The Art Fair 09 RDS took place this weekend. If you had a chance to visit you probably saw over 100 galleries and artists showcasing their works. All in all it was a good day out and a great event to familiarise yourself with artists (national and international) and different painting styles, ranging from traditional landscaping to abstract and experimental works. For those looking to buy art it certainly was the place to be this weekend with plenty of art pieces to choose from and prices for all pockets.
Leaving the actual event aside, though, I was surprised to see that most artists present at the event (not including galleries) were doing so little to promote themselves and spark an interest in their work. I’ll highlight some of the things I’ve noticed:
- a handful of artists were interacting with the visitors stopping by their stands
- possibly around four or five present had more than a business card or a brochure to make their art known.
- I’ve seen one digital photo frame displaying images of their works and one or two laptops with an interactive gallery display
- most of them had “guest / visitor logs” on the tables or chairs; however very few made any use of them and apart from that they were not accessible requiring visitors to bend in order to reach down and fill in their comments
- two or three artists had a prize draw or some contest for visitors, in order to get them involved in their creative process or just to make them aware of their existence and out of those, only one interacted vividly with the visitors to attract exposure
- what was most surprising was that a great number of artists present (again not including galleries) only had an email address and a phone number on their business cards or brochures, that were left laying passively on the tables.
Apart from the obvious lack of interaction, which I would presume visitors would have enjoyed, do you notice anything missing?
The cards, brochures and flyers were missing any sort of online presence, be it a website address, a profile on social networking websites (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Bebo) or a presence on an online art community (such as cgsociety.org, deviantArt.com, conceptart.org, behance.net) account or even a blog.
No longer is there a predefined path to access artist, they can take ownership of creating their own path through online tools (most of which they have complete control over, as opposed to being affiliated to a gallery and being obliged by the T&C of that gallery).
Galleries are only one venue to showcase art.
Placing works in coffee shops and restaurants may work too, but I feel it can never hurt to have a website next to your work. The coffee shop’s patrons may be in a hurry and just getting a coffee on their way to work – having an easy to read and to remember website address may just do the trick if they liked one of the works. As with any other product or service, I believe that making it convenient for the customer and easy to access you increase your chances of success.
I’ve met this brilliant artist yesterday, who paints the most extraordinary watercolour pieces about “the past in an attempt to define the present in sharp relief”. The canvases he uses are huge (some are 165 by 240 cm) and his paintings are inspired from “archaeology, pre-history and ancient art” as he defines his paintings on a simple flyer. His name is Adam White and the only way I could find him online was by entering the email address he had on a flyer he gave me. And I only find him here. To say that his presence, his very existence as an artist is at this time underexposed, is simply an understatement.
The internet has facilitated contact and promotion by removing the gateways between talented individuals and the world. The online tools, such as image blogging, can not only help artists gain exposure and but also understand what the audience wants, get feedback, engage the audience and get them involved in the creative process or make their art understood.
If you’re a painter you can show a step by step video of your creative process or just take a photo of your work every day (also known as time-lapse photography) and get viewers to comment on it or even suggest the direction the painting should be headed. If you’re a writer, record yourself reciting poems and share them on different platforms.
The Internet has made it so much easier for anyone to draw attention to their art, service, product or even themselves and, with the advent of social media, it has never been easier to spread the word about whatever we are passionate about.
And then I ask: why did I see so few artists at yesterday’s fair who had an online presence?
Running a social media campaign is a lot like running a political campaign. It needs to be monitored on a day by day or week by week basis, while constantly changing the message, adapting to the changes happening in the world of the customer, talking to the them while they’re making the purchase decision and watching what the competition is doing and engage in a coordinated effort to differentiate the offering.
Is it really? Seems to me this is only the beginning!
