Spread The Love

Spread The Love By Teasing The Trail The simplest idea we saw some years ago was used in the South of England at an Open Studio trail. At each studio as were about to leave, we were given a piece of A4 paper with the details of 4 more artists involved in the trail.  We were drip fed the details and because of this we were afraid of what we might miss if we had not been given another leaflet. Basic Information The information was simple: Location Number on the trail Name An image of the type of work Contact Details Basic map It was genius since the trail kept on giving.  It felt like a treasure hunt where clues were slowly being divulged to us and it was fun! Everyone Promotes Everyone Using our earlier example, if your group has said, 40 artists, then that is 10 separate leaflets. In this case, those Open Studios which historically have very few in terms of footfall might be [...]

By |2019-12-01T07:25:11+00:00November 30th, 2019|Open Studio|0 Comments

Survey Your Visitors

Signing in book Everyone who visits every participating Open Studio should be asked to sign into a standard visitors sheet. The sheet needs to have enough fields to provide the artist and the Open Studio organising group with the information they need to do their job. First Name Last Name Email Address Tel Home Town John Smith John@JohnSmith.com 01555-555-121 Halifax Mary Jane Doe mjdoe@JaneDoe.co.uk 01755-555-123 Croydon Remember: You need to include on the print out sheets a GDRP disclaimer on every page informing the visitors that the information will be shared with the organising organisation and that they will be asked to complete an online survey of their experience. Survey your visitors We assume that you will be emailing out to all attendees a basic online survey asking them: Are you likely to participate in one of our events in the future? How likely are you to tell a friend about this event? Why did you choose to attend our event and what did [...]

By |2019-12-01T07:10:01+00:00November 15th, 2019|Open Studio|0 Comments

Structuring Your Follow-Up Meeting

Structure Your Follow Up Meeting One of the biggest mistakes Open Studio participants can make is forgetting to do a follow-up meeting after events. It’s essential if you want to level up both your own and your team’s skills since this is the time you can use to discover process improvements and boost morale after a hard year of organizing. Follow-up is essential if you are going to close the planning cycle at the end of the year. Let’s talk about what to do during your follow-up meetings and how to organize them to get the greatest impact. STEPSDETAILSSet a specific date and  location.                              Treat the meeting like an event and add it to the plan for the event. The meeting should be done immediately after the event, if at all possible, so you can capture everyone’s experience while it’s still fresh.Only invite who needs to attend.Not everyone needs to be at the follow-up but don’t forget to invite key stakeholders including all the artists. [...]

By |2019-11-19T06:31:59+00:00October 16th, 2019|Open Studio|0 Comments

Post Event Evaluation

Post Event Evaluation Arguably the most important meeting during the Open Studio Annual Cycle is the 'Post Event Evaluation'. You are taking stock of what went well and what can be improved with the event you have just had with the sole view of taking all that goodness and carrying it forward as lessons for your next event. Do It Whilst It Is Still Fresh This meeting needs to happen very soon after your Open Studio event so that recollections are fresh and raw.  There is a temptation for folk to 'take a break' after they have packed up; do so at your peril. Everything discussed at the post event evaluation is a lesson for making the event even bigger and better for next year. Think about it. Agenda Tips the Open Studio Post Event Evaluation Meeting Here are some ideas for your meeting agenda I have used in the past: Financials:  were costs spent in line with the budget?  Per artist and overall what gross revenue [...]

By |2019-10-02T06:35:44+00:00October 2nd, 2019|Open Studio|0 Comments

Continue Engaging Your Audience

Continue Engaging Your Audience For so many artists the idea of continuing to engage the people who come to their Open Studio event is anathema if ever they have even had the notion.  For most, it is a task which is simply overlooked, unthought of. If you have an Open Studio event, the event is not the end of the process, it is simply a point in a continuous process cycle.  You need to continue engaging your audience. The Planning Cycle Can Help Your Audience Grow The great Event management web-based tool 'Eventbrite' produces an excellent example of what it refers to as 'The Event Planning Cycle'. You can see that Post-event, according to Eventbrite has 25% of event-related effort allocated to it. Now, most Open Studio events operate by focussing on Planning and Event, Planning and Event and they wonder why they do not achieve increased growth each year. You need to do the 4-step process.  If you are not, then you are relying on luck [...]

By |2019-10-26T19:05:09+00:00October 1st, 2019|Open Studio, Real Collectors|0 Comments

Promoting Your Open Studio

Promote Your Open Studio:  Create An Eventbrite or Facebook Event What is a Facebook Event and how can it help promote your event? A Facebook event is a calendar-based resource which can be used to notify users of upcoming occasions. Events can be created by anyone and can be open to anyone or private. The creator can invite his friends, members of a group, or fans of a page. What is Eventbrite and how can it help promote your event? Eventbrite is an online event-planning site from which you can create an event page, register attendees, track attendance, and even sell tickets online or at the door. Why Bother To Promote Your Event? Listing your event on Eventbrite or Facebook allows others in your organising group or committee to share the event to their contacts, invite everyone they know and also to measure likely audience sizes.  This can help you to plan and decide how much you will invest in things like banners, catalogues and leaflets. Work The Numbers To Promote [...]

By |2019-10-25T10:54:27+00:00October 1st, 2019|Open Studio|0 Comments

Breaking Out Of The Bubble

Bursting The Bubble When it comes to visitor numbers everything depends on folk knowledge of your event. It is very easy for those involved in the event to assume that 'everyone knows'.  It can feel like that when you have attended committee meeting, after meeting, after meeting, helped ensure banners have the correct dates, designed the catalogue and spent several hours at the printers. In reality, even in the smallest of towns stuck out in the middle of nowhere, very few people will know the event is taking place unless everyone involved has purposefully engaged in inviting everyone who they know and most especially their own Real Collectors; the folk who have bought from them in the past. All of us live within these bubbles.  Someone with kids going to the local primary school and giving their time to the PTA will no doubt have the same feeling that everyone knows about the Christmas Bazaar or school concert.  They don't of course, not unless someone from the [...]

By |2019-10-25T09:12:28+00:00September 13th, 2019|Open Studio|0 Comments

At Your Open Studio; Always Offer Cake

Always Offer Cake or Biscuits During Your Open Studio You may remember all those tips and tricks folk are advised to use when trying to sell their home. The reality is they work! Smells and Emotions Studies have shown that eight in ten people admit an aroma can make them happy, and fresh coffee was found to be the UK’s fifth favourite smell behind fresh bread, flowers, and a cake baking in an oven. There’s no doubt that catching a whiff of one of these is likely to appeal to potential collector, but that doesn’t mean they will be putting their hand in their pocket to buy your creation. Your local bakery might purposefully allow the aroma from its ovens to emit onto the street to tempt in passing trade, but the purchasing of a tiger loaf requires a lot less consideration than purchasing some of your art. That being said, it is definitely advisable to make your home as attractive as possible to potential collectors and, [...]

By |2019-10-02T17:55:12+00:00September 6th, 2019|Open Studio|0 Comments

What is Open Studio?

Open Studio.  What Is It? If Wikipedia’s definition is to be the authority (and at times it is useful just to accept what it says), then an Open Studio is “A studio or workroom which is made accessible to all comers, perhaps just in the short term, during an open studio event, where artistic or creative work can be viewed and created collaboratively.” The definition works for us to a point insofar that Open Studio provides the opportunity for creatives to showcase their work AND hopefully sell it without the commission normally garnered by galleries, whether they be real-world or online.  All the proceeds can be kept by the creator, longstanding relationships can be created and thereby the development of your Real Collector goal is one step closer to being achieved. When Do Open Studio Events Take Place? Open Studio events normally happen once a year (Between April - October) and in some cases will have, depending on the size of the geographic area of benefit, anything [...]

By |2019-10-02T18:19:59+00:00September 2nd, 2019|Open Studio, Uncategorized|0 Comments

7 Ways You Can Develop Your Work

Human beings are learning beings.  We are able to learn new skills, learn from mistakes, make subtle changes in the way we do things and implement strategies over extended periods of time. If you are a professional artist these traits should resonate with you since success depends on all of them. It may well be that you honed your style and you have sold some work.  That is great news!  Don't stop there, keep going. As soon as some artists start selling they think that is the end of the learning curve, in fact, it is just the end of the beginning.  The real work begins now. Imagine if other professionals stopped learning or developing because they had been paid for their work.  If it was a professional boxer, the career would be very short-lived.  The opponents would soon work out the striking blow and their 'edge' will have disappeared.  Let us visualise a troupe of dancers.  Do they stop practising, rehearsing or learning new steps?.....OF COURSE [...]

How Well Do Your Blog Posts Reinforce Your Brand?

Today we start with a question: What is the most important asset you have when trying to sell your art using online channels?  The answer is You. You and your work are your brand identity.  Everything you do, including writing blog posts, need to reinforce your brand. Write Blog Posts Which Reinforce Your Brand It's a cliche but Real Collectors buy a piece of the artist a little bit at a time. Of course, some folk just buy a piece of creation based entirely on its own merits.  Most do not.  Most folks buy art from the people they know or have met, or from people they think they know. The personal touch is crucial and that is the same when you are trying to use digital channels when trying to sell your art. If you are posting to Facebook, Twitter etc or writing a blog, you need more than just a photo and a few lines of text to get the job done. Creating Content Which [...]

Why You Must End Your Inconsistent Voice or Style

Many creatives are drawn to a variety of different directions, both in terms of the medium used and subjects they decide to use in their work. Sure, it can be fun to try out or learn new techniques and its essential in a way if you are to grow, but success at The Model means that your voice or style; your brand needs consistency.  Your Real Collectors need to understand what you are going to produce and when you unveil some newly finished piece, it needs to male sense in terms of a sensible progression to those who support you.  Ricocheting through the vastness of possibilities can alienate those who would otherwise start collecting your work. It's great to know that you dabble in a wide range of mediums from pottery, to watercolour, to pastels, to pen & ink, to lino cutting.  Notwithstanding the colours, materials, different sizes, bolting down your brand to something that is instantly known by those who see it is a giant leap [...]

Artistic Word List

When writing descriptions for pieces, your bio or artist statement, it's a reality that words can often escape us. Words are important.  As an artist, you need to become practised at saying what you mean and meaning what you say.  Collectors can and will decide to buy something or not based on the written narrative you attach to your work. Not all visual artists are blessed with the gifts of a wordsmith either.  We understand that. Also for those first entering the world of art, the language can be high faluting, pretentious, daunting and off putting. We have therefore taken the time to create a list of our favourite artistic words for a dictionary project which over time will be completed with definitions using various online sources and where a phrase is used, it will be defined either by another source or by our editor. We hope this turns into a useful resource for all who need it. As always, if you can see the need for [...]

Get Rid Of Unfinished Work Once And For All

Maybe you remember when you were at primary school and during an art session, the teacher told you to take the colour to the edge of the paper after you had drawn your subject right in the middle.  It was an important lesson and as a professional artist, the same spirit of that lesson applies.  Don't stop, push on through until you have completed your work. Finishing what you start helps you make more money.  The idea that a couple of shots of details from your latest work in progress will satisfy your Real Collectors enough to give you money is fantasy island.  Your Real Collectors will only buy finished paintings.  Show them that instead. The Model relies on the premise that you will be 'prolific', but that does not stand if you are forever starting new work with new styles which confuse your Real Collectors who have already committed to your brand style. All creatives have a million and one ideas which can 'go off' in [...]

By |2019-07-20T11:58:01+00:00July 20th, 2019|Creating, Model, Real Collectors|0 Comments

How To Set Price Points Your Real Collectors Will Love

Explore and learn the market you operate in.  Discover art most like yours.  Learn about the artists and where you find their stories chime with yours; check their prices for benchmarks and learn why they charge the amount they do.  benchmarking does not mean that you charge the same, it just means you use that price point when comparing your own.  You might end up charging more or less, but you will have justified that in your mind and you will be able to communicate that to your collectors. A nice place to kick off is with a formula for pricing your art which considered: time labour cost of materials For example, if materials cost €150, you take 10 hours to make the art and you pay yourself €35 per hour, then you price the art at €500. This is a very crude means of working out value.  Most artists will testify that they do not earn an hourly wage.  We ask "why not?" Of course, give yourself [...]

By |2019-07-03T03:18:42+00:00July 3rd, 2019|Model, Real Collectors, Selling Art|0 Comments
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