Before COVID, how did artists validate their work would sell when in-person events were possible?

Before COVID, the standard validation method was to do an in-person art show or fair. You’d sit in a booth and try to sell your work directly to people walking by. The same principle applied—if you could sell pieces to strangers (not family or friends), you validated that your art had a market. If you spent a full day in the booth and barely sold anything, that was valuable data suggesting you might need to adjust your style or subject matter to better match what buyers want.

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Asked by artists learning about validation methods · Answered by Nick Friend · art-marketing-podcast · 2020-06-23