Promoting Your Art in Alternate Places

Doctors’ offices. Lawyers’ offices. Coffee shops. Restaurants.

These are all great places to promote your art. Why? Because only a small fraction of the populace goes to art galleries. In addition, if you place your art right, you’ll get in front of the right people.

Show your art. Most offices need a little bit of decor, but if we ask the office manager to be honest, she will probably tell you she ordered the art from the same place she got the furniture – Ikea. Offer to let them support a local artist by displaying your art in their office at no charge for a limited time.

Sell your art. If the office manager, or the doctors and lawyers, really like your art, you can offer to sell it to them. After all, if they have enough money for an office and an office manager, there’s a good chance they have enough money for art. If you’ve been showing your art there, offer to sell it to them when you go to pick it up. 

Rent your art. If they can’t or won’t buy a piece out right, and you have the courage to suggest it, you might be able to get the office manager to pony up a few bucks for renting out your art. By offering to come in and switch the pieces out from time to time, and doing this in multiple offices, you can have a tidy recurring income.

How to Approach Offices

Notice that in the above paragraphs, I keep referencing the office manager? That’s because the office manager usually makes most of the decisions in the office. They’ve probably been there for years and the doctor trusts them to make all of the decisions. This isn’t always true, but the manager is a great place to start. At the very least, they have a direct line to the person making the final purchase decision.

In my coaching work, one of my students asked me to put together a script for her for calling offices. Here’s what I came up with initially.

Do a Little Research

Do you know who your ideal collector is? If you do, then you’ll have an easier time deciding which shops and offices to show your art in. If you don’t know, check out this short guide on how to figure it out.

Go Visit. Go down to the office and check it out. Does the lighting and ambience fit your art? Are there places where your art would fit? If yes, then proceed to the steps below. If not, then cross them off of your list.

First. Go to the company’s website. Find out who the office manager is and write down the name. Then get the phone number for the office.

Second. Check your calendar. Pick 2 – 4 times that you could potentially visit that office.

When someone picks up the phone, say this:

Hi there. Can I speak to [first name of office manager]? [Stop talking until someone responds. If they ask who is calling, just say your name – nothing else]

[When office manager picks up] Hi [name], my name is [your name]. I wanted to chat with you for a few minutes about showing some of my art in your [office/cafe/restaurant]. Would it be better to come by at [time 1] or [time 2]? [stop talking, wait for an answer].

At this point, the office manager is either going to confirm a time or ask for more information. If they confirm a time, just say “great! See you then” and hang up.

Congratulations, you just booked an appointment to show your art. Yes, it really can be that easy.

If they ask for more information, that is usually going to look like one of these questions.

What do you want to do?/How much are you charging? YOUR RESPONSE: I really like the vibe of your [office/restaurant]. I think your customers would appreciate my art, so I would like to offer you a chance to show some of my art for free. You get beautiful art on your wall and I get more exposure. Will this work for you? Great, which time? 

What kind of art is it? YOUR RESPONSE: Well, it’s hard to explain what art looks like over the phone, so I’d love to show it to you. I’ve been to your office before, and I think my art would be a great fit for your office. Will either of those times work for you?

We already have art. YOUR RESPONSE: I know, and I liked what you had up. I saw that [you have room for additional pieces OR I was wondering how often you swap pieces out to show local artists]?

We are working on tweaking this for my coaching clients’ specific circumstance, but I thought some of you might find this interesting.

Note: In some cities, there are actually companies that handle all of this. There are so many artists approaching offices that they outsource this companies that do it. In that case, you’ll need to get in the good graces of the placement companies. That said, not every office and restaurant goes through these placement companies. It can still be good to call around and check it out.

image by Jeff Berman