10 ways to promote your next exhibition

You’ve had this fabulous idea for an exhibition for over a year now.

You are lucky enough to get a space to show your images and, though it’s been a whirlwind, six months have passed and it’s now 3 months to the day before your exhibition opens.

Sound familiar?

If so, you’re probably working crazy hours thinking of ways to promote your exhibition, trying to make sure that somebody, at least, comes to see it after all the hard work you’ve put in.

You know there’s still a lot of work to do but you also know that without a little planning right at this time about how to attract attention to your exhibition, it might pass without a whisper.

By no means is this is about ensuring buyers for your work. No, this is all about the top 10 ways to get people in the door to begin with.

10 top ways to promote your next exhibition

1. Create a press release for your show. Tried and true, this is an extremely useful tool to create. It helps you on many levels. Create a press release of just a couple of paragraphs with some background information specific to the exhibition and send it to local newspapers and websites.
2. Once you’ve created a short promotional piece, make sure to send it to all your previous contacts. Even if they’ve never bought anything from you, chances are a few people from your list will visit the gallery, and who knows, maybe even one of them might part with some cash in exchange for a fabulously creative piece you’ve produced.
3. Identify your market. For a successful promotional campaign you need to find whom your target audience is. Every one will be different. For example you might have put together a striking collection of native flora prints that you want to exhibit. Well, aside from the public who might like to look at beautiful images, you might consider targeting nurseries and botanic gardens for some promotional activities. These are places where people who like trees and flowers often visit.
4. Make use of community notice boards. Very often opportunities to advertise your exhibition for free, or even at very little cost, are right under our noses and we forget about them. Look for online notice boards like weekend notes and what’s on in Sydney to promote. Mind you, the ‘whatson’ city of Sydney site will only permit listings of events within its local council frame-work. For events a little further out, other local councils have a similar thing in place so don’t forget to ask about it or check on your local council website.
5. Advertise at other local spaces. Places like the local library, council buildings, schools and community halls make great places to place a simple flyers. Make sure you get all the right permissions though, before you place anything up, or you might end up having to take it all back down again. A little common courtesy often goes a long way.
6. Do an interview. Volunteer to do an interview with the local media; newspaper or radio. In preparation, think about the ‘pitch’ you will use to garner interest. Remember the person with the most vested interest in your exhibition is you and everyone else needs to be made excited about attending the exhibition.
7. Use social media. I should have made this number 1, not 7, but social media is a crucial part of your campaign. If you’re not social media savvy, make sure you seek out the services of someone who is so that they can help you with this aspect of promotion. It’s not enough to discard the thought of it just because YOU cannot make sense of the technology.
8. Create a folio website and/or blog to show your best work and promote your exhibition. Make sure you regularly update both to keep them fresh and SEO ready.
9. Network. Personal networking does work. An exhibition is a lot of work and in many ways it is a personal representation of what you think and feel about a subject. Make sure to tell everyone you meet that you have, or are just about to have an exhibition and always be ready with a card or a flyer with the exhibition details listed. Your life should not be so compartmentalized that one aspect doesn’t flow over to another. You are the sum of all those different aspects and you will often find that people who you never thought are interested in other facets of your personality. You never know when you might be talking to someone who collects exactly the type of photographic imagery that you specialize in. Networking can also mean getting to know other photographers as well. Your local association or photography club is a classic example of a place to build relationships with other photographers. There is great value in the support network photographers generate and they can often offer valuable advice so listen with your mouth closed and your mind wide open.
10. Be generous with your time. A good exhibition can generate a lot of positive interest in what you are doing creatively so allow plenty of time to take each task on this list seriously and do each task to the best of your ability. Remember what you think and feel when you see an exhibition that doesn’t appear properly finished.

Of course this list is not complete and we could go on and on with lessons learned from previous experience.

We’d like to hear from you with your experiences on this subject as well, as no doubt we can all learn a thing or too.

Think about this; in which area did you fall down when preparing for your last exhibition, and how could you do it better?

David Moore, Capturing the creation of the Sydney Opera House

Photographer: David Moore
Exhibition: Capturing the creation of the Sydney Opera House
Venue: Customs House
31 Alfred Street, Circular Quay, Sydney NSW 2000
Level 2 Library, 1 November 2013 to 26 January 2014

Since opening in 1973, the Opera House has entertained audience in excess of 65 million. This year the Sydney Opera House will celebrate four decades as an eminent national building valuable piece of cultural and tourism infrastructure.

David Moore (1927–2003) was Australia’s most renowned and widely travelled photojournalist. His extraordinary archive covers both his homeland and the many countries and assignments he covered over a sixty-year career.
From 1962 to 1973 Moore photographed the construction of the  Opera House. The selection from that body of work exhibited here at Customs House is eloquent in its commemoration of a unique building while at the same time reinforcing a noteworthy photographic legacy.

Jørn Utzon’s reaction to Moore’s epic depiction of the construction of the Opera House was to classify the photographs as ‘marvelous (sic)…by far the best I have ever seen’. Writing in early 1968, he added: ‘the Sydney Opera House needs to be seen with a great artist’s eye such as yours to make people understand [the building’s] poetic qualities’. It was a generous tribute to a fellow spirit, a photographer who was in communion with, and acutely sensitive to, Utzon’s mould-breaking vision.

The Customs House exhibition is Moore’s posthumous returning  of the compliment, a homage to the daring and genius of Utzon’s expressionist architecture: an approach which insists on the new, original and visionary; the concept of architecture as a work of art. Moore himself called the Opera House ‘a fabulous freestanding sculpture’. His meticulous application to documenting the construction process from the bones upward was passionate and committed: a kind of love affair in which his images reflect an awe and respect for Utzon’s work. Alternatively alive with the play of light or suffused with a brooding romanticism, they sing of purity, precision and technical control.

Copyright Estate of David Moore – Opera House geometry, 1966

Copyright Estate of David Moore – Sydney Opera House shadows, 1962

Copyright Estate of David Moore – Sun patterns within the Opera House podium, 1962

Copyright Estate of David Moore – Reinforcing steel, Sydney Opera House, 1962

Isolations – David Knight

Exhibition title: Isolations
Artist: David Knight
Venue name: Meyer Gallery
Artist Website: http://www.knight-photo.com
Venue website: http://www.meyergallery.com.au
Venue address: 2 Danks Street, Waterloo, 2017
Exhibition dates and venue times: Currently showing until November 9, 11am – 5pm
Cost: Free

To many, David Knight has a keen reputation as a prime portrait artist having been selected as a three-times finalist in the prestigious British Photographic Portrait prize (’09,’10, & ’11) and locally, as a finalist with the Head On Portrait prize, to name just a few of his accolades. This work however presents us with a complex critique of our own inner consciousness. David’s work, thoughtfully curated by Mary Meyer, challenges us to confront our prejudices, both conscious and unconscious.

The work presents us with powerful and evocative visual evidence of social issues confronting modern-day Australia. Those issues include immigration, social dislocation and destruction of traditional community entities. The work is fantastic and compelling, the narrative alongside each image is confronting and I would suggest you leave yourself ample time to meander among these images.

The exhibition closes this coming Saturday so take advantage of the day and come and speak with David who will be at the gallery between 3 and 5pm to answer questions and chat with you.
Opinion: Not to be missed.

Coming soon, Spring 2013 – group collection and Isolations – David Knight

Somehow we’ve found the time to visit these two exhibitions situated in Danks Street, Waterloo and with powerful images in both, each deserves their own review. So that being said, in the next 24 hours we hope to post our review on each.

Stay tuned.

‘Lost in Place’, Damien Minton Gallery, Nov 5 – 9 2013

This exciting exhibition is the work of 10 local photographers; Catherine Cloran / Digby Duncan / Helen Grace / Caroline McLean-Foldes / Sally McInerney / Ian Provest / Suellen Symons / Chris Round / Lynn Smith / Niobe Syme.

The exhibition highlights our attachment to ‘place’ and how that speaks to our identity and belonging, where memories are wrapped in place.

I enjoyed the different interpretations of ‘place’ from each individual artist; their different view points demonstrating a remarkable breadth of diversity.

It’s a strong group with each artist contributing a special flavour unique to them. The work of Lynn Smith is vibrant, moody and earthy, whereas the images by Chris Round are more restrained and precise. I particularly enjoyed the works by Catherine Cloran, a series of 5 images with an unusual point of view.

Ian Provests’ images are a powerful testament to his keen eye and interpretative spirit, definitely worth a long, hard look. The quirky eye of Helen Grace pokes at scenes revisited from long ago and images by Sally McInerny take on photo-documentary  stature.

I found I could associate strongly with the nostalgic lingering of scenes by Caroline McLean-Foldes, and the impressionistic look into a Chinese village slated for demolition produces two powerful images by Digby Duncan, and lastly, though not least important are the works by Niobe Syme and Suellen Symons. Having been to India 3 times in the last 18 months I’m fairly partial to Niobe’s images of ‘Leaving Jodpur’.

This exhibition works well with this diverse range of talent ,mainly through their collective interpretative skill.

I found the exhibition images raised questions about my association of place with my life as I know it today and the direction I my life is taking.

Definitely an exhibition not to miss. This group of artists let their experience show through and we should all take a moment to sit, or stand and contemplate the concept of place and association they present to us.

On Nov 5 – 9 at the Damien Minton Gallery, 583 Elizabeth Street Redfern. Open hours Wednesday to Saturday 11am – 6pm. Free entry

‘Guest Relations’, by Robyn Stacey, Oct 9 – Nov 9

Wow, it’s not every day we get overwhelmed when reviewing someone’s exhibition but that’s how  we felt when checking out this exhibition by Robyn Stacey. Showing at the Stills Gallery , 36 Gosbell Street Paddington this body of work is another fantastic powerhouse from the artist.

Right up front the power of the artist emanates across multiple facets. This series combines impressions of private and public spaces by the use of captured image projection into the darkened interiors of city hotel rooms. It somehow makes the impersonal, more personal.

Robyn uses the camera obscura technique to ‘project’ her outside visions onto the drab interior hotel room walls with stunning results.

Vivid in colour and clarity, the contrast is unique and thought-provoking.

With only 4 days left to see this exhibition please do not miss it. We were just grateful to have had an opportunity to see these works up close and personal.

Showing now at Stills Gallery, 36 Gosbell Street Paddington. Open Wednesday to Saturday 11.00 to 5pm. Free entry.               

DO NOT MISS, CLOSES THIS SATURDAY, Nov 9th

This week, reviews on ‘Lost in Place’ and ‘Guest Relations’

These two exhibitions will run this week so our reviews go up in the next 24 hrs… stay tuned

8 fantastic points of view from ‘Impressions of 8’ artists in Richmond

Last evening I had the pleasure of attending the opening night for Impressions of 8, a photographic exhibition by 8 local photographers. I thought I’d get there early to look around the images in an uncrowded room but on arrival I found the room already buzzing with the chatter of many people.

I (and everyone else) was graciously met by one of the artists, Barbara Glover, who handed me a catalogue, gave me the rundown and dispatched me into the foray with efficient ease.

The images by photographers; Jennifer Bailey, Bob Cook, Paula Cook, Annette Ferris, Barbara Glover, Tanya Heather, John Hingston and Rod Murphy feature a range of photography styles and interests which in no way detracted from the show. Travel and landscapes was a common theme among most of the works on show, with one notable exception in the work of Tanya Heather whom demonstrates exceptional skill with unusual portraits.

The quality of all the images evoke a timelessness and peace. I think they do exactly what photography should do in transporting you to wonder and appreciate the world at large. The exhibition was opened by Jacqui Dean who did a wonderful job and sung high praises for all involved.

The works are for sale and all exceptionally well priced and would make great gifts with Christmas just around the corner.

This exhibition is definitely a hit and not to be missed. Visit their Facebook Page for further details, but be quick to get there as its only on this weekend!

The exhibition is currently on in the Murray Wing of Richmond School of Arts, 26 W Market Street Richmond, and is open this weekend only from 9am to 5pm on Saturday 26th October and 10am to 4pm on Sunday 27th October 2013.

Selling Dreams – One Hundred Years of Fashion Photography

Simone wears fashion by Venet, River Seine, Paris. American Harper’s Bazaar, March 1963
Melvin Sokolsky
© Melvin Sokolsky / Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Selling Dreams – One Hundred years of Fashion Photography is currently showing at the State Library of NSW this fabulous exhibition features works from William Klein, Richard Avedon and Helmut Newton as well as David Bailey, Arthur Elgort and Lillian Bassman.

The camera work is simple and dramatic with models cleverly multiplied by mirrors or obscured by wispy veils until only a hint of line and form remain. Through it all though, the form, cut and personality of the dress and wearer shines through. Unexpected angles, cropping and low point of view create a feeling of being a voyeur with the shots unfolding before your eyes.

Helmut Newton’s juxtaposition of lithe women against simple, minimalistic backgrounds highlights the magic of good choreography. A start contrast to today’s point of view.

My personal favorites  were by Arthur Elgort, with a personal snap taken on the streets of New York of the makeup artist Wendy Whitelaw and images by Lillian Bassman using reflected light to accentuate situation and intimacy between the models in ‘by night, shining wool’.

Within this exhibition is a selection titled ‘Australian Glamour’ featuring a fabulous model Maggie Tabberer with images by Helmut Newton and Rob Hillier who shot for Vogue and Fashion and Society respectively.

A heads up, Maggie is gorgeous and the images represent the transition of Australia onto this international stage.

The whole exhibition is worthy of some considerable time to acquaint yourself with a candid look into ‘selling dreams, not clothes’ – quote by Irving Penn

You should not miss this event.

It’s free.

The only Australian venue is at the State Library of NSW until November 10.

Latest exhibition reviews – Ansel Adams – Oct 2013

I would have to start with the Ansel Adams exhibition that’s on at the Australian National Maritime Museum.

Titled “Photography from the mountains to the sea” this exhibition showcases over 70 original works. Adams creative use of natural light shows through with stunning clarity, as does his love of nature in all its forms. Speaking as a photographer I’ve already seen it twice; once to take in the essence of the works, how it hangs together, the exhibition logistics I suppose you might call it, and once to analyze and dissect the creative aspects, lines, form, composition etc.

I found in his images that his use of light was magical, using it to highlight lines and textures and to frame images within images.

For anyone who is interested in photography this is a must-see event.

On now until December 8th.