What Are Day to Day Operations at an Art Gallery
Robert Patrick
by Carolyn Edlund
Part Ii of a three-part interview with Robert Patrick. He is the Director of Marketing and Wholesale for Linda Jones Enterprises, defended to the art of legendary film creator Chuck Jones.
Robert has a long history of curating and producing shows, tours and events. This include 12 years as a very successful gallery director at the Walton Street Gallery in Chicago. Robert graciously agreed to an interview focused on what artists must know most galleries, collectors, selling, and making presentations.
Every bit: Could you lot draw a typical day for a gallery director?
RP: I would have to say that a gallery director never has a typical day. Simply, I think at that place are sure processes and steps that a director may take each day that insure the viability of the business.
My twenty-four hour period commonly began the night before. Before leaving for the evening, I would clean off my desk and I would write a brusque to-do list for the post-obit day, leaving it neatly centered on my desk. The next morning, on the trip into town, I would do a series of visualization exercises focusing on items that I wanted to reach that 24-hour interval. I besides always visualized selling a piece of work of art. And I encouraged my staff to do the same.
Once in the gallery, I would consult with the staff regarding their plans for the day. I would consul tasks to the dorsum of the business firm staff (administration and registrar), and drink copious amounts of java (at to the lowest degree a cup or two).
If we were planning a show, there would be a lot to practise. We would have press releases to write, invitations to blueprint, envelopes to hand-address. Nosotros would take catering and flowers to order. And there would exist art to install, which unremarkably entailed a complete overhaul of the gallery. Walls would need spackling and painting. Although the back of the house staff would do the piece of work, it was my responsibility to meet that it was washed as needed for that particular exhibition.
Along with exhibition planning, we would meet with the creative person for an exhibition walk-through. Commonly this would exist a few days before (or fifty-fifty the day of the reception.) This would be a time for the staff and I to have some one-on-one with the artist. Nosotros'd exist able to probe and discover new ways of discussing their artwork with our collectors. Information technology also gave the artist the opportunity to make any changes to the installation of the show.
Equally: How do y'all interact with clients?
On a daily basis. I would exist in contact with collectors. Some would walk in, others would have appointments, or speak on the phone. I would also coordinate deliveries and installations (a service we offered to all of our local clients.) And I would be making presentations and handling T.O.s (turn-overs). Our art consultants would normally begin a presentation and then innovate me at a later stage of their sales process. I would either shut the sale or offer details that enhanced the probabilities of the consultant closing the auction. Information technology is a business concern later on all, and sales are the nigh important charge of the gallery managing director.
Every bit often as possible, later a consultant had finished with a collector, nosotros would vet the experience. We'd dissect what worked and what didn't. Why they bought what they did or why they didn't buy anything. What the consultant could have done better. Ane solar day a calendar week earlier the gallery would open up, I would hold an hour-long all-consultant coming together where nosotros would hash out upcoming events, piece of work on sales presentations, and consider new and improve means of doing concern. It is important that your staff, specially the art consultants, feel that they have a sense of gallery buying; that their vocalization and opinion matter to the success of the gallery.
AS: What about displays and exhibitions?
Even without a specific show, I like to keep the art moving. At home I prefer the salon installation and sometimes I would employ that technique in the gallery, depending on the artist and the piece of work, but more than ofttimes than non, we kept the art hung gallery-manner (in a line, i after the other, with the occasional double-hang.)
At an exhibition with an artist reception, the entire gallery would be devoted to their work for at least two weeks. Later on that we would start to reduce its size over the next couple of weeks, slowing calculation our other artists back into the mix. If in that location wasn't a special exhibit or focus, I would re-hang the gallery every ii weeks (as well every bit changing the art in the windows), particularly because the majority of our clientele were local. When I directed the Circle Gallery in the Westin Maui, we re-hung the gallery less frequently as our clients were tourists almost exclusively and were in the hotel for 3 days on average. But change was withal important in keeping the staff fresh and excited well-nigh the art we presented and sold.
The interesting thing well-nigh being a gallery director is that the task does not cease at 5:30. Later on the gallery would shut, there may be community outreach programs to attend, gallery openings, artist open-studios, all of which are almost connecting and networking with your community. Although I believe in the power of social media to help network, in that location is no substitute for face-to-face advice; that is real customs edifice and it pays major dividends when you are in the business organisation of placing art into the homes and offices of those who love it.
Don't miss Role I and Role 3 of this interview series with Robert Patrick.
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Source: https://www.artsyshark.com/2010/10/22/a-gallery-director-speaks-a-day-in-the-life/
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