When is the best time of year to sell art, and how should I prepare?

The last three months of the year — Q4 — are the biggest art-selling months every single year. The data is super conclusive on this. It’s driven by the Western world’s holiday buying season: Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, general holiday shopping. Advertisers spend heavily, and people loosen their wallets more during this time. Here’s the key: you owe it to your talent to let people know before Black Friday and Cyber Monday that you’re an artist with a story and amazing work to sell. Start now — do some marketing, let people know you exist, tell your story. What doesn’t work is waking up the day after Thanksgiving and saying ‘Hey, I’m an artist, buy my stuff.’ It’s too late at that point. You need to build awareness and connection between now and then. There’s never a better time to sell than Q4, but only if you’ve laid the groundwork ahead of time.

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Asked by implicit question from the teaching context · Answered by Patrick · Art Business Webinar · 2026-08-24