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Advice on setting up your own exhibition proposal

So you’ve decided that 2013 is the year you have your own art exhibition? Good for you. Now that you’re working toward this goal, the first thing you’ll need to do is find a gallery that’s willing to host it.

Finding a gallery isn’t as simple as choosing one from the phone book. You’ll need to send in an exhibition proposal, and the gallery owner will decide if your exhibition fits with the gallery’s projects for the year. Proposals are usually sought on a yearly basis—so keep up-to-date with your local arts community website, or contact galleries directly to find out closing dates for proposal applications.

Most galleries require you to submit a resume, artist statement, exhibition proposal, and portfolio. Let’s take a look at each one, to see what’s required:

Putting together your resume

Your resume should tell the gallery that you are a serious artist who has had some experience of the art world before. The gallery will want to see that you will be able to bring visitors their way.

List your contact details, including your website and online art shop. List your most recent achievements and experience first, then follow in descending order. List anything you’ve done related to art, such as:

• Group exhibitions you’ve participated in
• Performance pieces you’ve participated in
• Residencies you’ve undertaken
• Grants, prizes and awards you’ve received
• Memberships to professional organizations
• Commissioned projects you’ve worked on
• Articles or books you’ve published
• Institutions that hold collections of your work

Your resume needs to be functional and concise. This is not a document to showcase your creativity and design skills. Focus on the content of the resume above all.

Writing your artist statement

The artist statement explains your interests and influences; it distills your artistic experience and expression into a short, cohesive narrative about your work.

You will probably need short (50-100 words) and long (500 words) artist statements. Write the long one first, then distill it down to its essential points. When writing your statement, it helps to look at the statements of other artists, and to think about:

• Why you create your art and what it means to you
• The techniques you use that make your work unique
• Why you chose your medium
• Who you are and how your art has affected you as a person

Use simple, down-to-earth language. Avoid jargon, and don’t compare your work to other famous artists.

Creating your exhibition proposal

Now we get to the most important part of your package – the exhibition proposal. This document tells the gallery what you plan to achieve with their space and helps them to decide if your exhibition concept is a good fit for the gallery.

Your proposal should consist of a written explanation of the concept behind your exhibition, plus at least 12 images to accompany the written report.

In your exhibition proposal, you need to tell the gallery:

• The appearance, theme and aesthetic of the exhibition
• The minimum size of the wall/floor area you’ll need
• Any unusual requirements, like projections or large constructions
• When the exhibition will be available (be flexible!)
• The materials you’ll use, and their health/safety factors, if any
• If you can offer any educational elements alongside the exhibition

That last note is especially important, because any sort of community outreach (like workshops, classes, lectures, etc) will raise your application to the top of the pile.

Submitting your portfolio

Finally, you’ll also need to submit a portfolio of your work, including commissions, editorial work and pictures from different exhibitions you’ve been involved in.

Your supporting images will need to include either pictures of the finished works or, if the work is not yet constructed, examples of past pieces that represent the style you’ll be using. Don’t send originals or sketches—use a PDF file on a CD or pen drive, or submit a printed portfolio.

Although this all sounds like a lot of work, once you get started creating your exhibition proposal it’s really not that difficult. Just make sure to get a handle on your overarching concept before you begin the proposal, and then follow the suggestions above to finish each task.

Good luck!

Let’s begin with the artist’s statement.

Your primary focus should be to increase the reader’s interest in your art, which usually means helping them understand the reasoning behind your art as well as some of the methods you used to create it.

It’s best to think about your artist’s statement like a one-way conversation and write using words like “I” and “my” as you talk about yourself and your work.

You’ll want to begin your first paragraph with a broad statement that gives either yourperspective on art or your personal philosophy behind creating art. This should encompass most or all of the work you’ve made, not just the art you‘re currently exhibiting.

You might also mention what first inspired you to be an artist, what your grandest goals are as an artist, or even some themes that continually run through your art.

In the second paragraph, write a few sentences about how you make your art. Focus on the process you used for the pieces you‘re displaying, while pointing out what makes your methods different and how your creative process is evolving.

Use this opportunity to show how unique your art is, but make sure to keep it understandable for people who aren’t artists, too.

In the last paragraph, make some specific comments on the current works you’re displaying. Give more details into the meaning behind your art, even pointing out one or two pieces in particular.

This is your chance to explain any metaphors or hidden meanings in your work so viewers can go back to your art with a better understanding of your intent.

If you haven’t already, let the reader know what inspired you to create this specific collection and then finish up by mentioning what you see – or feel – when you look through it.

That’s all there is to it. You can make it a bit longer than three paragraphs if you like, but keep it to one page. It’s just an introduction to your art, after all, not a thesis paper.

Some things to remember:

Artist’s statements are not meant to be biographical, so don’t include details from your life (like when you were born or where you went to school) unless it directly relates to why or how you create your art.

Also, awards and recognitions already have a place in your resume, so there’s no need to mention them in your artist’s statement.

When your statement is complete, make sure to have several people read it and give you their opinion on what you should change. Find someone qualified who can edit it for spelling mistakes or who is even willing to re-write it in a clearer manner, if you think it needs that.

The final result should be short, to the point, and easy to read. You shouldn’t have to “dumb down” how you write, but there’s also no need to pull out a dictionary or thesaurus to find longer, more “intellectual” words.

When it comes to writing your résumé, simple and clean is all that’s required – the standard format is to organize your résumé into sections using numbered headers and indented lists.

The sections you need to include are:

1. Your Name(Include all your contact information underneath)

2. Education(List the degrees you’ve earned, by most important first)

3. Awards
(Any honors, awards, or grants go in this category)

4. Exhibitions(List solo and group shows, and include the city and state where each one was held)

5. Bibliography(Write down any newspaper articles, interviews, TV or radio appearances, etc.)

6. Representation
(If you have gallery representation, make sure to list it here)

You may wish to add a section for commissioned pieces you’ve done, or artwork in private or public collections. It’s also common to separate your exhibition section into Solo Shows and Group Shows.

There’s often confusion among artists over what their artist statement, biography, and CV (curriculum vitae) should contain. Furthermore, how do you make your biography, or artist statement, interesting and readable?

I’ve read some artist statements that were nothing but gobbledygook—’artspeak’ as I like to call it. The words were proper words, the sentences were properly constructed, but I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out what they were talking about. They came across as pretentious and meaningless.

Those kinds of statements do nothing to endear artists to the general population; just the opposite, they create an elitist rarified atmosphere where the average person does not feel welcome. Not exactly what one wants to achieve with their statement.

First of all, let’s talk about the difference between the statement and the biography. The main difference is this: a biography is about the artist, while an artist statement is about the work.

The artist’s biography

The biography sets out where the artist is from, the educational background, exhibitions, affiliations, awards, and so on. This can include why you paint and whatyou hope to achieve.

The biography should be a one or two-page document. It should be short and concise, but informative and up-to-date. Details of your childhood experiences with art are not really relevant. Do talk about what led you to paint (or whatever your art form is), but keep it current and interesting, and please, use regular, ordinary language.

The artist statement

The artist statement is about the work. It can be a general-purpose statement that relates to all your work, or it can be a specific-purpose statement that relates only to part of your work.

For example, if you are applying for a show at a gallery, you would be presenting a specific body of work, so for that purpose, the statement would pertain only to that particular series.

Your artist statement should set out why you produce the work, what led you to making this work, what the work means or represents, and how it is relevant to viewers, or to society as a whole.

The CV (or curriculum vitae)

The CV is an expanded biography. It can start off the same as your biography but should also include details of your past exhibitions, publications, collections, etc.

A CV is like a resume, in a way. It should be more business-like in format and appearance, making use of bullet points and lists where appropriate.

The combined statement

In many cases, the most versatile and convenient way to impart our information is to combine both the biography and the statement. In other words, talk about both yourself and your work.

This combined statement should remain short and to the point. Make it current and interesting; informative and meaningful. And remember to update your combined statement as often as possible—that, more than anything, will keep it from getting stagnant, boring, and obsolete.

Read additional articles at Suzette’s art blog or check out her contemporary abstract paintings at www.SuzetteFram.com

This Great information and more can be found visiting the following website

http://emptyeasel.com/2013/02/05/how-to-put-together-a-successful-exhibition-proposal-to-send-to-galleries/

Workshop FCA with Darcy

The western and Horse painting workshop with Darcy
Although I was at my son's Iron Ring ceremony on Saturday I set up the workshop and was able to photograph the horse that Darcy had brought.  SUnday we worked on a horse head study but probably needed another day to get into painting a horse from the photos we took.  It was very informative and a great learning experience for any artist.

Upcoming Workshop with Darcy Presiloski in March

A real horse!! Yes to draw and photograph to create paintings for the weekend, Mar 23/24th

Anyone can register for the upcoming workshop with Zhaoming Wu

Scottsdale Artists School

Artist Romel de la Torre at Scottsdale Artists School

I attended a demo at the Arizona Scottsdale Artists School. Our artist was Romel de la torre.  This is my favourite demonstration to watch, painting a nude woman with light.  I love the greens and blues in the skin tones.  The demo was from 9:30am to 3:30 pm.  What a wonderful day.  

It was a beautiful atmosphere, surrounded by Romel's artwork - he was selling demo pieces in the back, gorgeous artworks!

I met the ladies from ray mar panels who delivered my order to the demo, how nice of them to do that! I also met Dianne who sat beside me then we went out for a snack and a wine after the demo.  I didn't have anywhere to go after as my family was at the Canada vs Italy Baseball game at Chase Field so she showed me about and we went to the mall.  Thank you Dianne, it was a pleasure to share my day with you.