Marketing Your Art Is No Easy Trick

Here are some helpful ideas

Whether you are just beginning to develop your visual arts career or you are many years into it, or whether you have earned a masters of fine arts degree or have no formal training at all, the task of selling your artwork can be a very difficult. The first thing you need to do is to understand the different markets for art and where your artwork fits into those markets. The markets for fine art can range from commercial galleries, sales to corporations, art fairs, interior designers, private sales, private and public commissions, the sale of reproduction rights and many more venues. Each of these venues has multiple sub-categories that need to be considered before you submit your work.

After running a commercial gallery (Gallery 25N) for many years and seeing an abundance of submissions of artists work, it has become very obvious, that the quality of the submission materials are of utmost importance. When you submit your work to any venue, including galleries, it should be presented in a most professional way. Your artwork and presentation has to set you apart from the other artists. It must include professional quality images of your artwork, a brief biography that speaks of your career as an artist, a one page artist statement, and links to your online portfolio or website. Your artist statement should help the recipient understand your intention in your art. Your art does have to stand on its own, however it is important that the audience has the vocabulary to talk about it. After the submission you will need to follow up with a phone call. Keep in mind that the submission of your artwork is similar to a job interview and you need to impress not only with your art work but also with your presentation.

Before submitting your work to any venue do some research to make sure your work is appropriate for submission. The process of researching art venues has become much easier with the advent of the Internet. Once you have determined the appropriate venues by reviewing their mission statement and the work that they have chosen this will give you a good idea if your work fits into their plan. Your research should include their submission policy defining the format and process for submission. Most want digital images on CDs or DVDs along with an image list containing title, dimensions and medium.