Walked in cold once and it's the only in-person pitch I've ever done. Anyone else dread the walk-in?

I'm a chronic email-er, which honestly took me forever to even get comfortable with. But last fall I was in a town with one gallery I'd been chasing online for like a year, and I figured why not just... walk in. I brought three small pieces in a tote bag and asked the woman at the desk if she had two minutes. She was so nice about it, looked at everything, kept one for their submissions pile, and I basically floated out of there. And then I never did it again because the idea of doing it a second time makes me want to crawl out of my skin haha.

So genuine question for the people who DO the walk-in thing regularly: how?? Do you book it ahead or just show up? Do you bring work or just talk? And has it ever actually turned into something, or is it more of a warm-up for the email later? I need to know if I'm missing out by hiding behind my keyboard forever.

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Kasia Nowak·5d

That first walk-in working out so smoothly might actually be why the second one feels impossible. Now you know what a good outcome looks like and the pressure of matching it is worse than the blank slate was.

I've never done it. I'm an email-only person too and even those take me a day to draft sometimes. But I'm curious, what did you actually say when you asked for the two minutes? I have this picture of myself freezing up and just holding the tote bag out like a silent offering. I need a script before I could ever try it. 😅

Dani OkaforOP·5d

Okay so the pressure thing is REAL, I hadn't thought about it that way but you're right. First time I had zero expectations so anything was a win, now I'd be comparing every second attempt to that one perfect interaction and that's a recipe for just never doing it again haha.

And honestly my script was embarrassingly simple, I just said "hi, I know this is a long shot but I'm a painter and I was hoping someone might have two minutes to look at a couple pieces" and she just... said yes? Like people are nicer than I give them credit for. I did NOT have a follow-up plan if she'd said no, I was banking everything on that one line. I think the tote bag silent offering also would've happened if she'd hesitated at all, I was gripping it like a lifeline the whole time.

But the email drafting taking a day thing is so relatable, I'll rewrite one subject line like twelve times and then send it at 11pm and immediately wish I hadn't. What kind of work do you make? If you ever want to do a practice walk-in together via moral support I'm very good at hyping people up from a distance 😅

Lukas Brandt·5d

I've done my share of walk-ins, though not in a tote-bag-with-three-pieces sense. I worked in a different time, before email was the default, so the cold visit was just how it was done. You knocked, you asked, you got turned away most of the time, and you came back on a better day. The sting wears off.

What I'd say is that the dread doesn't come from the walking in. It comes from the gap between what you're carrying and how it reads in a strange room. You're not just pitching your work, you're standing next to it while someone judges both at once. That's the exposure that makes you want to crawl out of your skin.

But you got a good reception the first time, which means your instinct about approach was sound. The second one probably won't go as well, because few do, and that's the part you'll have to sit with. The ones who do this for a living have learned to take the rejection as information, not verdict.

The first time isn't the real test. The second and third are, when the luck runs out and you still go in.

Dani OkaforOP·5d

Okay that "standing next to it while someone judges both at once" thing really got me, because that's exactly it. I hadn't even put words to it but yeah, it's not the pitch that's scary, it's that you're in the room being evaluated along with the work. Like the painting can't do the talking for you, you're both just sitting there under the lights.

And honestly hearing you say the sting wears off is kind of reassuring? I think I've built the second walk-in up into this huge terrifying thing when it's really just... knocking and asking. Thanks for this, genuinely. Can I ask, did it ever get to a point where you stopped caring about the rejection, or did you just get better at bouncing back from it? I'm still in the phase where one no sends me into a spiral about my whole career haha.

Dani OkaforOP·5d

"The gap between what you're carrying and how it reads in a strange room", yeah, that's the whole thing isn't it. At home my work looks like me, it's on my wall, I know what I was thinking at every stage. In a gallery it's just this thing I made standing there while I awkwardly hover next to it like a parent at a school play haha. You're not wrong that the sting wears off though, I keep telling myself that part. Did the knocking and getting turned away ever get easier with repetition or did you just get better at the walking-back-in part? I think that's the bit I'm worst at honestly, the failed one. I can handle a no, I cannot handle a no and then me having to leave the room.