Art Print Issues by Barney Davey

What Artists Should Look for in an Art Gallery - Margaret Danielak

Today's post comes from guest blogger, Margaret Danielak. She offers her wisdom and insight from her second generation art pedigree and her own personal development and devotion to the arts and artists.

Danielak's wide experience includes being an art rep, a curator and the owner of DanielakArt - Art Sales & Consulting Services based in Pasadena, CA. She has also produced alternative art shows. In addition to advising artists, she is the author of A Gallery without Walls: Selling Art in Alternative Venues. See the link below for details on her September 26 seminar, "The Art of Selling Art." 

If you think finding haven in any gallery that will accept you is the best way to further your career, you will soon be disabused of such a notion by reading the following informative article reprinted below.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR WHEN LOOKING FOR A GALLERY

By Margaret Danielak © 2009

Artists often ask me what they should look for when looking for a gallery to represent them.  As an art rep and daughter of a gallery represented artist (the late painter and illustrator Robert G. Stevens) I recommend that you obtain answers to the following questions before you attempt to approach a gallery about representation:

1.  How long has the gallery been in business? 
   
   As we all know, even in the best of economic times many small businesses including art galleries struggle to find their footing.  My advice is to try to find a gallery that has been in business at least four years.  In fact, on the Small Business Administration (SBA) website, I found out that…

“Two-thirds of new employer establishments survive at least two years, 44 percent survive at least four years, and 31 percent survive at least seven years, according to a recent study. These results were constant for different industries. … Of special interest, the research found that businesses that survive four years have a better chance of surviving long-term. After the fourth year, the rate of firm closings declines considerably.”

You don’t want to be accepted to a gallery only to find that it is going to close the next month so first and foremost, you want to find a gallery that has a longer term track record.

1. Does the gallery have a good location?
     
   Do they have good foot traffic and adequate parking?  If not, how do they bring in new business?  You want to get a feel for their clientele and how they handle people coming and going into their physical location.
   
   
2.  What is the director’s background?
   
   Do the directors have an art background or a marketing background?  (Ideally they should have both.)  Keep in mind, per the SBA website:

“…the major factors in a firm’s survivability include an ample supply of capital, being large enough to have employees, the owner’s education level, and the owner’s reason for starting the firm.”

 I would add to the list above that the gallery owner needs to have a passion for the art they are selling.  If they are not passionate about the art, then you don’t want to be in their gallery.

4.       Does the gallery cross-promote with other dealers?  

Are they part of a gallery group or a regularly scheduled art walk or other event?  In other words, do they make an effort to grow their business with each event they do?  This is essential to their long term success, and to your assurance that your artwork will be seen.

5.       Are you able to obtain a referral for the gallery and the director? 

Speak to other represented gallery artists about the gallery’s operations and the people running it.  Are they honest?   Do they have written contracts and consignment agreements with their artists, and do they pay them on time?  What percentage do they take?  Even a seasoned gallery artist like my late father had a very bad experience with a prestigious gallery in Taos, New Mexico.  Over the four years he was in the gallery, the director increasingly paid the artists very late, sometimes as much as six months after a sale!  When the gallery closed suddenly with three of his paintings still in their possession, my father found out about it from a newspaper article.  We have never been able to retrieve his lovely paintings from the gallery director who had stolen them.

6.       What kind of marketing does the gallery do? 

Does the gallery advertise in major art magazines, produce postcard mailings, work the internet and have a great website?  Does the director write articles, speak in public or publish catalogues?  Do they attend the major art fairs? You need to know how the gallery plans to expose your work to collectors.

7.       How are you treated when you go to the gallery? 

One of the best stories I’ve heard on this “due diligence” subject was from a sculptor.  One Saturday she put on an expensive outfit, armed with her wish list, and spent the day visiting ten galleries in Santa Monica.  She decided in advance that she would not mention that she was an artist looking for representation.

At two of the ten galleries she visited the doors were closed.  There was no information on the door about their hours or how they could be reached.  (She crossed them off her list.) 

At three of the galleries she was greeted adequately by friendly people who knew absolutely nothing about the art on display, nor about any of the artists who created the work.  (She crossed these galleries off her list as well.) 

 She was ignored completely at four of the galleries she visited.  The people working in the galleries didn’t even say hello to her and spent their time talking on the phone or working on the computer.  They never even looked at her!  (She didn’t like this at all and crossed them off her list, too.) 

 At the tenth gallery she visited, however, she was greeted by a young man who was knowledgeable about the art.  He seemed interested in her and her reactions to the work.  He told her engaging stories about the artists and gave her additional information about the media the artists used to create the work.  He invited her to their upcoming reception, and asked her for her contact information to add to their mailing list.  She decided that, of the ten galleries on her original list, only this last gallery was worthy of her attention.

Remember that in your search for a gallery, one size does not fit all. Each gallery is unique in its location, how it is run, and the style of art the director will accept. Like the shrewd artist mentioned in the story above, before approaching a gallery you need to do some research to determine which gallery will be the best fit for you and your work.

Source Note: 

SBA Website Quoted: “Business Employment Dynamics Data: Survival and Longevity, II,” by Amy E. Knaup and Merissa C. Piazza, Monthly Labor Review, vol. 30, no. 9 (Sept. 2007), pp. 3-10; “Redefining Business Success: Distinguishing Between Closure and Failure” by Brian Headd, Small Business Economics, vol. 21, no. 1 (August 2003), pp. 51-61.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 

Art Rep Margaret Danielak is the author of artist handbook “A Gallery without Walls: Selling Art in Alternative Venues.” (ArtNetwork Press)  She may be reached through her website at www.danielakart.com  or via email at Margaret.danielak@gmail.com. 

Danielak conducts art marketing and sales workshops in Southern California.  The upcoming “Art of Selling Art Workshop” takes place on Sunday, September 26, 2010 in Burbank.  To learn more and to register for the workshop please visit www.theartengine.com

To see a 15 minute television interview with Margaret Danielak, visit her blog at

http://gallerywithoutwalls.blogspot.com/

Art Co-op, Right Idea, Right Time to Sell Art

As I have watched the traditional ways artists have gotten to market become battered by forces beyond their control, (witness the cancelation of both the Artexpo Las Vegas and Decor Expo Atlanta 2009 shows as prime examples), I have repeatedly voiced an opinion artists need to do whatever they can to take as much control as possible over the distribution of their art.

Whether it is through sales onlne, direct to consumer sales at shows, owning a gallery, joining a co-op, or other creative means to generate their own sales doesn't matter. What matters is artists find ways that work for them to manifest their own destiny. I'm not advocating abandoning trade media or tradeshows, or brick and mortar galleries. These venues will always have an important role to play. But now, because so much has changed and so much is possible, it is the right time to take control and own the distribution wherever possible.

Good Ideas Are Catching

Have you ever noticed the coincidence of different people hitting on similar themes to solve problems without any interaction between them. It's happened here in the art patch recently. I've had a note to blog about Indy Hall for some time because I think the artist co-op model it uses is right for many artists today. Independents Hall is a co-working space and community in Philadelphia. It includes designers, developers, writers, artists, entrepreneurs, scientists, educators, small business owners, telecommuters, marketers, videographers, game developers. You will soon hear more about it in a future blog post here.

Yesterday, Tony Moffitt's blog post was titled Do Co-operative Galleries Run by Artists Work? It was not an examination, but more a question thrown out to the readers. It has 13 replies to date, which indicates a good level of interest in artist run co-ops.

Today, I was notified I'd been tagged in a note by a Facebook friend named Tom Davidson. He had posted in his Notes section on the site these thoughts, which I publish here with his permission, in a piece titled Art Co-op. He is offering suggestions for Florida-based artists to come together. Obviously, they can be implemented anywhere artists band together to help each other.

Art Co-op by Tom Davidson

I have been spending a lot of time wondering how I can create more and still promote and do business. My original career is marketing and business. I come from the large corporate world, before I walked away to become a starving artist, lol. Anyways I propose to all of my art online friends and associates to review and contact me if you are willing to work smarter not harder. Let me know at least what you think of my idea. I appreciate all artists who are concentrating on creating, there is room for us in this world and we do help make it a better place, that is a sign of a good industry!!

1.Artists write art reviews of other artists, submit to media
2.Galleries and artists work together to promote exhibits more effectively
3. Provide a networking resource for Daytona - Orlando Area artists, sharing info and pooling talents, resources and information to create a stronger art market. I was suggested we develop a mission statement based in values like integrity, loyalty, trust and mutual benefit.
4.Look to other cities for effective models
5.Artists at every level in their careers take on the responsibility to give back to the community as part of their marketing plan.
6.Artists take responsibility for controlling the flow/availability of work (taking into account the basic laws of supply and demand).
7.Galleries develop exclusive relationships with artists so they can effectively promote their careers, locally and nationally.
8.Galleries co-op advertising in National Publications
9.Invite art schools, agencies and other arts entities to play a larger role in educating fine artists and venues about proven marketing practices
10.Establish a forum to determine how each of us can play a role in a healthy art market.
11.Create an annual Central Florida Art Expo,put on by the artist group presenting top artists and galleries to regional art buyers.
12.Artists establish consistent retail prices.
13.Explore methods of developing emerging collectors. Reach out and encourage the younger "arty party" scene by promoting/educating them about collecting fine art - not just getting drunk in front of it and hoping they will buy.
14.Artists offer a wide (but consistent) price range of artwork at exhibitions (from reproductions to large scale works).
15.Artists leverage their influence by working together
16. Utilize Facebook to inform,communicate,educate,and build a better bigger art industry in the state.

You can friend artist Tom Davidson on Facebook and make your own comments on his Notes page there. Or, contact him through his website: http://www.portraitspetsanpeople.com

I added this comment:

Tom, I'm in complete agreement with your thinking. Given the indiviualist nature of most artists, I have no delusions that your suggestions will be difficult to implement. But, I don't believe there are many better solutions either. You have my full support for your thoughts and suggestions as they closely mirror my own.

Cheers, Barney

No Time to Create - a Facebook Group Topic

Some readers here may recall I have blogged about the artist Valentina and her very successful Val's Art Diary Web site replete with regularly updated and always entertaining vlogs. Surf her site and you will also find useful information for artists in a section called Val's Art Tips.

Val's latest efforts to help artists and create a little buzz for herself in the process involves Facebook. She has started a group there called Artists who refuse to starve. Creative people share their business secrets. It has quickly grown to more than 1,300 members. It is just another example of the viral power of social marketing and how Facebook has become a dominant force in it.

It looks as if my November 2007 post titled Bet on Facebook -- It Could Be the One was accurate. It's not too late to get on Facebook now. Get on board, don't forget to friend me and join some groups like the one Val has started. Or start your own like artist Maya Green with her Art of Maya Green group.

Spend some time on the discussion boards on groups such as Val's mentioned above. You will make friends and admirers and learn some things too. I couldn't resist adding my thoughts to the "No Time to Create" topic started by Dan Monroe. He is lamenting there are so many sites and not enough time to join them all and participate in them. I couldn't agree more and offered this commentary to topic:

Pick something more than just the next big thing

This conversation strikes a chord with me. I believe there are plenty of reasons to have angst over not having enough time to do enough of the things that are truly important. It is quite easy to get carried away on the next best new thing to do. One can literally twitter (pun intended) away their time till nothing gets done.

FB offers promise, as do other online sites that can help get an artist gain awareness. I've always thought the best approach is a planned one. It seems the art that stands the test of time was rarely if ever impulsively put together. Same has to be true of great marketing.

Well executed smart moves make the most sense

Sure random strokes of genius can propel a piece or an artist, but it is the years of experience and raw talent that give the artist the ability to translate the lightning flash into real genius. Often the first stroke is carefully reworked until perfection. And, in retrospect, one can nearly always see it, the stroke of genius that is, actually is the culmination of hard work, dedication and talent and not just dumb luck.

Making a career work successfully is not unlike planning to create your best work. You wouldn't sit down with a willy nilly idea and think the result is going to a museum, or will quickly sell tons as a print. Likewise, it's hard to take seriously that a few blog posts or building a ginormous FB friend list, who mostly just want to see their own friends number climb, will make a big impact on a career.

Online communities are the bomb

Don't get me wrong. I think online communities are the bomb. We are just beginning to see the groundswell of where this is going. As such, I support anyone's efforts to make dent in the FB, Twitter, LinkedIn, FriendFeed, etc. world. I just think it needs to be done as part of a much larger overall plan for nothing short of world domination. Well, okay, a little hyperbole there. But, at the very least, a marketing plan to become huge in your world.

Your world can be being a star artist in your local community. It can be being well known in your state or region. It can be wanting nothing short of national and international recognition. None of those things just happen. Yes, some incredibly lucky people get monster breaks that propel their careers that in comparison just seems downright unfair to a hard working artist who is doing every thing right.

You can create your own luck

The thing is, one can't prepare for their future by banking on getting lucky. Might as well buy lottery tickets because the odds are about the same and will take much less work. So, the alternative is to construct the very best, most robust, most creative overall marketing strategy you can devise. It is an organic thing that will grow and morph on a regular basis, but having such a thing in place is the way to best create one's own luck.

Part of creating such a thing requires taking a brutally honest assessment of what one wants, really wants, and what one will do to get what they want. One thing you will find in virtually every successful person is ambition. It's a certainty without it one will fail. This assessment includes being as clear as possible where one wants to take a career and then realistically evaluating what resources are available to follow a plausible plan of action.

Look at the fearless leader of this pack, Val. She makes doing what she does seem effortless. It would be hard not to be more than a little jealous of her. She is photogenic, charismatic, self-deprecating, talented and funny. Those traits belie the fact she is driven to succeed.

Ambition will where talent will not

What Val does makes for a great presentation. But, guess what, there are tons of other artists who have all this going on and don't have her success. I'd say her desire to be successful is the fuel that makes her successful. Naturally, she has to produce work her collectors will willingly repeatedly buy, but it is the other things she does that gives her the channel or path that leads to those collectors.

Her collectors only found her because she set out to whatever she could to disrupt their lives and make them aware of her and her art. And, now today, she has a growing FB audience to add to her list of accomplishments. One should not be surprised at this at all. Kudos to her for her success here and with her art career. She finds the time to work the business and be creative. proving it can be done

I'll close this unexpectedly long missive by saying I think besides talent and ambition, the thing that makes the difference is a good plan that works all the angles, including publicity, advertising, shows, galleries, online presence, blogs and so forth. Don't just hang out online and hope for the best. Plot out what you can do. Work on creating systematic approach that strikes a balance between those long term things that seem somewhat frivolous now but show signs of future potential and those urgent important things that can impact a career now will both pay dividends. The result will be to lower the angst over feeling like there is not enough time and allow you one to avoid feeling guilty by enjoying some fun with new and old friends on FB and elsewhere. When discipline, desire and details intersect with talent and ambition, success ensues. 

Making time for and making money online requires an ongoing effort. But, let's face it, there has never been an easy quick way to building a business as an artist or for any small business. Customers and collectors are won one at a time. If you can spare a little time getting the hang of how having a Facebook following can help you, I think it will be worth the effort in the long run. It offers global exposure and great potential to help you reach and influence the right people.

French Incent Buying Art - Guggenheim Vegas Closing - Using Whitey Ball in a Down Market - ArtExpo Vegas a Conservative Go

Signs of changing times:

• The announcement came last week the French government is so distraught over slipping in worldwide art sales, falling to third behind China, it is offering interest free loans for its citizens to buy fine art.
• It in a sad, but not completely surprising item, the Las Vegas Sun reports the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum there is scheduled to shutter next month...sigh. But, in the perfection of hindsight, looking at Vegas marketing then and now, it seems logical it would not work.

Sin City Is the Name of the Game

You may recall Las Vegas formerly tried to tout itself as a family friendly destination with water slides, the Wizard of OZ's Yellow Brick Road at the MGM, roller coasters and so forth. However, it didn't take long for the shine to wear off that idea before Vegas reverted to true form. It is, after all, called Sin City for good reason. The popular and effective "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" slogan that replaced the family theme has been successful because it pointedly captures the allure of Vegas.

In retrospect, the familiar saying, "You can't make a silk purse out a of a sow's ear" now seems appropriate to putting one of the most prestigious fine art museums in Vegas. As the Las Vegas Sun article points out, there were other problems, but at the heart of it, it just wasn't a good fit. The closing of the Guggenheim speaks volumes about culture, or lack thereof, in Vegas, and to a degree how specialized the interest and marketing of fine art is. The wisdom of crowds theory dictates the taste for Vegas is gambling, dining, nightclubbing, extravagant shows and forbidden fruit with not much energy or enthusiasm for fine art experiences.

In the tradeshow business, the take on destinations such as Las Vegas and San Francisco is they are great convention, but largely lousy tradeshow towns. Simply, the distractions are too powerful to keep crowds on the floor for smaller shows. Behemoths, such as Comdex, draw so many attendees they override the common wisdom. That said, it is only fair to note some small tradeshows such as the annual West Coast Art & Frame show do well there regardless. And in fairness to Vegas, there are but a a handful of cities worldwide that could sustain a Guggenheim museum.

You Can't Put Round Art into a Square Frame, No Matter How Glittery the Frame

The moral of the Guggenheim Vegas story is you can't force something where it doesn't fit. Put another way, swinging for the fences in an attempt to clear the bases with a Grand Slam homerun grandiose idea is not always a winning strategy. For art marketers, this lesson could not be more true, especially in a down economy. Looking back, the concept of an exquisite fine art museum in Vegas was a grandiose idea gone awry. The baseball analogy provides a nice segue to discuss employing a strategy called "Whitey Ball" for art marketers in a down market.

The Whitey Ball Strategy for Art Marketing in a Down Market

In the 1980s, the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team didn't have big hitting sluggers on its roster. Its huge ballpark with faraway fences didn't suit having them on the payroll. Instead, the team's wily manager, Whitey Herzog, used his creativity to build a team around speed and slap hitting singles batters. During his tenure, Herzog picked players who were fleet of foot with the ability to steal bases, move fast to plug defenses and thwart their opponent's offenses. Whitey always sought as many chances at bat he could get for his players. Essentially, he adapted his strategy to conform to what he had to work with. The results were spectacular with three National League pennants and two World Series appearances, including a World Series Championship in 1982.

Piling Up Singles in Today's Economy Is a Great Strategy

Whether you are an independent self-representing artist or a big time publisher, this is a good time to employ your version of Whitey Ball marketing. For those serious about sustaining and building their businesses, smart marketing is more crucial now than in good times. Maintaining your marketing edge now will, when the economy turns, put you far ahead of those who hunker down and do nothing.

NINE IDEAS FOR USING WHITEY BALL MARKETING WITH YOUR ART BUSINESS

1. Accurately assess your resources, opportunities and goals. Doing so serves to keep your expectations real.
2. Give your business every chance at bat it can get. Look for all the publicity and media notice you can garner - there are more opportunities than you realize. It all matters and it all adds up when you find and use them.
3. Shore up your defenses by tightening non-essential spending keeping funds available for the best opportunities.
4. Go for the single when you get to bat. The first step to getting a run is to get on base. The first step to getting repeat sales is to establish a relationship with a potential collector or gallery
5. Carefully weigh your options. When it comes to deciding how to allocate your marketing budget, employing the carpenter's credo to measure twice and cut once is a wise idea.
6. Renegotiate with your suppliers to get every discount, value added service and the lowest prices they can provide you.
7. Explore every viable means to diversify your distribution channels. Going forward, alternative, creative marketing is a fact of life no matter what the economy is doing.
8. Do whatever you must to make sure your customers are happy and your service is par excellence.
9. Don't buy into fanciful untried ideas (Or, if you must, start small and play conservatively. If it's good, you'll have time later to ratchet up your participation.)

Your Best Ideas Likely May Come From Doing Something You Were Sure You Would Never Do

To get creative, it helps to get outside your comfort zone. Try thinking about doing things differently, much differently. For instance, consider where have you not been, what have you not done and what you would never do. A marvelous brainstorming activity is to take a large sheet of paper and write down all the people, places and things you would never approach or do in your business. The harder you think about it and the more ideas you conjure up, the more likely your best out of left field (baseball pun intended) idea will come.

ArtExpo Las Vegas is a Conservative Go

Is there a correlation or lesson about the ArtExpo Las Vegas show and the closing of the Guggenheim Hermitage? Of course, especially if you believed Vegas had become an art mecca. I fell under that spell. Like many others, I was a strong proponent of the ArtExpo Vegas show last year. I devoted several encouraging posts on Art Print Issues and another on the very popular AbsoluteArts.com blog, where I contribute frequently.

My post show follow up was more sanguine. Like the folks at the Guggenheim and many others, I felt Vegas offered promise. Seeing the museum close and the ArtExpo show last year come off smaller than anyone would have hoped for and now in tougher economic times, it's hard to muster great enthusiasm for the 2008 show. Still, the industry is down to few choices for shows and this is one of them.

If you have the resources, ArtExpo Vegas can work to your advantage to exhibit there.

I met several self-representing artists who were thrilled they made the decision to go. The smartest advice is to go expecting the best, but also be prepared for something less than that. By doing so, you are poised to react to a good outcome and will negate the deflation of a bummer experience by having acknowledged the possibility of it. Exhibiting there, especially as unknown artist is akin to gambling, don't play with money you can't afford to lose. Go with a good marketing plan, use solid money management to keep losses to a minimum and play hard and smart and pray for a hot streak

What the artists with whom I met that had a great ArtExpo Vegas show had in common was they had unique well developed thematic styles that appealed to certain buyers with substantial open to buy budgets. In other words, in each case it was a single buyer that made the difference for them. This scenario is likely to happen again this year, but understand the buyers are selective. It doesn't mean your images aren't good if you don't succeed. It could be they are not right for those buyers who attend. Being able to know the difference only comes with experience. If you lack it, seek the advice of others to get an honest, if not brutal, assessment of where your art comes in.

The art print market is evolving and so are the venues and media that report on, promote and support it.

What we are witnessing is the rapid deconstruction of how things were done in the past. It is far from an art industry problem. You can find reports of all kinds of shows and media contracting from their once bulging sizes. It's harder to find where the business is going. Some to the Internet, some to targeted marketing and some to marginal players folding their tents.

To maximize your return, you need to pay close attention to help you understand how the business is evolving. Playing Whitey Ball with your marketing will help you sustain your business as you wind through the challenging times we find ourselves in today.

Five Ways to Market Your Art Direct

We pause this blog for a little shameless self-promotion.

An artist friend who I met after he read my book, which resulted in a series of consulting sessions over the past two years, has decided to take up the offer from a publisher to join his ranks. He had long held the notion that with his considerable business expertise and decent financing he would self-publish his work. He had begun to do that and also to shop giclees of his work to galleries in his local area. Additionally, he also managed to get some of his giclees put in the gift shop of a prestigious venue in his area.

I'm being slightly cryptic here because the ink is not dry on the contract and he has what I consider a terrific idea for an approach to working a niche. If all goes well, he will have a coming out party at the upcoming 30th Annual ArtExpo New York show at the end of this month. When I can share more details,I will be happy to do so.

My friend has recently been re-reading my book, How to Profit from the Art Print Market. It was interesting for both of us to observe what he was going through with the development of his print career. In many ways, his circumstances were exactly as I described in the book. This was down to my mention of having a marketing maven full-time to help grow the business as a key component of self-publishing success for many, if not most artists. His wife is a gifted driven very successful designer in the home furnishings field. Their company has for more than a decade supplied household name brands with licensed designs of all sorts. While she would be perfect in this role, she does not have the time to put her career on hold to help his. Nor would it make financial sense for her to do so.

Left to his own devices, this artist began to realize the difficulties for an unknown artist to be both marketing maven and full-time artist. Plus, he still puts in time at the design business as needed. The bottom line is the uphill battle was starting to look overwhelming given the plausible vision he has for his art and career. As the luck most often found in the residue of hard work would have it, a contact in one of the galleries led him to perhaps the most ideal publisher for his genre and his circumstances. I'm quite happy for him things are going to work out.

What he found was in reading and re-reading my book was two years after his first reading, the basic advice from what to do, what might happen, what the commission structure offered would be and many other things were still spot on and valuable to him in his decisions and dealings with his new potential publisher. It was heartwarming validation for me the underlying advice continued to hold water even though the business continues to undergo substantial, if not monumental, upheaval and change.

More Signs of Change for the Art Print Market

The state and health of the trade magazines and tradeshows that serve the industry are as much a harbinger of how things are working out as any. In October 2006, I put 20 years of tradeshow experience on the line and predicted the Decor Expo Baltimore show would be a bust. That was harsh given the inaugural show was still six months away in April 2007. While I have no official word, I notice the February issue of Art Business News has omitted the 2008 Baltimore show from its Calendar. Not a good sign things are working out. Further, the Web site for the show has no exhibitor list. Since this is a primary tool for enlisting more exhibitors, one can only conclude the show is being quietly mothballed, or in serious trouble. I'm left wondering if another prediction of a sale for the Art and Framing Group by current owner, Summit Business Media LLC, can be far off.

ArtExpo Booth Sales Appear to Be Well Off Previous Year Figures

Meanwhile, the aforementioned 30th Annual ArtExpo New York show appears to also be struggling to bring in the same number of exhibitors as last year. A check today shows 374 companies listed as exhibitors. The list has been updated regularly over the past month with more than 100 exhibitors added to it. Nevertheless, it remains well behind the 600 exhibitors published by the show producer last month. The trade magazines that serve the business also are showing a decline in ad pages. These are pretty good indicators it's rough patch for the art print market these days. The cover story of the ABN issue was on the state of the art economy interviewing some veteran players in the market. While most found some ways to put a bit of positive spin on their outlook, none was overly optimistic.

Five Ways to Market Your Art Direct

It's a good time to review what you are trying to achieve from a business perspective for your career. I'm not talking about a year end review and goals for the coming months. I'm thinking more about what you want for your career financially and awareness. It could be like that of my friend who seeks to find an audience and appreciation for his work and to get the work to market in a way he could profit from the effort. Besides reaching a vastly larger audience, the appeal of the print market for most successful artists who embrace it is it provides them a way to generate repeat cash flow from the effort in creating an original.

I have said it before, but believe it bears repeating. Artists ought to be developing their own direct revenue streams with collectors. Easy to say, harder to do. But when you consider the traditional means are not nearly as robust as before, it provides extra impetus. Here are some ideas for how that might work:

1. Alternative spaces, such as coffee shops, restaurants, building lobbies and waiting rooms. There is a skin care salon located here in tony Paradise Valley that also offers art from local artists. The patrons are a perfect demographic for art. And, they are spending leisure time in the salon on a repeat basis. It works for the artists and the salon owner on multiple levels.

2. Create your own shows. You don't have to have a gallery to do this for you. Decide you are going to do it and follow though. You can create a show in a public space; perhaps a local community college, a church, a rented hotel room. Build some excitement around the uniqueness of the show with publicity or charitable components. Plan far enough in advance to get a good date not competitive with other activities. Enlist your family and friends to help you generate word-of-mouth.

3. Web sites and blogs. Are you selling direct from either? If not, why? Of course, you don't want to compete with any established galleries with an online site or physical location. Why not have exclusives for the galleries that are promoted on your Web site or blog along with exclusive images available only through you? eBay just announced it has new pricing. Apparently, the past year has been difficult with sellers abandoning the once juggernaut for other venues. It might be worth revisiting it for another shot in 2008.

4. Work with other artists. Get other visual artists, or musicians or poets to create a happening. Find ways to collaborate on art and promotion. The group dynamic could be very dynamic and stimulating. You can use something like Meetup that offers tremendous potential to the person with energy and a good idea and a dash of promotional verve.

5. Get in catalogs. The Guild, which is one of my most favorite for indie artists, offers a tremendous platform for sales and visibility for artists through its Artful Home catalog and Guild Sourcebook. It is by far not the only one, but if you are interested, you can act now to submit to its annual juried entry submission process. The competition runs through February 29 and is administered by Juried Art Services, which you should check out for all its offerings. A catalog or sourcebook such as this is one degree of separation, but you ship directly and you get promoted and create a relationship with your customers.

Bottom line is now more than ever, you have to think and act for yourself. The more you take your situation under your own control, the better off you will be. I'm sure there are plenty of other great ideas. If you have any and want to share, the comments section below beckons.

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Jen Bekman's Hip Happening 20X200 Art Print Gallery & Website

One of the most highly promoted and talked about art print ventures this year was the launch of Artaissance. With the ownership and accompanying marketing muscle and budget of the world's largest picture framing company, Berkshire Hathaway owned Larson-Juhl, it was certain to make an impact on the business. It's still too early to know just how extensive the impact will be. But, it's a corporate play and while there is nothing inherently wrong with it as the art business needs captial injection from that sector, what the art print market most needs to move the market and stir things is energy that comes from entrepreurial innovation and investment.

Jen Bekman is the kind of artrepreneur that gets your attention. One you instantly root for and admire for doing what she does. For the past four years, she has championed emerging artists in photography, art on paper and original works promoting them in her pocket-sized Lower East Side Manhattan jen bekman gallery. In an effort to help more artists find collectors and get to market, she acted on a brainstorm and launched the 20X200 Web site based on this proposition:

large editions + low prices + the internet = art for everyone

The art print market could use many more innovators like Jen Bekman, especially ones with her vigor and drive. She also produces the Hey, Hot Shot! photography competition and publishes the influential design blog Personism. We wish much success with the gallery, Web site, competition, blogs and any other worthy projects she finds herself doing.

Rather than rehash her story, the copy below is straight from the OUR STORY page of her Web site. She can tell in her own words better than I to let you in on what a great idea she has developed:

Bet on Facebook - It Could Be the One

Much is written about the potential of Web 2.0, which is a catch-all phrase for all the developments around using Web apps as opposed to those residing on your computer. In that world, your word processing, spreadsheets and other programs would be updated without you having to purchase the next Office 15.0 suite to stay current. You would have to have a subscription, no free ride there.

Other important components of Web 2.0 are social networking and social bookmarking platforms with  MySpace and Facebook typifying the former and Del.ico.us, Digg and Technorati the latter. Blogs are Web 2.0 and so are YouTube and Flickrto name but a few of the most popular 2.0 type sites proliferating on the Web. Some would say altenate universe sites like Second Life are in this group as well.

For some marketers, including artists, galleries and publishers, these and other sites like them have represented new ways to find new collectors. Clint Watson in his Fine Art Viewsblog recently passionately argued spending time trying to create your own community instead of using Facebook or other opportunities. Clint feels it is not the best use of one's time. It's hard to disagree with him.

My observations from talking with artists and reading and posting to artist discussion board threads is some are getting very good value from their time using the abovementioned links and others such as Squidoo and Stumbleupon. They report gaining blog traffic and finding new customers by spending time with any or all of the links listed here.

While I agree with Clint that a more traditional approach given a finite amount of time for marketing makes the most sense, I see evidence artists are making these new opportunities pay off. Those who are finding success are diligently working the programs...hey that's just exactly what it takes in traditional marketing. You have to do it, do it some more, get smarter about what you are doing and do it some more.

If you read my recent post, you know I suffered a hard drive failure. I am working to restore the data (fingers crossed). It had many links to stories about Facebook that I planned to use and present to my readers. Since I'm not sure when that will happen now, I'm plunging in with this information. Facebook has been bought in part by Microsoft. Other articles I've been reading and anecdotal information from various trusted resources leads me to believe Facebook is the one and first place among the Web 2.0 possibilites that I would put attention to marketing for myself and for artists I advise. Here is a link to a story from Henry Blodgett's Silicon Alley blog: Facebook Ads: The Devil's In The Details. Recent articles in Internet Retailer magazine also talk about how mass marketers are diligently working to learn how to put Facebook to work for them.

This post could be more thoughtful with more insight provided from the currently unavailable links on my dead hard drive and a little more time cogitating from me. But, I don't want to wait longer. I want to urge you to consider using Facebook as the place where I think you can get the greatest bang for your buck (and time) from among all the Web 2.0 opportunities out there. I'm sure there are those who will disagree and I welcome any comments.

If you have been following along with how our industry is changing and how the marketing efforts of companies in all industries are changing, you know you may need to pick a horse to bet on. I'm not saying the others won't deliver, but with limited time, I would go with Facebook as my primary source.

Will Rogers once said: "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."

Rogers' wisdom applies for marketers in the 21st Century. You can't wait until a clear winner evolves and play catch up. You have to get in somewhere, the sooner the better and going with Facebook looks to me about as a good a choice as you can make.

Thirteen Sure-Fire Rules to Create Success for the Emerging Artist - Part One

1. Don't paint or photograph with the preconceived view of becoming known for a look or style when you have so much to offer on a wide platform of personal interests.
2. Don't have any concerns whether galleries or collectors will have a clue as to what to expect from you when you jump from painting portraits to ponies. With your abundant talent, it doesn't matter because it's only time before the whole world is beckoning to it.
3. Don't submit to any of the multitude of regularly available columns, features, special sections and other FREE publicity opportunities. After all, why go for the filler copy when the cover stories are just around the corner?
4. Don't go out of your way to have any valuable contact with the media when you just know they will be courting you once you are rich and famous.
5. Don't ask any reps, whether they be advertising, tradeshow, framing, paper, printer or art reps, who call on you to tell you what is happening in the business; you wouldn't want to benefit from someone who sees the business from 30,000 feet when you can stay grounded in your studio.
6. Don't bother investing extra money to get the best digital scan possible for your reproductions. If less than the best is acceptable for you, by golly it ought to be good enough for your collectors and would be collectors.
7. Don't ever access the wealth of great information so freely shared by Alyson Stanfield, Robert Genn, Paul Dorrell, Dan's Empty Easel, Charley Parker, Katherine Tyrrell, Clint Watson, Dick Harrison and Barney Davey to name just a few because you suppose you can't trust anyone who is not another starving artist. Surely, they are a bunch of self-serving types just angling to retire once they glom on to a huge chunk of your awesome marketing budget.
8. Don't go to art tradeshows such as ArtExpo or Decor Expo when you can't afford to exhibit. Why would you waste your time seeing how your competitors are doing when none of it matches the masterpieces coming from your easel?
9. Don't waste your time reading a trade magazine like Art World News, Art Business News or Decor. You can't afford to have your creativity be informed by what the most successful artists and publishers in the business are doing.
10. Don't participate in artist discussion boards such as Wet Canvas, Digital Painting Forum, Art Scuttlebutt and Online Visual Artists when you could be watching reruns of Desperate Housewives instead. What could you possibly learn there you don't already know?
11. Don't use the Internet to market yourself and your business. Why would you spend your time with a Web site or one of those trendy Blog things? For heaven's sake, don't even think of whiling away precious hours starting a Squidoo lens or figuring out how the likes of Boing Boing might help jumpstart your career.
12. Don't succumb to the siren song of shameless self-promotion. Stay humble and know that hope alone will bring you all the sales, notice, fame and glory you surely deserve. Let the money grubbers have their time now, your lasting fame and legacy after you are long gone will be the best revenge.
13. Don't go to the extra expense of using a professional printer, or at least carefully follow all the procedures they employ to create lasting art, when you can bang out almost archival reproductions right on your desktop. After all, a giclee is a giclee is a giclee; right?.

BONUS POINTS

1. Don't take the snarky tongue-in-cheek comments personally and keep in mind that controversy sparks more interest than milquetoast commentary.
2. Keep in mind the timeless advice to Wear Sunscreen, which is the common name of a column titled Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young written by Mary Schmich and published in the Chicago Tribune on June, 1 1997. The most popular and well-known form of the essay is the successful music single released in 1999, accredited to Baz Luhrmann.
   

Do You Have a Second Life? Do You Need a Second Life?

If you want to be somebody else,
If you're tired of fighting battles with yourself.
If you want to be somebody else
Change your mind, change your mind. - lyrics to Change Your Mind by Sister Hazel

If you answer is yes, you likely are one of the 8.5 million plus people who have created a virtual alter ego on Second Life. Here is the description of what Second Life is from its Web site:

Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its Residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by a total of 8,558,745 Residents from around the globe.

There are who find it hard to imagine one having enough time for a rich involved second life when their real life is so hectic already, while for others the escape from the clamor of reality is the lure. Me, I signed up and got an avatar, but was fairly bored before I got off Help Island where you learn to walk, talk, drive and fly and get an appearrance and find and move stuff. I did go to some galleries and cafes, but still was anxious to get back to RL (real life) in SL parlance.

Despite my personal experience, I don't underestimate the power of such software to transform people's lives and businesses. That actual countries are setting up consulates on Diplomacy Island gives you another glimpse of the depth of involvement and the potential others see in the virtual world. If you can find a way to make this work for you, go for it and please report back here when you do or if you already have.

Before you think I'm crazy and wonder why I'm posting about Second Life, you should know it is in the press for many reasons. For example, it was featured as a cover story in the May 6, 2006 BusinessWeek magazine with this headline: My Virtual Life - A journey into a place in cyberspace where thousands of people have imaginary lives. Some even make a good living. Big advertisers are taking notice.

The July 4, 2007 edition of The Art Newspaper carried this article: Art Makes a Scene on Second Life - The online virtual world is becoming one of the best places for for artists, curators and dealers to meet. The article mentions the island of Artropolis where artists have set up galleries that sell both virtual and actual art online. One artist claims to have made more than $10,000 offline from contacts made in Second life.

The blog, Business Communicators of Second Life recently announced Sanpellegrino's pool party launch for those whoever wanted to be part of the high brow Italian art and club scene. Wow and darnit! I missed it on July 25. Before you laugh, consider its sponsor is international consulting firm Accenture. So, if you are just bored, want to kill some time in a virtual world and perhaps pick up some sales and contacts you would not otherwise get, Second Life just might be the ticket for you. 

Broken Links - a metaphor for marketing. Plus the art of the 15-second pitch.

Broken lines, broken strings,
Broken threads, broken springs,
Broken idols, broken heads,
People sleeping in broken beds.
Ain't no use jiving
Ain't no use joking
Everything is broken. ~ Bob Dylan

My apologies. If you tried to use the broken link to the article in on art in the July issue of License! Global Digital Edition magazine in my previous post. It's been fixed with many thanks to Sue O'Kieffe who notified me. It's linked again above to the proper page in the digital version of the July issue. To apply for your own digital subscription, use this link: https://www.advanstar.com/subscriptions/subscribe.asp?subid=180&ac=a&cid=&esc=L0707W

If you think about it, links to your customers and prospects are the lifeline to your business. When they are broken, so is your business. Conversely, the more links you have and the stronger they are, the more prosperous your art business will be. Good links are at the heart of very important Google page ranks. The smart folks there long ago figured out relevancy in search results are directly tied to both quantity and quality of links to any given Web page. Of course, it's more than that, but if you have a Web page and don't put in some time working on creating links to it, you are never going to achieve the results you want in page rankings.