Transcripts
1. Intro: sell your art and art gallery and museum boutique shops. Have you ever walked through an art gallery, boutique or museum gift shop and thought one day I'd like to see my art in this shop I did . I dreamt of the day that I'd see my jewelry, paintings, sculptures and coloring book in art gallery and museum boutiques. And then one day I just took a leap of faith. In 2010 I walked into my favorite Village art gallery and started the process of getting my art in the gallery shop. And I've been making consistent art sales in that gallery and several others ever since. This class is for artists and crafters and makers who want to see and sell their artwork in art gallery and museum shops. In this class, you'll learn how to approach art gallery and museum shop curate er's about selling your art and their boutiques. I'm gonna provide you with examples of submission emails to the curator and give you a list of over 700 art galleries, a museum, gift shops, accepting new artists and tell you the secret of getting your art in the Smithsonian. Boston Children's Museum, Royal Ontario, museum and several other prestigious Partick shops. Whether you create fine art, jewelry, stationery, coloring books, sculpture, net or photography, whether you're creative medium is paint pens, wood fiber, glass or metal art galleries and museum boutiques are always looking for new artists, their prestige gardeners, the highest retail prices, giving you the best profits for your artwork. Your class project is to write a rough draft of your initial plan to get your art in art gallery museum boutiques using what you learn in this class and then share it in the project Gallery during the community for creative support and encouragement. Please join me in class. Together we will build a plan to get your art in art gallery boutiques, a museum gift shops.
2. Class Overview: Overview and class project and Lesson one, we're going to go over how to approach art gallery and museum shop curator. A lesson to I'm going to give you some examples off submission emails to those curate er's and less than three. We're gonna talk about reciprocal art gallery memberships and over 700 art galleries, a museum, gift shops who are accepting new artists and Lesson four, I'm gonna tell you the secret of selling your artwork in the gift shops of the Smithsonian , the Royal Ontario Museum and other prestigious boutique shops in less than five will do a case study often. Artist who wants to sell her coloring book in our gallery boutiques, a museum gift shops in less than six will do a second case. Study off artists who would like to sell their fine arts and arts and crafts, such as jewelry and paintings and sculptures in the gallery shops. And then I'm just gonna finish up with a few final thoughts. Your class project is the right a rough draft of your initial plan for getting your artwork in our gallery boutiques and museum gift shops. Using what you learn in this class and then shared in the project gallery. And please join the community for creative support and encouragement. I'm going to meet you and lesson one.
3. Lesson 1: Approaching Curators: Lesson one approaching curate er's The first time I walked into the rails and gallery, an art center and Halliburton, Ontario, I knew it was a really special place. We just bought this little off the Grid Cabin, an art studio about 30 minutes away from Halliburton I was making in teaching wire wrapped jewelry, beating and crashing apparel and home decor. I walked to the art gallery and the boutique, and they even got to meet the gallery curator. The boutique was filled with gorgeous artwork and handmade crafts by local artisans. Although the boutique sold a lot of jewelry, I noticed they didn't have any rings. So I went back to my art studio and designed several wire wrap rings, took photos and emails the pictures to the curator, asking him if I could sell my jewellery in the boutique. She said yes, and I was thrilled to be able to sell my artwork in that gallery. I have to become a member of the gallery. That's pretty standard. It was about $30 to join, and I got several benefits, including free admission to the gallery, discounts at my favorite art supply stores and the ability to sell my art in that boutique , I worked out the profitable wholesale and retail price for my rings, compared my prices to existing gallery jewelry and set my prices confidently. The arrangement at each art gallery varies. Most of my arrangements are on consignment, with 65 to 75% of the retail price going to the artists in monthly checks. Since Halliburton, Ontario is a cottage village, there are several times a year that are more profitable than others. Summers before Christmas and other holidays are busy selling times of year. The rest of the year is the best time for me to create new items, teach and work on my online shop. Here are some steps to help you approach art gallery and museum curators. Step one. Make a short list of art galleries close to your home. Art galleries generally prefer to work with local artists before extending their reach outside of the state or province. Ah, short list is best when you are starting out because becoming overwhelmed is never good for artists. Less than five galleries to begin with is perfect. Step two. Visit the galleries as a patron, visit a loner with somebody that won't distract a rush. You spend some time in the art gallery shop making mental notes of what they sell and their prices. Sometimes you can even take notes and pictures in these shops. Talk to the people who work in, volunteer the shops and start building a really good relationship. Ask your membership information and then make a list of items that the shop doesn't sell that you think you can make and sell to them. Visit the Art Gallery website, although you might have already looked up the website for their hours of operation and address. But I really don't recommend taking a really thorough read through the website until after you visit In person. In person visits gives you the energy of the gallery and a better in depth information off the shops. Inventory. The website is great for membership benefit information, submission guidelines and to read about who's who volunteering and working at that gallery . Make notes as soon as you can write down your very first impressions of the staff and how your artwork will fit into the gallery shop. These notes are gonna help you construct your email to the curator and the number five is sleep on it. Don't make any final decisions about approaching the curator until you've slept on it. Your brain has this remarkable ability to continue working on ideas while you sleep. I have a great story to support this point. British actor and writer John Klipsch wrote a script a while ago, then lost it. Days and weeks passed and he still couldn't find the script. So he decided he would have to rewrite the entire thing. Upon completion. He ended up finding the first script. Comparing the two. He noticed that the second script was far better than the first, so he concluded that his brain subconsciously continued toe work on the script, thus improving creative minds Never stop working, so give yourself a good night's sleep before sending your email. In the next lesson, we will construct your email to the curator. See you in lesson to
4. Lesson 2: Email Curators: lesson to email examples. You've researched your local art galleries and you've taken notes of your first impressions . Who even slept on it. Now it's time to write that email to the curator Before you hit. Send. Make sure that you are perfectly clear about the submission guidelines, which usually are on the gallery's website. If there are no guidelines on the website, then it's perfectly acceptable to just email the curator introducing yourself and your art . If there are guidelines on the website and it states that are, gallery members can sell artwork in the boutique, then go ahead and send your membership payment with your email most the time an email is the best way to contact a curator. However, sometimes the only Elektronik way to contact the gallery is through those Contact US sections on their website. In that case, look at the drop down menu for the best category for your correspondence here, examples that you can use to contact the curator section. So for the contact US drop down menu, The person that's a reading your note might not be the curator, so just be brief into the point. Use friendly and professional voice. Here's an example. Hello, I am writing to inquire about your art galleries, shops, submission procedure for my wire wrapped amethyst rinks. I have been designing artists and jewelry in Kingston, Ontario, for three years. I look forward to hearing from you best regards and your name in your telephone number and your email address. Here is a second example. Hello, I am writing to inquire about your art gallery boutiques. Submission procedure for my wire wrapped amet. The strengths. I'm a jewelry designer in Kingston, Ontario. I understand that only members can sell artwork in the boutique. May I email the Curia to directly about becoming a member and selling my jewelry in the boutique? I look forward to hearing from you best regards your name, telephone number and email address. Here's a tip. Use the art galleries diction. If they call their store a shop, then you call it a shop. If they call it a boutique than you call it a boutique, you want to be on their team. So speaking right like them emailing the curator. If you don't have the curator's name and it isn't on the website and just go ahead and call the gallery and ask for the curator's name. Here's an example of a phone call. Hello? I'm writing an email to the gallery curator. Can you please spell their name and email address for me? People are usually really happy to help you. Ah, photograph for two in your email as an in line. So right in the body of the email is always a really good idea. So you're nice email, and then they have a little picture or two of what your product looks like. Now you want to make it an in line attachment, not a file attachment, because if you do that and the gallery curator doesn't know who you are often attachment emails Just go straight into the spam folder, and you want to make sure that you keep your picture files small so it doesn't clog up a lot of email room. Here are some examples. It's always nice to have two good, crisp pictures, one on white background, just like the jewelry here and the scarf and then ah, lifestyle picture And a lifestyle picture is simply how your art would be used. If it's an earring or a scarf or a painting or a pillow just how it would be used and then put that in your body of your email. Okay, now you have the curator is name your notes about your first impressions, an excellent photo or two and great art that would fit perfectly in the art gallery shop. Now it's time to write that email. The body of the email should include a friendly greeting. You're positive first impressions of the staff in the space, who you are and what you create and why you think your art fits in the gallery. If membership is required mentioned that you want to become a member, conclude with a question for further discussion and then some things. Keep your fonts clean and simple and proof read at least twice before sending. Or, better yet, sleep on it. Here's unexamined, your subject line. So here we say, subject. Highlands Art Gallery Shop Art submissions. Hello, Alison. I hope you are well and enjoying this lovely spring weather. Last week I had the pleasure of visiting the Highlands Art Gallery. Your staff were friendly and the gallery exhibit was energizing. There is definitely a creative vibe throughout the building. My name is Emily Evans, I am a jewelry designer, specialising die chronic glass earrings and pendants. Visiting your gallery shop inspired me to create a new design that I feel fits your aesthetic. I would love to chat with you further about submitting my artwork to be sold in your art gallery shop. May I visit the gallery next week to join the art gallery membership and bring my artwork for your consideration? I look forward to meeting you. Thank you for your time. Best regards and your name, your telephone number email. And if you have a website and this is a perfect little picture, here's Onley. One picture. There's no lifestyle picture here. Just nice picture of the jewelry independent on a white background fits in perfectly. Keep your correspondents brief and friendly, right? Your email walk away. Or even better yet, sleep on it before sending it to make sure that you've included everything you want to say in a clear Kansai Ice voice. Don't send e mails, tomb or galleries than you consume. If you send out 20 emails and then 15 galleries, get back to you and say We love your earrings. We love your pillows. We love your paintings. We love your prints. Make sure that you can supply those 15 galleries with that. The artwork And really, the most important thing is to be yourself. Timing your email time of year and seasons are factors that you need to consider when sending your email. Large cities like New York, Toronto, Los Angeles have retail traffic all year round, but they still have high and low seasons. Cottage country areas have high seasons in the summer and holidays, but are pretty slow the rest of the year, whereas ski resorts or winter destinations, they're busy all through the winter, and they might be pretty slow in the summer. Beaches are usually pretty busy in the summer when the kids are out of school, so pay attention to where your sending the geographic location is it in the countries in the city? Do they have high and low seasons? So you want to pay attention to that? As a general rule, high season is summer before Christmas. Spring break holidays that brings people out toe art galleries and museums three or four months before high season is a really good time to send your email because they're starting to consider what stock that they want in their shops for those high seasons. The exception to this is Christmas, where your should really email them about 5 to 6 months. Part of Christmas toe start to get considered for the gallery. Low season is after Christmas, where everybody's always done their spending except for places that are winter destinations or ski resorts, where they still have people coming out. And so you can supply the art galleries in those shops and museums. September is kind of low season in a lot of places after Labor Day, when Children go back to school and people aren't really taking very many holidays, time your email so that the curator receives it when she is looking for new art for her boutique. In the next lesson will discuss art gallery memberships and I'll share with you over 700 art galleries accepting new artists. See you in less than three
5. Lesson 3: Art Galleries + Museums + 700 galleries: Lesson three reciprocal art gallery memberships and over 700 art galleries accepting new artists. Art gallery memberships have amazing benefits. Some of the benefits can be admission to the art gallery members only events newsletters, ability to sell your art and the art gallery boutiques. Discounts at art supply shops. Ah, vote at the A, G M and reciprocal membership. Most art galleries belong to associations that include dozens or hundreds of other art galleries. A reciprocal membership at one gallery in the association entitles you to the same benefits at most or all of the other galleries in the association. So you're one. Membership comes with a list of every art gallery in the association making your contact list huge. Now I know that I first advised you not to overwhelm yourself by contacting too many art galleries at first. However, once you've done business with your first few galleries, you'll need a list of other galleries to contact. Next to grow your art career, let's look at some examples of reciprocal memberships. Will look first at one that's very regional, which is the rails and gallery and art center that's in Halliburton, Ontario. Then we're gonna look at more of a province wide. And in the states there are similar reciprocal membership associations and the North American Reciprocal Museum Association. Here's the rails end membership page, so they belong to the Ontario Association of Art Galleries. So now I'm going to go to their website, and here's their reciprocal admissions. So you have now all these galleries in and around the G T A, which is the greater Toronto area to contact. And the Art Gallery of Ontario also has a similar list, and these include American and all provincial members of their association and then the North American Reciprocal Museum Association. They have a list here where you can look at look at the list by map. There's a four page lists and a condensed list. Here's a look at the four page list, so look at all these art galleries and museums to contact. Don't get overwhelmed. Remember that you're starting in your own neighborhood in your own town city village. In the next lesson, I'll let you in on the secret to selling your artwork. Teoh Museum gift shops like the Smithsonian, the Royal Ontario Museum and several other prestigious boutiques shops. See you in lesson for
6. Lesson 4: Secret to selling at to the Smithsonian: Lesson four secret to getting your artwork in the Smithsonian and other prestigious museum shops. If you visit museums, science centers, aquariums and zoos, you'll see that they also have boutiques and shops that sell similar products in artwork that you would see in an art gallery. Boutique museum gift shops offer you another avenue to generate income for your art business. The secret to getting your art in the Smithsonian and other prominent museum boutiques is knowing this. They do not buy directly from the artist. They hire company that operates boutiques and shops and several renowned museums. This company buys from artists like you. This is Event Network's website, and here it says, we operate stores on behalf of outstanding cultural attractions. Event Network is the leading operator of gift shops, aquariums, museum sign centers, botanical gardens and other highly regarded cultural attractions. So let's take a little look inside their website. This is the Event network website. Let's take a look at their partners, and their partners are the museums and other cultural facilities where they operate shops. So let's look at their partners. So let's take a little look at this list. Look at this list There's some aquariums. There's the Smithsonian. Like I promised, if you've made a botanical coloring book, how beautiful would it look? And one of these garden shops, Childrens museums Do you make things that Children would love? Do you make self sculptures? Quilts? There's some historical places. Queen Mary Natural History Museum with At the Library a Tar pits. I've been to their boutique shop. It's amazing the wrong that's in Ontario Science Centers Zoo's. This is an impressive list to contact Event Network. Just go to their contact page, and there's one of those drop down menu contact emails. So this is where you just right in that you would like to talk to somebody about submitting your jewelry or your book or your fine art. Things like that that you think would fit into their and look at there's there, waiting for your prospective vendors. That's you. Just drop down that and right you're nice, brief and professional email. In the next two lessons, we're gonna walk through case studies about selling a coloring book to art galleries and museums shops that's in less than five, and then Lesson six is going to be about selling fine art and items like jewelry, arts, crafts, that type of thing. So I'll see you in less than five
7. Lesson 5: Case Study 1: Selling a coloring book: Lesson five case study. One. Selling a coloring book, Toe art galleries, a museum gift shops in this case study are artists. Coloring book is completed and self published. Her book has 50 drawings of mountain scenes and mountain related imagery, and she lives in Denver, Colorado. When the artists selected a theme for her coloring book, she decided on mountains because she lives in Denver and loves everything about Colorado, especially the mountains, cottages in the woods, trees, animals and starry nights. People who buy her coloring book love mountains, too. They either live on or around mountains or love visiting them and dreaming of living in a cabin on a mountain. These visitors love browsing art galleries and museums, looking for a reminder of their mountain vacation. Our artists coloring book is the perfect reminder and will allow the visitor to bring home their mountain cabin dream. The theme of our artists coloring book points her in the direction of where to sell it. The likelihood of a mountain themed coloring books selling at a seaside art gallery or Desert Plains museum is less likely than it is to sell in a mountain area when creating the art gallery and museum list are artists starts with boutiques that are close to home, and luckily, she lives in Denver, surrounded by mountain ranges. Artist Plan is to focus in on Colorado and then eventually start looking at other mountain regions in all of North America. But before she starts selling her coloring book, she needs to make a plan with a goal. The best way to approach a big goal is to break it down into smaller tasks and then manageable actions. So let's take a look at this case study and what to the goal. Tasks and actions will be for our artist. Her big goal is to sell her coloring book in art galleries and museum gift shops so she's going toe, have three tasks that she wants to complete. Let's take a look at those tasks. Her first task is to choose five art galleries and museum gift shops to approach about selling her coloring book. Her second task is to right her e mails to the boutiques, and our third task is a follow up task, so she'll follow up in three weeks with a phone call or a second friendly email. So now she wants to break down these tasks in tow actions. So for Task one, she's gonna Google all the art galleries, museums, zoos, aquariums, science centres near Denver. And she's gonna pay attention to which ones are independently owned. Which ones belong to associations and which are event network shops. The next thing she's going to do is to make a list of the five closest to her home that would probably be the most likely to accept her artwork. Then she's gonna write down the addresses and hours, and then she's going to schedule her patron visit in her calendar and the real, most important thing. She's going to go to these galleries. She's gonna take a notebook and a camera with her. She's going to write down her first impressions as soon as possible, and that is going to sleep on it. And then, for task to using her first impression note. She's going to start drafting an email. She's gonna use the website or call the gallery to get the name of the curator. She's gonna add one or two great photographs in line and not as an attachment to her emails . He's going to make sure that the pictures aren't from a large file. She's gonna prove freed at least twice. I'm just gonna walk away from the email for a little while or sleep on it and then task three. In her calendar, she's going to schedule a follow up email or a telephone call. And if these galleries aren't accepting new art at the moment, that doesn't mean that they don't want her art. It's just a matter of timing. Ask them when would be a better time to contact them again. So this can go back to our timing of the email. Perhaps they've done all their purchasing for their summer products already, but they really love your item. Submitted again, just, you know, for their Christmas time. So in June or July, submit again and then continue contacting galleries to build your art business. We often put goals on our to do list, and then we become overwhelmed and disappointed because the gold never seems to come off that list. But think of it. A goal like this Selling your coloring book and art galleries and museum boutiques is a goal. As long as this artist wants to continue to sell her book it will never come off the list. Tasks and actions. However, congrats on the list because there are functions to the path to the goal and can be ticked off the list As each action is completed. This case study applies to more items, then a coloring book. It applies to most art modalities. In the next case study, we're going to develop a plan and a goal for selling handcrafted items in art gallery and museum boutiques, so I'll see you in Lesson six.
8. Lesson 6: Case Study 2: Selling fine art + arts & crafts: Lesson six case study to selling handmade art toe art gallery and museum gift shops, handmade or handcrafted. Our terms we use to describe Artisanal, often one of a kind items made by skilled artists and crafters once seen in the world of trades like metal smith woodwork, stonemason, weaver, seamstress, knitter, potter, glass blowing soap and candle making and calligraphers. I know the list is long, but I feel it's important to recognize each trade Smith as they were the seeds to our art world. Now the's skills were absorbed in the Industrial Error Machines manufactured our clothing, jewellery, furniture table where replicating every item to look exactly like the one before and the one after it on the production line. But not all was lost from the Industrial Revolution emerged groups of people wanting to keep these trades a lot. This evolved into the arts and crafts movement that started a little over 100 years ago. The mo mentum of that movement grew, and today we are artisans, keeping historical skill trades alive in art galleries, museums and in our online marketplaces. In this second case, study will walk through the steps to selling handcrafted arts in galleries and museum boutiques similar to case study. One will implement the Goal Task Action Strategy with specifics directed toe hand makers of arts and crafts such as jewelries, clothing sculptures and fine arts. So, taking a look at our chart, we want to approach our one goal by breaking it up into tasks, and it could be a zoom. Any task, as you need in this case, we're just using three tasks and then break it down to manageable actions. Our goal is the sell, arts and crafts in art galleries and museum gift shops. We have three tasks. Task One is to choose the five places that we'd like to sell. Task two involves crafts, arts, inventory and pricing and in task three, we email the boutiques. Task one is to Google Toe Look for places where we're going to be selling, and then we're gonna make a list to the of the five closest to our home. We're gonna write down the address and hours of operation and schedule our patron visit in the calendar. Then we're gonna go to the gallery and take a notebook and camera right down first impressions as fast as possible and pay close attention to what the boutiques aren't selling that you can make that would sell well there and sleep on it. Your second task will be toe look through your arts and your crafts and your product that you have already that you've already made. And what of the things that you made would fit really great in that gallery Right now? Let's say our artist makes earrings that would be perfect for these shops, but her prices are a little high, so she might need to source different material or the same material at lower price, but the same quality. You don't want to be the highest price, and you don't want to be the lowest price in the boutique. Now perhaps our artists makes earrings that has a specific gemstone in it, But the gallery has loads of that type of gemstone. Maybe pick a different gemstone to use in the earrings and take great pictures of the artwork. Remember, one photo on a white background and maybe one lifestyle photo to start. Task three is using the first impression notes to start writing that email with a couple of nice pictures and remember to use the website to get the curator is name and then do a follow up in three weeks. Well done. You've completed all the lessons in this class.
9. Final Thoughts: final thoughts. Thank you for taking this class. It was a pleasure to create and teach. Selling your artwork in art gallery and museum boutique shops is a wonderful way toe. Build your art business Moving You're creative Career forward boutiques are always looking for new artists. I look forward to reading your goal tasks Action plan in the project gallery. If you have any questions, please post them here. Please stay in touch and I'll see you in class.
Sandra Clarke, artist • educator • maker • craftivist
