Stop by for the Soft Opening of the art exhibit

Have you heard of the "soft opening" event?

Tonight, September 3rd is the soft opening of the art exhibit "The Space Between The Words" celebrating the group art exhibit from the members of the Art Salon For Fertile Minds.  It's showing off the exhibit for the artists, family, friends who cannot wait for the big grand opening.  A few things still need to be tweaked but we're about 90% ready to host guests.

I hope you can join us for one of the five, fun, free, interactive events we've got planned for September so this is a very inclusive experience for visitors. see www.artsalonforfertileminds.blogspot.com for details.

If you cannot make it tonight, here's a very short, low budget video sneak preview made last night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSNft76a8qs 

Fifteen Days and Counting

Wednesday night's meeting of the artists participating in The Space Between The Words exhibit kicked off with a few moment of personal sharing.

I intentionally invited each artist to look within and share "How do you feel about your experience thus far working toward this exhibit?  What's been fun? What's been a challenge? What's the biggest surprise? "

This discussion brought us together as artists sharing the excitement and joy of creating new art pieces that would shortly be viewed by the public at an exhibit at the Vine Arts Center. Comments shared ranged from working towards goals, trying new materials and  first time exhibition jitters.

The evening discussions continued for two hours with participants seeking clarification on the display space allocated for each artist.

About 50% of the participants took advantage of the meeting venue being the Vine Arts Center and dropped off their art work. Everyone was circling around their own work and others so they could get a sneak preview of what had been created.  Something like an early Christmas viewing of packages, some partially wrapped, some fully wrapped and a handful of works totally open for all to see.

I can feel the excitement that everyone is experiencing and share the same anticipation as they're having.  It's been several years since I've been in an exhibit like this one and it's been both challenging and rewarding.

Fifteen days and counting til the "soft opening."

Art Exhibition Journey: Selling Art on Instagram

"Focus On Things You Love" shared on @wendywalks Instagram account

On my journey of being the art exhibit director for a group art show, I research ways to promote the Art Salon For Fertile Minds' upcoming exhibit: "The Space Between The Words." 

I found this article regarding

"How to Use Instagram to Invest in Art"  by James Tarmy

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-12/how-to-use-instagram-to-invest-in-art

Actually I read  it, as I often do, with my own personal magnifying glass on it with the questions:

"How am I going to sell my art and make new customer connections on Instagram."

"How can we promote the upcoming group art show on Instagram."

My takeaway from the article was to do the following:

(1) I opened up my Instagram account alongside the article. I connected with every one of the galleries and artists mentioned.

(2) When Instagram offered up similar accounts of  galleries and individual artists I perused their offerings and reached out to most, but not all of them.

(3) Within hours several of them connected back to me and followed my Instagram feed.

It seemed like baby steps in the right direction.

(4) I will continue to research additional galleries and artists to "listen/watch" their activity and learn from their marketing tactics.

(5) Now, going forward, I intend to be more strategic about the images I share as well as the new contacts I connect with.  I'm going to do a little more research about the types of images that artists share and when they post prices and "how to purchase" instructions.

Wendy the life-long learner continues to learn.

*Focus on Things You Love
text layout created in Studio image software and shared on @wendywalks Instagram account
https://instagram.com/p/4__qh-Lipq/?taken-by=wendywalks