Recently one of my students at the Center for Innovation (Metropolitan State College Denver soon to be Denver State University) conducted a brainstorming session with the Artrepreneurship class. The idea was to come up with some ideas on how to create a great gallery experience when showing art.

When you show your work one of your highest priorities should be to create a great experience for those who attend your opening and view your work. The thing that makes great brands or companies stand out from their competition is providing a great experience. A great experience encompasses many things such as:

  • Having a great product or service
  • Using the product or service is fun, educational, enlightening and functional
  • Being able to understand the product and its benefits
  • The product’s design, features and esthetics
  • The product’s packaging
  • Meeting the customer’s expectations
  • Touching as many senses such as touch, smell, sight, and hearing
  • Great customer service and a desire to come back and tell your friends

Brainstorming Ideas

Ok, here are some of the ideas that my Artrepreneurship students came up with in their brainstorming session. They are in no particular order and hopefully they will get your creative juices flowing on how to create a great gallery experience.

  1. Hold gallery show in conjunction with community events
  2. Sponsor a fundraiser
  3. Have music or a concert
  4. Engage all of the senses
  5. Use colors in an effective manner
  6. Proper lighting
  7. Creative food and drink
  8. Laser lighting
  9. 3-D glasses
  10. Live trapeze artist
  11. Sex sells
  12. Give things away for free or don’t give things away for free
  13. Have a location that is a cool place to be
  14. Have a location that is a destination and convenient
  15. Have great price points
  16. Have gallery guests greeted in a friendly manner
  17. Have gallery staff that can explain the work on display
  18. Have gallery staff that is friendly and personable
  19. Encourage audience participation
  20. Have artist available and prepared to talk about themselves and the work
  21. Make it easy and convenient to contact the artist
  22. Have unique art offerings
  23. Make the gallery show a positive experience
  24. Show only the best work
  25. Make the experience interactive
  26. Show artist(s) at work
  27. Hold classes in conjunction with the show
  28. Bring in community celebrities
  29. Bring in guest artists
  30. Do a promotion such as purchase an art piece and get … for free
  31. Offer free consultation or hanging with the purchase of a piece
  32. Have works at various price points so that more people will not walk out empty handed
  33. Use QR codes to identify the works and make it easy for visitor to contact you
  34. Make sure the price for a piece is easy to find
  35. Follow up on names and email addresses collected
  36. Create a fun experience
  37. Create an educational experience
  38. Have a contest or game
  39. Incorporate social media and/or mobile marketing
  40. Do a live web feed

In the upcoming semester of Artrepreneurship I will try this exercise with the new students and let you know what they come up with.  If you have some ideas of your own please share them in the comments section.