Ask ArtSlut ~ Starting a Floating Gallery

The Question: Today’s question came from my friend Kate. She said, “I just read your book and I absolutely love it! I’m going to buy 5 more copies to give as gifts to my other artist friends. Thank you. You did a really great job!” She went on to tell me that she and her husband have a small sailboat that they take tourists on sunset cruises with (they live in Key West) and that she would like to make it into her studio/gallery during the daytime. Apparently, her house is over run with paintings and art supplies. Her question was basically, ‘how do I get people to come and shop my boat’?

 The Answer: Miss Kate you’re so crafty! I love the idea of a floating, boat gallery. Now, since I’ve never been your boat, I’m not really sure what you mean by small. I’m wondering how much wall & display space you have? Anyway, I think the concept alone will make people come. The big deal is letting them know that you’re there & how to find you. I’m not sure exactly where your boat is, but I do know the docks can be confusing for land lubbers to navigate. I assume you’re in a high visibility local? That’s key. Once you’ve got that taken care of, try some of these ideas to draw attention and clients:

1. Use the mast for your signage: Order a banner or two, with grommets & text on the vertical, saying ‘Gallery’ or, ‘Whatever name, Gallery - come on aboard’, for example.
2. If there’s a regular art event in your area, hop on-board with them for the promotional bit of their art walk or whatever it is they do. If not, try to create one.
3. Get some easles that won’t tip over in turbulence and put another with a sign and/or a painting up on the dock, if they’ll let you.
4. Write a press release about the uniqueness of what you’re doing. Be sure to send pics of your art at 300dpi or better. If you need help with that, templates & tips are easy to find, by Googling ‘press release template’, for example.
5. If you can afford the space, try to show or feature other artists’ work as well. People have a tendancy to assume that once they’ve seen an artist’s work, that all new works will be the same. It’s important to give them fresh reasons to come back, continuously.
6. Be sure you have the appropriate licensing, insurance and merchant services. Also, if you’re going to run the art biz under the other biz’s name, be sure to do a DBA - that’s ‘Doing Business As’ it’ll only cost about $50 and keeps you legal. Call the city for instructions. I’m sure you probably already do have your legalities in order, because of the sunset sail biz, but I can’t stress this enough… An oversight - well, audits are bad. You feelin’ me on that?
7. Consider painting things that are appropriate to your audience, in order to increase sales. I’m not saying change who you are or anything, just that you will now have an audience of boat people. Ever painted boats? Hm. It’s a thought.
8. Printing postcards is way cheap these days, even though mailing them is not. You can find 500 postcards for around $100. I suggest you do that, using a pic or two of your work on it and leave stacks of them at appropriate nearby businesses - with their permission, of course.
9. The last thing that I can think of, is combination advertising. I imagine you already do some sort of advertising for the sail biz? If so, be sure to add a little blurb and hopefully, a pic about your art and the floating gallery. The cache of it’s uniqueness is sure to be a boost for both businesses - “Oooh! A sunset sail aboard a floating art gallery!” …. Sounds Awesome!

I hope this has been helpful to you, Miss Kate. I love what your doin’ and thank you for the kind words about my book! Be on the look out for my new column, coming ou tnext week in Conch Color, too. It’s called ’The Back Side’ It’s all about the good side of Key West locals (I love ‘em) and it sort of combats some of the complaining that we hear on our delightful little island (r u kidding??). It’ll be available online  too, at : www.conchcolor.com I hope you like it!

One Response to “Ask ArtSlut ~ Starting a Floating Gallery”

1. Jane Magarigal Says:
   October 7th, 2008 at 10:22 pm

   Hi,

   You have a great website and store. I was told about you months ago, and have visited you site several times.

   I was wondering if you’d be interested in any of my products for your store.

   Check out my website, if you’d like.

   Perhaps we can do business.

   Congrats on your success. I hope it continues.

   My best,

   Jane

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