Well, I'm hunkering down and getting serious this year. I'm getting my beach glass art sold! So to start I took a look at where I'm currently selling my work and and where I want to be selling my work. I removed my product from one store in Bloomfield (that's a blog story in itself, but not for public consumption!) and already have two new ones on board. One is a great boutique in Port Stanley, ON (my home stomping ground and where my beach glass collecting all began) called
the Sandpyper Gallery. If you're down that way make sure to have a peak, it's very cool. The other one is closer to my current home, it's
Gallery ArtPlus in
Belleville. What a beautiful gallery! And the staff are so great. They both met my criteria.
Do you have criteria for stores that carry your art? When I first started I would put my work in any store that would carry it, now I'm the one being picky. It has to be the right fit. Here's my criteria to give you a head start on yours if you don't have a list yet:
- Is it on the water? (specific to me because of it being beach glass)
- Does it communicate with me?
- A maximum of 35% take (except in a few cases)
- Do they carry any other beach glass work and is it authentic?
- Do they allow my own branding?
- Do they pass the secret shopper test?
- Is their target market the same as mine?
3 comments:
Hey, there how about that wonderful gallery right in the town that you live in:) Delvalle's Art Corner, located in the loft in Vandervoort, 77 Princess St.
I found your criteria list useful. Here comes the but. Just some friendly thoughts.
3. I think to have a gallery survive with just 35% is unrealistic. I know I tried it for 4 years and it just does not pay the bills or me. I am at 45%, (still less than most galleries in town) and if wasn't for classes I would be struggling.
5. I don't mind branding but here is the problem, I am trying to sell artists work and get costumers to come back to my gallery to get more, right. If I allow excess branding i.e.. contact information then people will go directly to the artist and get it there for a discount. Why would they come back to my gallery.
I know how this all sounds but I am on both side of the coin being an artist and a seller of art is a tight rope.
Cheers
Delvalle
I do love you Delvalle! And I love your gallery (Ok I'm a little biased).
Your comments are truly valid. As for the percentage it has to be negotiated based on so many variations that exceptions will break the rule.
Branding - I agree with the contact information and the artists you carry should work to send people your way as well as it helps them. They should not offer differential pricing if a customer buys direct from them. If an artist and you are fighting over the same client, then it's not the right fit for many reasons. As an artist though, if your shop(or a shop that carries my work) closes than I need people that have bought my work from you in the past, and I have no privy information to them, to have a way to contact me if they want to buy a second item. If they contact me and you are still selling my work, I would out of ethics send them to you to buy from.
thanks for getting a conversation going!
I was at the Artist Roundtable Discussion group this week discussing retailing and another idea to help you determine the right store fit came up - ask for references. Call them up and ask other artists that deal with them what it's like. Do they get paid on time, does the store communicate with them, have they ever done a secret shopper, etc.
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