Should I rely on my physical gallery's audience or build my own?

Build and rely on your own audience, not the gallery’s. When you market a gallery show to your own email list and social followers, you can pre-sell pieces and bring in your own collectors. While it’s frustrating to pay a 50% gallery commission on sales you generated yourself, at least you’re making sales. The gallery often contributes very little in terms of bringing in buyers - you’re bringing 20x the attendees through your own virtual audience. The key is to stop depending on galleries to bring buyers and instead use gallery shows as events to activate your own collector base.

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Asked by implied question from teaching context · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2020-07-16