Does anyone actually email galleries anymore, or is walking in still the way?
I'm a hobbyist painter, I do acrylic landscapes and still lifes, and I sell a few pieces at local fairs. There's a small gallery downtown that I've walked past maybe fifty times and I finally want to do something about it.
So, do you email first with photos, or just walk in with a folder and hope someone's at the desk? I emailed one place last spring and never heard a word back, which honestly stung more than a no would have. But walking in feels so bold to me.
What worked for you the first time?
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Walking in, but not cold. Go when it's dead, a Tuesday or Wednesday early afternoon, and ask whoever's at the desk if the person who hangs the shows has five minutes. If they don't, ask when they do and come back. That's not boldness, that's just showing up, and it's the whole difference.
The email thing isn't wrong either, but you're sending photos of a thing they can't feel through a screen. I emailed a place once, got silence, and I still think about it. Then I walked into a different one with actual work under my arm and got a real conversation in ten minutes. A folder beats a jpeg every time for what you do. Textures and edges and how the paint sits on the surface, none of that survives a phone photo of a landscape.
Also, that silence last spring wasn't a no. Galleries are drowning and bad at email. You can resent it and still not take it personally. Or take it personally for a week and then go anyway, that's what I did. ❤️
"That's not boldness, that's just showing up" - ok that actually reframed it for me. I think I've been treating it like asking someone to prom.
The folder point is what gets me. I have a stack sitting in my studio right now that never gets seen because I keep sending jpegs into the void. Tuesday early afternoon I could probably swing, I'd just have to take a long lunch. Worth it once to find out.
Did you bring originals or prints of the pieces when you walked in? I'm scared of something getting banged up in the car but I also don't want to show up with a binder of copies.