Getting into the scene
The fastest route in is to join a league or guild near you and start showing in member exhibitions. It costs little, gets your work on a wall in front of a buying audience, and puts you in a room with people who know which shows are worth entering. From there, regional juried shows build a record.
Presentation standards
- Wire hanging, not sawtooth, on almost every venue's rule sheet.
- Clean frames or professionally finished edges on gallery wrapped canvas.
- Works on paper matted and glazed; many shows now prefer acrylic glazing over glass for weight and safety.
- Label on the back with title, medium, price and contact.
- Nothing wet, nothing that smells, nothing that sheds.
Pricing in this market
Price consistently across venues; a buyer who sees the same size work at two prices will trust neither. Account for commission before you set the number, not after. Small work in the one hundred to five hundred dollar range moves in volume at festivals and co-ops; larger work in the thousands sells in season and mostly through galleries and juried shows with the right audience.
Gallery sitting
Cooperative membership almost always includes sitting shifts. Treat it as sales training. Learn to greet without hovering, know every artist's work in the room, and understand the sales and card processing procedure before your first shift.
Documenting your work
Digital jurying means your images decide whether you are in the show. Shoot square on in even light, no glare, no frame unless required, crop to the artwork, correct the color against the original, and meet the pixel and file size specification exactly. Poorly photographed good work loses to well photographed mediocre work every time.
The seasonal calendar for artists
Entry deadlines for winter season shows fall in the preceding summer and early fall. If you wait until the season starts to think about entering, you have already missed most of the deadlines that matter.