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Dear Art Lover, This is Part 3 of 4 in a series called “A Business of Art”. You can read the previous parts here. Onto… A Business of Art, Part 3 of 4: Industry Standard Here is the industry standard for entering an open call and sending work to a juried show - entry fees are high, usually $30-$40 to enter a minimum of 1 to 3 works, sometimes pro-rated after that at $5-$10 for each additional work, up to 6 or 10. So, as an example, I could enter 3 works for $40 or 10 works for $110. Bear in mind, I believed that to make this fruitful at all, I needed math on my side - more work - greater chances - so I would typically go for the maximum amount of work entered. A strain to my debit card - ouch - but an investment. As news came back that some work was being juried into shows, I now had the task of framing and shipping that work. Ok, another investment, and a very significant one. To frame a 30 x 42” plein air watercolor for “exhibition” framing, a simple black wooden frame, no matt, with a spacer to prevent moisture buildup, and acrylic fronting instead of glass (every show bans glass, has to be acrylic), is about $300, at least. To buy the required box, with foam padding and reinforced sides from AirFloat, is $152, and to ship that box is more, maybe $20 if you’re ordering multiple boxes at once. To ship the art, in the box, to the East Coast, Fedex ground, no rush, is $250… one way. If the gallery / show / venue does not sell your work, you are required to pre-pay a label to have them ship it back to you. So, to tally so far, we have a $110 entry fee, a $300 frame, a $152 box, $20 box shipping (to me!), $250 shipping to the venue, and should the piece not sell… $250 return shipping. That’s $1082, so far, for a painting that didn’t sell. Let’s say I won a prize for the work, at the check was $1000… I am still out $82. What I’m describing is not a hypothetical scenario, but one that has now happened many times. Yes, I was excited to be getting into shows, especially to show my best work, and even better, be awarded (cash!) for that work… but the math was off. I’d expected to get into about 1% of shows… but by October, when things were at their craziest and I began to be much, much more selective about what I apply to, I was getting into over 70% of the shows I entered, 40 in total, about 80 works crisscrossing the country, impossibly expensive traverses of cardboard, acrylic, wood and paper. And, as I mentioned, the work was not selling. I had priced large-scale, award-winning plein air watercolor work 30 x 42” for $6000, 22 x 30” for $3000. These are numbers arrived at not least because each 30 x 42” piece is a potential $1000 cost, but also because many venues take a significant percentage of each sale. Gallery industry standard is 50%. So, for a $6000 piece, let’s say I am accepted into a show with three similar pieces, and one of them sells (yay!). My cost for putting all three in the show was $110 (entry fee), $900 (framing for all three), $750 (shipping all three), $456 (boxes), $60 (boxes shipped to me), before the show begins. If we want to we could also account for my art materials like paper, or my time… but let’s not even go there. We are at $2276 so far, when a piece sells for $6000 - yay! Ok, so the gallery will take their 50%, $3000, so that leaves me with $3000. Ok, but I still have to pay the 2 x $250 return shipping for the other two pieces which did not sell, adding $500 to make my cost total $2776. $3000 - $2776 = $224. I wish I could say I’d made even $224 for even one of the 40+ shows I’ve been juried into since July, but I have not - not even a single piece has sold, so far, through any venue, despite winning awards, despite attending openings, despite pricing competitive with the value of the work and the market for the work. Hence… the 2023 Holiday Sale. Why charge $6000 to lose money on a sale when I can charge $1200 for an equivalent work and sell it myself, ship it myself, no frame, directly to the client? What is the business model of galleries who have access to sell my work but do not actually succeed in selling it? Who is more invested in my work selling, a gallery some place I’ve never been, or me? — Thus concludes “A Business of Art, Part 3 of 4: Industry Standard” Stay tuned for tomorrow’s "Part 4 of 4: Align With Math” As ever, if you haven’t already, sign up for email newsletters on my website, and encourage anyone you think would enjoy them to as well. Cheers, David
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