Art Business Info.

Overview of my website Art Business Info. - For Artists 


For artists who want to find out more about the business side of art.

This is the Index to ALL the pages on the website


TOPICS COVERED




CHECK OUT the subject areas covered in the menu above and topics listed below​​

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO BOOKMARK ANY PAGES YOU ARE INTERESTED IN


Art Business Info: NEWS Blog | ​ Facebook


In general the way new posts about the art business will work is as follows:
  • THIS BLOG: Making A Mark: major updates about the art business will continue to be published on this blog 
  • DEDICATED BLOGArt Business Info: News - More minor updates and news about new pages on the website will be published on the new blog 

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PRACTICE



Business Habits


PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE: How to be a successful artist - Habits, Practices and Development
Business Habits are what you do so you can go on making your art.
Not so much the paperwork - more an attitude of mind.
Developing the habits of successful artists is key to a successful career.
Lots of artists and those related to the art business have shared their tips. ​

​​Starting Out - TIPS

READ ON If you want.....
  • to be a success as an artist
  • to avoid failing as an artist
  • to be successful selling 'daily paintings'
  • to sell your art online
  • to exhibit your work
  • to be more productive
  • to be an artist as well as a parent
  • to develop your career
  • to get representation by a gallery
  • talk about the art business online

Office Practices for Artists


Data Protection for Art and Artists


​The General Data Protection Regulation came into effect on 25 May 2018.
It relates to people's PERSONAL DATA - data that helps identify an individual. ​​It affects
  • all businesses (including sole traders) in the EU 
  • AND ALL businesses outside the EU who collect and/or process and/or store personal data relating to EU residents

How to back up your images


Find out more about how to create and store archives of your images

Legal Matters for Artists

Various laws are relevant to artists - but do you know what these are?
You NEED TO KNOW about:
  • your rights and legal obligations under all laws relating to you as an Individual and in relation to the legal entity that is your art business.
  • when you are entering into a contract whether this is explicit and written down - or implied.
You MUST protect yourself in law by:
  • having a contract for all business you do with third parties AND
  • understanding your precise legal liabilities.

Learning Opportunities


Best Art Business Books

Learn about the business of being an artist
This section focuses on highlighting books which can help artists.

Art Schools in the UK

This site brings together links to various art schools around the UK. It focuses purely on art schools which offer degrees and courses at an undergraduate level and/or postgraduate level.
Are you interested in pursuing an art business course?
0r Do you want a regular injection of art business savvy?

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MARKETING


This section looks at how you communicate with your customers


Marketing yourself


How to write an Artist's Resume or CV - Resources for Artists

How do you summarise your life as an artist for galleries, exhibitions and potential employment? Do you understand the difference between an artist's CV, artist resume and a bio - and how to write them? If you want to know what are the differences in terms of structure, content and the different purposes you use them for this site has information, advice and guidelines for you.

How to write an Artist's Statement - Resources for Artists

An Artist's Statement is essential - but lots of artists dread writing a statement about their art! This site provides links to various helpful and informative articles about
  • how to write an artist's statement, 
  • the sort of information it should contain, 
  • records you need to keep and 
  • how to tackle specific issues

How to write an Artist's Press Release

A link to my free guide which you can read or download for free

Business Cards for Artists

An artist's business card is an important tool of marketing - but what should it include?


Marketing exhibitions


Publicity for Juried Exhibitions

GUIDE: How to get publicity for art competitions and open art exhibitions
​Useful information and checklists:
  • ABOUT marketing and generating publicity for a juried exhibition
  • ABOUT how to avoid very common mistakes and omissions
  • FOR all those organising open art competitions and exhibitions

The Private View Invitation

This page provides a SUMMARY of:
  • why PV Invites fail to be effective | what an effective PV invite looks like
  • 10 ACTIONS for creating an effective invitation to a Private View
  • 5 THINGS TO AVOID when sending out invites to a Private View

Promotion: Marketing Online


How to be mobile-friendly 

This page covers:
  • The Mobile Friendly Checklist
  • Prioritising for Mobile Devices
  • Responsive Templates
  • More readings about being mobile-friendly

Websites for Artists

This section aims to introduce you to some of the basics of websites for artists. It will cover:

Blogging for Artists

Are you an artist and want a blog? Or maybe an artist who wants to work on improving your blog? If you are then read on - you'll find links on this site to sources of advice, information, and all other matters which are relevant to blogging for artists and blogging by artists.  It focuses first on blogging basics, then on blogging for artists. Finally it covers some problems encountered by artists who blog and how to deal with them


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HOW TO SELL ART


This section focuses on selling via third parties, selling online 
and selling direct from home.

Places to sell art


Art Exhibition Checklist for artists

  • CHECKLISTS for artists and juried exhibitions
  • Have you remembered everything you need to think about?

A Guide to Art Dealers and Galleries 

This focuses on retail galleries and art dealers and how they operate. It includes advice and tips - from art advisers and gallery owners - about:
  • key facts about representation, galleries and art dealers
  • ​how to get a gallery or agent
  • how to be mindful of how fit the art gallery business is
  • ​​how to deal with rejection and/or end a relationship with a gallery

The Vanity Gallery

Don't be dazzled when somebody turns their attention to your art.
Be aware, be smart and be astute - and don't get scammed by a Vanity Gallery

The Art Fair

This section covers:
  • The Art Fair - from different perspectives
  • Listings of International, Affordable and Regional Art Fairs
  • Local Art Fairs FAQs
  • e-books by experienced local art fair veterans
  • Art fair equipment and practical tips

A Guide to Art Agents & Consultants 

This focuses on agents for illustrators and fine artists and consultants for corporate clients, art collectors and artists needing art business and marketing advice

Alternative Options for Exhibitions 

This section covers: Pop-Up Spaces, Art Fairs, Art Market booths and renting space at a reputable Commercial Gallery. Plus why all artists need to do "due diligence" on third parties before they pay money to them so they can exhibit their art

Open Studios

This page covers:
  • What are Open Studios? Plus where they can be held and what they involve.
  • Advice about Open Studios - before and during + Guidelines about how to hold Open Studios by different groups
  • Open Studios in the UK - a developing list of open studios in the UK - to compare how you do to others

Selling Art from Home

This highlights the pros and cons and things you need to think about when selling art from your own home.


Selling Art Online


E-commerce for artists

This covers:
  • The Rules about selling art online - specifically the law and regulations in the UK and USA relating to distance selling using the internet.
  • Technical Tips for how to drive traffic and other tools and webware which can help with e-commerce for artist.
  • Advice about how to stay safe when selling online
  • Options for where best to sell art online


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How to Frame Art


This section demystifies some of the technicalities of how to frame art

Recommended Picture Framers

List of Recommended traditional and online Picture Framers by location in the UK (London and Counties) and Ireland. These are framers who are recommended by artists who have used them - on the artist's website or blog.

Conservation Products

Learn about products which help to make your framed artwork look good and preserves it over time. This page covers conservation products and materials relevant to framing that are archival standard.

Framing for art competitions

Framing for art competitions and open art exhibitions is essentially about two things:
  • avoiding your artwork being eliminated from selection because of the frame
  • making your art look good within the context of the competition so your artwork is selected for exhibition

Framing Videos

This page contains videos relating to the whole framing process. ​The introduction tells you what you can expect to see in the video.

How to hang a picture

This page covers:
  • TIPS on how to hand paintings, drawings, fine art prints and photographs
  • How to hang art in a frame on a wall - including tips for using specific frame hanging fixture kits
  • Specific hanging tackle: D rings, picture wire and picture cord
  • How to hang a heavy picture on a wall
  • How to hang and align pictures

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SHIPPING ART


Once you've sold your art you now need to get it to the customer safely
How do you pack art? How do you post art? 
What about international deliveries? What about customs? How do you get it back again? 

This site doesn't pretend to have the answers to all the very many questions people have about getting art from artist to purchaser or from artist to exhibition and back again - but it's a start!

How to pack, post and ship art

  • Frequently asked questions (FAQs) about packaging, posting and shipping art - where to go to find the answer
  • 10 Top Tips for Packaging and Shipping Artwork

How to wrap and pack artwork ​for shipping

Find out about how to wrap, pack and label:
  • artwork which needs to be transported
  • glazed or framed artwork
  • giclĂ©e prints and works on paper
  • works in pastels
Includes tips about measuring , weighing and labelling!

Packaging Materials

This page looks at ​TWO types of packaging for packaging art for shipping.
  • INTERNAL PACKAGING - which helps to make it look good and keeps it dry - and also protects the work should your package get opened by customs.
  • EXTERNAL PACKAGING - which protects and keeps the artwork safe

How to ship art to exhibitions

Find out about
  • the answers to frequently asked questions about shipping art to exhibitions - organised by art galleries, art societies and art competitions.
  • suggested art couriers and transport agents for artwork that needs to be shipped to open exhibitions and art competitions

Couriers, Movers and Shippers


How to ship art internationally

What you need to know to ship (export) artwork internationally for exhibition and/or sale ​
  • How to get to grips with:
    • Export Invoices,
    • Trade Tariff Commodity Codes,
    • The EORI Number
    • Export Licences for Cultural Goods
    • Customs Declaration Forms and Charges 
    • VAT 
    • Reimporting artwork
    • Size, weight and content restrictions 
  • Check out paperwork resources for helping you deal with the paperwork - including
    • Customs declarations and documentation​
    • ​International Addresses
    • Export Invoices
    • Export Licences

How to mail art - General Post and Parcel Services 

An overview of the general post and parcel services on offer in the UK and USA

UK Fine Art Transport services 

List of UK Art Movers, Couriers & Specialist Shippers - How to get your fine art from A to B without using the post or taking it yourself + Checklists re assessing couriers/movers


USA Fine Art Transport services 

List of USA Art Movers, Couriers & Specialist Shippers​ - covering Specialist Fine Art Shipping Services, International Art Shippers and Generic Shipping Services in the USA

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COPYRIGHT FOR ARTISTS 


Copyright for Artists

Outlines the contents of this section and introduces copyright

Know Your Rights


Copyright and artists' rights

This section is about:
  • what copyright is and is not;
  • what it covers and what it doesn't cover; and
  • why copyright is important to an artist or anybody who creates original work

Copyright infringement and fair use

This page covers:
  • what is copyright infringement
  • what is fair use
  • what is the public domain

Global Conventions on Copyright

Information about the major conventions which affect copyright across the world

Copyright in - The UKthe USACanadaAustralasia

Individual pages about how copyright works in each of these countries

Protecting your assets


How to protect artwork online 

This section covers various strategies for protecting your artwork online.
  • Plan to prevent theft
  • What to do when someone steals your image​

How to do a Reverse Image Search

  • What is a reverse image search?
  • How do you find who's stolen your art for their website?
  • How do you find the source of an image you want to use?

What to do about copyright infringement - for artists

This section covers:
  • how to take action on stolen content / copyright infringement
  • copyright infringement and court action - why people have to pay if they infringe copyright - and some examples of some cases concerning "appropriation" and famous artists
  • copyright infringement and content theft - some context in terms of informative articles and posts online

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MONEY AND TAXES


Money Management


How to Price Your Art  

Find out more about the importance of price, what your pricing options are and what other artists are doing. It covers:

How to create an invoice

On this page you'll find guidance on
  • what invoices for art sales should contain,
  • what's different about invoices when exporting art out of the country
  • paper versus electronic invoices
  • how to use PayPal to raise an invoice
  • how to get paid!

Tax Tips


Tax Tips for Artists 

This page does not constitute professional advice but gives you a lead on what issues to consider and what questions to ask if you need more advice.

It covers


VAT for Artists  

Value Added Tax (VAT) is a topic of interest to:
  • artists living in the European Union
  • international artists wishing to exhibit in the European Union (EU)
  • art societies wanting to hold exhibitions involving international artists
  • galleries wanting to sell work by international artists in the UK and by UK artists to customers within the EU.


Insurance


Insurance for Art and Artists

This provides an overview of different types of insurance relevant to art and artists
  • insurance for an artist's assets and art business liabilities
  • public liability insurance relating to third parties
  • specialist insurance for artists
  • specialist insurance for art businesses

Pensions


Retirement and Pensions for Artists

This covers:
  • Do artists ever retire? Do artists ever make provision for a pension?
  • Using art as a pension pot
  • Pensions: self-employment vs. paid employment
  • Changes to pension planning
  • How much state pension will you get (UK)?

The Art Estate


The Art Legacy - Estate Planning for Artists & Art Collectors

What should happen to the art after an artist's death - or the death of an art collector?  It's an issue which people often avoid dealing with - sometimes until it's too late.  This site highlights:
  • checklist of issues for artists to consider when planning the disposal of their estates
  • checklist of issues that art collectors need to get to grips with prior to death
  • some of the difficulties which the estates of famous artists have experienced due to mistakes, omissions and poor estate planning
  • links to what seem to be useful sources of helpful information and advice.


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The Bigger Picture


The Best Art Business Books
For artists, illustrators, galleries, collectors and all those interested in the art business. Do you want to learn more about the business of being an artist?

Moving Soon


How to sign a painting, drawing or fine art print (MOVING SOON)

  • What's the best way for an artist to sign a painting?
  • Should you date as well as sign a painting?
  • How should you sign a fine art print?
  • How can you identify the genuine signature of an artist?