Exhibiting in art galleries
So what if you feel confident enough to show your crafts to the scary outside world? You have a nice collection that you would want to get exhibited in one of the art galleries in your area – but you have never done it before and you’re not sure what to expect. In this lesson I will help you understand how to go about exhibiting your artwork and the best ways on approaching art galleries.
Skip to: Approaching the art galleries | Negotiating with the galleries | Pricing and policies | After you’ve been accepted
When asked for advice, surprisingly enough most people will tell you to take on sales practices and step into a gallery with a leather band portfolio and try to pitch them on your work, using persuasive techniques and, of course, your bright smile and friendly face. While this is of course one way to do it, I myself find that a more gradual approach will get you better results and build better relationships with the people that will help you improve your art career in the future.
Visit their shows frequently
Visiting other artist’s shows will help you understand the style and preferred collections of the art gallery, and will also give you some inspiration on your own work and ways of presenting your collection. If it were your show, how would you arrange things? Would you do things differently? See if you can attend the opening, so you have the chance to talk to the artist and exchange business cards. Check their website and drop them a note when you get home, following up on their work and giving your honest opinion on the show. Everyone appreciates a short review, and contacting them after your first encounter will help them remember you.
Talk to the visitors
If you can’t make it to an opening, try visiting the art gallery at a busy time, so you have the chance to talk to other visitors about the work and get to know how they feel about it. Also ask them for a business card (if they’re doing business) or ask if you can call or email them for some comments on your work. Don’t hesitate doing this, most individuals would love the opportunity and would be flattered that you asked them for their opinion. After all, people visiting art galleries are a big part of your target audience, so adding them to your address book is always a good idea.
Become a regular
Art gallery owners are usually very happy to see regular visitors and will undoubtedly want to chat with you when they start to recognize your face. Just like you, they want to know who their customer is and will value your opinion. When you get the chance to talk to them, don’t try to pitch and sell them your work just yet, but give a review of the past exhibitions, showing them you truly care about the gallery. Connecting with others is usually done best by teaching them something about themselves, and after that, explaining more about yourself.
Do have your portfolio ready and make sure you have the bright smile and the friendly face, but make sure to build a good relationship with the gallery and the owner first, before you approach them with your sales pitch.
Inquire about the procedure
Nothing about getting into art galleries is written into stone, with so many different galleries and gallery owners, there are also so many procedures to get exhibited. Don’t be shy to just inquire about the particular procedure of the gallery you’re interested in, and be patient and understanding. Some galleries get a lot of inquiries every month and have to make a clear and difficult decision on who to feature.
Negotiating with the galleries
Improving your chances
You could increase your chances by looking for galleries that are compatible to what you’re creating (will you fit in?) and see if you can find someone to introduce you to the owner through a mutual connection. When you go through the procedure of applying for the gallery, make sure to have a portfolio ready with a short bio, 3 to 5 images of your work and a link to your website. Most gallery owners will appreciate a quick glance over your work and will try to research you more online in their own time, when they’re interested in your work. Don’t over do it by stuffing your portfolio with too much of your work, just pick a few of your pieces that you think will fit perfectly with the other collections or the overall impression of the gallery. Most galleries have a particular “niche” and a repetutation to defend, so keep this in mind when selecting your work.
Keeping them posted
Part of your routine should be keeping important people posted on your work, and this certainly includes gallery owners, even if you didn’t make it on a previous attempt. Try to not to do this more than twice a year, but do send out a special newsletter to the gallery owners you’ve met and keep them up to speed with whatever you’re working on. They’ll greatly appreciate the efford you put into giving them a new opportunity to look at your work and keeping it bite sized and easy to browse through.
Bring some friends
When negotiating about being featured in the gallery, bring some collectors, friends and family over to the gallery for a visit and try to stimulate a healthy conversation about your work and your future plans. Having the gallery owner experience your work through their eyes will help them understand what future visitors will experience when seeing your exhibition. Most galleries are looking for artists with an existing fanbase and a good reputation, so bringing your inner circle over will also give you some social proof of your reputation and professional experience.
Check their exclusivity policy
When negotiating about your work being featured, make sure to check their exclusivity policy. Can you still sell your art online? Where can you still market and promote your pieces without getting into trouble? What are their thoughts on putting your work up on your website, or licensing it? Can you still sell prints? All of these things will have to be discussed and written down before you close the deal.
Pricing your pieces
When agreeing on prices for your pieces, do some detective work before hand. Look at what your competitors are doing and deconstruct what their formula is for selling art yourself as opposed to selling art through a gallery. Also try to find out how the market place as a whole is pricing their work and see how you can fit your work into this pricing formula. You’ll find that the vast majority is underpricing their artwork, as most artist will be reluctant to raising their prices, even if they’re being featured in art galleries. Don’t hesitate to raise your prices as soon as you’re being exhibited in a gallery, since often times you’ll see that changes in prices will not negatively affect or in some cases even increase sales. The gallery will also take a certain percent commission on your work, so calculate this into your pricing as well. Often times the gallery owner will help you with this when you feel you’re still at the starting point of your professional art career and explain their approach on pricing.
Whenever you’ve been accepted as an artist in a gallery, there’s a whole new terrority for you to explore. A professional attitude would be to ask the gallery what you can do for them to help them sell more of your art. Work together with the gallery owner and nurture this new relationship so you can both benefit from it.
Keep your prices consistent
When you sell your art online, try to keep your prices consistent. The gallery will take a commission on your work and probably add it to whatever price you agreed on, but make sure to keep this price and keep your own “commission” when you’re allowed to sell your art online as well. You’re doing a lot of work to promote it as much as they are doing it through the gallery, and keeping your prices consistent will avoid confusion amongst your customers.
Refer online visitors to the gallery
When your art is exhibited, this is a fantastic opportunity to refer your online visitors to the gallery to see your work in real life and get a good look at it. This also works both ways: when people visit the gallery, have some cards ready that refer them to your website and the ability to subscribe to your newsletter.
List it on your resume
Be proud! List top shows and top awards on your resume, and include your exhibition as well. List the name of the gallery owner for future reference requests and describe what the exhibition was about, what it meant for your work and what it did for your career. This will make a great back-story and give anyone a good impression of how you art is evolving and how it’s being picked up by the rest of the world.
Exhibiting your artwork: approaching art galleries
So what if you feel confident enough to show your crafts to the scary outside world? You have a nice collection that you would want to get exhibited in one of the art galleries in your area – but you have never done it before and you’re not sure what to expect. In this post I will help you understand how to go about exhibiting your artwork and the best ways on approaching art galleries.
When asked for advice, surprisingly enough most people will tell you to take on sales practices and step into a gallery with a leather (!) band portfolio and try to pitch them on your work, using persuasive techniques and, of course, your bright smile and friendly face. While this is of course one way to do it, I myself find that a more gradual approach will get you better results and build better relationships with the people that will help you improve your art career in the future.
Visit their shows frequently
Visiting other artist’s shows will help you understand the style and preferred collections of the art gallery, and will also give you some inspiration on your own work and ways of presenting your collection. If it were your show, how would you arrange things? Would you do things differently? See if you can attend the opening, so you have the chance to talk to the artist and exchange business cards. Check their website and drop them a note when you get home, following up on their work and giving your honest opinion on the show. Everyone appreciates a short review, and contacting them after your first encounter will help them remember you.
Talk to the visitors
If you can’t make it to an opening, try visiting the art gallery at a busy time, so you have the chance to talk to other visitors about the work and get to know how they feel about it. Also ask them for a business card (if they’re doing business) or ask if you can call or email them for some comments on your work. Don’t hesitate doing this, most individuals would love the opportunity and would be flattered that you asked them for their opinion. After all, people visiting art galleries are a big part of your target audience, so adding them to your address book is always a good idea.
Become a regular
Art gallery owners are usually very happy to see regular visitors and will undoubtedly want to chat with you when they start to recognize your face. Just like you, they want to know who their customer is and will value your opinion. When you get the chance to talk to them, don’t try to pitch and sell them your work just yet, but give a review of the past exhibitions, showing them you truly care about the gallery. Connecting with others is usually done best by teaching them something about themselves, and after that, explaining more about yourself.
Do have your portfolio ready and make sure you have the bright smile and the friendly face, but make sure to build a good relationship with the gallery and the owner first, before you approach them with your sales pitch.
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