Friday, October 8, 2010

Don't Forget the Galleries 2

Working with galleries has been a hot topic for me right now and it seems almost every new post I read is about some information (very useful and insightful), on good and bad business with galleries. A comment on "Don't Forget the Galleries" from my last post inspired me to write this one.

How well do we know gallery owners' backgrounds? How well do we know their business stats or marketing strategies and if we do know that information, does it coincide with our interests? If a gallery owner is an artist how would you view that gallery owner? On one hand, the artist may have started the business to promote his/her own work because he/she found it difficult to get into other galleries. In that case, perhaps the artist doesn't have much of a business or marketing background and wouldn't or perhaps couldn't have your interests in mind.

On the other hand, perhaps the artist knows how difficult it is for emerging artist to make a living and wants to provide a place for other artists to have their "first shot" in a gallery. Perhaps they did their research on how to run a successful gallery and does have your best interests in mind. Perhaps they have a business education background and are also artists.....

But, if the gallery owner is strictly a business owner who happens to love art, is this person more likely to have a better sales rate because they know how to market better? Do they know how to close a sale better? Will this benefit artists more? I don't know.

What I do know is that we as artists should do our research. Perhaps a gallery is interested in your work - ask them questions. Get a hold of some of the other artists in the gallery and ask them questions. ASK QUESTIONS. I'm certainly no expert - this blog is based on my own personal experiences and research, so you can take this at face value if you like.

2 comments:

John Smith said...

There are all types of galleries that is true, but the nature of galleries has changed somewhat since 1985.
Sadly rather than a calling it has become a fairly cheap way of owning ones own business in that the stock comes free in most cases.
I believe if Galleries selected work and paid for it as they did till the eighties, art would again attain new heights.
Yours is a very interesting blog Crystal.

Crystal Rassi said...

I agree John in that gall;eries should pay for their stock like a regular retail store. That may be more incentive to sell AND they may be more selective of the art they choose - I think this would be a good thing.