Category: Selling Art

Advice about British Art Exhibitions

3/4/2019

There's an excellent Facebook Group for those artists who attend art fairs called "Art Fair Buddies". It's used essentially to provide:

practical support to those new to art fairs
feedback from those attending art fairs about how effective it was and the level of support received (or not) from the organisers
news of new art fairs and the closure or cancellation of others

This group is a collection of artists who want to share
information about Art Fairs and the logistics of doing them!
From hotel info to which ones to do.....and everything in between. We will also invite Art fairs to use this group to promote 'calls to artists'!

It often involves long feedback posts when things do NOT go according to plan - or according to expectations based on representations by the organisers.

What follows is one such post by a chap whose Facebook Page is Mark Brighton Art. It's a good example of:

what to do when you feel you've been badly let down by organisers - in terms of failure to deliver what they promised
how to write a letter to organisers to request a refund

The letter BELOW relates to an operation called British Art Exhibitions run by Karl Percival who purports to be an advertising/promotions specialist.

It's followed by an update from Mark - although Mr Percival has not as yet contacted me.

Examples of Instagram images used to market the Macclesfield Art Fair - but where were the local flyers and other advertising?

The email

It is a bit lengthy but here is a copy of the email I have just sent to Karl from British Art Exhibitions about the show in Macclesfield and my request for a refund. He did say at the show that he would give me a refund - so let's see if he does! Mark Brighton Art

Dear Karl

I would like to explain the issues that I had with the recent exhibition in Macclesfield: what my expectations were as opposed to what was delivered.

When I arrived on Friday at around 11.15am, I was fully expecting that display boards would be up and that I could hang my work. I waited for an hour, in which time nothing happened, and then I had to get home. I left detailed instructions with one of the hangers who promised it would be hung for me. If I had known my work wouldn't be hung I could have come back that afternoon and done it myself in time for the preview.

When I arrived at the preview around 5.15pm, I eventually found my art on the floor propped up against a board, as indeed were the works of many of the other artists. I then asked you for a screwdriver and screws and hung it myself. Judging by the state of the room at that point, I didn't believe my work would get hung that evening. This meant that I couldn't use the preview time to network or even talk to fellow artists and visitors.

As I was working to get my pictures up, the artist next door was getting agitated and complained that I was in the way as she tried to show her guests her work.

I then noticed that even work that was already on display had no artist profile or labels attached. We were later told there was a problem with the printer, so price labels were handwritten and still nobody had an artist profile up. Again, if I had known this I could have brought my own. But we were all told that these would be provided as the exhibition was supposed to have a standard look.

I was also told by you that that there was a website on which my own and other artists' work could be displayed. Having looked at The British Art Exhibitions website, there is no mention of exhibiting artists at all. There also appeared to be very little marketing of the event itself to the general public. I have unsuccessfully tried to access this via Macclesfield Town Hall, your own site and that of British Art Exhibitions. None of them had any publicity or advertising regarding the show, so how was anyone supposed to know it was happening? Besides which, there were no fliers, leaflets or posters visible on the run up to the show.

I rang you three times with questions regarding drop off and pick up times and I also emailed as you didn't get back to me on any of my phone queries as was promised.

There are obviously basic organisational issues here: a clear, general email explaining the requirements for the artists - drop off and pick up times and what to expect when you get to the venue. Also, it is polite to keep artists in the loop when they do send you information so that they know that you have it all and they have completed the requisite paperwork successfully. And If you offer to hang an artist's work, make sure you do.

Perhaps, in future, it would be better to charge less for people to exhibit, take some commission but actually do some advertising for the general public, rather than aiming all the marketing at the artist and not the buyer. As an exhibiting artist, it felt as if I had paid my money for very little in return, and this is why I would like a refund, as agreed by you, as what was offered was not delivered. I presume you can refund me via Paypal. If you need any more information from me, please do not hesitate to contact me on this email address.

Many thanks for your help in this matter.

For the record Karl's response was to offer a refund and free exhibiting at other art fairs.

However Mark has not yet received his refund.... (I'm happy to update this when he has).

UPDATE: The response - and a FULL refund for Mark

The following was communicated to me via the Facebook group. It's very good to see that Mark Brighton got a full refund as promised by the organiser.

Mark Brighton Art Good news - I recieved a full refund from Karl yesterday. I threatened to get my bank involved & this seems to have spured him on to actually do something & honour the refund he offered at the show. I urge everyone else who went to do the same.

Mark Brighton Art hi Katherine - I have just had a message from Karl who has read your piece. Unfortunately he has taken exception & wants a few things corrected. I have now recieved a full refund from Karl so it would be fair to point this out to your readers. He is also querying the suggestion that he is only in it for profit - he says he has taken legal advice. I imagine this is just bluster but I would appreciate it if you could add a correction of sorts to your article. Many thanks Mark

I'm not sure what Mr Percival wants corrected as to date all I have done is highlighted a letter sent to him by somebody who attended one of his Fairs and the response from the same individual with respect to the refund given.

As I have indicated I am happy to correct anything which is factually incorrect.

However I would point out that Mark's comments were n0t isolated in connection with this particular fair. Others wrote about having the same experience - and I've made a note of their comments too. I only ever write these sort of posts when it is evident that a number of artists have been let down.

BEWARE business models where the artists provide the income

One of the things artists need to beware of are business models used by entrepreneurs where the entire income stream is delivered by the artists and not by the success or otherwise of their sales. (It can make you look at art galleries in a whole new light!)

For many years, there have been websites which supposedly provided a place for artists to sell their art. In fact the business model for the website is entirely predicated on making money from artists. Such websites on the whole do not serve artists well in terms of selling art. - because the owners make few efforts to help them. Instead they make money for the owners from the fees the artists pay to get their art online.

The exact same business model can be used for art fairs.

Artists can draw conclusions about art fairs from

the level of effort and finance employed by organisers to make them successful.
recommendations from other artists as to how well marketed they were and how well they did in terms of sales (i.e. did they attract the right sort of people)
comments from those who signed up for fairs in terms of their actual experience

What artists do NOT need are art fairs which involve:

organisers who run art fairs on a shoe-string
poor planning in advance
poor marketing (or none at all) to the public (i.e. customers)
poor preparation and execution of services on the day
under-resourced relative to the demands of setting up

If you are thinking about booking an art fair stand with British Art Fairs (who organised the Macclesfield Art Fair - see above)
I RECOMMEND that you:

attend one of their art fairs/exhibitions first to check out the level of professionalism and standard of presentation and operations; and
talk to artists (when they're not talking to punters) about how well supported they feel and whether or not they would recommend British Art Fairs to other artists.

Or join Art Fair Buddies and find out about the art fairs that people do think are worth attending.

TIP: If you pay an art fair organiser by credit card or PayPal and organisers do not deliver what is promised then you can also seek reimbursement from your card service or PayPal.

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An Art Exhibition Checklist for Artists

11/12/2018

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NEW PAGE: Checklists for artists wanting to submit art to juried exhibitions

My Art Exhibition Checklist - for Artists entering juried and open art exhibitions are now published in an enhanced format - as a NEW PAGE - on my Art Business Info. for Artists website.

You can find it in the SELL ART section.
See https://www.artbusinessinfo.com/art-exhibition-checklist-for-artists.html

It covers:
ART COMPETITIONS

Art competitions and Juried Open Exhibitions
what gets Noticed and Selected

CHECKLISTS

What to think about BEFORE and AFTER entering a juried exhibition CHECKLIST - including questions to ask sponsors
The "EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER" CHECKLIST for submitting art to an Exhibition

If you're new to submitting artwork to juried exhibitions you tend to find out all the things you "need to know" the hard way - through error and omission!

Friends will provide their own tips - but very few have ever written down their own checklists.

Many years ago I started to enter my artworks for juried art exhibitions.
Back in February 2013 I decided to write down my own art exhibition checklist and publish it as a blog post - mainly because every time I did a submission I used to forget one vital step! Guess what? I'd had yet another incident of forgetting to do something crucial!

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The things I have forgotten to do have included:

place your order for frames in good time - especially during the summer holiday period. I had one very expensive frame bill the time that one happened to me.
remove old labels from the back boards early if reusing frames to see - so you can acquire/reorder new ones if needed (saves rushing out to get more on the last day when you have the least time!)
make sure you have new blades to cut your mount BEFORE you start to cut
get the luggage label on a string - required for hanging over the front of the frame while on the wall - so label on the wall can be matched to the artwork - in good time (Do you know how difficult these are to get hold of or how much time it takes to find something to create a substitute?)
making sure I've got something big enough to carry the artwork on the Underground in London. (Now driving into London and marking is so difficult, kit to make sure you can transport artwork easily is essential.

There will be another checklist - for art exhibition organisers - coming along in the near future.

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NEW: The Best Art Business Books for Artists

4/4/2018

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The Best Art Business Books for Artists is the new home for information from another site I developed with the same name. It's a work in progress at present but now has enough content to make it worth highlighting and my other site is about to be closed down.

Initial categories cover:

Short Art Business Guides - for a quick read
Starting Out - for those who aspire to an art career
How to have a career and make money as an artist
How to sell your art
Understanding Art Galleries
Copyright
Art in Transit
The Artists' Resale Right
Art Legacy Planning

Interestingly most of the books on the new page are EITHER new OR new editions of books that have been around for a while.

So much has changed in the past few years. In particular the emphasis on business online is now much more important.

I'm finding that I really need to look long and hard at content as I do the transfer - and I'm needing to buy new editions of books I've loved in the past.

Plus I know than a few authors have recognised the need to update and have new editions in the pipeline.

For example, a couple of days ago I was contacted by Caroll Michels - author of How to Survive and Prosper as an Artist (a book I really rate!) - about the NEW edition of her book which is published later this month. This has got a LOT of new content to reflect the changes in the workings of the art market and the new challenges for all artists - even established ones. For example:

the use of social media and website development as marketing and publicity tools – what works and what doesn’t work;
the confusions between the “art-buying public” and the “consumer market”;
neighbourhood gentrification and the growing challenges of securing a reasonably priced work/live space; and
the pros and cons of the new business models for artist career development.

So I hope you'll join me in my investigation of what's currently on offer and the best books about the art business for artists which offer both great content and good value for money!

There's a lot more to come and this page will be continuously updated over the next few months - and years!

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Your subscription is only activated after you verify the link in the email you will receive

Tell me about YOUR favourite art business books!

I'm also interested to hear about what new art business books you've been buying and getting value from.

If you'd like to share your recommendations with fellow artists just leave a comment on this blog post - or contact me and give me a recommendation.

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What has PayPal done about GDPR?

28/3/2018

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An artist asked me a question about PayPal and GDPR this morning.
The nub of it is as follows...

she sells art through her website - and accepts PayPal for payments
she checked on her account and the past history (from way back) still includes past customers' names, addresses and email addresses. Plus their payment method may or may not have stored by PayPal.

It immediately struck me that this is a question that a lot of artists are going to be asking given the way PayPal is now entrenched as a form of payment for art being marketed and sold online.

What she wants to know is

what has PayPal done about GDPR?;
whose responsibility is it to keep this personal data safe?
how should she tell customers about whether or not they are compliant if she doesn't know!)?
who is responsible re. data protection if somebody hacks into her Paypal account which carries all this data?

What has PayPal done about GDPR?

This is a really good question! Also one which it appears LOTS of people would like answers to.

If you insert GDPR into their Help System it comes up with precisely zilch!
If you put PayPal and GDPR into Google you don't get a lot of help.
However there is one PayPal Stories Article called Getting GDPR Ready (relevant to those in the UK - I'm guessing everbody gets their country equivalent if they look online). Interestingly it says NOTHING about what PayPal will be doing in terms of processing your customer's personal data!

I was told that PayPal has updated its legal agreements. See PayPal's Policy Updates page for the upcoming changes.

These include:

Notice of amendment to the PayPal User Agreement. Effective Date: May 25, 2018 (i.e. GDPR Implementation date) - this includes changes relevant to the 1. Control and protection of personal data
Notice of amendment to the PayPal Privacy Policy Effective Date: May 25, 2018 - find the amended PayPal Privacy Policy by clicking here

Whose responsibility is it to keep this data safe?

I don't think Paypal has any option - in processing personal data for EU residents it must by default comply with GDPR and all its requirements

All uses of PayPal accounts are also responsible for using appropriate means for keep access to the account limited to those who should have access eg using two levels of protection - password and a code sent to your phone.

Anybody else got any thoughts on this - or seen anything relevant?

How should she tell customers about whether or not PayPal are compliant (if she doesn't know!)

I guess we have less than 60 days to find out the answers!

I have no doubt there will be answers - it's very evident from the policy changes so far that GDPR applies to them. The question is how many more changes are they likely to make.

Who is responsible re. data protection if somebody hacks into her Paypal account?

Both are - for their respective "ways in" to the system.

Comments are very welcome on this topic as are links to helpful articles or webpages on this topic. I'll add them into the DPDR Resource Page if we get a lot.

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How to sell your art in 2018 and beyond?

7/1/2018

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I read a post by Barney Davey on Facebook yesterday which I thought highlighted some really key issues about selling art that would:

resonate with quite a few artists who working hard at trying to sell their art.
provide a great briefing for those starting out in terms of "need to know" factors.

So I asked Barney whether I could reproduce it on this blog and he said 'Yes' (for which many thanks) - so here is it. Except I added in some bold which you can't do on Facebook to make it a slightly easier read!

How to sell your art in 2018 and beyond
by Barney Davey

How to sell your art in 2018 and beyond? Use galleries or sell directly to patrons? Here are my thoughts.

Galleries come and go. They don't share buyer info. Nothing comes between the relationship of patrons who buy directly from the artist. It might be easier at first to market to galleries, But, doing the work to build direct patronage is the best long-term solution. Own as much of your distribution as possible. Then you are in the cat bird's seat in choosing who and where you let your art get sold by third parties, including galleries. There were never enough galleries to go around in the best of times for galleries. Now, there are fewer with less clout than ever. I don't see a future without galleries. I see a future where smart marketing artists and galleries collaborate. An artist with a list and social media tribe of their own is a much hotter prospect for forward-thinking galleries than one with no following.

Just 50-100 patrons who buy directly from the artist might purchase up to 250 - 500 originals over the course of a career. A devoted direct buying collector base is the most valuable business asset an artist can possess. Those relationships can't be taken away on a whim with no remorse or recourse like deals with a gallery, licensor, publisher, or agent can. When artists market one-to-one with direct mail or email, they have no competition as with a gallery, publisher or licensor for their work. They own the relationship and the pipeline.

A visit to Henry Hudson's studio - you can entertain prospects and show your work outside a gallery

Consumer interest in buying directly from the source is only going to increase. Take advantage of the movements to support local businesses and indie artists to build a pool of patrons in the warm market around you. Then leverage those sales to expand your reach and add secondary channels like galleries as a way to help sell all the art you make.

There is room to sell direct and through galleries. Be respectful, honest and transparent in your dealings with third-parties. Trust but verify and don't dally when you see red flags. Having your own customers makes it easier to negotiate and to just say no when dealing with third-parties. I hear that building list of direct buyers in a warm market is hard. I reply it's much easier than trying to convert strangers into buyers or to put together a string of galleries that you must monitor and support to keep your sales going.

Selling art is like all sales. It's a numbers game. If you get enough qualified eyeballs on your work, you hit your sales quotas. So, the question comes down to who controls the process of getting the traffic and who controls the relationships that ensue from them. Not so long ago, actions like these would be career suicide.

Smart, ethical galleries today are willing to work with artists who also sell direct. If everyone plays fair in such relationships, everyone wins.

REFERENCE:

You can find Barney Davey and his books and courses on Art Marketing News and on his Facebook Page
Read about my take on art galleries on A Guide to Art Dealers and Art Galleries
This is my guide to Open Studios
This is the website of Henry Hudson who makes paintings out of plasticine (see above image) - hence why my studio visit was so informative! Interestingly this was an event for collectors organised with the help of a magazine that helps promote art to collectors.

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Art Business Info: NEWS

Advice about British Art Exhibitions

The email

UPDATE: The response - and a FULL refund for Mark

BEWARE business models where the artists provide the income

An Art Exhibition Checklist for Artists

NEW: The Best Art Business Books for Artists

Tell me about YOUR favourite art business books!

What has PayPal done about GDPR?

What has PayPal done about GDPR?

Whose responsibility is it to keep this data safe?

How should she tell customers about whether or not PayPal are compliant (if she doesn't know!)

Who is responsible re. data protection if somebody hacks into her Paypal account?

How to sell your art in 2018 and beyond?

How to sell your art in 2018 and beyond
by Barney Davey

Art Business Info. News for Artists

Visitors so far

Author

Archives

Categories

Art Business Info: NEWS

Advice about British Art Exhibitions

The email​

UPDATE: The response - and a FULL refund for Mark​

BEWARE business models where the artists provide the income​

An Art Exhibition Checklist for Artists

NEW: The Best Art Business Books for Artists

Tell me about YOUR favourite art business books!

What has PayPal done about GDPR?

What has PayPal done about GDPR?​

Whose responsibility is it to keep this data safe?​

How should she tell customers about whether or not PayPal are compliant (if she doesn't know!)​

Who is responsible re. data protection if somebody hacks into her Paypal account?​

How to sell your art in 2018 and beyond?

How to sell your art in 2018 and beyond by Barney Davey​

Art Business Info. News for Artists

Visitors so far

Author

Archives

Categories

The email

UPDATE: The response - and a FULL refund for Mark

BEWARE business models where the artists provide the income

What has PayPal done about GDPR?

Whose responsibility is it to keep this data safe?

How should she tell customers about whether or not PayPal are compliant (if she doesn't know!)

Who is responsible re. data protection if somebody hacks into her Paypal account?

How to sell your art in 2018 and beyond
by Barney Davey