Good morning, welcome to the Art Money Talk. My name is Mo
Today's question is how to get my art into a gallery
It surprises me how many times this question gets asked
Because I think the importance of art galleries is totally overrated
There are so many ways an artist could make a living could make a fulfilling career, could be successful, without an art gallery
But if you would like to work with art gallery is totally your choice. It's your freedom
I will help you in this video
This video is made for those of you who would like to work with art galleries, showcase your art in the galleries and pay 50% commission.
I assume you have already a list of art galleries you would like to contact
So here is a checklist of 4 different aspects before you approach an art gallery
Make sure you ask yourself those questions
And include this answers in the written communication to the galleries.
Number 1 online portfolio
Do you have an artist website are the artworks organized by series?
Is the layout easy to navigate? Is it fast to load?
Your own artist website is the best way to showcase your art and your body of work
Sixty percent of artists we surveyed do not have an artist website, but if you have one, that's great
Congratulations, you're already ahead of most artists
art galleries would like to work with artists who are serious and committed and who are willing to
Invest in their own career and to have a artists website is the first step
Your website doesn't have to have a state of art technology. It only needs to have your artwork
High-resolution photos and perhaps some videos and your biography perhaps also some contact details
Number 2 your style. Do you have a clear style is your art style in line with other artists in the gallery?
Imagine art galleries are like boutique stores. Either they sell menswear womenswear
Makeup, accessories or pets wear and usually you wouldn't sell makeup with children's clothing
Or you wouldn't sell children's clothing with Pat clothing. You know, it just doesn't make sense
That's why you need to do your research and make that your art style is in line with other artists in the same gallery
So that you're not wasting their time and yours.
Number 3 production
How many artworks can you deliver every month?
Can you handle the packaging and shipping from your studio to the gallery?
Galleries would love to work with
Artists who are consistent reliable and can handle minor logistics
Imagine if art galleries are fruit stores and you are the orange farmer and you produce oranges
The best oranges in the world like it tastes really good. They're really unique and you think it will sell really well
However, we approach a store owner. The first questions they will ask is
How many kilos of oranges can you deliver to my door every single day? It's about consistency
It's about reliability
so you have to make sure that your logistics is reliable
and your production is consistent. Otherwise, these stores will not want to work with you
Number 4 Communication
Are you influential on the internet?
How many potential clients you can bring to the gallery? In many aspects
It is very similar to, when the company recruit a salesperson and the company can recruit a junior salesperson or a
Senior salesperson. When they recruit a junior sales person.
They have to send this person to school to training and after a long time of
Education and spending a lot of money and this person can just like quit or not not even, not come
so in this case this company is losing a lot of money and time
That's why many companies would like to hire senior sales persons because then when they come they come with existing contacts
Existing clients and they can bring value to the company immediately from the day they work
It is the same when they work with artists
If you have already a lot of followers on Instagram on Facebook a lot of traffic on your website
So when you join the gallery, the only thing they need to do is to handle the transactions to handle the sells
So it's a lot less work for them. Will you work with a gallery?
You do need to sign a formal contract either with exclusivity or without
Personally, I wouldn't work with galleries with exclusivity
Because I would like to take the freedom and liberty and take the control of my own career
However, I think exclusivity in a certain region or city or country is
Reasonable like in Italy in France or in Spain or in a certain state and that's totally fine
Most of the smaller galleries that I know they don't work with
Exclusivity because they know the amount of sales they can get you is not enough to sustain your family
so they do encourage you to work with other channels and however
You know be aware of their expectations because normally they say, you know, we don't work with exclusivity, you know
Go ahead sign with whoever you want
They actually expect you to not sign with their competitors
so make sure that you know you communicate well with each other
Your expectations dos and don'ts and maintain a friendly relationship
I wish you the best of luck working with art galleries and that's it for today
Thank you for watching and see you in the next video