Reaching Out For Work
You’ve got to be proactive when seeking work, opportunities and commissions.
Unless you’ve built your reputation to the point where work inquiries come flooding in with little effort, then you should make a conscious decision to reach out to people.
In this guide I want to share with you some key principles to remember when you are searching for new work.
1. Who are you reaching out to?
Reaching out to a Gallery Curator takes a different approach to reaching out to a possible client.
With a Curator you obviously want to celebrate your work, but you can also add in some arty terminology and talk about your work in a more complex manner as you know a curator already has a deep understanding of art.
Whereas with a potential client who may have never painted before you’ll need to communicate in a way which is accessible and clear. As you wouldn’t want to alienate who you’re speaking to.
This is why it’s important to adapt your approach to each individual you reach out to.
2. Focus on building connections
You’re more likely to get new work if you’ve already got a built relationship with the client.
It makes sense when you think about it, if you’re on someone’s radar because they have met with you and know who you are and what you do, then when they need a commission making they’ll often contact the first person that comes to mind.
When building your creative career it’s a marathon not a sprint. Build strong foundations of reputable relationships, you’ll slowly start to accumulate more work.
Do you know all of the arts organisations/galleries/museums/theatres in your area? How often do you visit these? Do you know who is the Curator/Producer there? Do you keep up with their social media to know what events they’re running?
All of this information is available you just need to be proactive to look for it. Immerse yourself in the art scene around you and it will build up your own reputation thus leading to more work enquiries.
3. Update your Bio
Let’s say you’re reaching out to a Curator about displaying your work in their gallery.
A well written artist bio and high res images of your work can get your foot in the door.
How up‑to‑date is your artist bio?
I’ve recently updated mine with the help of ‘society6’, ‘Write The Perfect Artist Bio With These Five Simple Tips’
I’ll summarise what goes into a bio here but I would recommend reading the full post.
• Where you are currently based. Only mention where you were born or grow up if it informs your current work and is worth noting.
• Your art medium(s) and special techniques
• Inspiration and what you are passionate about
• Your biggest achievements. This can be awards, high profile clients you’ve worked for, or gallery shows
Bonus Tip: When describing how long you have been doing something, use the year you started. Example: “since 2013” vs. “for 5 years”. This way you won’t have to update it every year.
4. Offer some free work to get started
I still do from time‑to‑time now, but more often in those early days of starting out I would offer a lot of work for free.
Yes I am well aware there is an ethical conundrum with this.
One being by offering your services for free you’re devaluing artists’ work in people’s mind which then can make it difficult for other artists to charge fair rates.
The other being that working for free is not accessible for everyone. Many have rent, bills and responsibilities therefore simply cannot afford to work for no cost. Meaning those from financially abundant backgrounds continue to have an advantageous start.
For these reasons listed above, I recommend being very selective about what ‘free’ work you do. Weigh up how much learning, experience, skills, marketing material, contacts, future leads you are probable from gaining. Do these benefits outway the cost of your time spent on the project?
If yes then I would recommend having a think about what your ‘dream client’ would look like as well as the ‘dream project’. What’s a commission you’ve always wanted to do but no one has reached out yet for it?
Find those people and offer some work to build a portfolio which will attract paying customers.
5. Make more people know who you are
Having a good understanding with what’s happening in the creative scene in your area is vital in order to build a reputation and grow your practice.
A easy way to get people to know you is to participate in what’s actually going on.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. If you’re in Doncaster or near to Donny @doncastercreativenetwork is a great place to start to get your face known and build your network of contacts.
I’m forever passing work onto other artists that I think would suit the job. I love bigging up the incredible talent we have here and I know that creatives in other disciplines have sent work my way too.
The other side to building your physical presence is spending some time to focus on your digital one. These are the key areas I put energy into:
Out of all my social media’s my largest following is on here. It makes sense because I spend a lot of time on here and enjoy this platform the most. Instagram continues to bring new leads in for me and helps to build my personal brand.
LinkedIn is great for a more ‘formal’ persona of my brand. I use this platform as I know Councils, charities and businesses gravitate towards this site. Those groups are a section of clients I tend to work with.
• YouTube
I focus on YouTube as a bit of fun atm. But I do have plans to grow it into an educational and bts profile. I also know that it’s a good lead generator for a lot of other businesses.
• Website
If you don’t already have a website I would highly recommend setting one up. It gives your practice credibility, professionalism and a clear way to contact you. I use SquareSpace and have been for 5 years now, the starting price is £13 a month. However for a free website I would recommend Wix.
