Ask anyone what they like the best about going to an art show and most people will tell you it’s the opening night party.
And who can blame them, after all what better way is there to spend an evening, than enjoying some brand new art while partying?
So while from a show-goer’s point of view the opening night party seems like a straightforward process — placing a collection of artworks in a gallery and then laying on refreshments and live music — there’s a lot more to staging an exhibition, even a smaller show, than meets the eye.
Months, possibly years, of planning and organising go into some shows and their opening night party, so in the interests of imbuing the curious with an appreciation of the process, here it is, a step by step guide to planning and staging an exhibition.
Planning
You might be surprised at the amount of planning an exhibition requires. Factors such as venues, budgets, funding, sponsorship, advertising and promotion, catering, and possibly insurance, all need careful consideration.
Lead times can vary greatly as a result, with some shows taking a year or more to set up, while others can be arranged within a couple of months.
Budgets, sponsorship, and funding
Staging an exhibition can be expensive, and you will need to ensure you have sufficient funding, whether private, or through sponsorships, to cover the cost of things like catering, promotion, printing, and gallery space.
While established artists may be able to find sponsors to cover costs, as their larger following ensures a reasonable degree of exposure for their backers, new or emerging artists may not be so fortunate, and will have to rely on savings, or help from family or friends.
Check around though.It may be possible to obtain funding through arts grants, and sometimes municipal councils or community groups may offer some assistance staging a show, whether it be providing a venue, or publicity.
Artists at some exhibitions I have been to sometimes ask a for small (gold coin) contribution to help cover costs, a portion of which they usually donate to charity.
Finding a gallery
Gallery space is competitive, and can be hard to secure, especially if you want to exhibit at an established, well known, venue.
You will also need to weigh-up the amount, nature, and size, of work to be exhibited, against the availability of suitable galleries.
Other things to consider are whether the gallery operates on a commission basis, taking a percentage on works sold, or charges a fixed fee for holding a show.
Also, depending on your location, since regulations vary from place to place, are insurance matters, both public liability, and cover for items on show.
Look out also for alternative venues, such as cafes or bookshops for instance, which may offer wall space, and would surely be happy to collect a commission on any works sold.
Given the potential for publicity and custom, cafe and bookshop owners may possibly be prepared to provide other forms of support for your show as well.
A theme and a name for the exhibition
Your show will need a name and a theme. It’s worth taking some time to think this over.
Pricing your artworks
This is one of the more difficult steps in the process of planning an art show.
The amount you can ask for an artwork will depend on a number of factors including your reputation or standing as an artist. Obviously the more regarded your work, the more you can ask.
Another is the arrangement you have with the gallery exhibiting your work. Most galleries take a commission on works sold during an exhibition. While this cut varies, sometimes greatly, rates of about twenty-five to up to fifty percent are reasonably common.
Don’t be afraid to negotiate on the commission either. If you believe you will sell a lot of your work, you may be able to haggle a slightly lower rate.
To set a price you will need to work out much you would like to receive, against how much you think someone will pay, less the commission asked for by the exhibiting gallery.
Printing
Once you have funding, a venue, and a theme worked out, you can start arranging the printing of promotional flyers and brochures, title cards, and a list or catalogue of items you’ll be exhibiting.
If money is tight you may be able to reduce some printing costs by doing some of the work yourself.
Great looking catalogues and title cards can be produced with a word-processor, the use of good fonts, some careful page layout, and a reasonable quality printer.
If you know someone with calligraphy skills see if they can make title cards for your works.
Promote and advertise
There’s quite a few options when it comes to promoting shows, many of which are low-cost, or free.
Social networking sites, such as Facebook, make it easy for members to create pages for events, such as an exhibition opening, and issue invitations to their contacts.
There’s also art focused discussion forums, and you could even consider approaching arts bloggers to see if they will help the spread the word. Be careful not to wear out your welcome, or take anything for granted here though.
Setting up a page on a photo-sharing site, such as Flickr, and posting photos of your work is also a good way to generate some ongoing profile.
If your budget permits, consider printing flyers to post on community notice boards. Local shops may also be happy to display these for you. Also think about writing a press release to send to local and community magazines and newspapers.
I’ve received a number of invitations to exhibition openings through (snail) mail, so if time and money allows, have some invitations printed and then gather up a list of people to post them to.
Finally, invite as many people as you can, however you can, to the opening. Not only will they appreciate a drink and snack, they’ll also add some atmosphere, and make your attendance numbers look good. Nothing says success more than a well attended show opening.
Food, beverages, and catering
A big part of the opening night of any exhibition is the food, drink and party atmosphere, but you don’t need to go overboard.
Offering guests a choice between a red and white wine, and water (and juice or soft drinks, if you really want to push the boat out) is quite acceptable.
If you have a generous sponsor, or even just a catering sponsor, you may also be able to lay on beer and some finger food.
Other entertainment
Many of the openings I’ve been to have some sort of live music, and given the atmosphere a DJ, or even a band, can add to proceedings, this is something well worth thinking about.
If money, or floor space dictates otherwise, the only option may be background music. Whatever you do, choose music that is light and upbeat, and generates a good vibe.
Opening times
Most of the shows I go to usually open on Wednesdays, Thursdays, or Fridays. Thursday seems to be the most common day, it’s not too early in the week, and not too close to the weekend.
If possible, avoid weekend openings, or early in the week, times that people usually have other plans.
An early evening opening of around 6pm is probably a good all round time. Most your guests will be on the way home form work by then, yet it is still early enough for them to fit your show in around other plans they have for later in the evening.
Photos
You will definitely want a photographic record of the opening, so try and arrange for someone to take photos through out the evening.
Post the photos to your Flickr or Facebook pages, and also use them when you write about about the opening on your blog later.
And enjoy
The opening night, and exhibition itself, will probably be over in what feels like no time, especially when compared to the months of prior planning and preparation, so be sure to take a little time out to enjoy your own exhibition.
Good luck with it.
Originally published Monday 8 March 2010, with subsequent revisions, updates to lapsed URLs, etc.
The other week, an article written in 1995 by Clifford Stoll who — in short — could see no future for the internet, resurfaced.
While events obviously took a different course, Stoll’s words started me wondering about a world without an internet, and what our lives in 2010 might be like in the absence of this “most trendy and oversold community”, as Stoll put it.
And faster than Marty McFly and Doc Brown can conjure up an alternative timeline, here we are, a day in my life, in an un-wired, web-less, 2010.
The day begins like this, as always…
I go down to my letter box. There are three letters, a bill, two magazines, and the daily newspaper. A prominently placed front-page article boasts of a circulation increase of 0.1%, according to the latest readership audit.
Over breakfast I continue scanning the paper. The music industry is on the war path. Again. They can’t seem to shut down the groups who are bootlegging albums, by burning them onto DVDs and then selling them for — quite literally — a song on the street.
Before settling into the day’s work I quickly reply to the letters I’ve received, this is a breeze since nowadays people mostly only write letters that are a paragraph or two long. And given they now only cost five cents to send, literally millions are exchanged daily in Australia.
Getting down to work, I need to do some research
I work from home as a freelance writer. I work for a number of what are called street magazines, which are independently produced publications.
Sometimes several people operate them, sometimes they are the work of one person, an editor, who also relies on contributions from freelance writers.
But more on street magazines later.
I work using a computerised pad like device about the size of an A4 sheet of paper. The top section has a screen, while the lower part has a keypad.
I can send output to either a printer, via fax (the Victorian age technology has really stood the test of time), or save it as a text file to a floppy disc, which I can courier to whomever I’m writing for.
I have two article deadlines in two days time, and will need to spend a couple of hours at the local library doing some research for them.
Some of those street magazines are quality rags
Some of the more popular publications do really well, and thanks to their numerous sponsors, turn out top-shelf editions each week.
People like Jason Kottke, Karen Cheng, John Gruber, and Duncan Macleod who runs a zine called The Inspiration Room, are considered some of the big names in street magazine publishing.
What makes one street magazine more popular than another? I have no idea really. Quality content for sure, but I think luck has a lot to do with it also. That hasn’t stopped a large number of hopefuls from publishing street magazines on how to publish street magazines though.
Clearly these sorts of publications don’t bother the established newspapers though, who are after all, boasting of increases in their readership.
Producing your own street magazine is also easy
Self publishing really caught on with the advent of photo-copy print machines, and because they are so cheap and easy to operate, they can be found in most corner stores, newsagents, and supermarkets.
The whole process is incredibly simple. You write content using your computer’s word-processor, and then, when finished, export the file to a floppy disc. Then it’s away to the nearest photo-copy print machine.
You simply insert the floppy disc in the yellow slot, select from a number of print-out (or publishing) options, insert some money, and a few minutes later you are a published author, proudly holding your paperback — which is usually A5 size by the way — in your hands.
Sites that offer photo-copy printing services also allow you to place your publications in vending shelves, for a small fee. Your readers can then come along and pick up your latest work.
Cafes, bars, cinemas, and even public transport services, also have distribution facilities, so publishers with good advertising revenue can afford to widely circulate their magazines.
Instead of Facebook and social networks
The way you meet people in this world is truly weird.
Case in point. I was just over at the supermarket when a girl smiled and waved at me. This puzzled me as she didn’t look familiar, so I asked if I knew her from somewhere. She looked perplexed. “I was just wondering if you wanted to be friends,” she said.
Maybe it was the way I was looking at her, as if she had stepped out of a flying saucer or some such.
“Well, what do you expect me to do? Send you a photo, a bio, and a list of my friends to you, or something? Come on, what sort of world do you think we live in? The Star Trek universe?”
We ended up shrugging at each other and went our separate ways.
Coffee meetings and face to face networking
Today is when the weekly writers coffee group meets. We get together every week to chat, network, and compare notes.
One guy there today was in a very excitable mood though, “you know, this is far more than people sitting in a cafe chatting, exchanging information and tips, it’s a… I don’t know, er, community network, a like, social network, you know?”
A social network? That sounds kind of cool. We all nodded meaningfully, and resumed our random chatter.
Instead of Twitter, micro-blogging, and text messaging
On returning home from the coffee group, there are a stack of “slips” in my letter box.
Slips are a micro revolution in what I call — for want of a better term — instant communication. Basically people can send 150 character messages to each other via the postal service.
In Australia for example you pay $100 a month and can send up to 500 slips. To send one you call the Post Office service centre, where a communications consultant transcribes your message, and then faxes it to the post office nearest to where the recipient lives.
Slips are delivered through out the day, though not so often in rural areas, by people who drive around in very distinct red and blue striped vans.
The big advantage of slips is in their brevity. People often can’t be bothered making a phone call or writing a letter, especially if they only want to tell their friends what they had for lunch or where they were at a certain time, so slips really took off.
Designed to be recycled, and printed on fax paper with a special ink that fades after a few days, they have also proved a boon for postal services worldwide as a result of their popularity.
Advertising is also carried on the back of slips, making the concept a veritable gold mine.
The future of the future is still televised
I watch as someone called Steve Jobs walks onto a stage at a trade show with a pad like device very similar to what I use. Except it has what Jobs’ refers to as a dongle attached to it.
The “dongle”, which is about the size of a packet of chewing gum, is a wireless transmitting device that allow computers to talk to each other, and also share information and files. It will change the very essence of our lives, Jobs says.
We’ll be able to buy music and movie files through the dongle somehow, publish street magazines “online”, and even meet people the same way. Yeah, right.
Quite a few people in the audience are clearly excited by what he is saying. But not me. Such a thing will never catch on.
I flick the TV off, and as I take delivery of the day’s last batch of slips, prepare to spend the rest of the evening reading through the growing pile of street magazines that I subscribe to.
An “online” world?
I couldn’t possibly imagine living in such a place. If you disagree though, please send me a slip or letter. Good night.
Originally published Monday 1 March 2010, with subsequent revisions, updates to lapsed URLs, etc.
