Selected Articles
IS: I think that critics--the role they play, the training they have--are one of the more mysterious aspects of the art world for emerging artists. Could you tell me a bit about how you came to write art criticism?
The information below is part of a series of guides that outline the pros and cons of various types of venues.
ABOUT: Sponsored by local arts organizations, museums, libraries, and public art agencies. Curated and made available to the public, curators, collectors, critics and historians for exhibition opportunities, articles, and research.
EXPECTATIONS: Some slide libraries are curated, or open only to members. Others are open to anyone who submits. Registries will also collect other information such as résumés, catalogs, exhibition announcements, laser prints etc. in a file folder to be viewed upon request.
PROS: Another opportunity to get your work seen. Some registries have an online database that can be accessed worldwide. A good registry will ask for periodic updates.
A slide registry is a place where you send your slides-neatly labeled and photographed, of course-and then curators come and look at them and then you get a commission or sell your work or are asked to produce a work for your region's City Hall. At least, that's how it works in an ideal world. You should seriously consider sending your slides to a few good slide registries, however, not all slide registries are equal. How do you distinguish among the hundreds of slide registries out there?
An artist who wants to get her or his work noticed must enter the marketplace with a good plan and set of tools. The Internet has become an essential channel for distributing traditional artist marketing tools such as résumés, press releases, work samples, and business cards. This essay provides basic advice about using the Internet to enhance your marketing efforts.
Can an artist Website bring you fame and fortune?
The simple answer is no! Artist Websites work best as an extension of traditional marketing efforts and can save time and money.
Selected Chicago-City
Links
Apartment gallery in Chicago's West Town neighborhood operated by Bill Gross.
Anchor Graphics is a not-for-profit fine art print shop and gallery. Classes, workshops, lectures, and outreach programs are designed to advance the fine art of printmaking by integrating education with the creation of prints.
Professional association that contributes to the Chicago art scene through panel discussions, gallery talks, online newsletters and occasional publications.
Listing of Chicago Galleries that belong to the Chicago Art Dealers Association.
Organization created by the Podmajersky family to assist development in the Pilsen neighborhood. They host the Pilsen Art Walk and other events.
This annual Art Fair Directory has been developed to help artists find arts fairs at which to sell and promote their work.
Comprehensive directory of local galleries as well as listings for non-profit spaces and local arts services.
CGN's listings of Chicago-area art spaces.
The Chicago Photography Center is a non-profit working to provide learning resources for photographers. It encompasses technical training, frequent critiques and gallery shows all within a supportive photographic community.
Consolidation center for mass e-mailings for art galleries and visual arts organizations. Includes a great directory of Chicago galleries.
A Database of Chicago Visual Art Resources with 4700 Chicago exhibitions, galleries, artist, and links. Great place for an up-to-date listing of gallery openings.
Apartment gallery in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, operated by Annika Seitz and Eric Brown.
Trains Chicagoans on how to tell their stories to the media, and fosters awareness among journalists of the importance of these stories.
Chicago-based company offering beginner and advanced courses on computer applications for print, Web and digital video. Classes also held on weekends and during lunch hours.
Construction guide for visual artists. Check out the links page.
Chicago based online gallery features works in new-media
Non-profit arts presenter and exhibition space of the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Art and Design, Gallery 400 presents exhibitions, the Voices Lecture series, and artist residencies.
Nonprofit gallery in Wicker Park presents video, sound performance, installation and visual arts programs and exhibits.
The oldest alternative exhibition space in the City, it has a long record of education outreach in the community, as well as an innovative exhibition program.
In the James R. Thompson Center, the Illinois Art Gallery presents work by past and contemporary Illinois artists and artisans in exhibition and special programming.
Exhibitions. Contact them for information about submission guidelines.
Intuit's mission is to promote public awareness, understanding, and appreciation of intuitive and outsider art through a program of education and exhibition.
Lumity integrates the financial management expertise of the former Nonprofit Financial Center with its historical strength in information technology tools.
Merchandise Mart's December Fair
Includes classrooms, meeting rooms, auditoriums and theaters. CPD manages one of the largest public park systems in the country.
New experimental space in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood.
Serves the greater Chicagoland area with its cultural programs, adult art and dance classes, and park grounds.
Chicago's world-famous art museum, located in Grant Park. Free on Thursday evenings after 5pm.
An experimental work/live gallery space located in east Pilsen.
The WestTown Gallery Network is a consortium of commercial and non-profit visual art exhibitions spaces located (loosely) in the West Town neighborhoods of Chicago.
Association of galleries located in Chicago's Wicker Park and Bucktown neighborhoods.
Selected National/International Links
Learn all about domain names, how they work, and who registers them.
Sixty-day free trial of Apple's iweb tools and resources ($99/year value). One gigabyte of storage, a permanent mac.com web email address, automatic file backups, and a configurable personal home page.
Article with advice on how to promote and sell artwork online, written by an arts business expert. Some of the art-specific examples are less than contemporary, but the business principles discussed are excellent.
This agency offers opportunities for visual artists to license print reproductions of their artwork to manufacturers.
Article with advice and information on designing a successful artist's promotional website. This article is written by an arts business expert. Some of the art-specific examples are less than contemporary, but the business principles that are discussed are excellent.
Listing of current art exhitions in any region, such as CHICAGO!
Article with advice on why artists need to have a blog as a means of maketing their artwork. Also has a how-to guide on setting one up on the web.
A page of links to online galleries.
Guide to promoting and displaying artwork online.
One of the first alternative spaces in New York. Contemporary arts exhibition space that provides skills workshops, project grants, publications and a free digital image database and online artist registry.
Article with advice on how to successfully display your artwork online. This article is written by an arts business expert. Some of the art-specific examples may be less than contemporary, but the business principles that are discussed are excellent.
Internet-based art project in which artists from around the world can issue original art money bills as a global alternative currency. Art money measures 12x18 cm, is an original work of art by the artist's hand and has a purchasing power equal to 20 Euro.
Boston Cyberarts, Inc. is a nonprofit arts organization dedicated to the presentation and exploration of artists working with new technologies.
Article written by an arts business expert. Some of the art-specific examples are less than contemporary, but the business principles discussed are excellent.
Website and e-commerce development and resource site. Geared towards advanced users but with many informative articles.
Article giving advice on designing your website and promoting your artwork on it. This article is written by an arts business expert. Some of the art-specific examples may be less than contemporary, but the business principles that are discussed are excellent.
Make and launch your own site with this helpful resource.
The Des Moines Art Center has amassed an important collection with a major emphasis on contemporary art.
Extensively researched list of links to Web design resources, maintained by a librarian.
List of recommended books on publicity strategies and press release writing.
Advice on finding artist representation, written by an arts business expert. Some of the art-specific examples are less than contemporary, but the business principles discussed are excellent.
A free online digital photo management and sharing application. Show off your favorite photos publically or privately. Upload photos you take with a cameraphone. Use in conjunction with your blog to set up a photo stream, which could be a simple, but effective online portfolio.
Advice about using email as a marketing tool. This article is written by an arts business expert. Some of the art-specific examples may be less than contemporary, but the business principles that are discussed are excellent.
Good site with free and useful begineer and advanced HTML, Perl and JavaScript tutorials. Also offered are scripting reference charts and some advice for writing for the Web.
National professional development and opportunities resource for filmmakers.
Explore more than 100,000 works of art at LACMA, the largest encyclopedic museum west of Chicago.
Helping media designers and communicators understand how to use professional tools and design to enhance visual communication through web, print, and motion graphics.
The software company, recently purchased by Adobe, that is responsible for Dreamweaver, a beginning designer/developer website design program; Flash, a web animation program; and, Director, an interactive multimedia computer application.
Article with advice for artists on how to present and promote artwork within an "Open Studio" or art fair environment, written by an arts business expert.
Step-by-step checklist for successfully using your Website to self-promote.
A list of articles covering topics such as marketing, promotion, fundraising and documentation. These resources have been reviewed and selected by the MatchBook.org team.
National subscription-based online portfolio service and sales gallery. Service also allows you to submit applications to multiple fairs, exhibitions, and art expos across the country.
Links to both free and pay 'movable type' downloads of this popular blogging software, plus product support, news, etc.
MOCA is the only museum in Los Angeles devoted exclusively to contemporary art.
Founded in 1929 as an educational institution, The Museum of Modern Art is dedicated to being the foremost museum of modern art in the world.
Collective of galleries and individual members who are professionals within the field of Contemporary Art. NADA hosts an annual art fair in Miami.
Open Source Web authoring software- promoted as easy to use, no knowledge of HTML required.
Computer books, conferences, and online publishing.
Bulk email marketing technology for arts and nonprofit organizaitons.
Peachpit Press is a publisher of very good computer reference books on the latest in graphic design, desktop publishing, multimedia, Web publishing, and general computing. This page features instructions on how to create a website.
PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML.
Web Developer info on creating an online store.
Succinct advice on how to assemble a press kit for your organization's events.
A non-profit dedicated to the promotion of publications made by artists. The NYC exhibition space contains a reading room, retail/wholesale distribution and a free consulting service to libraries, art institutions, and art professionals.
Website for the active community of professionals working in contemporary art. Benefits of paid registration include two pages for showcasing work.
Advice for artists on producing print reproductions of their artwork, written by an arts business expert. Some of the art-specific examples are less than contemporary, but the business principles discussed are excellent.
Safari Bookshelf is the premier electronic reference library for programmers and IT professionals. This is a paid subscription service.
This site provides information about visiting the physical museum itself, but also is home for a special online gallery called e.space. E.space was created exclusively for the Web and explores new art forms that exist only in cyberspace.
A Free Source Code Editor for Win32 and X.
Online gallery that uses the format of an advertising flyer/catalog to present artists work for sale while parodying the sale of the work.
SourceForge.net is a centralized location for software developers to control and manage open source software development, and acts as a source code repository. Over 113,690 open source projects are hosted on the site and are available for free.
A free yet reliable invisible web tracker, highly configurable hit counter and real-time detailed web stats.
SubEthaEdit is a powerful and lean text editor.
Learn about appropriate, effective technology suited to your budget.
A flexible, elegant, easy-to-use content management system for all kinds of web sites, even weblogs.
The ADAA is a non-profit membership organization representing 160 of the nation's leading galleries in the fine arts from the Renaissance to the present day. They offer an appraisal service and informative profiles of their member galleries.
The GIMP is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.
The online version of The Leading Art Antique Dealers of the World 2006 Directory. Features seardchable entries for 350 leading dealers and annual art fairs from 15 countries, listed alphabetically, by country and by speciality, with a short profile.
Information for artists and galleries on how to create a website. Advice and links on web graphics, scanning, web maintenance, site tune-ups, marketing and promotion, design, and digital photography.
An extensive list of links to how-to web design guides and digital media resources from the Conceptual Information Arts Dept. at San Francisco State University.
Webmonkey is a site that has many good resources and how-to guides for both beginneers and experts on how to design, build and maintain websites of their own.
webstats4U provides information about the browsers, operating systems, screen sizes, color depths and plug-ins used.
An artilce that is a few years out of date, but still has some relevant advice on why every artist should have a website and how you might put one together.
If you would like to submit work, please send a cover letter, no more than one sheet of slides, and a self addressed stamped envelope. They cannot accept original works of art, nor do they assume responsibility for any original artworks that are submitted.
The online encyclopedia's entry on Domain Name System or DNS.
The online encyclopedia's entry for web hosting.
The online encyclopedia's entry for Virtual Hosting.
W3C's homepage about Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Scroll down to the bottom for the definitions.
W3C's homepage about HTML.
The W3C is an international consortium where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards.
W3C's homepage about Extensible Markup Language (XML).
Free resources for web designers.
ZKM, in Karlsruhe, Germany is a cultural institution that presents public exhibitions and events and sponsors private production and research about technology and today's changing social structures.
Online directory of local, national, and international festivals and events. Allows for browsing and posting.
