How to Promote Your First Art Gallery Show and Reception

Getting established as an artist can be a hard and sometimes frustrating experience. The first step is often getting your first gallery show. Getting an art gallery show can be intimidating because there's so much to do to market your gallery opening. Here's some tips that have worked for me or for emerging artist friends promoting their first art gallery show.

1.) Post the art gallery show on your web site. You do have a web site for your artwork right? Every emerging artist needs a good basic web site. Stay away from freebies like Geocities. Get yourself a decent domain name. You can find hosting packages for as little as $3 or $4/month for a basic site. If you blog at all, post your art gallery show on your blog as well.

2.) Post your art gallery show on MySpace and other social networking sites. Social networking is a powerful medium for marketing new and emerging artists. If you use MySpace, Facebook or other similar sites, you'll already have a sizable list of friends and supporters. Make sure they know about your art gallery show. MySpace has a bulletin feature as well as an event feature where people can RSVP for your opening reception. Don't forgot to post some photos of your artwork in your photos section.

3.) Make your first art gallery show a bigger event. One artist friend of mine does this at all her art gallery shows. She'll have a music group or a poetry reader at her opening reception to make the event more notable. This also helps because the poetry reader or music group will assist with promoting the opening. You just might make some of their supporters fans of your artwork.

4.) Start a mailing list and send postcards. Use a piece of your artwork as the front of the card. Be sure to include all the details for your gallery show. One artist I know just puts his name and the title of the piece of artwork on the back of the card. He then uses labels to add the show details to the cards. This saves him from having to waste cards if he prints to many for a show. If you're on a tight budget, Vista Print (www.vistaprint.com) does some very nice color printing for a very reasonable price.

5.) Find unique and niche markets to send your press releases. Does your work have a particular theme or appeal to a particular audience? Use that to your advantage. Market in those niches that might find your artwork most appealing. A number of my artist friends are pagan or involved in New Age spirituality. They often post their press releases on places like Witchvox or send them to metaphysical papers or magazines. When I had my first art gallery show which featured black and white photographs of male nudes, I sent my press releases to the various gay newspapers in my area. A well written press release may spark the interest of a reporter and get you a full write up or article. This is excellent free advertising for your first art gallery show.

6.) Hang flyers around town. Most artists place extra copies of their postcards around town. If you're concerned about the cost though, flyers are a cheaper alternative. A nicely designed flyer can help attract attention to your gallery reception. Consider finding locations that cater to the niches you identified above-coffee shops, specialty bookstores, nightclubs and more.

7.) Post about your art gallery show on local email lists and communities that are relevant. There are a number of art or art related email lists and communities. Try posting your show to these groups. Don't post frequently or you may get banned for spam. Also, make sure you know the posting guidelines for any group you post in, many groups and email lists don't allow commercial postings. If you have a Craigslist for your city, they have an artists community you can post your gallery opening in. Also, consider email lists and groups in the niches that we discussed before.

8.) Let art students know about your show. When I was in art school, I attended a number of first art gallery shows by emerging artists. This gave me an opportunity to hear other artists discuss their work and to learn more about how to present myself as an artist. If you market yourself around art schools, you may develop a following of art students interested in your work. You might also consider attending first art gallery shows by other emerging artists yourself. This will give you ideas of how to present yourself as an artist and even occasionally, how not to present yourself.

9.) Depending on where your first art gallery show is being held, consider partnering with another artist or organization. Group shows are an excellent opportunity for a first art gallery show. You gain a lot of synergy from the other artists promoting their work. This gives you a much better showing with less work. Also, groups and organizations sometimes do art gallery shows as fund raising events. For example, in my hometown our local gay and lesbian community center does an art gallery show during Gay Pride Month. This is an excellent opportunity for emerging gay and lesbian artists to have a first art gallery show. The show is heavily advertised by the sponsoring organization which greatly helps the artists.

10.) Stay motivated! After you've had your first art gallery show its sometimes easy to rest on your laurels. You'll need to resist this if you want to build forward momentum for your career as an artist. You should be treating your first art gallery show as the first of many. Have a guestbook for your visitors to sign. This way you can add addresses to your mailing list for sending postcards advertising your next show. The business of art is one that requires constant networking and self-promotion. Keep at it!

Promoting yourself as a new artist can be very time consuming but it can also be very rewarding. Nothing is more satisfying than selling work at your first art gallery show or showing up to a gallery reception that's standing room only. Hopefully these tips will help you promote your show successfully.