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I've read some of your other post about art and I think you'll just try to send me to some city that you don't like! ;-)
All joking aside, I'll bet you probably do know what kind of art sells best in NYC vs Santa Fe, etc.
This is your art? (dumb question but I just wanted to ask lol)
That is very nice; def. my cup of tea. If and when I become famous I'll PM you and ask for you to do some art for my condo.
As a Philadelphian I want to share with you the fact that Philly is a great city for the Arts. One of the tops in North America.
Philadelphia is home to the oldest and arguably most prestigious art academy in the US: The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art which produced such masters as Charles Wilson Peale, Rembrandt Peale, Thomas Eakins, Mary Cassatt, Maxfield Parrish, Frank Furness, Charles Demuth, Daniel W. Garber, Alexander Stirling Calder, etc.
Other Art schools here include The University of the Arts, The Moore College of Art & Design, the Art Institute of Philadelphia, etc.
Philadelphia has an incredible murals and outdoor art program. In fact, Philadelphia has more murals (about 3,500 of them) than any other city in the world.
In a few weeks, when the Barnes Museum opens on Philly's "Museum Mile" - the Benjamin Franklin Parkway - Philadelphia will have more French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings than any other city the world outside of France itself. More than New York and Washington combined.
There are regular art festivals such as the Rittenhouse Square Art Festival that is held twice a year. Also the Manayunk Art Fair. There is "First Fridays" which happens on the afternoons and evenings of the first Friday of every month when the dozens of small art galleries in the Old City have an open house and there are outdoor street performers as well.
Thanks for the info on Philly. My girlfriend has been to one of the Friday Friday's and liked it. Philly's one of the places we'll definitely look into.
Developing good relationships with those who are interested in your art is, in my experience, more important than where you live. (That is, if you are happy and well settled where you are now.)
Finding a market is always a hard thing that demands a lot of attention and persistence. It also usually requires travel, no matter where you're living. But once you have a list of purchasers and a gallery, the door is open. I've found that staying in touch with my buyers frequently, using touches like hand-written letters and occasional phone calls, does a lot to keep my sales going. I don't use the net, as I find it best to be as personal as possible.
Which is more important; living somewhere so you can sell your art or living somewhere that inspires your art? There are places that can do both very well, some that can only do one or the other very well.
I agree with what you are saying. IMO it's more important to be somewhere that you can live happily and do your craft, as opposed to living somewhere that your art will "sale well".
Seriously, it's not like you can't sell peices on the internet or travel to gallery shows.
Your best bet is to find a nice quiet cheap area to live, and go from there.
I agree with what you are saying. IMO it's more important to be somewhere that you can live happily and do your craft, as opposed to living somewhere that your art will "sale well".
Seriously, it's not like you can't sell peices on the internet or travel to gallery shows.
Your best bet is to find a nice quiet cheap area to live, and go from there.
I appreciate the input from the both of you but I have to disagree. What you guys said is exactly what I thought seven years ago when I seriously started making art. I've learned that it doesn't work that way. Where you show your art matters a lot. Show it in the wrong place and nobody'll buy it. Everyone is not an art lover and all art lovers aren't interested in the same kind of art. There are some art fairs where people buy mostly "traditional", representational art and there are others where the only thing that seems to sell is abstract art - my kind of art. There are a lot these days where nothing seems to sell at all, due to the economy.
It's not easy to sell art online. Things always look different in person, and since people are going to spend hundreds or thousands on a piece and since they're going to have to literally live with it, they want to see it in person. I would.
Galleries and shows are competitive. It helps if someone involved in selecting artists has actually seen your work and knows what it's like in person - what I said above. I've been invited to shows and galleries because someone saw my work somewhere else, like an open studio tour or another gallery. I've had my work up in a cafe, a restaurant and a used record store and I think such exposure is helpful to getting work shown elsewhere. However, I want to get it sold, not just shown. I'm convinced that most gallerists cruise galleries, shows, and the other venues I just mentioned, looking for new artists and would rather see the stuff in person for the reasons I mentioned above.
So, this is why I made my original post. I guess, now that I've articulated it better, at least to myself, and have had to think about it more in order to respond to your comments, what I'm really asking people is where would be the best place for an abstract artist to set up a live/work studio for the purpose of capitalizing on the presence of art buyers. I know that NYC is the obvious answer. However, I'm a bit of a contrarian. Part of that is my basic personality but part of it is also learned. If you do what everybody else does then you'll probably end up just like everybody else. NYC is filled with aspiring artists, most of whom expire, metaphorically, not literally, before they become successful. I know that's the art capital of the US, if not the world and that may end up being where I go. The thing is, it's just not cheap and I don't know how long I could last there. I also know about Santa Fe. It's not really cheap but it's not outrageously expensive. I was hoping someone who say something like, "Go to Asheville, NC. It's cheap and lot's of collectors come there looking for art." But, I guess there's no easy answer to my question. Life is hard, then we die :-)
Again, guys, thanks for your input. I appreciate it.
I agree with what you are saying. IMO it's more important to be somewhere that you can live happily and do your craft, as opposed to living somewhere that your art will "sale well".
Seriously, it's not like you can't sell peices on the internet or travel to gallery shows.
Your best bet is to find a nice quiet cheap area to live, and go from there.
I think if you would look at his work you could see that it could be done just about anywhere. As for where it could be sold, I'd have to defer on that one.
I think if you would look at his work you could see that it could be done just about anywhere. As for where it could be sold, I'd have to defer on that one.
I have noticed that my mood or location don't affect my ability to produce work I like. I can get inspired by little things around me just as much as I can glorious sunsets. I've shown my work in venues Milwaukee, DC, Baltimore and a country day-trip destination spot an hour from DC with mostly country people. DC has been my best venue, followed by the open studio tours I do in a downtown Baltimore building. I suspect that I'm probably going to end up in NYC. I like it there but that place is so expensive and so fast paced. I like San Francisco best of all the places I've ever been but it's not the art mecca that DC is. You mentioned in an earlier post that the top art markets in the country were NYC, Chicago and the Santa Fe with LA a distant forth. I appreciate that insight and have seen that ranking in other places. The thing is, NYC is so far in first places that Chicago and Santa Fe pale in comparison. If I could only find a place as vibrant as NYC but without the vicious drivers, with the climate and off-beatness of San Francisco and the cheap real estate of a small country town, I'd be happy. I haven't found such a place yet, but if it exists someone on city-data will know about it.
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Thanks
