Exhibition Costs

[Big Fish]

Greetings...looking for information and line item budget costs for putting on large format photo exhibit at a well known art gallery.

Thanks.

[Ash]

That totally depends what you're doing, where you're doing it, and what you want out of it.

You're best looking at WHERE you want to exhibit work and calling for a quote. Then working out how much printing and mounting your images is.

That's the basics. You need to factor in advertising.

Kinda, you need to go out yourself and get those costs.

[IanG]

Depends what the gallery is going to pay you, and whether there's fuding you can apply for.

The biggest cost is mounting & framing look at roughly £20/$32 per print for a 20"x16" frame inc matt boards etc. That's a ballpark figure but based on experience.

Ian

[Bosaiya]

Shipping has been a real killer lately.

[Don Dudenbostel]

I have nine galleries on the east coast and do about three large shows per year. In every case the gallery pays for advertising and announcement cards and mailing costs. They also pay for the food, wine and champagne and people to stage it. My only cost is getting to the show, expenses like hotel and food and the prints, framing and shipping to the gallery. Cost of a show depend on the number of prints, size, printing materials or lab, framing and shipping. I'm doing a museum show that opens the 28th of this month. I have a total of 94 - 11x14 archival silver gelatin prints. I am donating 154 - 11x14 prints to the museum archives and the museum is picking up all of the framing, PR, mailing, and obtained a grant to cover the printing of 3500-40 page books with a CD of digital sound tracks in each book. The books and CD's are free to the public. Also they are printing 6ft banners of images for display in the museum. In addition they are having shipping crates built for all the framed prints and covering shipping of the show to other museums. My cost creating the images and prints is very difficult to estimate as it's been over many years of shooting and a year of printing part time.

[Big Fish]

Don...

Thanks very much for response. It was very insightful. This proposed exhibit will also be on the east coast in New York. I like the idea of contributing a considerable number of prints so they can make their money back. Is there a line item budget template for exhibition costs?

Thanks and...good luck with exhibit.

Best..Big Fish

[cdholden]

Don,
Where is the museum show? I'd be interested in attending if it's anywhere around middle/eastern TN. My job carries me around the state at various times.
I happened to run across some of your advertising work the other day: McMinn County Living Heritage Museum in Athens, TN. I was working in the area, and picked up a pamphlet from the hotel. Photography credit was given to you but it took me awhile to figure out why the name was familiar until I saw this post.
Chris

[Drew Wiley]

If its a commercial gallery and you have to pay for framing, part of the overhead
includes the cost of framing, shipping, and what percent they take. Under certain circumstances it's easy to actually lose money, even if you sell a number of prints.
Check the contract and do all your math ahead of time. Don't forget insurance; some
galleries aren't very careful handling things.

[xavier deltell]

I'm currently working with three galleries in Spain. I pay my photos (100x100cm or 120 x80cm) framing and transport.
The gallery pays for everything else (catering, catalogs, flyers .... etc) and of course the gallery takes a commission on sales.

[Jfnphotography]

It cost me around $60.00 a finished print, 20x16 steel frame, with an 11x14 print size all archival materials. Most galleries take a % on the sale of the photographs. If you buy frames and materials in bulk you can get price breaks. plan to spend some money, but once you have the frames and glass you can always change out prints for different show.

[srbphoto]

If you have a resale license, set up an account with a frame wholesaler. The more work you are willing (or able) to do, the cheaper you can get things. Last time I bought framing supplies it was costing me around $25 per print for a metal frame, 4 ply archival mat, and glass (if you are shipping look into plexi, and put a note in the box so no one accidentally cleans it with glass cleaner). That was 5 or 6 years ago.

[mdd99]

If you have a resale license, set up an account with a frame wholesaler..

Contact your state tax department about getting a resale license. This will allow you to avoid paying taxes to vendors such as framers, printers, etc.

[mentalcrisis00]

I don't mean to take this thread off track but I thought it would be better than starting my own and cluttering the forum.

I'm trying to get back into galleries steady. Maybe not solo shows at first but even just a few of my works up with other works in a gallery would satisfy me at this point. I did a few gallery shows in college but the logistics were handled by my professors mostly. So I have almost no first hand experience actually convincing a gallery to put my work up.

I'm wondering what the procedure is for such a thing? Do I simply take a portfolio of my work from gallery to gallery and see who wants to pick it up? Send a cd of my work around to galleries out of state? Is there a website that lists places calling for art? Maine Arts Commission has a website where they list grants, residencies, and galleries looking for artists however it's not very good and hardly ever gets updated it seems.

[Noah A]

It would be an impossible question to answer without more info. But as others have said, if it's a commercial gallery generally you'll be responsible for printing, framing, shipping and insurance (which is a good idea). The gallery should do most of the promotional work as well as the expenses for the opening reception, etc.

A small metal frame for an 8x10 contact print could cost $25...but when I prepare my large prints (40x50, mounted on dibond and with a custom wood frame) it costs over $500. Crating and shipping a work that large could easily cost $200 or more.

It would be easy to lose money on such an undertaking. But if you show your work often, you can reuse the frames so it's not so bad.