Mark on sat 13 mar 99
Hi,
I recently contacted someone who was looking for people to share retail
space in a fairly thriving art town. The person is not a potter; she is
looking to start a retail/studio space in which a number of various artists
(about 4-6) share costs and sell their work. What experiences have people
had in group retail settings and what arrangements seem to work best:
sharing costs evenly or taking a percentage of each person's sales? I have
plenty of experience in coop settings (I owned a restaurant with a bunch of
other people); what I am more interested in is what seems to work for artists.
Thanks,
Mark
Andrew Buck on sun 14 mar 99
Mark,
My experience has lead me to believe that the retail part of your question
is that, if the artists are of compatible personalities, things work out
well and actually complement each other. However, the studio space issue
is a real sticker. Not very many mediums allow for as much dust and noise
as even the cleanest clay operation produce. I think the problem of
finding artistically compatible people, in say watercolor or oil painting,
would be a real chore. Then again, think about working in the same area
as a wood worker and dealing with wood chips, sawdust, and even noisier
equipment than potters use. It can work, and has worked, but might be a
pain. JMHO
Andy Buck
Raincreek Pottery
Port Orchard, Washington
"hell, you can always trust a person that has wet clay in their crotch..."
-mel.mn- (a direct quote)
On Sat, 13 Mar 1999, Mark wrote:
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Hi,
>
> I recently contacted someone who was looking for people to share
> retail space in a fairly thriving art town. The person is not a
> potter; she is looking to start a retail/studio space in which a
> number of various artists (about 4-6) share costs and sell their work.
> What experiences have people had in group retail settings and what
> arrangements seem to work best: sharing costs evenly or taking a
> percentage of each person's sales? I have plenty of experience in
> coop settings (I owned a restaurant with a bunch of other people);
> what I am more interested in is what seems to work for artists.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mark
>
Dale A. Neese on mon 15 mar 99
Hey Mark,
I belonged to a small shop with a group of 12 artist. I know the shop ran
several years prior to me becoming a member. There some really nice things
that can happen to a Co-op group and then there are some not so nice things.
First we each had to put up a membership deposit for our space. Partly
refundable if you stayed on more than a year. The ideal number of artists we
had hoped to have were 14. This way we could rotate work days and weekends
without having one person work in the shop but once every two weeks. I still
could have time to work in the studio producing pot and attending fairs. The
artist built or bought their own display equipment that needed to work with
the stores overall design theme. The members were responsible to work their
agreed up days and rotate Saturdays and Sundays when their turn came up on
the calendar. Everyone had to learn the credit card terminal, responsible
for their own cash the day they worked. Filling out the daily log of sales,
restocking everyone space when items sold. Cleaning and dusting. Locking up
and doing things connected with a retail store.
Artist paid a monthly rent based on the monthly lease divided by the number
of artists. plus 5% of their monthly sales to cover the utilities,
insurance, and other fees. This allowed for some improvements to the
lighting, signs and other mutually agreed upon things from time to time. The
lady who started the group and had been there the longest, had really
thought out everything and they seemed to work if everyone followed the
set-up. This was the key to the whole operation. I enjoyed the benefit of
having a retail store selling my pottery that was open 7 days a week and I
was only having to work once every two weeks or cover for an absent worker,
which they paid you for working their day or trade out. Sales were very good
at times. We would have a featured store artist in the advertising or have
an Open House during Christmas.
So when the city started doing street repairs and some building construction
started that lasted a year or more the sales dropped and people got
discouraged. Roads and sidewalks were closed for some time.The rent started
to rise because an artist quit. In their contract they were supposed to help
find a replacement. Few did. As new artists were invited and signed up other
unexpected problems hit us. We discovered a member was dipping into the
till and lifting items from the store. Other times people and personalities
were getting into conflict because of little things that didn't mean a hill
of beans (somebody rearranged my display! Or who did or didn't do this) then
they wouldn't show up for work on their day. We had meetings to try and
work out the differences. The eight, then six of us that were left tried to
hold on as long as we could but it got to be too much so we dissolved the
co-op and closed the store. I think that if you have some clear must do
operating guidelines, respect each other, and do some problem immediate
problem solving you will do fine. It seem that with a new artist coming in,
you were dealing with the same questions and problems over and over.
I don't like to say that it was a bad experience but a learning one. Now I
belong to the longest running artists co-op groups in town (over 50 years in
the same place and over 230 members.) The gallery sales as a whole are
$175,000. or more a year.
If you want to know more or have any questions e-mail me sometime after
NCECA.
Dale TEX
d.neese@worldnet.att.net
-----Original Message-----
From: Mark
To: CLAYART@LSV.UKY.EDU
Date: Saturday, March 13, 1999 3:42 PM
Subject: Starting a retail coop/partnership studio
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Hi,
I recently contacted someone who was looking for people to share retail
space in a fairly thriving art town. The person is not a potter; she is
looking to start a retail/studio space in which a number of various artists
(about 4-6) share costs and sell their work. What experiences have people
had in group retail settings and what arrangements seem to work best:
sharing costs evenly or taking a percentage of each person's sales? I have
plenty of experience in coop settings (I owned a restaurant with a bunch of
other people); what I am more interested in is what seems to work for
artists.
Thanks,
Mark
elizabeth l gowen on mon 15 mar 99
There are two places I can think of where many types of artist work well
together, The Business of Art Center in Colorado Springs, and the Topedo
Factory in Alexandria Va. They are fairly large and have retail associated
with it. I think the key would be to have the spaces seperated by floor to
ceiling walls to seperate say painters and potters, with either your own
retail in your studio ( like Va.) or a joint retail space (like Colo.) The
one in Va. has much more traffic because it has a much better location, so I
think I would want to know about the potential of the location if you are
counting on it for a lot of retail.
Liz Gowen
Duck Pond Village Pottery
Williamstown NJ
-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Buck
To: CLAYART@LSV.UKY.EDU
Date: Sunday, March 14, 1999 2:56 PM
Subject: Re: Starting a retail coop/partnership studio
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Mark,
My experience has lead me to believe that the retail part of your question
is that, if the artists are of compatible personalities, things work out
well and actually complement each other. However, the studio space issue
is a real sticker. Not very many mediums allow for as much dust and noise
as even the cleanest clay operation produce. I think the problem of
finding artistically compatible people, in say watercolor or oil painting,
would be a real chore. Then again, think about working in the same area
as a wood worker and dealing with wood chips, sawdust, and even noisier
equipment than potters use. It can work, and has worked, but might be a
pain. JMHO
Andy Buck
Raincreek Pottery
Port Orchard, Washington
"hell, you can always trust a person that has wet clay in their crotch..."
-mel.mn- (a direct quote)
On Sat, 13 Mar 1999, Mark wrote:
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Hi,
>
> I recently contacted someone who was looking for people to share
> retail space in a fairly thriving art town. The person is not a
> potter; she is looking to start a retail/studio space in which a
> number of various artists (about 4-6) share costs and sell their work.
> What experiences have people had in group retail settings and what
> arrangements seem to work best: sharing costs evenly or taking a
> percentage of each person's sales? I have plenty of experience in
> coop settings (I owned a restaurant with a bunch of other people);
> what I am more interested in is what seems to work for artists.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mark
>
Janet or Michael Francoeur on mon 15 mar 99
Hi Mark, I was in a situation such as this for 6 years with 3 to 4 other
folks. A weaver, a stained glass person, a pottery person, and a stenciler.
I did the paintings.. I liked this better than having 20 people because you
had a better idea what the shop was going to look like. One problem I have
with big co-ops is that you often end up with some pretty terrible work (I
know that isn't always the case but it is often) which has a bearing on
overall sales. The other thing for me is that I have a low tolerance for
working with a committee and spending lots of time getting everyones
approval on things. With a small group it was a lot easier.
We shared the rent / expenses evenly and the hours. The reason I wouldn't
and didn't want to share a percentage is that I worked three times as hard
as anyone else because I was the only one making a living at it. For the
rest it was more of a hobby.
We had an agreement that we each sold the others work as much as our own.
Because we had non competing businesses this worked. I didn't bring in
fibre work and no one but me brought in paintings.
I left the co-op a year and a half ago to open my own gallery, it was time
not to have any one else to answer to. It was a great move for me, our
gallery is doing very well and because there is only one person doing the
buying the gallery looks a lot nicer.
But I will have to say the co-op is what gave me the experience to know
that I could do it by myself.
Let me know if there are any specific questions I can help you with.
Janet Francoeur
Carolina Creations
New Bern, NC
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