Marketing Mondays: How’s Business?

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Not everyone's doing this well

If the reports are to be believed, sales at the Miami fairs in December were up from last year, as were those during Armory Week in New York City in March. The dealers I talked to in Miami all claimed to have made enough to cover their costs and many, if not most, to have turned a profit. This is a huge turnaround from the past few years, when grim-faced gallerists returned home from even the smallest fairs some 30-large (or more) in the hole.

In the galleries, it’s up and down. “Finally, things are turning around,” says a dealer friend who sold “almost nothing in 2010.”  But don’t get too excited. Says another, “I haven’t sold a thing in six months.”

Artists, I want to hear from you:

. Have you seen sales of your work improve this year?

. Are these sales via galleries or via such entrepreneurial undertakings as open studios, DIY shows, private sales or booth-and-tent artist fairs?

. Is small selling better than large?

. Are prints or works on paper selling better than painting or sculpture?

. What are you hearing anecdotally from artists and dealers about the state of business in your city?

Posting anonymously is fine. I'm going to post anonymously myself. With your help, we’ll get a sense of how artists are doing right now.