Everyone at our meeting tonight after our tour of Eastman Gallery committed to planning our first show at the gallery – preferably in October-November. Richard Eastman, the owner, took a lot of time out of his busy evening to talk to us. I think everyone was impressed with his commitment to supporting local artists and specifically to helping us increase our visibility and sell our work.
I’m really excited about this opportunity for all of us! The potential investment for each artist is small – probably no more than $50-$100 for the month-long exhibit, plus only 25% commission on works sold (see below for more on costs and benefits). But the possible payoff in terms of educating yourself in the art business, increasing your visibility and credibility as an artist, developing your confidence in your work, and of course learning how to sell your art, is huge.
IF YOU’RE COMMITTED TO BEING IN THE SHOW, PLEASE LET ME KNOW BY 5PM, MONDAY, AUGUST 20. PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO YOUR ARTIST FRIENDS SO WE CAN GENERATE A LOT OF PARTICIPATION IN THE SHOW. I’D LOVE TO FILL ALL THE UNBOOKED SPACE IN THE GALLERY WITH OUR ARTISTS ALIVE AND WELL GROUP! AND WE HAVE TO ACT FAST, BECAUSE THE SPACE MIGHT BE TAKEN SOON.
Richard juries all the art he shows, so participation is contingent on his acceptance of the work – no pornography or extremely dark or violent work will be shown. The work is insured while it’s in the gallery AND you’re wise to have your own insurance coverage as well.
I’ll meet with Richard next week to confirm the exact dates, costs, deadline for submitting our work and other details. I plan to show him some of our work to give him a sense of the diversity and talent represented by our group.
IF YOU’RE GOING FOR IT WITH US AND HAVE PHOTOS OF YOUR WORK, PLEASE POST SHOTS OF 2-5 YOUR BEST WORKS ON THE YAHOO GROUP SITE – http://groups.yahoo.com/group/artistsaliveandwell/. Please post your work by 5PM, MONDAY, AUGUST 20. Here’s how to post photos of your work on our Yahoo group:
- Go to the site – http://groups.yahoo.com/group/artistsaliveandwell/ – and join the group, if you haven’t already.
- Once you join, click on Photos in the menu on the left side of the Artists Alive and Well home page. This will take you to the Photos page.
- Click on Create Album, and enter your album name and description. If your online name is not your real full name, please use your real first and last name in the name of your album. Also be sure to click Personal on this screen, so other people can’t accidentally add photos to your album.
- Follow the prompts for adding photos of your work from your computer files. In the Name box, give each work a title. In the Description box, put the medium and the size – for example, acrylic on canvas, 16x20.
- When you’ve added your photos, scroll to the bottom and click Add Photos Now.
If you can’t post your work to Yahoo, you can email the files to me. Be sure that the title of EVERY file contains your last name and the name of the art work. If you email me photos of your work and don’t want them posted on the Yahoo group site, please let me know.
POSTING PHOTOS OF YOUR WORK ON YAHOO IS NOT ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL AT THIS TIME. If you don’t have photos available, don’t go out and spend a fortune having them made. These pictures are just to give Richard a sense of “who we are” as artists, and to assure him that we can fill at least one room of the gallery with quality art. Once the arrangements for the show are worked out, we’ll set a date for you to officially submit your work either by email (if that’s acceptable to him) or in person.
HOW EASTMAN GALLERY WORKS WITH ARTISTS – Each show at the gallery lasts about 5 weeks. We’re targeting a show that will start about mid-October and run into November (exact dates to come after my meeting with Richard).
As mentioned above, Richard juries the shows himself. He also takes care of hanging the shows professionally. You must provide your work ready to hang – and Richard has a wholesale framer he will refer us to if needed. Richard is an interior designer as well as an artist, so I believe he’ll do his best to make our work look good. (I’ll ask him if we have any say-so in how our work is displayed.)
COSTS – The artists pay a fee to have their works hung for the 5-week period of the show. The fee depends on the amount of wall space occupied. The good news is that the commission charged for works sold is only 25%, substantially less than that charged by most other galleries.
We’re discussing taking one of the larger rooms in the gallery. If every artist submits 2-3 works (moderate size pieces – nothing huge – I’ll get specific dimensions from Richard), this room would accommodate the 2-D works of about 15 artists. We’d also have floor space for pedestals and tables to accommodate ceramics, jewelry and other 3-D works. With these added works, the room might accommodate a total of 18-20 artists. The cost for the room for the 5-week exhibit is $1060. Split among 15-20 artists, that’s only about $50-$70 per artist. (This price could vary with the size of the works submitted and the way Richard decides to hang them for best effect.)
Any artist who wants more space could pay for more of the space in this room – for example, instead of taking one slot for about $50-$70, you could take 2 slots for about $100-$140. We could also take some of the space available outside the room in other parts of the gallery. The more total space we take, the better price we get – another good reason to invite all your artist friends to participate.
People in Artists Alive and Well who are already exhibiting at the gallery would keep their current spaces. With Artists Alive and Well members throughout the gallery, we can all easily refer patrons to each other – for instance: “Oh, you’re interested in landscapes – have you seen Mary’s work in the next room?”
WHAT WE GET FOR OUR MONEY
RECEPTIONS – Richard hosts an opening reception at the beginning of the show and an evening with the artists a week or two later. These receptions include an open bar and a nice little cocktail buffet and usually some live music – at no extra cost to the artists.
PR – He sends out 3 email invitations for each show – one invitation announcing the events, one reminder announcing the opening reception and one reminder announcing the evening with the artists. His email list is about 5000, and he’s willing to include all our email lists in his email invitation list. He also prints 5000 oversize postcards and mails out several thousand of those. (I’ll ask him if we can have some of the postcards for our own use.) He’s done a good job of promoting his shows – a couple of months ago he had a nice piece in the Chronicle featuring his exhibit honoring Frida Kahlo. Each artist can also display photos of their work on the Eastman Gallery website.
USE OF THE SPACE – Except for the receptions, the gallery is open by appointment. We’re free to bring people in anytime to see our work – as long as we make arrangements with Richard or his staff for the gallery to be open. If all of us want to get together and have a party for our friends, we can do that. (The refreshments would be on us, but no extra cost for using the space.) If you have prospective customers who can’t make the receptions, you can set up your own time to show your work – and you can bring in additional work to display on easels to showcase more of your own pieces. We can hold Artists Alive and Well meetings at the gallery if we want to, or hold workshops on topics of interest to us, to other artists or the public to give our group additional visibility in the community.
WHAT CAN YOU DO TO MAKE THE ARTISTS ALIVE AND WELL SHOW A SUCCESS?
- Commit to being in the show. Email me ASAP to let me know you’re on board.
- If you have photos of your work, submit them to the Artists Alive and Well Yahoo group as outlined above.
- Get your email list in shape for us to use in promoting the show – invite ALL your friends, coworkers, neighbors, relatives, and everyone you know – and of course your previous customers!
- Send me any useful contacts you already have with any members of the media – their name, publication/station where they work, phone number and email.
- Check out my wish list (emailed to everyone on the list), and volunteer to play an active part in launching this event and this organization. Several people have already stepped forward, and I’m sure they’d each welcome help with their tasks – plus there are plenty of jobs to go around.
- Come to the next meeting and be prepared to get REALLY pumped about the possibility of being an ABUNDANT ARTIST!
THANKS to all of you who’ve attended the meetings, expressed interest in Artists Alive and Well, or agreed to forward this information to your artist friends. Thanks especially to those who have already stepped forward (and those who will) to help make the show a roaring success. I appreciate you all, I honor your creativity and I welcome your partnership in this fantastic adventure.
Happy creating –
Linda
Linda Summers Posey
Founder, Artists Alive and Well
713-781-1030 (home)
281-451-3808 (cell)
http://www.artistsaliveandwell.blogspot.com/
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