Organising your Art Exhibition

We all consider doing an exhibition at some point, and why won’t we? It makes perfect sense. You’re an artist, you’ve worked hard and as a result you have a lot of paintings to show. Organising an exhibition is the next logical step. Its not always easy to get one through an established gallery and you feel your ready for one.

The idea enthuses you as you picture yourself there with a glass of dry white in one hand, while explaining the intricacies of one of your paintings with another to an appreciative prospective buyer. Ah..The bliss. Ideas are great, and all great actions must first stem from ideas, but they are worthless unless they are implemented, and that’s the main difference between the successful and the not so successful.

The main protagonist in all this is our best friend and worst enemy – our thoughts. When hit with the cold reality of first finding a venue, finding time, finding money for framing, we tank it. We find more than enough reasons not to go ahead with the project. We get rejected by possible venue owners. This gives us a taste of what rejection feels like and we naturally hate it. We tell ourselves, with inflated hurt dignity, that we are not going to put ourselves in that position again.

The truth being if we don’t put ourselves in that position again, of vulnerability, we probably won’t get far in the art world. Because that world is largely one of relationships, like most worlds, and being vulnerable is part of it. But we can do a few things to hedge against the pain of rejection. The best one is to grow a thick skin, don’t take it personal and just keep asking, because in the end you’ll get there.

On the upside, there are loads of people out there willing to help us, willing to buy our work and really ribbing for us to do well. Its just we haven’t met them yet, because we are not ‘out there’ with your work and an exhibition of your work, is the best way to get out there.

Another important point to remember, when you do get that venue, the boxes of cheap wine and the couple of plates with the crackers and cheese, and your standing there having the same conversations with the same people who always stand by you through thick and thin, that it doesn’t matter that the whole town hasn’t ground to a halt because of your exhibition. That the people on the street are not clamoring to get through the doors to see your paintings, or that the roll of red dot stickers sits unopened in your pocket. The important thing is that you have done it.

Yes, you. Granted you got loads of help and you couldn’t have done it without all the help, but the final responsibility and final say is yours. So if it happens, give yourself a well deserved clap on the back, your off and running the next one will be bigger and better.