Information for Exhibiting Artists

 

Thank you for your interest in becoming an exhibiting artist at the world’s smallest gallery! We have already showcased some amazing artists and are so glad that you will be one of them. 

 

To (hopefully) answer some of the questions you may have and give you an understanding of how the gallery works, we have put together this info sheet. We hope that this will give you an idea of what to expect when working with us and help you prepare for your exhibition!

 

Gallery Space 

If you haven’t already seen our art space at the Arts Hub site, your work will be displayed in an area of our shop. In addition to attendees of our workshops and regular activities, the Arts Hub site gets a lot of foot traffic from passersby who will also be able to view your work. 


 

The cupboard gallery measures around: Back wall 85*85cm. Side wall x2 35/40*85 cm. Doors x2 40*150cm. Shelf *90w cm. 



Though small, the space does accommodate a surprising amount of artwork and looks brilliant once filled. When you come to set up your exhibition, Kate or one of our volunteers will be on hand to advise and help come up with a layout, if useful. 

 

Shop

As part of the gallery space we accommodate a sales area where you can have cards, prints or any other items of your work available to sell. This is in addition to any sales of your exhibited artworks and many of our artists have sold well in previous exhibitions. To support the Arts Hub, we take a commission of 20% on all products sold and so it is important to factor this in when pricing your work. We recommend pricing cards at £2.50 for consistency. 

 

           

 

Artist Presence

Although optional, we ask our artists to spend some time on site at the hub where possible. This is for multiple reasons. Primarily, our visitors love to learn about the processes behind your work and often seem to connect more deeply with an artwork when they have seen the face behind it. The opportunity for discussion between artists and the public can be a really enriching experience for both sides and we have been part of some wonderful interactions. Secondly, we ask that our artists volunteer a little of their time to man the on-site shop during busy periods. This can be a great way to boost sales of your own artworks and other products and is a lovely way to interact with other art enthusiasts. 

 

There is also the opportunity for artists to create their own workshops to run as a guest teacher. This could be a one-off class using a skill specific to your work or a demonstration or talk about your creative process. If this is something you may be interested in or would like to know more about, please reach out to Kate. 

 

Marketing

We are planning to send out an Arts Hub newsletter monthly which will have a feature section of our upcoming artist. The idea of this artist feature is to give people an overview of you as an artist and to start showcasing your work. 

 

For the email newsletter please send: 

  • Between 2 and 4 images that will give people an idea of your work (if you have a range of styles, try and include a variety to showcase your art). 

  • Around 100 words of text that you would like shared alongside your images. This could be some information about you or your creative process or a quote about your inspiration. 

(If you need any additional assistance in putting this together, our volunteer Cinnamon will be happy to help with writing and/or getting the images)

 

In addition to the newsletter, we will be introducing a ‘Past Exhibitions’ folder that contains a one page overview of our artists. Not only will this be a wonderful record of the artists we work with, it will create something that visitors can look back on and will create further opportunities for sales and networking for our artists. For inclusion in this folder, you will need to create an A4 printout with your information and some images of your artwork. 

 

You may also wish to include some business cards with contact information and any web links to your work that we can hold in our gallery and shop. 

 

Next Steps

We’re so excited to have you on board and cannot wait to see your exhibition at the Blandford Arts Hub. We know there can be a lot to think about so here is a summary of the next steps you need to take to get ready for the gallery. 

 

  • Send us 2-4 images of your work and a 100 word bio to include in our marketing newsletter

  • Create an A4 page biography with information about yourself and your work to exhibit alongside your work in the gallery (you may like to include an image of yourself). This page will also be kept on-site long term in a ‘Past Exhibitions’ folder

  • Email Kate at freeexpressioncreative@gmail.com to arrange a time to bring your work to the hub and get set up for your exhibition

  • Prepare any cards, business cards or prints to sell in our gallery shop

  • Select a range of artworks to exhibit!

 

If you need additional support with any of these tasks or have any queries then please don’t hesitate to contact us or pop in and visit the site.