How to Sell Art: The Artist's Guide to Marketing
Artist and art marketing consultant Alice Parmelee Rich provides smart advice on how to sell your art. To earn one's living as an artist requires both the making of art and the marketing of art. As difficult as it may seem, the artist's road to success requires figuring out how to sell art.
There's no doubt that getting your work into the world and keeping it out there can be challenging. However, once you have gained the habit of devoting two mornings or one day each week to "marketing" it becomes much easier to sell your art.
First Step in How to Sell Your Art
The foundation of any artist's marketing should be research. Dedicating those hours to constructive research can be fascinating, rewarding and makes marketing a non-threatening activity. Give yourself permission to actually devote yourself to taking time for those things that you may have known were important but have put off.
Those important art marketing activities include reading art magazines, visiting people in their studios, organizing your inventory, writing a new artist statement, compiling your submission list, making follow-up phone calls or researching the advantages/disadvantages of making giclees of your artwork. Remember: your marketing research time is not "wasted time". On the contrary, marketing research time is key to building your art career.
Find Your "Warm Market"
What does it mean to find your "warm market"? The phrase describes a market for which one's work is a fit. But how exactly does an artist find the warm markets? Where does one look and how does one recognize these markets? Again, research is the answer, when word-of-mouth networking or manifestation on a spiritual level falls short. Someone may see the right place for you and pass on the name, but research allows you to make the most of that contact or lead. Before following up, some investigation into the opportunity will help you know what you may be walking into, and to make the most of it.
For anyone with a healthy curiosity, as most artists possess, some healthy information gathering or espionage can be fun, while at the same time taking the sting out of the entrance. The best sales people in any field are often those who take the research time to learn about their quarry, giving them points in common to address on meeting.
How to Find a Gallery to Sell Your Art
In selecting galleries or other organizations to approach, your advance research will help you minimize rejection by finding the most appropriate gallery or organization to sell your art.
Compile an initial list of those galleries for which you believe your style of work would be most suitable. You will refine and focus this list as you gather information about the galleries. The warm market grows from this groundwork on your part.
As you narrow your focus to people most likely to share an interest in your body of work, some of them will express interest in your work and become your warm market.
Your research on where to sell your art will suggest new ideas, places and opportunities to approach but will also cull out many wasteful false starts. In this context it is preparation. Just as preparing the ground of a canvas provides the basis for a good painting, preparing for a submission, a gallery meeting or a meeting with a prospect, provides the basis for a productive meeting. Good choices cannot be made without this material. Once you have found the opportunities that closely relate to what you want and how you want to sell art, you will have a list of places to target.
Where to Sell Your Art
There are several good publications that serve as resources on how to sell art. The Artist & Graphic Designer's Market, edited by Mary Cox, is a resource for artists wanting to market to greeting card companies, prints or posters. Names and addresses are listed, along with how to submit. This book and others can be found in bookstores and directories on the Internet, other media and newsletters.
Other Places to Sell Art
Follow regional exhibitions, stop in to see shows of other artists,
notice which artists are being shown and start to search out those venues that have appeal for you and that you believe could be interested in your work. Select a small number to approach first and frequently check their websites for information and background. Which artists do they represent? Each gallery's web site will usually provide this information along with accompanying images of artwork.
The
best research can come from other artists who have shown there and are presently part of their stable. You may know someone who has shown there and can share firsthand impressions with you. Get on each gallery
mailing list or email list, attend openings and introduce yourself to the gallery staff. While being discrete is good, this is no time for being timid. Talk to the staff and let them know what you do. Also, show some appreciation for their selections and shows. This is a good way to build relationships with gallery staff and owners.
What Should An Artist Ask Gallery Owners?
There are many questions you need answered but the first is to find
out in their words what kind of work they strive to show. How do they describe their mandate? What is their preference for submission format and timing? How many shows do they do a year? Do they have a standard contract with each artist? [You will want to see this contract at a later time.]
If you were getting close to being accepted
into a gallery or space to show your work or being commissioned for a
project, or being courted by a consultant or agent, it would always be prudent to call another artist who has experience with that space, person or organization for a reference.
Even if you do not know the artist, call and ask politely if they would mind sharing some of their experience in working with this organization. This can produce a flood of important information and insights. The artist may describe good and bad experiences, all of which would help you to decide to pursue the best way to approach the situation, or in the worst case, withdraw your interest.
You will ask the gallery the same questions, of course, but firsthand experience from your peers helps enormously as you can now pre-think the situation before speaking to the gallery staff. You may feel it better to save this step until the gallery shows interest in you. Either way, you need information from a reference.
Talk to Other Artists Represented by the GalleryQuestions
to ask another artist willing to share his or her experience (as colleagues we should all be open to that camaraderie):
- Did you sign a contract with them? For how long?
- Do they have an extensive mailing list or do they rely on you to bring in your own family and friends crowd?
- Do they pay for the opening?
- Do they pay for the mailing?
- How else do they promote the artist (e.g. publications, reviews, catalogue, direct calls, etc.)?
- What percentage sales commission do they take?
- How best can you work with this group?
- Is the artist responsible for insurance, shipping?
- What about framing?
- Any extra charges that were unexpected?
- Do they pay on time the balance due to the artist?
You
will know which answers work for you and which cause you discomfort. You will have gathered vital information that you will need as you decide on your approach and when the time comes to negotiate a
contract. At this point the blinders come off, you have some idea of what you are walking into and how to proceed.
Too often, artists are so pleased to be accepted into a space, they forget to get these details. Disappointment follows when the surprises start. For example, they find out too late that the price of the opening has come off the payment from sales.
Don't wait to be shocked and end up feeling burned. Ask yourself, "Am I taking responsibility for my part of the deal? Have I done the homework/research necessary to satisfy myself on all of the issues before getting involved?"
If you know all the conditions and you know your expectations, why not put it into a contract and clear up any unsaid, implied or actual terms of agreement? Knowing the pertinent information, artists can set their prices accordingly, or strike a dealt to spilt costs upfront. For an opening, one might supply one's own homebrew and cheese plate.
The point is, none of us like surprises. With clarity comes success and the time to take care of other needs like public relations and contacting those who have purchased or show interest in your work in the past; these people are your biggest warm market.
I love the expression; "The way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time." Identifying the market for one's work can be daunting, but being rewarded with market recognition is akin to finding the elephant and having a warm bite.
Alice Parmelee Rich is a Canadian artist, art marketing consultant and business owner. She has given numerous Marketing Art Seminars in BC and the Yukon and combines her gallery background with her publishing and marketing experience. To contact Alice, please visit her web site www.Alice-Rich.com or email: alicerich [at] telus.net
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