would you show in a space that takes 50%? tell me your actual number, mine is 30
I ask because I got the same question twice this week and I still don't have a good answer.
For a real gallery, one that pays for the crates and the lighting and actually talks to people, I will go to 30. Above that I start to get stupid about it, even when the math works. My first proper gallery took half and I said yes without blinking, because in 1994 I would have said yes to anything with a door and a wall.
Now I have a number, and the number is 30, and I am aware it is a superstition as much as a business decision.
So, what is yours. Not the principled answer you give at a panel. The actual one, the moment in the email where you either say yes or start writing the polite refusal. And has anyone walked away because of it, or is it always you who folds.
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Ah here, 30 is a grand number and I'd say the superstition part is doing more work than you think. Mine was 25 back when I was doing the craft fairs and small presses, and I'd have gone lower for a place that actually shifted work. The one that taught me was a group show in a converted grain store years back, 40% and a promise of "footfall". Footfall. I sold one small hare print and spent the commission on parking. But the flip side, and I'll say it because nobody does, a good gallery at 40 can beat a lazy one at 20. The cut is only half the story, the other half is do they talk to people or do they just stand there looking at their phone.
So my honest number is 30 same as you, but only if I've watched them sell something with their mouth before I sign. Otherwise I'd rather keep the whole thing and do the market myself, wet Saturday and all.