100-day initiative as a means of networking
If art works were the fruits of a tree, exchanging ideas must be the rain falling onto it. Without it, the best art is destined to dry up. One goal of the 100-day initiative was to provide a vehicle through which I met new people, particularly people with new ideas and interests. I can conclusively say that the initiative has reached this goal.
Here in this blog, I would like to record some of the details I discovered so that other artists can learn from my experience.
Concept and credits
The idea first came to us through internet searches, while we were looking to set up my own website. Our research led us to a great web site called Fine Art Studio Online. Apart from offering a web hosting cloud service specifically designed for artists, it offered some interesting marketing advice. Deep down in the web site, we then came across painter Brian Kliewer’s clever project of “100 for $100.” We also found out that another painter in the US, Kelly Medford, had started a similar project just recently. Both posted one work per day for 100 days, an amazing achievement.
The problem, though, was that I was not a still life painter. My work requires an intense development effort before they are borne out. (You can find details of this in another blog I wrote about the artistic impacts of this initiative.) In the end we decided to reduce the number of works to 50 and produce them in small batches: develop idea, produce in lots, post one by one. I ended up producing 125 different images in 10 long sessions in order to post 50 works.
Here are some dry numbers re the initiative:
2, number of people who did the lot (my husband for IT side and I)
50, total number of images posted
54, total number of images posted with variants
82, percentage of posted images sold (as of this writing)
31, percentage of sales on Thursdays (funny stat)
7, number of larger pieces sold as a direct result of the initiative
13, number of subject categories I used
125, total number of pieces produced including variants
10, number of sessions to produce all works
26, percentage of increase in the number of contacts
25, number of people who purchased the small works
3, number of countries works were sold to
7, number of countries in the contact list
25000, approx number of hits 100-day initiative received
3000, approx number of visits it has received
800, approx number of people visited
8.5, average number of page each visitor viewed per visit
I was very careful not to spam my contacts (except for friends 🙂 I have talked to most people face to face or over the phone asking for permission to go onto my newsletter. If this did not happen to some in my newsletter list, it must be an error and not a deliberate action. It took me about a month just to assemble the contact list before the initiative started.
We did not include galleries in the list as we thought they would be interested in the result rather than the journey. Along the way, however, a few galleries joined.
We used Google and Facebook ads which drove a good number of visitors to the site, particularly from Spain, Greece and Italy (in this order). We advertised in the school newsletters around our community. Also used media release channels. To our knowledge, none of these ads led to a sale.
Final points and conclusion
I have really enjoyed doing this even though it was quite hard. The feedback was great. There were quite a number of people who told me that they waited for the next picture with great interest. Some even asked me to continue indefinitely J
This brings out some interesting possibilities. This could actually become a new type of exhibition format. It offers a steady stream of works to its audience in a quality and accessible manner. I will ponder about this in the coming period. It may be that I may repeat this once a year or so with perhaps shorter stints (50-day initiative, 25-day initiative, or something like that). It is a great way for me to develop my art practice and for the audience to enjoy this artistic journey too.
