I’m headed off to summer workshop in a couple days, but before I go: here’s a topic inspired by an email from a fellow artist who had been contacted by Art-Exchange - they were offering to ‘jury’ her website and then list her work, market it to hunting lodges, etc. Since I made the mistake of falling for their spiel many years ago - and paying them a fee at the time - a couple of my prints are listed on their site (for astronomically high prices…I’m pretty sure I didn’t set those prices, but I frankly can’t remember). My cynical side suspects that this outfit is making most of its money from artist fees, not from actually marketing and selling work. They have gazillions of artists listed.
If an art-selling outfit (whether gallery or website) is going to make money, it ought to be from commissions - this gives them incentive to market the work.
Has anyone had any GOOD experiences with art-selling websites? For instance, I’m hearing from crafters that Etsy is starting to work well for them. There must be a fine-art site somewhere that juries for quality art and then actually works to market and sell it…
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June 22nd, 2009 at 7:51 pm
Boy, if anyone can find one, let me know. As soon as they collect a dime from the artists, there goes any selling incentive. Why does everyone think that WE’RE the ones with money? *rolls eyes*
Have a great workshop!
June 22nd, 2009 at 9:03 pm
Artfull Home juries artists through Juried Art Services - once a month. The jury fee is $35.00. Then to market your work through them there is a $25 monthly fee and a commission on sales. They have a website, catalog and direct mail marketing to consumers, designers, etc. I have not applied to be a juried artist. Artwork is marketed through their website, and “In addition to our website marketing, your work MAY be included in our marketing emails and direct mail catalog.” (I added the emphasis to the word “may”). Thus, being juried in and paying the $25/month fee does not guarantee anything but being on their website.
Let’s all partner and go into the art marketing business - we could make a LOT of money just in the $25/month fee if we have a “gazillion” artists! If we get say 1000 artists - thats $25,000 a MONTH! Even 100 artists would pay my bills!
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:54 am
As I was saying- no incentive to actually sell anything if the revenue stream comes in up front from the artists.
Re your last paragraph- what would a legit business like that look like? How does how real galleries have traditionally sold work (shows, mailings, personal contact by sending info to previous buyers) transfer to the digital world? I would think that the best chance of success FOR THE ARTISTS would be someone established in the art selling business who wanted to branch out into the online gallery business.
Is there anyone out there who has given up their bricks and mortar gallery and is working solely online now?
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:43 pm
Geez, a $25/month fee?? wow. They’re making a buncha money from the artists without ever doing a single thing in marketing. Wish I knew the answer to Susan’s last question there…
June 23rd, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Oh, Julie, I was counting on you. ;0).
Are any of your galleries moving more online or are they hanging tough with the way they’ve always done things?
June 24th, 2009 at 9:59 am
They’re definitely USING their online presence, and I’ve heard them say it’s working well - collectors watch the websites, call when new images go up, etc. But they’re not abandoning brick-and-mortar…and frankly, I’m not sure how you could: no tiny little compressed jpeg can *touch* the texture and color of an original.
June 26th, 2009 at 9:29 am
That’s for sure.