What does 'keeping the gallery doors open' mean for my art business?

If you owned a retail art gallery, would you put a sign on the door that says ‘Closed for 3 months—I’m burned out, life happened, I’m going to work on something else’? No! You have to keep the gallery doors open. Keeping the gallery doors open means doing regular and consistent marketing. You don’t open yourself up for serendipity—the random customer who stops in on a Wednesday—if the doors are closed. Over the years ahead, there will be times when you have more time for marketing and times when you have less. Life happens—injuries, sickness, travel, weddings, whatever. That’s normal. What you can’t do is keep the gallery closed for a year. It’s okay to have good years and bad years, like wine vintages, but every year the grapes grow again and you get another shot. You do that by keeping the gallery open through consistent marketing.

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Asked by synthesized from teaching · Answered by Patrick · Art Business Webinar · 2026-05-27