Eileen McConkey shares how The Makers’ Marks do Marketing
“The Makers’ Marks” are four artist whose studios connect with each other at the Pendleton. Jan and Mark Wiesner (The Sculptors) and Gina Stevenson and myself (The Painters). We had 44 pieces in the show and the exposure was great. The paintings went right to another show because someone saw them at our show. We have talked about the possibility of having other shows under that same name, possibly including others in a future show.
We worked hard at marketing the event, and that effort also taught us a lot about how to do a show the right way:
1) We planned ahead, starting over a year in advance with meetings every other week for months so we could explore the possibilities and stay energized about it all.
2) We made connections to Stepping Stones and in exchange for a portion of our sales we were given access to their mailing list of 10,000 contacts as well as promotion on their website and newsletter.
3) Woman’s Art Club helped us with access to news websites and promotion during their classes and events, a banner on their website listings on their events calendar which totaled an additional reach of 15,000 contacts.
4) We worked got postcards, signage and radio spots. We distributed to coffee shops, sponsors, libraries, PAC, CAC, etc.
5) Opening night was crowded. We had the show for 3 weeks with a staff person (4 days a week for 4 hours) people could come in during the week. We also came in and sat the show on the weekends and several of the weekday times. Over the 3 weeks we probably had an extra 50 – 100 people see the show.
Story Telling Artist 