Why Your Mailing List is Your Most Important Asset for Selling Your Art

Your email list is your most important asset for staying in touch with your customers.

What is the single most important tool in building your art business?  It’s your mailing list.

In the simplest terms, a mailing list contains names and contact information of people you know or might like to know. For the artist, a mailing list usually begins with friends and family, and then expands to buyers and potential buyers. You use your mailing list to stay in touch with all of these people–to keep them informed of your goings-on.

In a nutshell, your mailing list–something unique to you and your career–is the primary tool you use to share your art with the world. As you may know, I think sharing in a sincere way is much easier and much more effective than trying to sell.

These days, the artist’s mailing list contains both bricks-and-mortar addresses along with email addresses and phone numbers. For these reasons, it might better be called a contact list. You need all three types of information in order to keep your name in front of people and to conduct critical follow-up.

GUIDELINES FOR YOUR MAILING LIST

►Don’t delay. The longer you wait to begin or to update your mailing list, the more work you make for yourself. You don’t want to have something to tell everyone and then have to carve out time to input names into your computer. A mailing list is something every artist can do regardless of experience. You know people already! Having said that …….

►Give yourself a break. Forgive yourself for not starting earlier and don’t look back.

►Don’t purchase a mailing list. Build your own from scratch. Lots of people will eagerly sell you a mailing list, but you’re going to become annoying to gallery dealers and curators who have nothing to do with your work. No purchased mailing list can be as valuable to you as the one you build with a keen eye on your long-term goals. 

To build your list from your website or blog, you will need a link or widget placed on your site. This is easy to do and gets you going fast. See my email subscription form at the top right-hand corner and bottom of this blog.

►Use an email marketing service that makes it easy on you.  I use Aweber to collect my email names and manage my email newsletter.  I’ve written a very thorough blog on why I think they are the gold standard for email management: Click here to read the article.

►Do only what you can, but do it consistently.  Once you have your widgets in place on your website, they will work for you around the clock gathering names and addresses of people who are interested in what you do.  Then you will create a series of auto-responder emails that will have your newest art offerings.  The auto-responder will send out your emails on a regular basis for you. It’s a very smart way to do business.

For your friends and family on the list, input 20 names a week until everyone is in there. If you work better with large projects, set aside a day or two to crank it out. When it comes to updating, add and correct names and addresses in a way that makes sense. If you make lots of sales, meet lots of people, or have seasonal sales, you might need to do this weekly. If you are slower at getting your work out, monthly updates might be sufficient.

I can help you…

Gary Bolyer

If you need help setting up your newsletter marketing, I offer personal art business mentoring services.  I will work directly with you by phone and email to help you get the results you deserve.

I will access your situation from a brief questionnaire that you fill out.  And then I will come up with a plan of action tailor-made just for you that will get results.

Click here to Contact me today and let’s work together to get your art selling fast.

___________________________________________________________________________

Grab My Online Art Marketing Course (It’s Free!)

Smart Art Marketing

Want to discover the smartest ways to mix social media, content marketing, and SEO for lead generation and converting those leads to customers and clients?

I’ve got you covered with Smart Art Marketing. And there’s absolutely no charge.

This 20-installment email course and newsletter delivers the techniques and strategies you need to know when marketing online.

Find out more and sign up for free here.

Why Some Artists Will Almost Certainly Make More Money Using Email Newsletters

The best way for artists to increase their internet income is by using a simple email newsletter

What is the best way to increase your income on the internet if you are an artist?

There are a lot of options to deliver your content, images and messages online. Blogs, social media, static Web sites and user-generated content sites like Squidoo or Ezine articles all provide an opportunity to get the word out about your artwork.

Each of these has its distinct pros and cons. I love blogging, but it’s a a lot of work. And you have to keep feeding the engine–no matter how well-received your post is today, tomorrow your readers want to know what’s new and fresh.

Static Web sites and user-generated content sites are tried and true, and they belong in any fully-developed content strategy, but they’re not the first place I’d put my energy.

For my money, the smartest way to start out with internet marketing is with a simple email newsletter

They’re inexpensive–about $20 a month to deliver. They’re faster to put together than a paper newsletter, requiring only minimal graphic layout. And the really fun part is, you can create a fantastic sequence of communication, then deliver it again and again to each new person who signs up for your list.

Benefits of using email marketing to your clients, collectors, and gallery contacts

• Consistent email contact builds trust which leads to more and greater sales
• Auto-responders send out a sequence of regularly timed messages that you have created in advance.  They work for you even when you are away or sleeping. Truly, the lazy man’s way to riches.
• Consistent emails constantly keep your name in front of your customers and so they think about you next time they are ready to buy.
• You can offer a series of new products to your clients that are evenly spaced throughout your email campaign. More products offered means more sales

There are a lot of steps to putting an email newsletter together. None of them is
rocket science, but put them all together and it can be a little intimidating.

I’ve seen a lot of folks get bogged down just trying to choose a provider. I
completely understand—you don’t want to make a mistake or burn a lot of time
& energy with the wrong service.

Fortunately, there’s an extremely easy answer to this question. There really is one
provider—and no, I don’t work for them!—who stands head and shoulders above the rest.

This article will give you the complete scoop on what you need to look for
and why these guys are the gold standard.

DO YOU NEED AN EMAIL NEWSLETTER PROVIDER?

A lot of folks think they can “do it themselves” by either sending customer email
newsletters through a program like Outlook or (if you’re a little more tech-y)
writing your own PHP or other program.

“Doing it Yourself” is a BIG MISTAKE here

First of all, trying to send out bulk email to more than 10 or 20 people gets
complicated in a hurry. You lose track of who’s already gotten what. You have to
create folders and subfolders. Your local email service starts to get cranky with
you (sometimes very cranky) because you’re sending too much stuff. It’s just
messy.

But that’s not the reason not to do it.

You need a special email newsletter provider because if you don’t, one of these
days you will be marked as a SPAMMER.

It’s a little known fact that most of the email that gets marked as spam is actually
completely legit. People click that “spam” button if they forget that they signed
up to hear from you, or if they’re just not as interested as they used to be.

A lot of the time, they even click the SPAM button completely by accident.
Before you know it, the “big guys” have sent your name around as a “bad
character,” and NONE of your email gets delivered . . . to ANYONE. Not your
personal mail wishing your grandma a happy birthday, not the business mail you
use to confirm delivery of your product, NOTHING.

You really don’t want that to happen.

Use a reliable email newsletter service and they manage all those relationships for
you, so your mail will get delivered consistently. They send from a completely
different computer, so your personal email can never be accidentally marked as a
spammer.
The good ones also give you a heads up if you’ve written something that will raise
the “spam” flag on the automatic filters (you’ll be amazed at some of what gets
flagged). They deal with all the hassles for you, and they keep things simple and
organized. You just spend a few minutes typing your content in and they take it
from there.

A dedicated service to send your email newsletters is a critical business expense
just like having a phone line is—and it’s just as dumb to try to go without it!

A PIECE OF “EXPERT” ADVICE YOU MUST IGNORE

Lately, some of the “experts” have been telling folks that deliverability (that’s the
jargon for whether or not your email gets to your readers without landing in a
“junk” folder) is only about content. They claim that the spam filters just check
for certain words, and if you keep your nose clean your stuff will sail through.

These are people who have little or no experience testing different email providers.

OK, it’s partly true. Yes, you have to have good, valuable content. And you can’t
be a spammer. It helps a lot of you send something your customers want to get.
But that’s not the only piece of the puzzle.

As a matter of fact, it matters a lot who’s sending your email newsletter for
you. Some of the bigger names (including some you see advertising in the
business journals and magazines) don’t spend the time they should creating solid
relationships with the email providers. They’re not on the phone with AOL,
Gmail, Yahoo, Earthlink, Comcast and all those other guys, making sure that
those providers are delivering your email.

And if you publish a newsletter with one of these not-so-great services, even if
you have the best content in the world on a totally harmless subject, you can see
anything from 10-25% OR WORSE caught in spam filters.

Let’s be really clear. When your newsletter gets stuck in a spam filter, your
customers can’t read it. Which means they don’t forward it to their friends or
come in to check out your great new promotion.

Which means 10-25% OR WORSE of your money and time are WASTED.

I don’t want to get into any fights or make anyone’s enemies list, so I’m not going
to name the providers I’ve seen firsthand do a lousy job of managing the spam
filters.

In fact, I’m just going to give you one name—the “gold standard” for sending mass
email.

My 8% rejection rate shrank down to under 1%. My clickthroughs (that’s folks
who click on a link in your email—important to keep track of, because that
means you’ve got interested readers who are motivated to act) improved by
about five times. That’s all I needed to see—I’m a believer.

THE BEST EMAIL NEWSLETTER PROVIDER I’VE FOUND ANYWHERE

OK, enough with the suspense already. The best email newsletter provider for
small businesses (or even big ones, in my opinion) is a company called Aweber.

You can reach them here: Aweber.com

I haven’t seen any other provider come close to getting your email past the spam filters.

If you’ve been hanging around the Internet Marketing dudes, you know this name
already—they’re simply the best.

Not only does their email get delivered much more consistently, but it’s a very
EASY program to use.

IF IT’S THE BEST, DOES THAT MEAN IT’S EXPENSIVE?

Aweber costs a little under $20 a month for the basic package, which gives you
up to 250 subscribers. Then it jumps to $29 a month for up to 2,500 subscribers,
with modest increases as you get more people on your lists. Other than some of
the great free services provided by Google, I can’t think of a better, smarter
bargain for any business owner or organization. Anyone.

Remember, it’s not just cheap with GREAT deliverability, but the Aweber
program is designed for folks who don’t have a PhD in computer programming.
Setting up Aweber is about as easy as it gets—if you managed to figure out how
your email program works, you’re overqualified to use Aweber.

(No, I don’t work for them and I don’t own their stock. Maybe I should find out if
they even offer stock, so I can buy some. It’s just really, truly that good. No
baloney.)

A MISTAKE EVEN EXPERTS MAKE

Once in awhile, I see a business owner using the email provider that comes with
their shopping cart program, or their web domain host, or whatever.

Even people who ought to know better do this. I guess they don’t like the idea of
paying for a new program when they can use something they already bought.

Don’t do it. Your customers can “white list” you (that means they add you to
their email as a safe sender) until they’re blue in the face, some of your messages
are still going to get jammed up in their spam filters.

These “add-on” emailers just don’t put as much time and energy into making sure
as much email as humanly possible gets in front of your customers, instead of
getting stuck in a spam or “junk” box somewhere.

Use a good, dedicated service with an EXCELLENT reputation for
deliverability, whether it’s Aweber or another service you might find.

I happen to run my own free marketing newsletter using Aweber. If you’d like to
get some FREE solid art marketing tips and advice, feel free to subscribe below.

Grab My Online Art Marketing Course (It’s Free!)

Smart Art Marketing

Want to discover the smartest ways to mix social media, content marketing, and SEO for lead generation and converting those leads to customers and clients?

I’ve got you covered with Smart Art Marketing. And there’s absolutely no charge.

This 20-installment email course and newsletter delivers the techniques and strategies you need to know when marketing online. And, of course, it’s powered by Aweber.com.

Find out more and sign up for free here.

Why Some Artists Almost Always Make Money Selling Their Art

"Unknown Artist Drowning Girl" by Roy Lichtenstein

Have you ever known an artist whose work was incredible but they never seem to sell anything?  Or what about the opposite?  Have you ever seen an artist whose work was not that great but they sold things all the time and for really high prices?

You’ve probably wondered how this could be.

Some artists, without ever really being conscious of what they’re doing, stumble upon the right combination of marketing and selling strategies.   Their work may not be that great, but something else very powerful is coming into play.

And other artists work hard at their craft and yet never stumble upon the right selling formulas or techniques.   And, sadly, their careers flounder.  As a result, their beautiful work ends up collecting dust in an attic.  Their genius is lost forever. I’ve known artists like this and probably you have too.

Something tells me you’re just … well … smarter than most artists looking to market online.

You’re not interested in lame “get rich quick” schemes. You’re not looking for a magical silver bullet that involves no work, no time, and no sense.

In other words, you don’t have to be Einstein to “get” this stuff. But you’d have to be an idiot to believe some of the stuff peddled by traditional Internet marketing “gurus.”

So what is the dividing line between an artist whose career takes off and an artist whose career flounders?  It’s simple.  It’s the word “sell.”

You Must Learn How to Sell

For many artists the word “sell” is a vulgar word.  I once thought the same way.  I strongly believed that selling was beneath me.  I thought my work would just naturally attract the right people at the right time.

I was once too proud and too arrogant to lower myself to sell.

And then I had an eye-opening experience……

My Story of Learning about Marketing and Selling Art

Roy Lichtenstein, American Pop Art Icon

When I first moved to New York City in 1998, I had a chance encounter with a powerful gallery director from Manhattan.

I met her at a gallery opening and we became good friends. We would often meet for lunch near the SoHo gallery where she worked.

During the course of her incredible career, she had worked side-by-side with the famous American pop art icon Roy Lichtenstein.

She took me under her wing, and over the course of several months, taught me everything she knew about how to make it in the highly competitive New York City art world.

She introduced me to people.  But more importantly, she educated me.

And here is the most astounding thing she told me about Roy Lichtenstein.  She said that he spent 80% of his work week marketing and selling.  And he only spent 20% of his week actually making his paintings.

Think about that for one minute.  That means he only spent about one day a week actually making his paintings.  And the other 4 days of the week he spent selling and marketing.

She told me that Roy Lichtenstein became an art star because he worked very hard at selling and marketing and not because he worked hard at his painting.

She told me that if I wanted to be a successful and highly acclaimed artist, I needed to do the same.

There are many artists who have created great bodies of work.  The problem is, the sale goes not to the best artist, but to those who can sell the best.  In other words, not being able to sell is very expensive.  It costs you untold dollars in lost business!  It can cost you your entire career.

In conclusion….

There’s no way around it.  You must learn how to sell.  You must learn how to sell in-person.  And you must learn how to sell on the internet, through your website or blog.

Remember how I talked about in the first couple of paragraphs of this article how some people just stumble along and by accident learn to sell well.  Don’t rely on accidents when it comes to growing your career.

Find experts who can mentor you in the art of selling.  But choose your experts carefully. 

As you follow along with me through coming articles, I will be teaching you everything that my powerful Manhattan gallery director friend taught me.

Please read these articles carefully.  Learn to sell and your career will always flourish.

I can help you…

Gary Bolyer

If you need help getting gallery representation, I offer personal art mentoring services.  I will work directly with you by phone and email to help you get the gallery representation you deserve.

I will access your situation from a brief questionnaire that you fill out.  And then I will come up with a plan of action tailor-made just for you that will get results.

Contact me today and let’s work together to get your art career moving fast.

___________________________________________________________________________

Grab My Online Art Marketing Course (It’s Free!)

Smart Art Marketing

Want to discover the smartest ways to mix social media, content marketing, and SEO for lead generation and converting those leads to customers and clients?

I’ve got you covered with Smart Art Marketing. And there’s absolutely no charge.

This 20-installment email course and newsletter delivers the techniques and strategies you need to know when marketing online.

Find out more and sign up for free here.

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 13,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 5 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Artists: Are You Digitally Sharecropping?

Too many artists are building someone else’s business.  They are essentially digitally sharecropping.

Are you one of them?

Sites like Etsy, eBay, Artfire, FineArtAmerica, and others (which I call Art Malls) make it easy to create the illusion of having a ‘web presence.’ When they upload all of their work to an Art Mall site, it makes many artists feel like they are finally getting their work online. All you’re really doing is creating more content for these sites to sell, with no investment on their part. You could be doing the same thing for yourself.

Reasons to Have Your Own Website Instead of Using Art Malls

You are an artist, not a commodity. No getting lost in the crowd. If you are on one of these online art malls, you are one artist among thousands. Browsers will click right by all of your stuff because someone more interesting is right next to them. Even if you get featured as an artist of the day and have a few thousand people look at you, that attention is gone within a couple of days.

You can build your fan base. When you are on someone else’s website, you had better believe that they are benefiting more than you are. When they share a page with a friend on Facebook, that links back to someone else’s website. When they sign up for an email list, that list is owned by someone else, not you. With a little bit of work or a small investment of cash, you can build a site where people play directly with you, not with others.

You get your own domain name. If your website is something like www.YourName.TemplateCompany.com then you are leaving a lot of opportunities on the table. A real domain name (www.YourName.com) costs about $8 – $10. There’s no reason to not have a custom URL. In addition to it looking more professional, you will do better in the search engines.

Control over your look and feel. If you are a dark and brooding artist, why are you displaying your work on a site with cheerful, happy arts and crafts? You know that people’s reactions to art is all about context. They need to see your work in a context that makes sense. In online mall sites, you get a limited set of looks, with a very limited ability to change them.

Last week I had a client email me because her artist website was a mess. The company that she was with had made some changes to their websites and she didn’t like the changes that were made. In addition, the company was keeping her mailing list hostage – she couldn’t export her mailing list if she switched websites.

If you’re using a template then your site looks like hundreds or thousands of other websites. People expect artists to value creativity and originality. Your site should differentiate you enough to make you stand out. Also, most artist website templates already look like they were designed in 2000 with no updates since.

Non-flexible features. Even if the company just launched and they have every bell and whistle in their current templates, the Internet changes fast and you need to be able to adopt new technologies into your site as they come along. Most artist website companies shoehorn new features into their sites in ways that are awkward and unwieldy. Also, some artist website companies try to be all things for their artists and they end up not doing anything very well.

It makes you look cheap. If you are selling $2000 original pieces of art, why do you have a website that looks like it cost $30? Your image has to match your market. Since most collectors are wealthy and educated, they are probably going to expect something a little more sophisticated.

No access to the html of your site. In order to make real customizations to your website, you need access to the html files. If you don’t have access, you can’t change borders, colors, sizes, and where page elements are placed. In addition, if you ever decide you want to move your website to another hosting provider or another company, you’ll have to start over from scratch.

Search Engine Friendliness. This is a tough one for most web designers. Quite often, if they are good at making pretty designs, they’re not too good with making sure the search engines find your site. If you want to be found online, then you need to make sure that your site can easily be optimized for search.

How Do I Get A Good Artist Website?

I recommend hiring a professional website designer. Expect to pay $500 – $2000, depending on what you want. It’s an investment in your business, and it will pay off many times over.

If you can’t spend the kind of money that it takes to have a really great website built for you, then I highly recommend WordPress as a way to get a high-quality blogsite up and running. WordPress is a free website building software that can have a site up and running in literally minutes.

You can easily transfer your WordPress blog website into your own domain and keep all of your current email lists and information intact. It’s a great way to start small with literally no investment of money up front, and then grow it as you can afford it.

Are You Ready to Take the Leap of Faith and Become a Professional Artist?

Gallery Henoch in the Chelsea Arts District of Manhattan

Have you always wanted to be a professional artist, but you’re waiting for the right time? Maybe you intend to become an artist when you feel you are good enough, or when you’re in a better financial position, or when your kids have grown up and left home. When will that be? 5 years? 10 years? 20?

Let me tell you, if you’re waiting for the perfect conditions before you can become an artist, you will be waiting a long time. The right time never comes, and there will always be some condition that is not quite right, and you’ll have to wait a bit longer, then a bit longer, and a bit longer still. Before you know it you’ll be retired. Maybe then you can be an artist.

If you don’t feel like waiting that long, then you need to take action now. That doesn’t mean you should necessarily quit your job today, but you definitely need to start taking steps towards your creative career, or it will never happen. Nobody is going to come to you one day and say “Ok, conditions are perfect now, you may be an artist.” What you need to do is accept that there will be obstacles, and then do the best you can to overcome them.

So How Do I Do It?

The fact is I can’t give you a step-by-step guide to making the transition to a creative career, because everyone’s situation is different, so everyone will have different obstacles to overcome.

What I can do is tell you about my own creative journey, and give you some guidelines to point you in the right direction.

So here are the factors I considered when deciding to become an artist.

Recognizing The Need For Change

The first thing that happened for me, was that the dissatisfaction with my current situation began to outweigh the benefits of having a regular job.

Eventually my dissatisfaction grew to a point where a regular monthly income was not enough for me, and I started to think seriously about making a change.

There will always be voices in the back of your mind telling you you’d be crazy to give up a paying job for the uncertainty of an art career. Those voices never really go away (and some of them are actually the voices of real people.)

But when these doubts start to overwhelm me, I can always rely on 3 simple words to get me focused again: “Life’s too short!”

Life is too short to put off doing what you really know you should be doing. It’s a clichÈ, but it’s true.

Steve Jobs used to get up every morning, look in the mirror and ask himself “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer had been “No” for too many days in a row, he knew he needed to change something.

So ask yourself the same question. Maybe it’s time for a change.

Assessing Your Financial Needs

Obviously, we all need enough income to buy food to eat and pay the mortgage, rent, bills etc. so you need to think about how you will make money as an artist.

Personally, I was fortunate enough to have saved up some money to ease me through the transitional period, but not everyone will have this luxury, so you may need to do things differently.

Maybe you already have people lined up waiting for you to put your artwork on sale, or to start taking commissions. If so, that’s great, you can start earning money from your art straight away.

But it’s more likely that you’ll have to build up sales gradually, do some self-promotion, and work hard at finding your target audience and getting your work in front of them. So you may need an additional source of income to begin with, until you are more established.

You could potentially keep your current job, but go part-time, or find another part-time job that is in a more creative field. There are plenty of ways to earn money from your artwork too, so with a bit of hard work you should be able to find a way to support yourself.

If you don’t already have one, the best thing you can do to start earning money from your art is to get started with your own website or blog.

Assessing Your Ability

Another thing you need in order to succeed as an artist is some level of artistic ability.

That’s not to say that you need to be a master painter with a fine art degree. In fact you don’t really need any formal qualifications to make a living as an artist. But you do need enough skill to produce consistently high quality work, and to have the confidence to be able to sell it.

If you don’t feel like you’re at that level yet, then you may need to get some more training.

One important thing to note, is that just because you are still learning, that doesn’t mean that you can’t be earning at the same time. An artists never stops learning. You will never reach a point where you have nothing left to learn, so you don’t need to wait until you are an ‘expert’ before you can make money from your art.

I have sold art in the past that wasn’t as good as the art I sell today, and the art I sell today won’t be as good as the art I sell in 5 years time. We are constantly growing as artists, and that growth will be reflected in your work. But as long as there is someone out there who values your current artwork enough to pay for it, then you can start earning money straight away.

The Right Time Is Now

So that was about the extent of the process I went through to get where I am today. To recap:

• Acknowledge the need to make a change in your current situation.
• Figure out how you will make enough money as an artist.
• Determine whether you need any additional training to increase your confidence.
• Take action!

Sounds pretty simple when you break it down like that, doesn’t it? As I mentioned, everyone’s situation will be different, and there may be other obstacles you will encounter, but this is a good starting point for you to consider today.

There’s an ancient Chinese proverb that says “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

So stop waiting for that mythical ‘right time’, and do something today to get your art career started.

I can help you…

Gary Bolyer

If you need help getting gallery representation, I offer personal art mentoring services.  I will work directly with you by phone and email to help you get the gallery representation you deserve.

I will access your situation from a brief questionnaire that you fill out.  And then I will come up with a plan of action tailor-made just for you that will get results.

Contact me today and let’s work together to get your art career moving fast.

___________________________________________________________________________

Grab My Online Art Marketing Course (It’s Free!)

Smart Art Marketing

Want to discover the smartest ways to mix social media, content marketing, and SEO for lead generation and converting those leads to customers and clients?

I’ve got you covered with Smart Art Marketing. And there’s absolutely no charge.

This 20-installment email course and newsletter delivers the techniques and strategies you need to know when marketing online.

Find out more and sign up for free here.

Blueprint for Building a Community of Artists: An Inspiring Message of Hope from Marsha Savage

Marsha Hamby Savage

No matter what happens with our national economy, there will be artists who thrive, and who very much enjoy their prosperity. These are the people who refused to fail, who didn’t give up, and who have surrounded themselves with like-minded people traveling the same evolutionary path.

Marsha Hamby Savage, a landscape painter living and working in Smyrna, Georgia, is one such artist.

“About being inspired and motivated…. it does not take much to inspire or motivate me. My brain never seems to quit,” she says.

Marsha’s motivation and inspiration has led her to create a community of artists in her hometown. This is not an art class, although she does teach those.  This is a tightly-bonded group of individuals who are committed to giving each other emotional and practical support.

A community is important for the artist because of the emotional and practical support it provides.  It helps to have a cheering section on your side.  Martha and her community of artist friends know this instinctively.

An artist cannot build her career alone.  She needs strong arms to help lift her up, and sometimes she just needs a shoulder to cry on.  But she always needs a cheering section whether times are good or bad.

"Cypress Dance" by Marsha Hamby Savage

There doesn’t have to be any hard and fast rules in building a community.  It’s more about friends getting together and having conversations and supporting one another.

Marsha says, “We will be meeting quarterly and each time at a different artist’s studio or home. That way the moderator for the meeting will be different each time. I find that I tend to talk a lot and “impose” my thoughts …. maybe. It is nice to have a different viewpoint even to the moderation of a meeting.”

Putting together a group is trial and error, there is no one way to do it right.

Marsha elaborates on building her group, “I have been discussing the possibility of a ’round table’ meeting about the business aspects of our art careers for quite some time. Those artists that seemed most interested were the ones I invited … which was about 20 – 25.”

“Several already had things that prevented them from coming, but noted they wished to be kept on the list so they could participate in the future. We shall see if they meant it.”

A community can help share practical business advice…

"Musical Waters" by Marsha Hamby Savage

“We had 12 or 13 at this first meeting. They were mostly painters (of many different mediums), and two were potters — one of which is relatively new. We want to be sure to have some ideas from different media, not only painters …. if they suffer from the same marketing issues …. and I think it is universal, no matter the medium of art.

We had one that uses Etsy quite successfully, one that does quite a few outdoor festivals (the better ones), and several that go the gallery route. Quite an interesting combination, but what I wanted to have.

Each would bring their own expertise to the group, but also gain from others’ experiences with a venue that is different. It was suggested that the next meeting we should pick one topic or two and focus solely on that for the evening (or sometimes a Saturday).”

It’s all about the community and the support and help of others…..

“One attendee took wonderful notes which she scanned in and e-mailed to me. I have not had a chance to read them yet. Since I was the “moderator or facilitator” of this meeting, I found it hard to keep notes myself (though I am a good note taker). I really tried to keep people on topic.

My first talk to them was to have them give us name, medium, and a couple of sentences about what they needed most, or what seemed to be the biggest problem for them. I started, and said I needed to be better organized …. and they all died laughing! They consider me organized. But my thing is to be better at picking the best for me and planning and not missing any deadlines. Also, to keep better address list of potential clients.”

If you have questions about starting your own art community, you can contact Marsha Savage through her website and blog:

www.marshasavage.com

www.marshasavage.blogspot.com

Would joining an artist community help your career? Have you thought about starting or joining such a community?  Let us know about it in the comments below.