Marketing Brilliance

I met artist Gary Sim through Emily Carr University (www.sim-publishing.com/home.htm) and I think his recent "Salon" was a very good one. Here is Gary in his own words (edited for brevity):

"It was actually quite a complex affair, thrown together in a three-week period. It greatly helped to have already done a huge amount of work on my collection (inventory: titles, dates, costs, images, condition assessments).

It also helped to have worked part-time for an auctioneer - I knew how to put on an auction. Also, I have an auctioneer as a friend who volunteered to work for free because he was intrigued by my Salon idea.

"I hired one of his auction crew plus 3 women I know who could handle the day's exigencies with aplomb and intelligence (one artist, one accountant, one office manager). They divvied up the work almost without my direction, and, without any direction at all, handled all sales and shipping and credit card and debit transactions perfectly.

"The restaurant owner (La Gavroche, where I'm a regular) let me have the restaurant free for the day and gave excellent fixed prices for crew meals as well as breaks on the drinks and hors d'oeuvres for the customers. They also gave us the run of the place to arrange tables and chairs and to take down their art and put up mine. It was actually quite a deluxe venue that had to be restored for regular service by 5:00pm.

"Interestingly, I was in Cin Cin for a drink on Tuesday after work, and Jack Evrensel (its owner) came by to say hello and, after asking about the success of the Salon, offered me the free use of Cin Cin for the same kind of event in the future!

"There was lots of paperwork to do: bidder numbers, bidder forms and absentee bid forms, catalogues, invoices, artist biographies, lot number stickers, etc., all had to be done. Digital images had to be made for our catalogues and our Salon website (also mercifully easily as an add-on to my pre-existing web site). And a lot of marketing initiatives were undertaken.

"I had fourty-four of my own images for sale (12 sold), and 76 by 38 other artists (most well known) - a wide range of mediums, in a wide range of presentations. Also, I had a collection of my pamphlets and greeting cards for sale. Asking prices ranged from $2 to $6,000, prices realized ranged from free to $3,000. Sixteen lots sold before Salon day, forty-six at the Salon, two (so far) afterwards.

Chris Tyrell
ctyrell@shaw.ca
www.artistsurvivalskills.com