5 Tips For Your First Art Showing!
No matter if you are a painter, ceramicist, illustrator, or fashion designer these 5 tips can help any artist make sure their first art showing goes as smooth as possible! From art walks and markets to galleries and art showcases her are some tips to get you started!
Tip 1 | Start Preparing Early!
And get some inspiration for your set up. Look up artist booths on Pinterest and find what would work best and most affordably for your showing. Standardly, artists are notified that they will be officially showing their artwork at least one month before the showing. The more notice you get the better!
The most important thing for your showing is power! That’s right, electricity and lighting.
Some artists get so concerned on what pieces they will show that they completely forget to bring that extension cord they absolutely needed. If you can take a walk through of the space you will be showing in do it! If that opportunity doesn’t present itself, make sure to pack an extension cord and sufficient lighting for your booth! Just a side note: those twinkle lights from Urban Outfitters really do shine bright! Oh, and don’t forget to bring a phone charger too!
Tip 2 | Getting the Word Out
Getting the word out to get people to come to your art showing can be one of the parts artists dread the most. Don’t worry, you can still make it fun and not too overbearing to your followers and friends! Hopefully at this point you already have a social platform you promote your artwork on. Some art showcases require you to sell a certain amount of tickets. If this is the case see if you can connect a ‘get tickets’ button on your instagram page, not a link in your bio, but actually using the button feature! Some markets or art walks will provide you with a promotional image for you to post with the locations and dates on it. This is nice promotional material to have, but…
it always works better if you create your own promotional material. Think of it like this, if you post someone else’s image, are your followers and friends even going to recognize at first glance that it’s you who it posting it?
No! Make a new image that fits your style and your own branding, personalize it. Personalizing your promotional material ensures that your followers won’t discard the information as yet another random sponsored ad.
Tip 3 | Standing Out
There are lots of ways to visually stand out. Of course you want to put time and care into making your art display the best it can possibly be. Though when you think about it, the visual part is only 10% of standing out amongst the other artists you will be surrounded by. The other 90% of standing out is through impact. How you make a personal impact on the people you meet.
It can always be a little bit uncomfortable talking to new people and seeing how people might react to your art, wondering if anyone will actually purchase anything. You can do this! There is a reason why you have got this far!
The first thing you can do to make an impact is get set up early and then walk around to the other artists both and let them know how much you love their work! Start chatting with the other artists you are showing your artwork with and get to know them before the showing starts. Follow eachother on instagram, learn more about how they got started doing showings. You never know who you are going to meet! The next thing you can make sure to do is have a mailing list sign up. Once the showing starts and you start chatting with viewers, asking them if they’d like to sign up for your mailing list is the perfect way to end the conversation and send them on their way if they aren’t currently looking to buy. This is much better than handing them off a business card that they might eventually lose. This keeps the ball in your park! Another quick tip if you’re not one for much talking, bringing art to create while you are there, kind of like a live art session while you’re at your booth, is another great conversation starter!
Tip 4 | Staying Positive
Staying positive! Yes, that is tip number four. Seems simple, but it can be something a lot of artists struggle with towards the end of a showing, or even days after.
Remember that this showing, whether you made more sales than you could have hoped for or made none, this was an experience to cherish! You were brave enough to get your art out there in front of a bunch of people to judge.
That can be a lot of emotional strain. No matter what happened during the showing, always remember to look at the bright side! It takes A LOT of work to put on a showing of your own artwork. Now you can add that one into your portfolio of showings. More experience under your belt. Now you know your next showing will be even better. Only up from here!
Tip 5 | Keeping Records & Notes
You may or may not have inventory records and note taking processes set in place. If you do, great! If not, no worries! Here are some quick easy things to get you started. If ideas pop into your head during the showcase, such as you see something you like that someone else did or you even get a suggestion from one of the viewers of what they’d love to see from you, make sure to just it down in your phones notes!
If you do not already have inventory records of your art yet, just take some pictures! Take pictures of your set up before the showing starts, and then take pictures after the showing so you can later look and see the difference.
Make sure to always keep notes of what you sell, where, for how much! You never know where this life of an artist is going to take you!