elaine clapper Posted December 15, 2015 Report Share Posted December 15, 2015 I live in North Central Ohio between Columbus and Cleveland. After 32 years in art education I started selling my work in 2013. In 2014 I did three art festivals and four in 2015. Going forward I would like to find more galleries and stick with just a few art festivals. Our area is more small town and rural and does not have much traffic in any local venues. Both Cleveland and Columbus are within a 1 1/2 hour drive. I have my work in a Columbus gallery that does very well. I would like to find something in the Cleveland area too. Can anyone recommend a good strategy for identifying and contacting a new gallery? I have a website and facebook page listed below. Is there a directory of galleries or a optimum time of year to contact galleries? Thanks for any advice. http://www.elaineclapperceramics.com https://www.facebook.com/Elaine-Clapper-Ceramics-590741237624185/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Campbell Posted December 16, 2015 Report Share Posted December 16, 2015 Google is your new best friend. Try all variations of American Craft Gallery or Craft Galleries in whatever city interests you. Check out their websites to see what kind of work they carry and if they seem like a good fit for your work. E-mail them to ask how they prefer to vet their artists. Follow whatever protocol they have. Ceramics Monthly also has an annual issue that features Galleries across the USA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GEP Posted December 16, 2015 Report Share Posted December 16, 2015 I would spend an afternoon surfing the websites of working potters who live in your region, especially those with a "where to buy" page on their websites. You'll probably end up with a decent list of local galleries. January and February is when the wholesale craft trade shows take place, so it is a great time of year to reach out to new galleries. The holiday rush is over, they are flush with cash flow (hopefully) and they spend these months looking for new work to buy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldlady Posted December 16, 2015 Report Share Posted December 16, 2015 beautiful work, elaine, hope you find just the right place to sell from. does Ohio support craftwork the way some states do? with all those pottery factories in the state there should be an organization to help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glazenerd Posted December 20, 2015 Report Share Posted December 20, 2015 Elaine: First pull Cleveland up, which should also show all the surrounding suburbs. Make a list of all those communities and start doing a search: 1. type in the name of each suburb as a search: the local governments should have an official site. Click the site and go through the tabs: every community has a special events, local interests: etc on their official site. 2. It is very common for local artist, galleries, or other entities to advertise or make announcements on their local city government site. Communities that support or have a lot of art galleries will have an extensive list of those galleries. This also means that the city and its population support the arts. 3. There will also be census bureau data on their sites that give essential information about that community. This also includes median income for that community. If they show a median income of $45K and up also means they have some disposal income that you would like to have. 4. Be sure to click the community calendar link or tab. Gallery showings, community arts and crafts festivals, and other art related activities will be shown. Great way to pick up places to show and sell work. 5. Check the business link as well: often times galleries are listed there. Begin to build your database of galleries and begin a calendar of upcoming arts and crafts fair that fit your style/s. Glaze Nerd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAW Posted December 20, 2015 Report Share Posted December 20, 2015 I found it's very hard to find a good place to sell smaller work. Cups, bowls, plates, ext are a pain for the sellers. I would try selling them on a larger group of items with a higher value. The higher end gallery's don't sell a lot of smaller cheap items. I like tourist trap towns much better than larger cities. People come to these town knowing there going to spend money. I'm in 3 tourist trap galleries and my work is on the cheaper spending point ($200 to $500) at the gallery. The 3 of them sell around 10,000 combined of face jugs, moonshine jugs, and different types of crocks. The one lay owns the 3 gallery's. She's picky about what we can take her and she will not deal in smaller pottery items. We also have a couple of winery’s that we have work at. They are great for selling some larger items. The 10 that I have art at sell around 150 items a year each. They don't want smaller items. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark C. Posted December 20, 2015 Report Share Posted December 20, 2015 Nothing beats boots on the ground, How about getting in the car and checking them out in person after your marathon web search? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elaine clapper Posted December 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2015 thanks for some good ideas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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