Taking Risks
~ by BEVERLY KOSKI
Your first baby is crawling now. Who would have thought that the stairs would be so threatening! Suddenly a gate is needed to protect him. Every day in every way a risk presents and a choice is made.
So it is when marketing one's art. But wait a minute - what about those who have no intention of selling. Money is not a motive you tell yourself; you just want to show your work. Unless your idea is to put out a sign and invite strangers into your house for viewing, then an artist needs a space, a venue, a wall, a shop, a gallery, an exhibition hall in which to proudly hang one's masterpieces. Now for the unavoidable fact: the space is an expense to someone. If it is a commercial gallery, the owner has embraced a risk. Like all business, expense is incurred: rent, utilities, office supplies, advertising, staff perhaps. If not employees, then at the very least oneself. Any art accepted must be saleable because the overhead needs to be met or the business will soon be closed. Risk presents itself. The purchasers of art are not numerous. Art is not an essential good, even if it does feed the soul. We must buy food, but not paintings. So as to minimize risk, art is selected based upon the probability of income being generated. The norm is a careful assessment of art work presented and an agreement struck for commission to be paid to the artist upon sale. Varying from location to location, 40 to 50% is usual.
A public gallery operates from a different platform. By its very name it implies public funding, generally from a tax base. Occasionally, families or corporations make donations. The reasons may be truly altruistic or simply a means of exposing the corporate name to raise awareness of brand. The public are invited to view works for their pleasure with no expectation that payment should be extracted, other than an entrance fee or by annual membership. A donation box is commonly in a prominent position, the hope being that any extra income can be put to good use either within the gallery or by promoting art workshops, scholarships, permanent art collections and so on. Artwork is generally not for sale and the artists who are invited to show in such galleries are usually well established and may be paid an honorarium for showing. Pride of selection is considered to be its own reward. One would imagine that risk of continuity of such galleries would be non existent in such a description. And so it generally is, in good times under benevolent governments.
A third category of exhibitions are shows mounted by art councils representing memberships of individual artists and groups. Sometimes, they have established a gallery and sometimes not. Sometimes, there is public funding and sometimes not. The latter is more often the case and this is because populations may be rural and or small. Attention as a metaphor for money is often placed for the greatest number. It is evident, then, that risk can be nearly as high as that of a commercial gallery. If membership fees are low, the annual income is low. Any shows contemplated must be subsidized by the artists themselves by the payment of entry fees, to help cover hall rental, refreshments, prizes, advertising and possible fees to jurors if that is the direction of a particular show. Although usually staffed and hung by volunteers, more commonly there is a paid co-ordinator, who must manage the complexity so that the event is successful. A commission may be charged to those artists selling because the exhibition's underlying object may be to supplement the very limited annual income - especially when government funding is small, or non-existent. The particular difficulty for art councils is that they try to straddle two different dictates: the appearance and function of a public gallery, whilst suffering the dilemma of the commercial gallery: i.e. the need to sell artwork in all its various styles and forms to generate operating cash.
But what about the risks that the artists face? If one pays up-front entry fees, one hopes to sell to recoup the financial investment. One has a need to be honest about one's chances: am I a beginner, looking for exposure and prepared to pay for the chance to hang and be seen? Am I an experienced artist, already blessed with frequent sales? If so, the entry fee paid is not a big risk of loss, because the chance of a sale is a higher probability.
Supposing nothing is sold - which is the biggest risk of all - we have done our best with our money and our volunteers and we have tried to make our community just that much better by sharing our creativity.
Babies take chances. Sooner or later, the gate must be removed and the child does learn to be careful when climbing stairs.
Beverly J. Koski, February, 2011
