While thinking ahead recently to what I want to achieve in 2019, I remembered something that I did in 2005 -- very much the internet era, but just before the advent of social media. In order to generate some interest in my work at the time, I had a tri-fold brochure printed, and physically mailed a copy plus cover letter to dozens of galleries and university museums around the United States. The results, as far as I can recall, were something like the following:
- Reply rate 16% (the average is much lower than that for a mailer).
- One Chicago gallery took some big pieces of art on consignment.
- It led to three exhibitions at small museums in Maryland, Illinois, and Wisconsin.
With that in mind, I've had a simpler glossy handout printed up. It's 9 inches by 6 inches, printed both sides on glossy card stock:
The text is in English and French, because I intend to leave it with some galleries in Paris during my teaching trip there.
I'll do a follow up blog post on how this works out after a few months.