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How Do You Plan For "a Show"


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So how does everyone get organized and make work for a show.  At our local coop gallery every artist is a "featured artist" once a year and gets special space and there is an opening event. I only do hand built sculpture. In the past its been half a dozen random main pieces plus a bunch of little stuff. This year I decided the larger pieces would all be ravens.

 

So what do others do when you know you have a show a year ahead? Do you have a theme? Do  you just make whatever amuses you?  Do you produce things with saleability in mind? How do you organize the creative aspect?    rakuku

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I always plan for the income, I can't afford to do it if I am not going to hope it sells. I try and make a range of items from $10 take aways to $300 one of a kind boxes or sculptures. I find I sell most stuff in the $20-40 range if that is of any help but it sure does help when a bigger piece sells!

 

I also like to kind of have the pieces look good together not a set mind you but a theme maybe. Like the color red. I might use red flowers on a vase, paint red birds on a box, glaze the inside of a box red, add red handles, etc. Or do birds and have something bird-ish about each piece like a wing shape, nest, even bird houses, as well as the standard painted birds and such. I also try and do something new that nobody has seen me do before in our gallery group. This could be a shape, a color, a glaze, a design technique etc. Pushing the envelope on a couple of pieces is always fun and even better when they put them in the paper!

 

I always think I have it all planned out and then feel major stressed as the deadline approaches thinking I don't have enough or have pieces that aren't good enough etc. Then I also usually get a super fabulous idea just before hand and have to scramble like crazy to try and make it. So plan but also allow a bit of leeway to follow the creative muse.

 

T

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Guest JBaymore

Before you can begin to plan, you have to decide what your goal is. What are you hoping to get out of it?

Visibility? Reputation? Income? Are you trying to impress or earn?

 

Chris has it nailed there  (no surprises there... smart lady).

 

And sometimes the "impress" point she mentions is an "impress now, make money later" approach.  So not without financial recompense..... just some "delayed gratification". 

 

Study the venue a bit.  The physical space you'll show in is an important aspect of the planning process; what work will it show well? 

 

How big is it?  Can you 'make to the space' to take advantage of the location, while still staying true to your artistic standards and aesthetic approaches?  A small space with larges scale sculptures might not work so well....while miniatures in a huge high ceilinged room might also not be easy to pull off effectively.  And so on.

 

The clientele of the particular venue can have an impact on the planning process too.  WHO is going to see the show?  YOU can control some of that by whom you yourself invite and where you advertise.  Will there be people who can offer other exhibition opportunities seeing this show?  If so, what kind of work would fit in THEIR venues and work with their clientele?  Try to think more broadly than just the current show, if you can.

 

Plan to make enough work so that you can "edit down" during the installation process.  Just because you have it does not mean you need to show it.  Put time into installation work; it can make all the difference in the world to both impression as well as revenue generation.  The installation is a piece in itself.

 

best,

 

......................john

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Hmmm, very good points all.  Visibility, income, reputation - I guess the answer is all of the above.  I make a lot of silly animal figures that sell well but would like to do some more serious abstract stuff.  But nobody buys it.  so back to silly animals.  Much is finished for this years show but next year . . . rakuku

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If you know you will have an annual show, there is no excuse for waiting until the last minute.

 

Put yourself in the shoes of the persons being invited to the coop gallery -- do they want to see more of the same, i.e., just a larger display of what you usually offer for sale, or do they want to see new, fresh work? Are the folks who shop the coop gallery "art" piece buyers or "functional" piece buyers? What will make them come out to see your work? To paraphrase from Willy Loman, You gotta know your audience. Like Chris said.

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If you know you will have an annual show, there is no excuse for waiting until the last minute.

Different strokes for different folks, dude.

For the record, I've attended that show for six years running, and everyone who regularly attends always remarks on how much my work has "improved" and "evolved" over the years. I work best under pressure--classic procrastinator of the professional kind. :P

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Yes, Chris said it all....

 

I always have a theme and work towards that. I'am also a bit the type of waiting too long to beginn working for the show, and every time I swear that this was the last time of procrastination. But: the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Don't do the same mistake rakukuku. And please show us pictures after the show. All the best. Fingers crossed.

 

Evelyne

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