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Thread: Gallery walk-in

  1. #1
    Founder QT Luong's Avatar
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    Gallery walk-in

    What do you think would be the average walk-in traffic for a successful gallery ?

    Is it possible for a gallery to operate on walk-in traffic alone (plus some low-cost advertising such as press releases and directory listings), or are other forms of marketing and connections absolutely necessary ?

  2. #2

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    Re: Gallery walk-in

    Quote Originally Posted by QT Luong View Post
    What do you think would be the average walk-in traffic for a successful gallery ?

    Is it possible for a gallery to operate on walk-in traffic alone (plus some low-cost advertising such as press releases and directory listings), or are other forms of marketing and connections absolutely necessary ?
    Hi QT,

    If you locate the gallery in an area where there are more galleries... there's a higher probability for walk-in traffic. That's because most visitors will move from gallery to gallery in a neighborhood.

    [My comment comes from a study whereby a study was commissioned to observe the success rates of furniture stores in stand-alone areas versus furniture stores located in a neighborhood where there are other furniture stores.]

    My assumption is based on the probability that this would most likely apply to galleries as well.

    Secondly, IMHO, I'm not sure that word of mouth is enough to be successful these days unless you manage to insinuate yourself into a very clique group. It seems to me that it's very much about marketing, marketing, marketing. It's crucial that one identifies a target market though and to go after that market.

    Thirdly, getting the newspaper/magazine art critics involved in your openings will also contribute greatly towards getting the word out about the gallery to the public at large.

    Lastly, promote the gallery to firms (such as legal and accounting companies, larger corporations with art collections) that regularly buy fine art. The law firm that my company uses has several million dollars worth of art work on their walls. I don't think our accountants are that far behind.

    IMHO, there's nothing like good publicity and marketing to ensuring success.

    [For example, when the Revenue department went after a local artist based on a particular tax law and the artist didn't think it fair... he took a pile of his works down to the beach and lit the whole kit and kaboodle on fire. Then, he declare, "collect the tax on this!!!" His status in the art world was elevated almost over night because, shortly afterwards, the law was repealed. He was one of the few artists I knew who drove a Rolls Royce. ]

    He was a great fellow but didn't make a very tasty cappuccino!

    Just my 2 cents worth.

    Good luck if this is you venture, QT.

    Cheers
    Life in the fast lane!

  3. #3
    Vaughn's Avatar
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    Re: Gallery walk-in

    What helps our gallery is the monthly "ArtsArcata" -- the second Friday of each month, all the local galleries and businesses who display art have their openings. It brings people out to socialize and look at art. We make sure there is some new work on the walls for ArtsArcata -- to give folks a reason to come on by.

    We are a 33-member cooperative gallery, so our business plan is much different than most galleries (no employees, for example). I am one of two photographers in the cooperative.

  4. #4

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    Re: Gallery walk-in

    Quote Originally Posted by QT Luong View Post
    What do you think would be the average walk-in traffic for a successful gallery ?

    Is it possible for a gallery to operate on walk-in traffic alone (plus some low-cost advertising such as press releases and directory listings), or are other forms of marketing and connections absolutely necessary ?
    There are obviously two routes to this (walk-in traffic that is). Place your gallery among others where you'll have a higher concentration of art gallery shoppers or place your gallery in a tourist type destination where you'll likely have lots of shoppers interested in taking home a reminder of their trip. From that stand point I think it is definitely possible to run a gallery based primarily on walk-in traffic as I've seen it quite a bit.

    On the one end of the spectrum, you have the Santa Fe Old Town gallery district. The high concentration of galleries makes it a destination in its own right. On the other, you've got something like Fatali's Gallery in Springdale, UT placed at the entrance to Zion.

    I have no idea what the walk-in visitor rate would need to be, but I know someone who should. He owns a gallery in the second type of location. Please send me a PM if you would like this info.

  5. #5

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    Re: Gallery walk-in

    Quote Originally Posted by QT Luong View Post
    Is it possible for a gallery to operate on walk-in traffic alone (plus some low-cost advertising such as press releases and directory listings), or are other forms of marketing and connections absolutely necessary ?
    No not entirely. In the long run you will need to attract and cultivate your clientèle to facilitate repeat business. Also think about a web presence and buying advertisement in magazines such as B&W that collectors might look at.

    It's a tough business.

    Don Bryant

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    Re: Gallery walk-in

    Quote Originally Posted by D. Bryant View Post
    No not entirely. In the long run you will need to attract and cultivate your clientèle to facilitate repeat business. Also think about a web presence and buying advertisement in magazines such as B&W that collectors might look at.

    It's a tough business.

    Don Bryant
    On this note, I suspect that most business that even the most successful of galleries does is NOT walk-in. Much of it is directly and privately to collectors, I suspect, the repeat business you are referring to, Don. I often smell that the gallery space is about as important to the print sales as a storefront is to a caterer.

  7. #7

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    Re: Gallery walk-in

    I don't think walk-ins can solely support a gallery. I'm the board chair of an art center in Indianapolis, and our success (and sales) comes through networking and working together with other art dealers and patrons.

    In Indy, we have monthly first friday art openings that coincide with other downtown gallery openings, usually 5-10 galleries each first friday (more than one can visit!). But we get traffic of 500 to over 1000 visitors because first friday has become the established gallery night. Be sure you don't conflict with big art institutions (museums) which might already have established opening or free nights. Probably half of our sales are made on those openings (serve wine - that helps!) We have an email list which has slowly grown to over 3000 contacts, and we send exhibit announcements to that list. We also mail postcards, but some galleries just use email to save the huge cost (time and $$) of printing and mailing.

    We are also broadening our sales network through corporate sales. A good way to make these connections is to visit architects and interior designers and leave behind a couple of sheets of information about the work you sell. I would think that LF photography could do especially well for this type of sales. One good corporate sale can yield as much as three months of gallery sales. And I have seen single sales to hotels or large corporations approaching six figures.

    Many city governments have a 1% for art program, where 1% of the cost of all public construction projects is dedicated to purchasing artwork for the buildings. Research these avenues, they can be huge opportunities.

    At our art center, we have even started wedding registries and will soon be selling certain small-scale works online with google checkout and mail fulfillment. There is an online art project called 20x200 which is doing fantastic sales of great work at a very low cost (and they are helping support great causes such as Blind Spot magazine).

    All of this to say that selling art and photography is about 95% networking, in my opinion.

    Good luck!
    Last edited by mccormickstudio; 25-Apr-2008 at 14:11. Reason: typos
    Craig McCormick
    Indianapolis, Indiana

  8. #8
    Murray's Avatar
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    Re: Gallery walk-in

    Every location is different. Every approach & business model and situation is different enough that it might be hard to say what approach would have the highest likelihood of success.

    Obviously, I hope, is my corruption of the Zen falling-tree-in-a-forest concept; if no one walks in to see the art, is it there? Silly, but reminds one of the challenge of getting publicity, keeping them coming back, and not assuming they've been there, done that.

    Michigan's economy is pretty dim right now.

    In past years in our area, we noted that the only successful galleries we were aware of that were purely gallery, no picture framing and did well, we chalked off to being independently wealthy already (perhaps an exaggeration), but we have seen competitors who tried the gallery-only approach close. Also one who opened a second location, gallery only, in a higher-traffic art-client-popular community felt they were seeing thesame people in both locations and just doing a lot of legwork. They went back to gallery + framing. Framing isn't for everyone either. Regardless of the impression people get of 'expensive', it's labor-intensive and errors are costly.

    I also commented to a pro lab who added a gallery "Do photographers buy photos?", thinking no, why bother mailing them postcards for shows? He replied, "They only buy things they know they can't do themselves."

    I am pretty sure the type of work you would carry is not what the average guy can do...maybe average guy HERE, but not average guy with "I can do that syndrome".

    With photos, the traditional outlook on print size, intimacy, etc. is eroded unfortunately a bit among the 'average client' by two factors...what many authors have commented on, that the average viewer doesn't know the difference between an average, a good, and an outstanding print (photo), and the other being the availability for home printing of large giclees.

    You certainly don't have to tell me the difference in craft & quality...just finding the customers among the masses who appreciate and want the differnence.

    The lab I talked to said he hardly sells 'wet lab' photos anymore because people are becoming less willing to pay the cost differential. They SEE and comment on the difference between a b/w giclee and a silver print (he doesn't even get into alt-processes), but the cost ratio stops them. (Well, then don't show them side by side!)

    We read in a framing magazine that on average (this is an old quote from years ago, and things are probably different, but still a useful perspective tool),that only 10% of the population uses a custom framer. We guess that the % of people who buy fine art is an even smaller fraction of the population.

    Certainly there are successful galleries, and photography-only galleries, probably some that don't do framing. I'd venture to guess they are in larger urban areas, and it was alot of work to get where they are.

    As someone else said, it's tough.

    Murray Leshner
    ----------------------\

    Oh, I never commented on the original question. That's probably the hardest part. You probably couldn't even begin to answer that until you knew your expenses, to know what your sales had to be, let alone predicting what % of walk-ins are purchasers.

    Probably the best advice so far is about location. There are people who are successful in remote places, but that must be the exception, logically. We are 1 block from the center of our downtown and it is dumbfounding some days when the main street is teeming with people (doing what, I can't be certain), and they just don't walk the block past an area that has no walk-in appeal to get to us. Sure, we have parking and the downtown struggles with that, but it makes our marketing that much harder.

    Even without a formal business plan, something informal is essential. Talk to a local Small Business Association or Chamber of Commerce, and not to start out with a pessimistic view, but to be aware, find out about startup business failure rates from 0-5 years. There may be resources to help avoid becoming a 'statistic', but certainly a plan of some type (and a day job) would be a good idea for some period of time.
    Last edited by Murray; 25-Apr-2008 at 14:56. Reason: Never commented on original question!

  9. #9

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    Re: Gallery walk-in

    The turn over rate on an art gallery is about 1%. This is for a true art gallery (hosting exhibits, it may have a permanent collection of work, and the aggregate of customers are collectors) and not some commercial venture duping tourists into buying inkjet prints in an unlimited edition.

    The gallery business is REALLY though, if you want to be taken seriously. If you think it is tough trying to make it as a photographer its even tougher as a gallery; the whole pyramid of support thing.

    If you are looking into starting up a gallery, go for it! You won't know if you never try!

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