Final Post

Now that the internship is over, I've had a lot of time to reflect on how my time at the gallery is and what I've learned. Going in to the internship I didn't really know what to expect, the art world is something that I do not know too much about. However, I can say that I have learned quite a bit thanks to Robin. I feel like I'd have the confidence to be able to start my own gallery after college if I chose to do so. One of the things that I realized about 4Art was that its location is very unique. The fact that it is in an art center is nice. You get to see artists every day and the community that exists is unparalleled. Nevertheless, if I were to own a gallery I would have it as a storefront. Being able to get random people to enter your space is essential to boosting sales. However, I think it is also important to have a formal marketing plan in place. The economy has taken an obvious toll on art sales during the past years and the main purchasers of art are collectors. By marketing the gallery, you will be able to expose your name, as well as generate a favorable reputation. Both are key in attracting people who have been in the art world for awhile. If I do end up owning a gallery, I think it would have to either be a temporary, or a side venture. With the economy as it is, sales just are not the same as they use to be. Unless the economy improves greatly by the time I exit school, I don't see it being a reliable way to make a living. However, I would still love to own a place and it is definitely possible. Robin was kind enough to share the different ways a gallery can be run. One option is being open on the weekends only, or even being open only for opening events and by appointment only. This summer has been very beneficial and I can't thank Robin enough for being such a great person to work for!

Week 11 & 12

Unfortunately I had to attend a funeral in Colorado and was unable to go to 4Art that week. Nevertheless, I was excited to see Robin for my final week of the internship. Due to the fact that it was the last week I would be at the gallery, I had prepared some questions to ask Robin. Some were things that I had never asked Robin, and others were questions to understand something on a more detailed level. One of the first questions I asked Robin was the different ways she supports the art gallery. Her first response was custom framing, followed by graphic/web design, art sales, and membership fees of the collective members. Also, she pointed out that she occasionally rents out the space for various events. My second questions to Robin was, "What are your goals as a gallery owner?" She responded that she wanted to mentor. More specifically, she wanted to mentor artists, as well as the general public about art. I continued to ask Robin about the business side of things and got some interesting responses. 4Art has no marketing plan. Robin simply advertises on sites that are free to use. She also promotes 4Art through Facebook, listings, her blog, and YouTube. Her typical clients include the "average joe," art collectors, and people that she hopes will become a collector of herself or a collective artist. Robin faces many challenges on a day-to-day basis. The first thing is finances, just keeping 4Art in business can be a struggle. Also, getting customers to return, getting people excited about art, and getting people to invest in art are all challenges. The two ways that Robin finds artists to display in her gallery is by word of mouth and by talking to people at openings. I also asked Robin questions about the steps to starting an art gallery, as well as vendors and suppliers of products that she trusts. This week was a great opportunity to really pick Robin's brain to answer things I had been wondering, and to truly understand how to structure and begin an art gallery.

Week 10

This week was the last third Friday I was going to be able to attend this summer. After a two hour drive in rush hour I arrived with my mom. I was excited to show her where i had been working all summer and introduce her to some of the artists I had met. After giving her a quick tour of the gallery and the art center I got to work. Robin and I leveled off all of the pieces and prepared for the opening. I was really hoping to sell some work this month or at least see something in the gallery get sold. Unfortunately this did not happen. I've been spending the whole summer trying to figure out what motivates people to buy art. This month I noticed that a lot of the people that came through the door either visited with their friends, or walked around and left. Being in an art center, a lot of the people come through for other artists or galleries but still visit other spaces. I feel like there aren't enough people coming through the center strictly to see our pieces. This problem may be rooted in the fact that there isn't a formal marketing plan or much advertising. I was also surprised that the first third Friday had a lot of events ocurring on the first floor and lots of people were in attendance; however, the last two third Fridays have been fairly low in attendance. One income stream that I recently became aware of in art galleries. That is curating shows that require an application fee. Whether the art is chosen or not the submitting artist still has to pay a fee. This money usually goes towards the reviewing and setting up of the show; however, it is also a way to make money. A gallery on the first floor had their annual self-portrait show with over 240 applicants. Only about 40 were accepted. The show brought in hundreds of people and was very enjoyable to attend.

Week 8 & 9

A lot of what we do at 4Art is preparation for the next third Friday. As more artists bring in their recent work, it is my responsibility to hang the paintings and arrange them on the wall. I actually really enjoy the fact that Robin lets me really hang the paintings in whatever way I'd like; as long as it looks good of course. One of the big challenges during these weeks was rearranging almost all of the pieces in the gallery to accomodate another artist. It also allowed artists that needed more wall space to comfortably arrange the art they wanted to display. The new artist we have is Janae. She is a photographer that typically shoots nature; at least from what I've seen so far. Another new thing at 4Art is our intern Rachel from London. I had some interesting conversations with her about England and what her plans were for the summer. She seemed like she wasn't having too much fun at the gallery and she actually ended up telling Robin she had to go home two days later. Things are definitely looking good for this next opening. I'm really hoping we sell something since the only things we've sold are small pieces and jewelry.

Week 7

Now that the third Friday has occurred, there's always less to do at the gallery. Because of this Robin gave me a chance to do some marketing for 4Art. Robin doesn't have much of a formal marketing plan; she mostly relies on free advertising, social networks, and art websites. However, one way she markets her gallery is by making bookmarks and cards. I was asked to go around Chicago neighborhoods and drop cards at different cafes, coffee shops, and small businesses. This is a lot harder than it sounds; traveling and finding places that will let you leave business cards is difficult. Many people turned me down and traveling took forever. The majority of the places that let me leave cards were small coffee shops and cafes. As far as larger businesses go, Starbucks let me; however, Caribou coffee did not. I always thought of them as more of a neighborhood coffee shop. Nevertheless they only post things that they sponsor.

Week 5 & 6

The last few weeks have been fairly busy. The week before my second third Friday opening was spent doing some prepatory things for the event. I put up some new paintings, redid a lot of the lighting outside the gallery, and cleaned up the walls. I'm impressed with how easy a lot of the things I do have become. Things such as hanging, lights, and wall repair were unfamiliar to me before this internship; now they are simple. This last week after we got all of the cleaning done, I got to have my first chance at advertising the gallery. A past intern, Jenny, showed me how to post an event on art websites. She sent me a big list of websites that have calendars, and also have places to do call for artists. The actual posting of the event was fairly easy; however, it is a time consuming task due to all the websites.
The third Friday finally rolled around and the weather was horrible. There was a huge storm, tornado wornings, and crazy wind. After taking 2.5 hours to get downtown, I did some last minute leveling of paintings and got ready for the night. Unfortunately, there were very few people that showed up for the event. Nevertheless, this gave me a chance to talk to some of the 4Art artists I didn't already know. I really enjoyed talking to the newest member that Robin just invited. I'm excited to see his work since he said he typically does realistic portraits.

Week 4

"This week has been one of my favorites. Two of the days I came this week I happened to catch the earlier train. This led to me showing up at the Zhou B center about 45 minutes earlier. After spending thus much time in the cafe, I got to know Anthony, the cafe worker and artist, very well. I've had a lot of conversations with him about job opportunities in both art and business. This is very helpful to hear about different jobs since I'm not exactly sure what I want to do yet.
During the majority of the week Robin and I worked to change the appearance of her gallery. Robin painted the outside walls, I filled all the holes along another outside wall, and I also did some touching up inside. After all this we rearranged and hung all the paintings that were along the outside wall. I have gotten very good at hanging which is a good skill to have. I'm surprised by how much my math skills have helped with the more complicated hanging arrangemts."