Hi everyone. I'm doing my first art show on July 3rd. It's a one day show. Small island town during tourist season. I honestly have no idea what to expect on how much I am going to sell. And even less of an idea on what kind of inventory I need to have. I have a 10x10 tent with mesh walls to hang artwork - I imagine about 20 large pieces plus 10 smaller ones. But how many non-framed/matted pieces to flip through? Also have you all found that there is a sweet spot in the number of actual different images?
Any input would be greatly appreciated!
Replies
Erin, here's what my setup looks like. Banner and framed on the walls, 3 bins with small, medium and large sizes. This and a director's chair and the 10x10 tent is pretty much full. I have about 20 large matted prints, 50 medium matted and 30 small. I didn't set these numbers and there is no sweet spot, this is pretty much how it ended, I simply tried to choose the shots that would appeal to clients. In terms of how many of each I decided to print a single copy and offer buyers free shipping after the end of the art fair. This has worked well so far since it also frees them from carrying around a shot.
Hope this helps!
Bruno,
I love your work and i have a question as someone still working out the kinks to art shows if you dont mind. How do you price your work especially the famed pieces and large matted? and does it change depending on the show?
Brian,
The price has a lot to do with the potential clients and where are they going to put your art. A 11x14 matted print is good for a bathroom/dorm, 16x20 for a studio, 24x36 for a bigger room etc. So the question I ask myself is how much would a student be comfortable to pay for a 11x14, and then go just a bit outside that number. You don't want to price too low ($20 for example, as it will turn them away... they can get $20 worth of images at Target).
The very large pieces have to be expensive. Alain Briot has a few books on how to market your art, and one of the things he says there is that you must have a piece that is so expensive nobody will buy (usually the largest print you can produce). The goal for the piece is to make all your other sizes affordable. And if you get lucky and you can sell the biggest piece as well, even better.
I don't change my prices between shows in the same year.
Hope this helps.
Oh... if you decide to participate in a fair in Chicago this year let me know, I'm renting my tent out.
Erin: You ask a very good question and I'm not the best person to weigh in on it. I've done one-of-a-kind and commission sculpture most of my career and waded into some photographic collage works about mid-career and have recently started straight photographic images and pen and ink drawing which includes marketing repros. So, I'm struggling with similar questions to the one you pose here and have found there is little in the way of one-size-fits-all formulas to make your (our) job easier. It's a question of how the market receives your work and your temperament in how you best deal with inventory control. With my straight photography I'm leaning toward the carry an assortment of large framed pieces with large prices, putting my best forward here, and minimizing all the myriad bins of matted pieces. Obviously, most photographers tend to do both at once and this creates the cluttered booth syndrome that so plagues photographers' booths across our fair land. Use your best hunch here and don't commit to any approach until you get more feedback via the marketplace.
Thanks Peter for your response. I'm considering setting up my booth staged as a living room with a couch on one wall and console tables on the other two. Rug in the middle. Give viewers an idea of what the artwork might look like on the walls in their living room. Put a vase of flowers out and some decorative knick knacks. I have some repurposed painted wood crates to put matted pieces in for people to flip through.
I used to work in events, but it was never my own product. Marketing is soooo much harder when you have an emotional connection. :P
While the couch sounds interesting, the space in a 10x10 is more limited than you realize and Tina hits it on the head of the nail; you'll have people plopping their butts down in the couch and that is going to inhibit people from coming in. That means fewer sales possibilities. Add on that some people would take advantage of the shade and seating, and sit there for 20-30 minutes. if you get two old acquaintances meeting at your tent, they could there forever catching up on old times. The space you would lose could also allow more framed pieces to be hung. If you take a tour through some shows, you'll notice that idea is never used. Another reason is the space required to transport it.