Cory Huff's Blog: The Abundant Artist Goodreads blog, page 27

9 Art Rental Services to Check Out

The art rental scene is an easy way for collectors, businesses, and regular art lovers alike to enjoy fresh contemporary art without the commitment of purchasing (until they’re sure they love it). There are a few different art rental models out there that cater to different clientele and different needs.

For an artist with an extensive inventory of original works, signing up with an art rental company can be a way to earn continuous passive income and find new buyers. Some art rental services even offer representation, although this means that in general they are more selective than, say, print-on-demand websites. We looked into 9 different art rental services- some are limited to a certain geographic region, but several are available to artists from anywhere around the world.

IPaintMyMind

IPaintMyMind is a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to increasing the public’s exposure to art as well as supporting artists. In addition to their art rental services they run an online arts publication and a gallery in Chicago. Their art rental service, Shared Walls, assigns curators to assess the client’s space, help them choose art, and install it, rotating in new art every 6 months. Clients have the option to purchase art they’ve fallen in love with.

The art collection at IPaintMyMind is focused on illustration, collage, mixed media, and photography screen prints and giclees. They provide supportive services to approved artists and try to work them into their various arts programs and services, not just art rentals.

Submit Your Art

Overall Impression: This is speculation, but as the only non-profit on the list approved artists may have a very arts-friendly if somewhat less lucrative experience. The company offers more than just art rentals and they endeavor to involve their artists in multiple projects. The goal is support of the arts and artists trying to make a living. The website doesn’t specify that artists must be local to Chicago, but keep in mind that that’s where the company and gallery is headquartered.

2. Rise Art

Rise Art is a UK-based company that offers art rentals for businesses and residences. Renters earn credits towards the eventual purchase of original art. The ultimate goal of the Rise Art rental program is to connect clients with work that they will want to purchase.

In order for your artwork to be featured on Rise Art, it will have to be approved first by the Rise Art community (via “follows” and “favorites” of art you have submitted) and then by the Rise Art Insiders, a board of independent art experts who curate the art that appears on the site for sale and rent. Any art you submit must be original art that has not been previously reproduced for commercial purposes. Rise Art artists will earn 50% of monthly rental fees, and 60% off the sale price if a piece sells.

Submit Your Art

Overall Impression: The submission process is pretty selective, but if you don’t want to wait for your art to gain the “follows” necessary to get in front of the Board you can pay a fee to fast-track your submission. The site claims that all artists are considered equally whether they are voted in or pay to fast-track their portfolio, but I would just consider this a pay-to-submit and skip the community approval process if you’re serious about getting into renting your art quickly. Commission on originals is low compared to other art sales sites.

3. Turning Art

TurningArt provides art rentals for businesses and residences, catering in particular to the real estate business, as well as sales of originals. They also provide print-on-demand services. Artists must register for an account and then apply to sell/rent their art on the site.

Artists earn royalties on art that’s rented out, and earn a commission on print sales (the site takes care of all printing and shipping) and sales of originals.

TurningArt does not maintain inventory of original works, so artists submit high-res photos of their work and ship them only if they are purchased or rented (TurningArt provides shipping assistance). The artist dashboard includes helpful analytics and features a referral program that rewards you for getting your friends involved.

Sign up

Overall Impression: Although the selectiveness of the approval process is unclear from the website, this may be a good choice for an artist dipping their toes into the art rental waters since there is also the option to sell prints. No fees is a perk, and they are extremely helpful about helping you get your art packed and shipped.

4. GetArtUp

Like many other art rental services, GetArtUp provides renters with credits towards the eventual purchase of original art. The company provides curator assistance upon request but it doesn’t come standard with rental; customers simply check out on the website and the art is shipped to them. Various subscription plans are available.

Artists featured on GetArtUp are hand selected, and typically must have an MFA or other formal art training (or currently be graduate students) and display continuity in their body of work. Artists receive a portion of rental and sales earnings.

Send a submission email to be considered (check the “I am an artist” box).

Overall Impression: This is a great option to look into for art school grads and soon-to-be grads. This is not an option available for those with only an undergraduate art degree or who are self-taught. This site feels a little more firmly set in the 21st-century with the ability to complete a rental or purchase online from start-to-finish.

5. Hang Art

Hang Art offers art rentals for residences and all kinds of businesses including restaurants and hospitality, corporate and small offices and stage & film productions. At the end of a rental term 50% of the rental fee is applied towards purchase of the work. Hang Art is limited to San Francisco Bay artists only, and accepts only paintings, drawing, and sculptures. Hang Art offers exclusive representation for chosen artists.

Submit Your Portfolio

Overall Impression: If you are in the applicable regional area, your art fits into the acceptable categories, and you’re interested in exclusive representation, why not give it a shot?

6. Art Dimensions Online

Art Dimensions Online is limited to artists in the Los Angeles area, and provides art leasing and shorter-term rentals for residences, business, and stage & film productions. They offer a lease-to-own program, and also offer giclee prints for sale.

Submit Your Art

Overall Impression: There is little information available for prospective artists on the website. Artists are limited to the Los Angeles area. They receive a high volume of submissions, so don’t expect a quick reply.

7. AGO

AGO is the Art Gallery of Ontario. Artists are limited to this geographic region.

Ago offers art rentals for residences, businesses, home staging, and film/TV productions at much lower rental prices than some other rental companies, starting at $40/mo. Rather than maintain their entire inventory, the art is rented out from over 40 galleries in the Ontario area and from around 50 independent artists.

Contact AGO with questions about submission.

Overall Impression: This is a service offered by the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the low rental costs may be indicative of how much (or little) an artist can expect to make through the rental program. If you are an Ontario-area artist with a presence in local galleries it may be worth checking with them to see if they work with AGO providing this service.

8. Hang it Up Chicago

Hang it Up Chicago has pretty low rental costs compared to other galleries; renters can expect to pay around $60 for a three month rental of a single piece. Rental fees apply towards eventual art purchase. Unlike some other companies, rentals are executed completely online via the shopping cart interface.

Art submission is open to Chicago-area artists only. Artists receive a portion of the rental earnings, while another portion is applied to marketing efforts for the artist and their work. HiUC takes a 30% commission on sold work, with no fee to join.

Submit Your Art Online

Overall Impression: It’s a bummer this one is exclusive to Chicaco-area artists only, because the commission on sold work is pretty good and the lack of a submission fee makes it that much better. They make a solid effort to market your work (though not for free). Worth checking out if you’re in the area!

9. Film Art LA

Film Art LA offers rentals of original artwork exclusively for film productions. All work available for rent is also licensed to create digital reproductions should the client need a different size. Check out the extensive list of films that artwork has appeared in: http://www.filmartla.com/about/

To submit email a website link.

Overall Impression: Worth a try, but there’s little information available on the site about a submitting artist’s chances of acceptance or what commissions/fees are involved.

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Real Artists Don’t Starve – Interview with Jeff Goins and Cory Huff

Last week I sat down with author Jeff Goins about his new book “Real Artists Don’t Starve.”

In the interview, we talked about:

– Michaelangelo’s secret bank deposits that show he was worth millions

– The 12 Rules every Thriving Artist lives by

– why so many artists struggle needlessly

Jeff is a multi-list best selling author. He’s been working on this one for a couple of years.

You can watch a replay of the discussion here:

The book is available for pre-order on Amazon at this link.

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Mastermind Groups for Artists: Starting in July

“Thanks for sharing,” I said, taking a deep breath, on the edge of tears. “I’m really glad you felt open enough to talk about that. Nobody really talks about how hard it is to run a business when you struggle with depression, or to be married to someone who is struggling with depression.”

I was sitting in a room with 9 other business owners. We had spent most of the day talking about our primary struggles with running our businesses. More about the tears in a moment.

Many people think that the hard part of running a business is marketing, or learning how to sell. Those aren’t actually the hard parts for most business owners who have advanced beyond the beginner stage. Once you’ve managed to earn enough to live on, or get close to it, your struggles change a bit.

One of the big struggles that comes up for me is mindset. Do I believe that I can do more, earn more, or deserve more? Can I make “a dent in the universe,” as Steve Jobs said?

And we avoid those questions, because they’re hard.

I get distracted by the latest marketing trends (Facebook messenger bots), or I chase skills that I don’t actually need (building web pages or documenting systems instead of just having my team do those things).

How do I keep myself focused?

Having clear goals helps, like we talked about last week. Being able to refer back to those goals is a reminder to do the most important things first.

But, for me, the the most helpful thing is the people that I have in my life. My wife and my friends help a lot. But they often don’t understand what I’m experiencing when I talk about the finer points of running a business.

So I turn to mastermind groups. I have two.

The first group is my tactical group. They are all experienced business owners like me. We meet once per month to talk about our business challenges.

We do 15/30/15:

– 15 minutes on recapping challenges

– 30 minutes of hot seat time to dive into one person’s business

– 15 minutes of talking about goals before we meet again.

Between meeting sessions, we keep in contact using a group chat app called Slack. Every Monday, all four of us share what worked last week, what didn’t work, and what our goals are for the coming week. We read each others’ reports and offer accountability and insights for each other. This is using Brian Moran’s 12 Week Year format that I mentioned in last week’s post.

We also frequently discuss various marketing ideas, ask each other for feedback on projects, and share jokes.

This group helps me sort through the weekly grind and stay focused on what actually matters.

My second group is more informal. It grew out of my friend Adrienne’s desire to hang out with a cool group of entrepreneurs. She asked some of her closest friends to recommend one or two people who would be interested in doing a weekend retreat in Orlando. My buddy Jason Van Orden recommended me, and I’m so grateful for it.

When I went into it, I figured that it would be an interesting weekend to talk about business stuff and hang out with Jason. I didn’t know any of the other folks, so I had no idea where it would go.

What ended up happening was pretty extraordinary (and this is where the crying stuff started). Instead of spending the weekend talking about sales funnels, email marketing, or Facebook ads, we spent most of our time talking about the things that are truly difficult in running an online business – the fear, uncertainty, and doubt that shows up every day when running a business.

Don’t get me wrong. We talked about the hard number stuff too. But it was awesome to have a space where entrepreneurs like me could be open to talk about what its actually like to run a business.

All of that to come to this point:

Two weeks ago my friend Sam texted me because she is seeking a mastermind group like this. It was literally the day that I published the application page for our own upcoming mastermind group. She’s a smart, experienced woman who knows what she wants and how to get there. She’s just tired of doing it alone and wants to try something different.

I don’t know exactly what will happen with this artist mastermind group. We have a format that I know has worked for me and my other groups in the past, but this is new for me.

But I believe that if you join us, you will receive the following benefits:

a small group of 10 artists who I’ve hand picked to work together in a group so you can generate new ideas and have people to discuss them with and not be alone any more
be a part of an accountability group with a formal structure so you can use that to propel you to the next level
more sales with greater ease as you learn to collaborate and receive feedback in a way that is often very difficult to find in the competitive fine art industry

So far, we have two artists that I have accepted into the group and three that I have turned down. We have two more that I am talking with next week to see if its a good fit. If they’re a yes, we’ll have four spots left.

If you’re interested, click here to apply. Don’t wait.

 

Are you interested in the MM group but would like to know if it can be tweaked or altered to meet your needs? Contact us and let us know what your needs are.

One more note: You can absolutely start your own mastermind group. There’s nothing stopping you from doing that. If you have the connections and the inclination, do it! This experience is for those who want to do this with me and want the structure of a formal group. For many people, paying for something makes them stick to it.

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Facebook LIVE AMA with Jeff Goins

Live video discussion with Jeff Goins about his new book, Real Artists Don’t Starve, this Thursday, May 25, at 11:00 AM PST / 2 PM EST over on our Facebook Page.

We will be talking about:

– Michaelangelo’s secret bank deposits that show he was worth millions

– The 12 Rules every Thriving Artist lives by

– why so many artists struggle needlessly

Jeff is a multi-list best selling author. He’s been working on this one for a couple of years. Should be fun!

Post your questions for Jeff in the comments over on our Facebook page.

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How to Stay on Track with Goals

Something I’ve started experimenting with my one on one coaching clients is implementing some of the common teachings of various productivity experts (shoutout to Charlie Gilkey, Jessica Abel, Brian Moran).

The concepts are relatively simple. Instead of setting long-term, vague goals, set short-term, specific goals. Its much easier to follow through. Its easier to plan, easier to stay on task, and easier to deal with unexpected setbacks.

But the most useful part of productivity research is this simple process: every week at the same time (usually Sunday night or Monday morning), ask yourself the following questions (some of which come straight out of Brian Moran’s book The 12 Week Year):

What’s the biggest thing (good or bad) that happened this week?
Why did it happen, and if you were to do it over, what would you do differently?
What did you accomplish toward your strategic priorities this past week?
What’s standing in your way from making better progress next week, and what are you going to do about it?
Are you tracking ahead or behind your targets this month?

Far too few artists and entrepreneurs spend enough time thinking about their goals, and holding themselves accountable for what did or didn’t work. I LOVE these questions.

So, in my coaching work I’ve started asking artists to email with the answers to these questions each week. You’d be amazed how fast you start taking action when you ask yourself these questions every week.

(I do this with my own peer mastermind group as well – and I love it.)

What have I seen from implementing this work?

One of the big takeaways is cutting back to stay focused. Stop trying to do so many different things. Working backwards from your goals means what you should be doing becomes very clear.

Another is just plain getting more done. When you start being really clear with yourself about what you want to do, you can quite often actually get it done.

It is true, however, that implementing these systems on your own can be a real challenge. Having partners to work with is a powerful way to stay focused and accountable.

This is one of the reasons that we are doing our mastermind group starting in July.

A curated group of 10 artists, meeting twice monthly to discuss goals and hot-seat your businesses together with peers who have moved beyond the beginner stage.

Want to join us? Click here.

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Low Information Diets Create Action

An artist booked a coaching call with me after reading my book. She had lots of nice things to say, which made me happy, of course.

She asked me a question early in the call that I answer in the book, so I asked her if she had done a particular exercise from Chapter 2. She had not.

And, in a nutshell, that is what I talked about in a video from yesterday.

Low Information Diets

My friend Jason Van Orden, a well-known business coach, introduced me to the idea of limiting the amount of information that you consume. In an age when nearly all of  human knowledge is available to us at a keypad, curating and processing that information is actually the primary problem we have when we are learning how to run a business.

Jason teaches his students to limit the books, podcasts, and other information they consume to just what they’re trying to learn next. Need a website? Figure out who is an expert there and consume 2 – 4 books on the subject, then stop and implement what you’ve learned.

If you hit a road block, look for necessary info to solve ONLY that problem, then go back to work. Jason calls this Just-in-Time Learning.

Our First-Ever Small Group Mastermind

In the above video, I introduced our first ever small group mastermind. Applications are here. Here’s the structure:

This group will be small. Likely around 10 artists. Not everyone will be a good fit. It’s not personal, there’s only so much room.
The group mastermind runs July 1 – December 31, 2017.
There will be two group calls per month. Members must be available for at least one of those calls each month to stay in the group. The times will be determined based on the best time for everyone’s schedules, but will be during the day. If you have a day job that prevents you from attending daytime calls, this is not a good fit for you.
In addition to the calls, we will have weekly accountability check-ins via our group chat application, Slack. All calls and accountability check-ins will be supported by TAA’s team, with suggestions and feedback for your questions and problems.
The cost is $1,200 for the full six months. Payment plans are available, with a $200 discount for full payment up front.
On top of the coaching, you also get access to all TAA course materials, and our private community group on Facebook.

If you have additional questions, let us know!

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Crowdfunded Print Project Update: Picking the Artists

We had exactly 100 submissions for our print project. That was more than we were expecting, considering the tight limitations we had around the submissions and the fact that this is a new project.

Much of the art submitted was good. About 20 of the artists were truly outstanding. We are working on reaching out to those artists to finalize participation with 5 – 10 of them.

As we get ready to announce the selected artists, we will be pushing the crowdfunding campaign as a way to:

create an art business incubator / new gallery
discover and purchase great art
learn more about what makes a successful crowdfunding campaign

After the artists have been finalized, we’ll be creating our crowdfunding pitch video, which will likely begin with me, saying something like this:

Imagine a world where the starving artist doesn’t exist. Being an artist is seen as just another career choice, like lawyer, doctor, or Internet technology startup-er.

Imagine a world where you are able to find art that you absolutely love, at prices that actually make sense, without feeling judged or looked down on by art snobs.

I want to introduce you to 10 artists who are helping make that happen.

Then we’ll introduce the artists selected for the project.

THE BROADER VISION

Beyond that, we wanted to share some updates about how the vision for the project has evolved.

When I first conceived of this print project, it was the answer to a question I’d been asking myself for a while: how can I create an online gallery focused on training artists how to sell through galleries?

Also, how can this gallery / art business incubator project also have the following qualities?

Educational. Despite the usual white walls, galleries have a tendency to be metaphorical black boxes. Artists somehow magically find a way to have their art shown, and either money comes out or nothing happens. We want to open up the process to show artists how the sausage is made. That won’t matter to every artist, but the ones who want to learn how to run a successful business will love it.

On the collector side, we want people to be able to appreciate the art that they like, and educate themselves as their curiosity strikes them. We want to provide context for the art so that the average potential art buyer doesn’t look at a piece of art and think, “I don’t understand why that piece costs that much?”

Community-oriented. While there’s already a community of art buyers out there, it’s largely made up of very wealthy or very in-the-know people. We want to create a community of art enthusiasts of all socioeconomic statuses, and are more concerned with the experience of discovery and sharing than limiting art access to those with large amounts of money.

Inclusive. The art world has a long-documented bias toward white men. TAA’s audience is about 75% female, and inclusive of all people, regardless of their ethnicity or sexual preference. We are seeking to create a more inclusive sales experience that reflects the diversity of contemporary society.

Curatorial & Promotional. Many online gallery websites allow an unlimited number of artists to upload their art. This is great for the gallery, because those artists promote the gallery, but the galleries frequently don’t do anything to promote any specific artists. We want to flip that model on its head by hiring curatorial staff to create collections from the art that is uploaded to the site.

Technology Savvy. As the age of Artificial Intelligence and machine learning matures, we want to use these tools to help create collections, suggest art that collectors might like, and sell more art. This involves creating a recommendation engine that helps potential collectors have an “if you like this you’ll like that” experience, similar to what Amazon and other major ecommerce sites are already doing.

So, with those goals, why did we start a print project?

Doing something as big as this gallery project requires some significant resources, which we’re still in the middle of gathering. The print project is a way of creating a minimum viable product – a test.

That’s our update for now – more to come soon!

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After the Mountain Top

What do you do when you’ve reached the peak of the mountain that you set out to climb?

When I started The Abundant Artist in 2009, I had no idea what it would become. It was just a blog. When it started to turn into a business where I was helping my artist friends make money, I set a goal to quit my job. That happened in 2013. Since then I’ve hit a number of personal and professional goals.

Last year was a year of tremendous growth for TAA. I published a book, How to Sell Your Art Online, we held our first conference (which we’ve since transitioned into regional workshops), and had hundreds of artists come through our online courses.

We also did some stuff that didn’t work too well. We tried to start a marketing agency for artists, which did not take off. The conference lost a bunch of money, mostly due to my own mistakes and not listening to our readers and students.

I’ve spent a lot of time over the last year thinking about this question: how can The Abundant Artist achieve 10 times as much impact, while I exert the same amount of effort? After all, I can only do so much.

We don’t have the answer yet. Some of our experiments have been to test some of the answers to those questions. We’re still looking for that home run. I’ll be forthcoming and say that there have been times when I’ve been a little bit frustrated by that. Our mission is to help 1,000 artists quit their day job – and so far we’re just at a few dozen. We need to get the ball rolling!

Part of the answer is building a team. We have a small team so far. Me, my wife, and our Communications Specialist. Of course, in order to build a larger team, you need the revenue to pay those people.

At the beginning of this year, I started exploring some alternative ideas. Some of those ideas were simple ideas like reviving TAA’s podcast, writing more content, or spending a ton more money on ads. But these are incremental improvements. To reach the kind of impact that we want to have, we would need to enroll five times as many artists as we currently have into courses. That would lower the quality of the course experience, or we would have to hire a bunch of teachers to help with the courses. So, a possibility, but not terribly attractive and probably won’t move the needle in the way that we want.

What if we radically altered TAA’s business model in some way?

One example of that is starting a professional artist association. This organization could provide training, networking, lobbying and advocacy, and perhaps even access to group health care coverage. Its a unique need and for some weird reason, doesn’t exist in the USA while it does in several France, UK, Canada, and Australia.

This is getting closer. We’re exploring this idea to see if we can bring in a team to make it happen, and find out if there are enough artists who would be willing to contribute to an association to make it worthwhile.

Another idea: leverage technology. According to my software engineer friends, building a recommendation engine for visual art isn’t an insurmountable technology problem. In fact, there’s a company that already does it, but they’ve intentionally limited the use of their technology to only represent the artists who are currently represented by the big blue chip art galleries. So there’s an opportunity to build a recommendation engine. I’ve talked to a couple of engineers about it and we might even have some investors interested.

In order to make some of these bigger ideas happen, I’m acknowledging that the limitations of my available time core skill set. In making that acknowledgement, I’ve realized that one of the big things we need to do this year is find a partner to help out. I’ve written up a long description that I’ve shared with a handful of my close friends.

So, to answer my own question about mountaintops, the answer for me is: look around for the next mountain to climb. I’m glad you’re on this journey me, and I hope you’ll continue to feel like you’re part of something special as we move forward.

And if you know someone who is looking for their own next mountain to climb, send them my way.

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How to Write Grants for Your Art Project

[image error]Note from Cory: Claire is a good friend of mine, a world-class writer, and one of the people I trust most when it comes to understanding how to raise money for artistic projects. I’m excited to have her guest posting here. You should check out her upcoming course on grant writing. 

I talk to a lot of people who are terrified to even begin to approach writing a grant. Whether you’re a freelance artist pursuing one of the vanishingly few opportunities in the U.S. available to support individual creative projects, or you’re part of a 501c3 arts nonprofit seeking funds for work in your community, the process can seem crazy intimidating.

Maybe you got scared off by some twelve-page downloadable PDF of instructions (“please submit one original and seven double-sided, hole-punched, collated copies of the grant application, including all attachments. NO STAPLES OR BINDER CLIPS!”)

Maybe you’re staring blankly at a computer screen full of perplexingly vague questions like “Please describe your career as an artist to date, your concrete goals for this project, and your overarching creative vision in as much detail as possible. LIMIT: 100 words.” The project budget spreadsheet alone can be enough to make you want to throw in the towel.

But please don’t! Because I am going to tell you a secret. (I normally charge for this secret, but any friend of Cory Huff is a friend of mine, so I’m sharing it with you guys for free.)

The great secret to writing a grant is that you already know how to do it.

The Secret of Grantwriting

Do you remember in high school, or in comp 101 in college, when you learned about the four main types of essays? (Don’t worry, I’m not going to make you list them. This isn’t a pop quiz.) At its heart, if you strip away all the bells and whistles – the long lists of supplementary documentation, the complicated application process, the printing and copying, the juggling income and expenses to make them match up – all you’re doing is writing a persuasive essay. That’s it.

The question on the table is, “Why is your work worth supporting?” Your grant application is the answer to that question.

The photocopies of press clippings, the budget showing where your other revenue is coming from, the statistics about how many people have been impacted by your programming, the resume or CV with all your professional achievements . . . those are the tools that support your argument.

Your argument is, “I am awesome, and the thing I am making is awesome, and it deserves your support.”

Begging vs. Engaging

If that last sentence gave you a tiny ping of “yikes” somewhere in the back of your mind, this next section is for you.

When I’m talking about grantwriting with artists who are diving into it for the first time, there’s always one sticking point that comes up over and over again. It’s both a profoundly simple statement, and a staggeringly complex psychological roadblock that can make any fundraising activity feel terrifying and impossible, dredging up all the imposter syndrome and self-doubt that haunts us as working artists on every one of our worst days.

We hate asking for money because it feels like begging.

This phenomenon is universal. I’ve heard it from huge theatre companies courting corporate season sponsorships and from scrappy independent musicians applying for residencies and fellowships. Fundraising is often abstract; selling a book you wrote is a concrete act where you’re putting a physical item with a cost attached into somebody’s hand, but setting up a Patreon so donors can support you while you write the book is a totally different relationship. And it can ping all those triggers in the back of your mind from your parents or your guidance counselor or your crappy boss or whoever serves as the demoralizing voice in your head whispering that the work you do as an artist isn’t really real work.

Read the comments on any news article about any arts and culture organization in your town (or actually, for your own sanity, don’t) and you’ll find at least half a dozen people shouting that corporations and the government shouldn’t be subsidizing frivolities like art and if the symphony can’t break even on the cost of ticket sales, it deserves to be shut down.

We’re conditioned to feel embarrassed that we’re asking for a handout. We’re conditioned to apologize for the fact that our work costs money. We’re encouraged to work for “exposure” instead of saying, “I’m performing a professional service and this is what it costs.” We live in a society that makes it really easy to devalue artists, and sometimes we let that messaging sink in and we start devaluing ourselves.

Stop Apologizing

This is why the most important thing I tell any new client who is writing a grant for the first time has nothing to do with how to craft a project budget (although that’s crucial) or keep their press archives up-to-date (although they should).

The first thing you have to do is reframe the question.

When you write a grant, when you pitch a donor, when you set up a Patreon or Kickstarter page, you are not holding out your cup and begging for change. You aren’t asking for a favor. You’re extending an invitation. The question you’re asking is, “Hey, do you want to be part of bringing to life something really cool?”

Start there. That’s your mission statement. The way to get funders to sit up and take notice, the secret sauce that will make your grant leap out of the stack of sixty-five jillion identical applications, is to stop apologizing for taking up space.

Where to Start

Learning to brag about yourself effectively in a grant application is a skill that takes time to develop, and it will probably make you feel a tiny bit gross at first to craft an itemized list of your most impressive accomplishments. (This will pass.) In the meantime, here are five questions to consider which will help you begin crafting the kind of project description language that will help make your grant narrative really sing.

1) Can you make the case to the funder that this work you’re creating presents significant value to your community, to your artistic field, or to the audience you serve?

2) Can you make the case that the work presents significant value to you as an artist, advancing your career in some way?

3) Can you make the case, using your own credentials, CV, sexy quotes about how awesome you are, professional accomplishments, statistics, etc., that you specifically are the best possible person to undertake this project? If your application ends up in the stack next to a really similar project, have you pulled out all the stops to demonstrate why yours is the one that deserve this funding?

4) Have you carefully thought through and presented all the logistics? That is, if they handed you a check tomorrow, have you presented evidence that you already know exactly what to do with it and there’s a plan in place? (Budget, timeline, personnel and materials needed, travel costs, etc.)

5) Did you do your homework? Are you as confident as you can be that this particular project is a good match for that particular funder? Have you looked into other projects they’ve supported in the past? Do you have a feel for their average grant size? Do you know what their mission statement and funding priorities are?

Remember to use clear, strong language; don’t be afraid to get a little lofty, but anchor your abstractions with specifics. And don’t forget, you’re not begging for a handout; you’re making something awesome, and you’re inviting a donor to be part of bringing a new thing to life. Which, when you think about it, is pretty darn cool.

Claire Willett is a playwright, novelist and professional arts grantwriter in Portland, Oregon. Find out more about her online classes and coaching here. Registration is currently open for “Don’t Be Scared of Grantwriting!”, a three-part beginner-level online class for artists, running in both May and June.

The post How to Write Grants for Your Art Project appeared first on Online Marketing for Artists.

Have a Tiny Audience? How to Grow Your Social Media Audience with PR & Media Outreach

What most artists do when they’re “doing social media” is try to grow their following one person at a time. Reciprocating comments and likes within their artist social circle. As I mentioned in my last post, that doesn’t work too well – and its exhausting.

Last week in our private Facebook group for TAA students, someone asked how a particular artist accumulated 75,000+ followers on Instagram.

Big social media followings rarely happen organically any more. The algorithms favor those with already large accounts.

But some people still grow huge followings.

Some of them spend a ton of money on advertising, essentially buying a huge following.

Some artists are already celebrities and amass huge followings the moment they announce they’re on a particular platform.

But if you don’t have a huge budget, and aren’t a celebrity, what are you supposed to do?

It’s not a secret. You leverage other people’s people.

How to Grow Your Social Media Following with PR

There are a few specific ways you can do this. These are all easily achievable tasks that nearly any artist accomplish

Guest blogging
Pitch your local news media, blogs, and tv shows
Reach out to influencers and ask them to share your work

Let me elaborate.

What is guest blogging?

Guest blogging was all the rage on the Internet a couple of years ago. This was the idea that you contacted every blog on the planet and sent them an awkward form letter offering to write a terrible article for them.

Please don’t do that.

Do this instead: find a few blogs that write about things related to your art. Write something smart for them. Send them an email with a short 1 – 2 sentence pitch and offer it up.

If you do this a few times, you’ll get attention, links, and more traffic to your website, which you can then leverage into attention from bigger outlets.

How do I pitch locals news?

Every mid-size city and a lot of small cities have local newspapers, blogs, and/or TV shows. Their job is to publish stories about local interesting news. You, dear artist, are local interesting news.

Just by reaching out to these organizations and telling them about an upcoming show, or the story of a recent commission, or even the story behind your art, you can give them some good ideas for their next story.

Local journalists are easily accessible. Simply look at their bylines (the names of the authors of the articles) and either find their email addresses on the company website, or reach out to them on Twitter.

Who and what are influencers?

Every market has a person with outsize influence. It might be a celebrity, a local business magnate, or even just someone that a lot of your ideal collectors respect.

If you can figure out who those people are in your local community, or in your online niche, and ask them to share your art, then you can reach a much larger audience than you could on your own.

Any of the actions I’ve outlined here are more effective than trying to grow a social media audience one comment at a time. You’ll reach a bigger audience, drive traffic to your website, grow your online following, and produce sales all a the same time.

I’ll wrap this email up by emphasizing this: it’s important to take action, rather than spinning your wheels doing research. Compile a list of 10 names, then start reaching out. The taking action part is the part that gets results.

If you want to join us for How to Sell Your Art Online 301, please feel free to do so. You can get more info and sign up here.

 

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