So, you’ve made a piece of art and want to show it off, now what? When just starting out, many artists don’t know how to go about getting their work into an art show. You are not alone, we have all been there!
Call to artists
The thing you are looking for is a Call to Artists. Vancouver Art Space has a tab at the top of our website to direct you to all of the upcoming art shows we will have. Click here to be taken to our Call to Artists page. You can type this in your search engine to find some. Entry Thingy is a site that many curators use to post their Calls, we use it on our site.
I applied, how should I prepare my work?
Make sure to read through the directions that the curator has put on the Call. It’s very important to make sure you have a safe way to hang your work in the gallery space. The above photo shows a proper way to wire a framed canvas piece. You want to make sure your artwork will hang safely and not fall down and damage your piece. We also suggest you label the back of the piece with your information just to be safe.
Works on paper or photographic prints should be matted and behind glass. NEVER send a loose sheet of paper to an art show. It’s good to take a picture of your piece before you put it behind glass so you have a clear image without glare to email off for the Call and also for your personal files. The above image is by artist Barbara Sheehan and has a double mat board.
Package your art well if you are shipping
It’s good to invest in proper shipping boxes for your pieces. If your art is not packaged correctly, it could be damaged in transit and not only get ruined, but will not arrive able to be put in the show. You can get very nice shipping boxes and include a return shipping label for it to be returned to you. Even if your piece sells, you will have your box back so you can use it to ship out more art for more shows.
Most importantly, read all of the directions for the Call. Not all curators will run their shows the same and you don’t want to miss something and get left out of the show. VAS is working on an Artists 4 Artists series here at Vancouver Art Space so that we can give more info on how to be a professional artist. We hope this has been helpful!
