Sandy Miller on mon 12 feb 01
I have a show with a reputable gallery at the end of Feb. Have been
working like a dog to get ready for this show. The name of the show is:
"Contained Forms". There are two other clay artists. The gallery director
called in January and said he needed slides of pieces that would be in the
show. In a hurried state I ran 3 pieces to the photographer, an hour away,
and paid over $100 for slides. Ran the slides back to the gallery a week
later. Seven days turnaround, not bad, I thought. I picked up the flyers
yesterday. YUCK!! Not one picture!! A postcard in pink and green with a
huge blow up of a loop tool !! Now the gallery director calls and very
abruptly states, "I want your mailing list of just your paying customers,
not you MOM and DAD, just your big ticket customers. I am paying him 45%
commission!! Yes, I know for what. Am I outta line here? And how do I
address this before a show. To this guys credit, he pays on time and my
pots look great in his gallery.
Thanks for any feedback on this issue.
Miffed in Cleveland!!
Sandy Miller
lucien m koonce on mon 12 feb 01
Sandy... I believe you should go through with the show. It is the
professional thing to do. Afterwards, you can choose to never deal with the
gallery again.
Lucien Koonce
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Click on http://lmkoonce.home.mindspring.com and visit my on-line gallery.
L M Koonce / Robbins, NC, USA
-----Original Message-----
From: Sandy Miller
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Date: Monday, February 12, 2001 10:13 AM
Subject: Rant on galleries....
>I have a show with a reputable gallery at the end of Feb. Have been
>working like a dog to get ready for this show. The name of the show is:
>"Contained Forms". There are two other clay artists. The gallery director
>called in January and said he needed slides of pieces that would be in the
>show. In a hurried state I ran 3 pieces to the photographer, an hour away,
>and paid over $100 for slides. Ran the slides back to the gallery a week
>later. Seven days turnaround, not bad, I thought. I picked up the flyers
>yesterday. YUCK!! Not one picture!! A postcard in pink and green with a
>huge blow up of a loop tool !! Now the gallery director calls and very
>abruptly states, "I want your mailing list of just your paying customers,
>not you MOM and DAD, just your big ticket customers. I am paying him 45%
>commission!! Yes, I know for what. Am I outta line here? And how do I
>address this before a show. To this guys credit, he pays on time and my
>pots look great in his gallery.
>Thanks for any feedback on this issue.
>Miffed in Cleveland!!
>Sandy Miller
>
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melpots@pclink.com.
Snail Scott on mon 12 feb 01
At 09:07 AM 2/12/01 -0800, you wrote:
>I have a show with a reputable gallery at the end of Feb.
said he needed slides of pieces that would be in the
>show. I picked up the flyers
>yesterday. YUCK!! Not one picture!!
Now the gallery director calls and very
>abruptly states, "I want your mailing list of just your
paying customers,>not you MOM and DAD, just your big
ticket customers.
Sandy Miller
I don't think that 'only paying customers' is an
unrasonable requirement. You should be entitled to
some number of announcements for personal purposes,
though; if you want to send anouncements to friends,
you could put your own stamps on them. Another
gallery might send announcements to your friends, but
that would be an unusual gesture of generosity, not
an expected business procedure. But, if your friends/
relatives have actually bought your work for money,
then include them. He may have expressed himself
rudely, but I don't think he was unreasonable. He's
your business partner, not your buddy.
Photos may be requested for purposes other than the
announcement. The main one, in my mind, is for
press releases. Galleries often send slides to
the newspaper, in hopes of getting press coverage
and a photo in the paper. (This has worked for me.)
Did he actually say there'd be photos on the
announcement? Some printing services have very long
advance requirements. If this was the case, he should
have told you, long before, that photos would be
requiredfor the announcement, and given you a specific
date for delivery of the photos. If he didn't, and
timing is the reason the announcement contained no
photos, then he is culpable. If he didn't promise
that there would be photos on the announcement, then
he's not required to do so. Next time, say up front,
"I want a photo on the announcement", and get an
agreement. If you are sharing the show with other
artists, expect to share the announcement, too.
Remember that full-color printing is very expensive,
(although sharing it with other artists will bring
your cost down). A one or two color announcement
will be much more economical. That's another thing
that you need to negotiate with the gallery.
Typically, you may be asked to pay partial costs on
the announcements. A good, eye-catching announcement
is to both your advantages, but full-color may not
be rewarded by sales commensurate to its cost. The
gallery may have experience with this; use their
opinion for guidance.
If you are printing with limited color, consider
using photos that have maximum contrast in value,
and skip those whose impact requires color or
perception of subtlely. Pick work with a strong
silhouette over works with internal detail. If
you're not sure which photos will look good,
take prints to a xerox shop, and copy them in
plain old black-and-white. (Some shops can copy
directly from slides.) If they look good that way,
they'll look great in limited-color or one-color
printing. If the effect is completely lost, and
none of them look good, you may have to spring for
full-color printing, or do an announcement with
eye-catching graphics, but no photos at all. 'No
photos' is better than photos that look rotten.
This isn't much help to you now, I know. Good
luck with your show, anyway.
-Snail
Craig Martell on mon 12 feb 01
Sandy said:
> Now the gallery director calls and very abruptly states, "I want your
> mailing list of just your paying customers, not you MOM and DAD, just
> your big ticket customers. I am paying him 45%
>commission!! Yes, I know for what. Am I outta line here? And how do I
>address this before a show.
Hi Sandy:
Most of the time, all of the promotional stuff for a show is discussed well
in advance and the gallery will tell you what they want and provide you
with a timeline for getting things done. It makes things harder when you
get impromptu requests for photos and mailing list.
You are in control of your customers and your mailing list. What I would
do is this: Figure out how many people you will mail to. Ask the gallery
director for that number of flyers and perhaps a few more and mail them
yourself. If you mail to 90% big spenders and 10% friends and family you
might present the director with a postage receipt for 90% of the
postage. You could also give them addressed mailing labels to stick and
mail themselves. I usually don't give a gallery my mailing list. They
will sometimes have no qualms about entering all your customers into their
database. Especially folks who aren't timid about spending a few pfennigs
on art and craft stuff. If I have a good relationship with a shop or
gallery and have been with them for a long time I recind my policy about
not giving my mailing list to them. It sounds like you've had good luck
with this gallery even though they are somewhat abrupt about the promo
stuff. If you aren't sending out a ton of flyers, you could perhaps pay
for the postage yourself and write it off your taxes.
regards, Craig Martell in Oregon
Russel Fouts on wed 14 feb 01
HEY!
>> I have a show with a reputable gallery at the end of Feb. Have been
working like a dog to get ready for this show. The name of the show is:
"Contained Forms". There are two other clay artists. The gallery director
called in January and said he needed slides of pieces that would be in the
show. In a hurried state I ran 3 pieces to the photographer, an hour away,
and paid over $100 for slides. Ran the slides back to the gallery a week
later. Seven days turnaround, not bad, I thought. I picked up the flyers
yesterday. YUCK!! Not one picture!! A postcard in pink and green with a
huge blow up of a loop tool !! Now the gallery director calls and very
abruptly states, "I want your mailing list of just your paying customers,
not you MOM and DAD, just your big ticket customers. I am paying him 45%
commission!! Yes, I know for what. Am I outta line here? And how do I
address this before a show. To this guys credit, he pays on time and my
pots look great in his gallery. <<
Ask him if you can have his mailing list in exchange? ;-)
Get the invitations from him and tell him you'll handle your own mailing
list. What's to stop him from using your mailing list in the future?
See you at NCECA?
Russel
Russel Fouts
Mes Potes & Mes Pots
Brussels, Belgium
Tel: +32 2 223 02 75
Mobile: +32 476 55 38 75
Http://www.mypots.com
http://www.Japan-Net.ne.jp/~iwcat
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