anyone tried the walk-in approach at a gallery?
I've only ever approached galleries by emailing first, and honestly most of them never even reply. A friend of mine who does pottery swears by just walking in with a few pieces and asking to talk to whoever does the buying. That sounds terrifying to me but she's landed two shows that way.
Have any of you just walked in somewhere cold? Did it go well or did you get the brush-off? I feel like I've been hiding behind email forever and maybe that's why nothing sticks.
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okay so I've done this exactly once and it was genuinely one of the most awkward experiences of my adult life, but it also kind of worked? I walked into this little cafe-gallery with three small watercolors in a tote bag, asked for the owner, and she was SO confused for a second like who is this girl with wet paintings. But then she actually looked at them and asked if I had more, and now I've had work in that window display twice.
the thing I'll say though is I think it works better for smaller places than the big ones. I cannot imagine walking into a proper gallery cold, I think they'd literally call security. but the smaller spots, the ones where the owner is behind the counter anyway, it's not as insane as it sounds. they're bored. you're something to look at.
the downside is I had to do it like three times before I got the nerve. first two times I just drove past and went home. so maybe don't lead with that part lol. but your friend's onto something, email is just too easy to ignore. a person standing in front of you with actual work is way harder to say no to.
okay the cafe-gallery thing makes so much sense though, like those places are basically run by one person who's already behind the counter so you're not really interrupting anything? but the image of you with wet paintings in a tote bag is killing me hahaha you just walked in like the washing machine did it
i've only ever gone the email route too and yeah, mostly ghosts. i keep telling myself i'll do the walk-in thing but then i think about it and my stomach does the thing. i feel like walking in cold means you need to be able to talk about your work on the spot without sounding like a lunatic and i am not there yet. like they ask "what's this about" and i'm gonna say "color" and then it's over.
do you think the smaller places actually take you more seriously or do they just have less to lose?? because i wonder if it's less that the walk-in worked and more that a cafe-gallery will hang anything that fills wall space lol not to undersell your window display twice, that's genuinely sick and you should be proud. im just trying to figure out if i'm reading this as permission or not 😭
"walked in like the washing machine did it" 💀 that is EXACTLY what it would look like for me, wet canvas wrapped in a garbage bag and everything.
Yeah the stomach thing is real. I did a tiny version of it once, left a business card at a framing shop that had some local art up, and even that took me twenty minutes of sitting in my car first. I don't know how people just stroll in. But the friend who does pottery keeps telling me the buyers at these places are just normal people who are also terrified, and honestly that's the only thing that's made me consider it.
okay the cafe-gallery thing makes so much sense though, that's exactly the kind of place where walking in feels doable. one person, they're already up and about, nobody to get past. I think I could psych myself up for that. it's the proper galleries that make me want to crawl under my desk just thinking about it.
your watercolors in a tote bag is such a great image though 😅 how did you keep them from getting wrecked in there? I'd have managed to smudge half of them on the way in.