Did you ever walk into a gallery with your work in hand? I did, once, and I still cringe a bit
I'll go first. I turned up at a small gallery here in Gothenburg with a folder of collages, no appointment, asked if they had five minutes. They did not. The woman at the desk was kind about it and took my card, and I heard nothing, and honestly she was right.
I know the answer is supposed to be email first. But I've also had the opposite happen: a place that ignored three emails was perfectly pleasant when I showed up in person, because there was a person standing there instead of a name in an inbox.
So which is it for you? Walk in or email? And if you walked in, how did it actually go. I want the real stories, not the version you'd tell a workshop.
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I did the walk-in thing too, but at a shop that sells ceramics, so maybe less brave. Carried two of my wonky vessels in a box, one of them still smelling of the kiln, and asked the owner if she'd look. She said yes! Then she spent ten minutes telling me why the glaze was pooling wrong. Which was fair, honestly. Bought nothing, took nothing.
What I took from it: the walk-in works when the person in front of you is the one who decides. In a gallery the desk person usually isn't, so you're just making them do the awkward bit for free. If the owner is there and it's a slow day, different story entirely.
So my answer is neither, exactly. Email to get the name, then show up once you know who to ask for. The cold walk-in is a lottery and the odds are bad, but I'll never fully stop doing it because standing there with the actual thing in your hands beats a jpeg every time.
That ten minutes was the real prize. I've paid for workshops that taught me less than one honest person pointing at the actual thing in front of me.
I've only ever done the walk-in at a farm shop that hung local stuff, and the owner was the one at the till, so it went fine. Never tried a proper gallery. From what you're saying I think I'd be wasting the desk person's afternoon and mine, so I'll stick to email and keep my cringe for other occasions 😅
A farm shop that hangs local work is not nothing. The owner at the till is the whole reason it works, same as the gallery. It's the person, not the room.
But you don't need to save the cringe for elsewhere. The ten minutes only happen if you walk in with something under your arm. Email gets you the ten minutes too, occasionally. Just slower and with less sweat.
Ten minutes on the glaze is worth more than a yes, honestly. She looked properly, which is not nothing.
And yes, that's the whole thing. The walk-in only works if the person holding the door open is the one who says yes. At a gallery you're usually talking to someone who has to say no for a living. Different job.