My Gallery sells from exhibits three or four times a year (from around 30
shows per year)- primarily as a service to the artists, as we do not have
commercial galleries here that exhibit the sort of contemporary art
(generally local artists) we may offer for sale.
However, as the large majority of our funding comes from Government, and as
our charter is as a public art museum, we do not "sell" the work as would be
done in a commercial venue, and have no allocated "sales personnel".
Rather, we simply have a small panel in the Gallery space announcing that
the works are available for sale and to contact the front desk staff for a
price list. This is about as low pressure sales as you can get, and does
not, we feel, compromise our role as Art Museum, nor the receipt of
Government funding..neither does it attract criticism from commercial
venues.
We do not find that people mistake our other exhibits as also for sale. Of
course, we do not sell a great deal as a result of our low pressure tactics,
and neither do we seek to do so, but on occasion, when a show catches public
imagination, we may sell up to twenty works and generate welcome income for
artist and gallery.
We take a standard $33%commission, and to deflect potential criticism we
have drawn up a business plan for all gallery merchandise sales which
operates on a purely level playing field (eg all rents, electricity, capital
works, staff etc etc on-costs counted in). However, we have never received
any complaint or criticism for the above.
Alan Sisley
Director
Orange Regional Gallery
Orange NSW Australia 2800
Phone 61 02 63615136, Fax 61 02 63615100
mailto:[log in to unmask]
http://www.org.nsw.gov.au
-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of John Gavin
Sent: Friday, 12 November 1999 3:17
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Sales During Exhibits
Hi All,
I posted the following message last week and only received one reply which
surprised me. I'd like to put it out there again and see if I can get some
input.
I'm gathering opinions on the practice of selling exhibited works of art
during exhibits. AAM's acceditation Tech Support states that the practice
is acceptable as long as it is laid out in the museum's policies. What do
you think??
Thanks!!
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