Investigating Venues for Showing Your Art
If you have exhibiting your art on your list of goals (as you should), you’re probably overwhelmed.
First, there’s the research into potential venues. As soon as you begin the process (and it is a process), you will uncover venues you never knew existed if you live in a metropolitan area. One leads to another which leads to another…
Which brings up the second phase of overwhelm. Once you have this list of possible spaces, how do you determine which ones might be good choices for you?
What makes a venue attractive for an exhibition of your art? Let’s look at the pluses and minuses of potential venues using the checklists below.
It’s surely too much to ask that one venue might meet all the criteria for being a desirable location. You will have to weigh the positive and negative of each space. What can you live with?
On The Plus Side
The favorable aspects of a particular venue might be that it:
Fill In The Blanks to Set Your Goals
It’s a New Year and new start.
Everyone is talking about either setting goals or why you should avoid setting goals or making resolutions at all costs.
I’m not big on resolutions, but I stand firmly in the “goals are good for you” camp. I’ve seen them work for my clients and know they’ve propelled me further than I would have been without them.
So, let’s set some goals!
I’ve adapted the questions from the annual review and The See Plan to help you set goals for the New Year.
Promise not to go crazy with the process. Aim for 3-5 big goals for your year. This list is a starting point.
1. Creativity
Lessons From The Past Year
It’s hard to keep up with weekly emails about your art business, so I thought I’d point out some things that you might have missed or forgotten about this past year.
These are 12 valuable actions, from 12 different Art Biz Blog posts in 2015, to help you grow your art career while staying sane.
Marketing Your Art
1. Reduce the Boring Factor: Add Variety to Your Marketing Message
Why it’s on the list: Please, for the love of Pete, read this before you send another email.
Your art exhibition, class, workshop, or event has so many facets that there is no reason to send the same emails and social media posts for your promotions. They get a little stale after a while.
I have some ideas for you.
Mean People: When Your Soul Has Been Swiped by the Grinch
A hateful email hits your inbox.
A surly comment is left on your blog.
A nasty response is added to one of your Facebook posts.
How Do You Respond to Mean People?
I have plenty of experience with this and confess that I’ve used all of the following suggestions (except perhaps #2) at one point or another.
Your response to malicious words will depend on the level of wickedness.
If there is any question of intent in the language, make sure you’re not misreading their words. It’s easy to misunderstand email, so ask for clarification if there is any doubt.
Try this -> “Hey, Rex, I’m not sure if I’m reading this correctly, so please help. Did you mean to imply that … ?”
Armed with your answer, you can move on to any of these responses.
23+ People to Be Grateful For
1. The janitor who cleans your gallery or apartment lobby.
2. The housekeeper who does good work, so that you can focus on your good work.
3. The gardener and lawn mower who tend to the outside of your space.
4. The tech person who was so patient with you when you thought the world was falling apart.
5. The person at the shipping company who “gets” that your art needs white-glove treatment.
6. The mail carrier who delivers important correspondence and packages.
7. The coffee shop owner who lets you mooch wifi for two hours in exchange for a $5 cuppa joe.
The Circular Business Plan for Artists
Most business and marketing plans are linear, and most artists are anything but linear.
What if, instead of having a traditional business plan, you nurtured a holistic approach to your art career?
That’s what I want to help you do with The See Plan, a new tool to help you see your art career in total. I want you to see that a successful business is not all about making and marketing (the M’s).
The See Plan: 8 C’s for Getting Your Art Seen is circular rather than linear. You need all of the C’s for a healthy business and balanced life, however you define these.
Let me tell you about the 8 C’s.
1. Creativity
Everything begins with the art. Without the art, you are not an artist.
