to "opening" or not to "opening"?

[Tin Can]

Restaurants have 'soft' openings where they don't invite everyone and their uncle. They try to start slowly. That can backfire. You may be disappointed if few come to an under advertised opening, or you may be swamped with people who love to find the next great thing.

The second happened with a small restaurant here last week. The owners opened quietly and were extremely surprised to serve 800 the first weekend.

A hard thing to play just right.

[Peter Gomena]

Ask for a donation to your local food bank at the door, and have a kick-ass party inside.

[Tin Can]

Most of USA has strict rules on selling booze, usually cheaper to give it away. Check your local laws Darin.

I've done a lot of exhibition during the past 2 years. Something that become usual in these part of the world, for small galleries, is that the bar is open but not free. You present some snack (vegetables or so...) and free water, but if people want to drink alcohol, they have to pay. That works pretty well.

[Darin Boville]

Most of USA has strict rules on selling booze, usually cheaper to give it away. Check your local laws Darin.

Not allowed to sell wine. No legal, no insurance. But I can give it away. Insurance no problem.

--Darin

[Kirk Gittings]

You know all of this is totally secondary. The main question is what art to sell and building a collecting audience for it. One can do one great opening of art that no one can relate to and that might be your last opening. One can do the easy (and lowest common denominator) pretty color landscapes, but if you market to the cutting edge art types they won't be back or vice versa.

You know I like your art but let me play the hard ass a minute.

My wife is a professional chef with a long family history in the food business going back generations. She has owned, and operated restaurants and taught the restaurant business at the college level. One of the things she really gets concerned about is good home cooks who think that translates to opening a restaurant. Every one who's a good cook dreams about opening a restaurant. They have virtually nothing in common. Making food for your family and friends is not selling food to the public. My wife suggests they go and work in a restaurant to learn the business and see if they still have an interest.

So an obvious question that hasn't been asked. Have you had much success marketing your own art? Your website is anti sales in that there is absolutely no mention of sales in any way shape or form on your site. Have you even shown much? There is no list of shows on your website so I don't know. Ever worked or volunteered in a gallery? If not, or even if you have, what makes you think you could market other's art since you seem unconcerned about selling your own art? What have you been doing for a living as an adult? Does that translate to marketing art? I always got the impression that you could care less about sales as I never remember you ever posting anything here related to sales and I follow your posts because I think you are an interesting photographer. There is no mention even of your photographs even being available for sale on your site-not a hint. How do you price your photographs? How would you price others' photographs?

Is the sole experience you are drawing on here that you love photography and have gone to a lot of gallery shows?

[paulr]

I used to think openings were just for schmoozing and drinking wine. But I've been told by people in the gallery world that a big chunk of their sales are made (or made final) at openings. And I've also learned how valuable schmoozing is. Buyers, curators, and other artists happen to be people, and while this may be inconvenient in some ways, it also means they like human interaction, and like to connect faces and personalities to the artwork. It's just easier to get people who know you interested in your work.

I also think openings serve some of the same purpose as readings in literature world. Pursuits like photography and writing are mostly solitary ... it's easy to get starved of contact with other artists or with the people who like your work. Openings and readings are easy ways to get some togetherness.

[QT Luong]

In my opinion, running a gallery is much about creating a community. If you don't like openings, you might rethink the whole enterprise, because they are the most obvious way to gather that community. Some established galleries (which are in the minority) invite only their existing customer base rather than the general public, but since you don't have one yet...

[ROL]

All kidding aside, I can be an even bigger hard ass, with a considerable dose of pessimism as it turns out, then anyone here. Everyone here offering their valuable experience are likely wasting their time, as The OP seems tone deaf to it all. But hey, what's a forum for anyway?

I was late to the game of offering opinions, because I initially thought that this was vanity gallery and was playing nice, not that there's anything wrong with that. A 400 sq. ft. space doesn't seem logical to me for anything but a single person. Where it went south for me is when the OP began soliciting interest regarding renting a printing station to other photographers. The whole project then then began to look like some variant of the rent-a-gallery scheme (e.g., artists buy wall space – not to be confused with a community gallery where artists share costs), the OP culling hopeful artists from this forum. During the "economic recession" many traditional gallery models were forced to go this route to keep their doors open. I personally don't consider it a very forthright business model, but that just may be as ridiculous a statement as any considering it is the art business. So there you go. Harsh – and I sincerely hope the OP proves my suspicions wrong on every count.

[jnantz]

Ask for a donation to your local food bank at the door, and have a kick-ass party inside.

i love this idea.

i often times sell work and donate the proceeds
to the food bank, or some sort of charity
( disaster relief ) its a win win situaiton ///
work gets sold and people get helped ...

getting a donation at the door ( and a rep from the food bank to take the money INSIDE )
is nice, people WANT to help others i have found, and people like looking at photography
and having a good time ( party ).

if this happens maybe a local wine shop and caterer can cater the event.
thats what we did years ago, caribbean open invitational, and a local
restaurant steeped in caribbean culture catered the event. it was great ...

[tgtaylor]

Exhibiting Photography: A practical guide to choosing a space, displaying your work, and everything in between by Shirley Read, Focal Press, 2008. I picked this up this afternoon while looking for a print hardening formula in another book. I've read the first 15 pages and it looks worth while.

Thomas