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.