The Art Newspaper recently reported that the gallery system is structurally weak.

A new report by the non-profit dealers’ federation Cinoa finds that fair-led and online business is taking over as the main source of revenue.

Let’s first acknowledge that they’re talking about a certain level of high-end galleries that attend major art fairs around the world.

But are even lower- to mid-range brick-and-mortar galleries in jeopardy?

How are your galleries doing?

Time for a change of mindset: Add galleries to your stable rather than the other way around.

In an issue of his Twice-Weekly Letter, Robert Genn responded to a frustrated artist whose format was being copied by his fellow artists in a co-op:

Keep supplying your work to the gallery, but don’t hang out there. Look for other galleries, collectives and friends who may not be as likely to clone. Your success is your calling card.

Take control and put galleries in your stable, not you in theirs. Keep pursuing your private bliss. Your natural curiosity, creative flair and good work habits will take you to your next epiphany.

The impetus for the letter (the copycat in the gallery) isn’t nearly as interesting to me as that one sentence.

It’s a reminder that you have power over your career.

You may think that galleries, curators, and critics have the power. And they do. They have as much power as you give them.

You’re in charge of your art career. It’s the first of the 6 Principles of No-Excuse Self-Promotion.

Guest Blogger: Kesha Bruce

Every artist I know, no matter what medium they work in, is always looking for good opportunities to exhibit their art and introduce it to broader audiences.

Over the years I had casually considered what it would be like to run my own gallery space, so when an opportunity to share a gallery space practically fell into my lap, I jumped on it. Three years ago I opened a gallery–a space where I could show and sell my work.

Although I could easily label this a list of ‘what went wrong’, it’s also a list of lessons I learned in the process of running a gallery space.

©2010 Kesha Bruce, Big Dancing Spirit #1. India Ink and graphite powder on paper, 24x 17 inches.

1. Know your true expenses
Having a gallery space doesn’t mean more sales, but it certainly means more overhead. Even though the rent on a space itself maybe completely affordable, other expenses quickly come into play. Never mind the heating bill, I soon found myself spending more than a handful of nickels and dimes on small minor expenditures such as light bulbs, extension cords, and cleaning supplies.

2.  Know how to budget your time
As much as I enjoyed talking about my work with new people, chatting for hours on end with the people that strolled in off the street soon became exhausting. Within a few months I began to resent spending my weekend afternoons gallery-sitting. This problem might have been avoided had I done some real thinking in advance about how much time I realistically wanted to spend interacting with the public on a regular basis.

3. Know your collectors
Besides the once-in-awhile “love at first sight” buyer, most likely a collector will have seen your work and gotten to know you a bit before they decide to make a purchase. One-hundred percent of the sales I made while I was showing my work in my gallery came from collectors I had already formed relationships with long before I decided to set up shop outside my studio.

4.  Know what you really want
In the end it all comes down to choosing opportunities that fit who you are as a person and the direction you want your career to move in. As exciting as it is to meet new people and sell work in a new venue, you probably don’t need to open a gallery space to meet new collectors or to engage with the fans that you already have.

Aside from having the opportunity to temporarily see the art market from a new perspective, the most important lesson I learned was that having a gallery is not a substitute for using your contact list and taking care of your biggest supporters.

Opening a gallery taught me a ton about the value of connecting with people and growing long-term relationships with collectors. It also made me appreciate the hard work of gallerists on behalf of artists.

In the end I closed the doors of my initial idea of running a traditional gallery space, but I took what I’d learned from the experience and used it to create a new model for promoting and selling my work. Stay tuned!

Kesha Bruce received her MFA from Hunter College and is a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship recipient. She lives and works in the US and France.

Guest Blogger: Gallerist Maren Bargreen

I can’t run my gallery without artists—they are the life-blood of any gallery. Without you, I’m just a space with white walls.

Read This Before You Approach Another Gallery!

I have a pet peeve—and, in speaking with other gallery owners, I am not alone. The problem? Artists of all levels of talent and experience don’t know how to approach galleries. It’s a rampant annoyance in our industry, and one issue that is easily solved.

I’m going to give you some solid advice, but let me first share a story of a day in my gallery.

Gallerist and Guest Blogger Maren Bargreen in Her Gallery, Gallery MAR in Park City, Utah

Last month I was working with a long-time collector and was distracted by another gallery guest who wanted to see works by a different artist. He seemed interested! Maybe this would be a new collector!

The second guest asked me to pull out pieces by another artist who was not being exhibited at the time. I proceeded to do just that—showcasing the works, changing the lighting, all while trying to give attention to my other collector. It’s not easy to give my full attention to two clients.

Halfway through my presentation to the “new collector,” he mentioned he was an artist and was interested in showing at my gallery. Huh? Really? Are you kidding me? By this time, the first collector was out of the door, and I had lost a potential sale “selling” to this artist.

Now, do you think I’d have any interest in ever showing this artist’s work? Absolutely not. He has zero chance with my gallery.

Before a gallery can sell your work, you need to sell yourself to the gallery. And by this, I don’t mean bombarding the poor director with constant calls and visits. I mean selling yourself as a well-prepared, organized, and gifted artist.

The best way to approach (or “sell”) yourself to a gallery is to find out how they want to be approached. Simple. But most artists don’t do this because it takes time and requires work.

Don’t be like most artists. Do the work!

Visit galleries to discover where you will be a good fit, and research before you submit yourself. Are you a watercolorist specializing in wildlife images? You’re probably not the best fit for a Russian Realism gallery.

Do your homework. It’s worth it for you and your eventual gallery. It will save time and energy, and probably preserve your ego.

Every gallery owner likes a different “sell.” Some only accept submissions once a year, while others have “rolling,” or constant, submissions. Some don’t accept submissions at all.

The best place to locate a serious gallery’s artist submission guidelines is on their website. Before you call or email to ask, check out their site and look for these guidelines. If you present yourself to the gallery according to their preferences, you’re already one step ahead.

After you’ve discovered the way that the gallery wants to be approached, follow their guidelines.

About the Guest Blogger
Maren Bargreen is owner of Gallery MAR, in Park City, Utah, and was honored as Park City’s Business Woman of the Year in 2009. Gallery MAR features fine contemporary art spanning from detailed still life works to abstracted landscapes and whimsical figurative pieces.

Museums, listen up! It’s time to get with the 21st century and take advantage of the free publicity that social media can give you.

David Rau, Director of Education at the Florence Griswold Museum, recently posted a question on a museums blog in which he asked for input as to how museums were handling bloggers that wanted to take pictures for their blog posts. He knows museums struggle with image use, copyright, etc. and notes:

Indeed, the Florence Griswold Museum has seen artwork from our museum appear on several blogs with great images that were gathered without our knowledge. And the kind of positive publicity these blogs garner from specialty groups, i.e. homeschoolers, families looking for kid friendly outings, etc., has proven to be invaluable.

As a former museum curator and educator, I get the dilemma.

Museums want control over their images and to show them with the proper respect, which doesn’t always happen if people are given free reign with their cameras. Amateur photographers might snap unflattering images and, perhaps worst of all, fail to provide proper credit along with the images.

Museums can’t allow photography of art they don’t own. It’s simple, really. They don’t own the copyright, so they don’t have the right give permissions.

Many museums allow non-flash photography within their permanent collection (art they own) galleries. I’m all for this! Museums claim that intense light of flashes can–over time–damage a work. Whether or not this is true, I don’t want to see flash photography allowed in museums. Flashes are disruptive and I’d like to preserve the contemplative spaces within the museum galleries.

Yet museums that ban photography altogether are living in the past. They’re missing out on tons of free publicity from avid fans! The power blogs are well documented. The power of word of mouth is equally well documented. When a blogger recommends something to his or her readers, guess what? They are more likely to take action than if they had seen an ad somewhere. Ergo, make it easy for people to talk about the art you have.

How museums can accommodate bloggers

If you’re a museum who is against allowing photographs of your the art in your galleries, there’s still something you can do to help us put in a good word for you.

Create an online media room just for bloggers.

Here’s what that would consist of:

1. Low-resolution images of works that are on view and a super-easy way to find them. Obviously, large museums can’t post images of every work in a separate media room. Maybe some highlights? Or, if you have low-res images of works in your collections pages, just link to those and tell us how to use them in your guidelines (see #3).
2. Credit lines for each work.
3. Your (brief!) guidelines for using the images. Please: No legalese here. Just tell us what you want and we’ll do it. The more barriers you erect and the longer your guidelines, the less likely we are to promote you. (See “people don’t read instructions” below.)
4. Links to more details about each piece in case they would help us write a better blog post.

And here’s how you can handle it in the galleries.

Have business cards printed and make sure your museum guards have a stack of them. Instead of the guards telling people “I’m sorry, no photography allowed,” they can pull out a business card. Here’s a suggestion for text on that card:

I’m sorry we can’t allow photography in the museum galleries.

But because we want to help you share our art with others,
we’ve created a media room just for you!

www.greatmuseummediaroom.com

Signs won’t do. People don’t read. More to the point, people don’t read instructions, if you haven’t learned by now. We need something we can take with us and look up easily when we get home.

Alternatively, you could take email addresses and email bloggers the link to your special media room. But you must do it ASAP. We’re usually a step ahead of you. I vote for the business cards.

To continue the conversation about what to do when you’re not getting paid for the sale of your art, let’s look at concrete steps to getting paid more quickly.

Victor Issa, Freedom. Bronze, life-size. ©The Artist

1. Start with an email message.
Most people respond best to email these days, so starting with this option is natural. You can send a gentle note: “Per the terms of our contract, I think I was supposed to be sent payment last week for the sale of my art in your gallery. Could you please check on that and get back to me?”

2. Use the phone.
I don’t trust the reliability of email, so don’t assume that you’re being ignored just because your email message wasn’t answered quickly. After a couple of days have passed, pick up the phone and repeat the conversation under #1 above. If you must leave a message with someone who isn’t in charge, ask when your call will be returned.

3. Use the phone again.
If you didn’t get action or the desired response, try making contact again the following week.

4. Send a hard copy letter.
If your gallerist is avoiding contact with you by phone and email, put your concerns in a letter. A letter is sure to reach him or her and looks very official. There is no need to be threatening or unkind. Just outline the details of situation–being clear about the answers you’re seeking.

You are not in a position to float loans to the gallery. It’s their responsibility to make sure they have the financial means to stay in business. But, if you want to maintain a good relationship with the gallery and don’t want them to go under, put them at ease.

At any or all points in your attempts to get paid, reassure the gallery. You don’t want to cause trouble, you just need to be paid for the sale of your art. Ask: “Is there anything I can do to help?” (While still being paid, of course.) Remember that you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

Here are two scenarios for you. Let’s tackle both (notice the plural in today’s post title).

Pam Spika Nicholson, Momentum. Acrylic and mixed media on canvas. ©The Artist

Scenario 1

I have paintings in a gallery but I also do summer outdoor art festivals.

Do I pay the gallery owner the 50/50 commission on the custom painting even though the client never set foot in the gallery?

Scenario 2

I have paintings in a gallery but I also do summer outdoor art festivals.

Do I pay the gallery owner the 50/50 commission on the custom painting even though it was never in their gallery and was decided upon at an outdoor festival?  Do I still owe them since the client saw my work at their gallery first?

In the last Deep Thought Thursday I asked if you would pay $17 to see a single painting. I purposely did not provide arguments before or against the notion, nor did I provide you with more than a single link. Still, I’m surprised that such strong opinions were formed without knowing all of the facts. (Of the 36 comments to date, only one person mentions following the link and looking into the topic more in depth. A closer researcher might have caught a major error I made, which I'll confess to in a few paragraphs.)

It’s okay because that’s what I was looking for. I wanted your gut reaction to the idea of paying $17 to view a single masterpiece. In this case, we’re talking about La Velata (Woman with a Veil) by Renaissance master Raphael (dated 1516), which is on view at the Portland Art Museum this fall.

Of those who said No Thanks, these were popular reasons:

• It reinforces the idea that art is elitist. (Some said art should be for the masses.)
• I want more for my money. Add value–lecture, wine & cheese–and I might think about it.
• Maybe not this painting, but I might consider paying $17 for something more to my liking.

So, it’s time to think about it a little more in depth.

First, let’s get some more facts.
As Sheila Mahanke-Barnes noted in her comment, the Portland Art Museum website mentions the following.

To ensure an optimal viewing experience, The Woman with a Veil will be displayed in a gallery with no more than 25 people allowed access at any given time. Text panels, audio and video presentations, and public programs will provide insight into Renaissance art, portraiture, and the artist. (It’s unclear which ones are included with the cost of admission, although we can probably assume that the text panels are thrown in for free.)

As far as I can tell, you can enter the museum (general admission) and see the painting and another special exhibition for $20 total. Or you can enter the museum (general admission) AND see this painting without the other exhibit for $17 total. In my previous post, I believe I said that the $17 was on top of the general admission price, but it looks like I was wrong. No matter. It was a deep thought anyway–just a different deep thought! I’m certain that many of you will rethink your comments about this particular case with this knowledge. (i.e. Would you pay $5 more on top of the $12 general admission to see a single painting?)

Now it’s time for me to play devil’s advocate. I understand all of the reasons above for not wanting to pay extra money to see a single painting, but I’m siding with the museum on this. Here are some of my reasons, which hold true whether it's $5 extra or $17 as I had originally thought. Keep in mind that I usually avoid blockbuster exhibits at all costs. I prefer the quiet of a museum's permanent collection galleries or smaller, focused exhibits. Still, I'd fork over the dough for this one.

Who said art is supposed to be for the masses? If art were for the masses, wouldn’t we do a better job of keeping it in our K-12 curriculum and making sure it was funded? If, as an artist, you priced your artwork for the masses, you might just stay in the poorhouse.

It could increase Museum membership. The Portland Art Museum director has said that this is a gamble to try to increase museum membership. Museums do this all of the time by adding on entry fees for special exhibitions. This just happens to be for a single painting. It’s a known fact that special exhibits, with their increased fees, can expand the membership ranks since members receive free entrance into all exhibits.

Museums are broke! The Portland Art Museum has faced budget cuts and staff layoffs in the past year. As a former museum curator and educator, I know that museum staff give 110% to their jobs for not a lot of pay. We need to be sure that our cultural heritage is looked after by qualified people.  I’m not sure how many museums in the UK are publicly funded (many of you mentioned the free UK museums in your comments), but very few in the US are publicly funded and none that I know of are 100% funded by government. They might get a smidgeon of funds from city, state, county, or federal entities, but even the Smithsonian isn’t completely funded by the feds. And Congress seems to be always trying to take some funding away! That’s why Smithsonian museums are in states of disrepair. With giving way down, someone has to pay for the expenses of interpreting, storing and showing art–not to mention electricity, groundskeeping, cleaning, and so forth. It is darned expensive to keep the doors of a museum open!

Someone noted in the comments that they might pay the $17 if it were a fundraiser for a charity. Well, isn't an art museum a solid charitable cause?

Museums are cheap entertainment! You can spend all day in a museum for a single price. You can probably even leave and return the same day for that same price. I don't think people value this experience enough. And perhaps we never will. For many people, it will never be worth the price to view art, just as for others, it wouldn't be worth the cost to attend a monster truck rally.

The Portland Art Museum said it will spend $200,000 to exhibit the work. This doesn’t include the undisclosed loan fee it will pay the Italian government. I doubt seriously that the Museum will make any money from this venture. Special exhibits are rarely cash cows for museums.

The Portland Art Museum is offering free viewings, although it’s unclear as to how many times La Velata will be able to be seen without charge. The gallery may be packed during times, but it will be free.

As Alison Ellett wrote, “Cheaper than a trip to Florence.” (Loved this!) The press release notes, “The Italian government must approve every loan, for example, and private institutions usually are excluded from consideration. Casellati says La Velata has been on loan out of Italy once, possibly twice.” So you either see it this go around or pack your bags and head to Italy. (It will also travel to the Nevada Art Museum and Milwaukee Art Museum.)

Would you pay $20 to see a baseball game or attend a concert? Michael Tyler said “It’s less than a movie with popcorn and coke.” Maybe it has to do with the amount of activity. If you value things that take up more time, you might not think it was worth an extra $5 to see a painting for 30 minutes.

Might be a brilliant marketing ploy. People often value things more when they pay more.

I love the fact that only 25 people at a time (at most) will be allowed into the painting’s gallery.

What an opportunity to see what was once considered the most beautiful painting in the world–Raphael’s response to Leonardo’s Mona Lisa! Sounds like a cheap thrill to me.

So, forgive my huge blunder of saying that the $17 was in addition to the general admission to the museum. Now that you know it's just $5 more, does your opinion change?           

While there is no standardized format for submitting your portfolio to galleries, you can earn points by being professional from the get-go. Fewer galleries = fewer artists in galleries. There isn’t much room for error. You must behave professionally in every way.

More on This Topic

Art Marketing Action newsletter (a written version of this podcast)

From the Vault: About Galleries

Today's Deep Thought comes from an NPR rebroadcast of the debate: Is the Art Market Less Ethical Than the Stock Market? I'm paraphrasing a statement by Michael Hue-Williams from that debate.

To become an art dealer, you need to have a pulse and two eyes in your head. Otherwise, anyone can be one.