Promoting Art; On-line and Off.

[greeneagle]

I am going to be publishing a very interesting new Art Site Soon, displaying contemporary art in a way that I haven't seen presented on-line before.

It's going to present an artist that has 52 years of experience - very serious stuff!!!

The problems in the art world run deep right now. Americans have been outsourcing their art to the Chinese and Russians for a while.

China has 700 Art Factories, where the employees set there and grind out copies all day long. The Russians are strong there also. Even the French art schools have been playing that game for some time.

Many American galleries have been carrying this "garbage" (synthetic art), supplanting real American Art with "knocked-off" crap for a while.

Just yesterday, my wife and I were driving past a very nice, well established "Lake Community" nearby. I couldn't help but comment: Hey babe.. Look how many people are "house poor", they buy those big box houses on very little property and can't even afford to fence their property.. What is that about?

They are the one's that buy cheap knocked-off copies of art so they have something on their walls. I don't know which is worse; that or the posters on their kids bedroom walls!

It's happening all over... Let's take one of the American Art "Mecca's"; Santa Fe New Mexico. Right now, the inside scoop has it that 3 major galleries are going to go out of business in the very near future, mostly due to; the invasion of foreign low quality, low priced "art", a growing lack of interest by art connoisseurs, shifting public desires, failure of American artists to meet public demand, the "artist mentality" of not wanting to become "strictly commercial" and possibly even a faltering economy, where higher energy prices have strafed away disposable income at many levels.

I'd like to hear from anyone marketing art on the net...success and failure stories, tips and tricks... I believe we may have room to share and help each other, where not competitive.

Thanks,

Ken

[Tubby]

I have an art related section, If I ever find the time I will play some more with it. But time here is extremely hard to find. . I put the section together in one day and not having any content from the artist other than some images. I filled the pages as best I could with what I had available.

Basically the site was made because it would be somewhere I could place classic car links at a later stage -
I studied Art, but I dropped out. I still doodle with a pencil. do the odd sketch for newsletters.

but the stats say I need to do more work on it - http://artist.restocar.com/stats/
But . . . not this month...

[Dcrux]

Promoting / Marketing Art on the Web

[begabloomers]

Greeneagle

this is the web site of a neigbour of mine.

http://www.narekgalleries.com/index.html

She has run a gallery for ever and a day, previously in Canberra and relocated down the coast to my locality, where she has a converted church gallery. She sells a lot of work to the US and we do hear tales of US art tourists buying up big from many local galleries and commissioning works site unseen( cruise ships have made it down to our little part of the world). We are talking about 15K wood sculptures and that sort of thing.

It may be a fashion thing - or it may be US art has gone in a different direction than the market.

I don't think she exactly sells on the net but certainly has a presence.

I really love Alan Watt's ( also a neighbuor)work but it is way beyond my budget - he charges $500 just to build a mud brick pizza oven.

This is not strictly relevant but may give you some inspiration.

The art market is very closed shop and parochial. These people all taught at the same university etc, etc, went to the same private schools. And by extension, every art scene must be the same - which means as you said, the middle ground has completely gone to the knock off import variety.

Every year in Sydney there is an affordable art auction ( put together by various art collectives ) which is very popular because it is all genuine original art and the prices limit is around $500. People tend to either pick up pieces they like or speculate by buying new artists work and holding on for future resale.

Other ideas I have seen which may be adapted are art rental schemes , by subscription, where for an annual fee, insurance costs etc , people can " borrow" a work of art from the catalogue to hang on their walls for a month ( good if selling the house ) a season or some other fixed time period. that way you get to enjoy many original works of art - far more than it would ever be possible to own and if you tire of one simply exchange it ( or purchase it).

If non of this is relevant just disregard !

Susan

[greeneagle]

Tubby,

I enjoy looking at nice photos of restored cars. Always wanted to restore one myself, being a mechanical engineer. It'd be great fun, no doubt about it!

I just recently relaunched a completely rebuilt hunting site which you already know about.

There we have a "Picture Gallery" --- Naked as it can be ... presented just that way and every day it commands most of 20-30 Meg in bandwidth, at first breath there.

Every pic is named appropiately for the SE's "Image" plays. There are many surfers that are more image minded, and not all of them are "porn-doggin"!

;)

Ken

[greeneagle]

Dynamite article Dcrux!

Thank you from the depths of my soul! - salute!

Funny thing about marketing... and we are discussing some of these issues in other threads, namely:
http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=66962

Many times, to gain the advantage we have to wrap a gift and present it to the visitor and or customer in the process. Don't we?

Ken

[Tubby]

marketing and selling, can differ a bit. for example it is far easier to sell image hosting for a few dollars a month on a continuous basis, than it is to sell an actual image. It is far easier to 'sell' a free webpage than sell 'design' services - people choose what suits them best, anyone not catering for users needs is missing out.

There are virtual hobbiest selling art, and there are professionals selling art.
I think finding the balance between user, seller, and webmaster is very important.

Sometimes an artist needs to "present' his/her work to get some indication of public response. Once a confidence in public acceptance has grown, then the artist can take this added confidence on board. . and upgrade.

For an artist to 'Open' In New York, without testing his acceptance in provincial centre. Might just be biting off more than he could chew.

I think the same principle applies to selling on the web. It is not hard to commit a huge budget to web design and promotion. . It is a logical step to simply put a toe in the water first.

[Dcrux]

...or you could take the easy way out -- create an outrageously offensive piece of art.

Uh, you don't seriously think the outrageous artwork you read about in the press gets there because all these people are trying to do is express themselves, do you? If so, I may be in the wrong forum.

[greeneagle]

Or you can do something spectacular such as microscopic sculptures that fit on the head of a pin or in the eye of a needle.

I think we are talking about providing "shock value" where possible.

Ken

[artnotice]

Check out my post on promotion of art online here:

How Artists Can Get Noticed NOW !!! Update 7 June 08 - artmarketblog.com « Art Market Blog with Nicholas Forrest www.artmarketblog.com

Nicholas Forrest
Art Market Blog with Nicholas Forrest www.artmarketblog.com