I had available and it was time consuming to drag out the portfolio and go through it with them. This would also PO the gallery owners when it happened at an artist’s reception.
Showing this way has generated more sales than through my gallery shows as well. I’m not rolling in the money yet but I’ve been making sales on a consistent basis since starting to market myself in this manner. It’s also fun being more in control of how the prints are shown. I can hang them in an order that is more likely to enhance the viewing experience if nothing else. I feel it helps with sales doing it this way too.
Great idea for a site BTW.
I totally agree about the alternate venue of coffee houses and restaurants. I find the evening crowd in a ‘hip’ coffee house to be a good market. [I'm the artist in Chicago!]
Right now I’m involved with arranging shows with two very different coffee house, both in business for a year or less. One is the funky, friendly couches in the corners type of place – owned and run by a printmaker of all people [intaglio], the other a corporate franchise steel and glass place. What they have in common is a need to get people in the door, so events like “Meet the artist” sat. afternoons, openings with live music -musicians trying to get ‘out there’ in the public eye too- can work really well. One space takes 20% the other nothing.
Secondly there are possibilities one wouldn’t normally think of and that is corporate spaces such as clinics, hospitals, court houses and of course banks. I’ve got rotating works in all of these spaces, and while sales aren’t huge – one or two a month – there is no commission. This is often a different demographic than I’d normally encounter – so I’m hopefully going to develop a broader email list for the future; these people, the majority, don’t go to galleries!
Tim:
What I like best about your “alternate venue” post is the “Meet-the-Artist Saturday Afternoons….” That’s pure gold.
P.S. Thanks for the compliment. We love compliments.
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Hi. I like the idea of side-stepping the galleries. Do you always frame your prints? I am concerned about the steam and smells from cooking in cafe’s and restaurants. Have you had any problems with this? I like the idea of chosing the cafe’ for its ambience and style. We have many cafe’s in New Zealand and most of them have bad art on the walls. The consequence of that is that noone takes any notice unfortunately. But banks… yes, why not approach them.
Susanne
P.S. Andreas, are you swedish?