For a bit or light relief from DAW and cultural stimulus click:

http://laughingsquid.com/airplane-lavatory-self-portraits-in-the-flemish-style/

DORSET VISUAL ARTS    April E-News

FOCUS:  Getting ready

If you are in a hurry – don’t read this in one go.  Sorry,  but it’s text from here on-in!  Will add images later.

INCLUDES

• Brochure up-date
• Mapping
• Post Cards
• Join In Marketing
• Presentation
• Our Websites
• Insurance
• Hospitality
• Sales + Rights
• Gathering Stories
• Final Call – DVA / DAW studio project at Bridport Arts Centre
• DVA Bursaries

Before reading the rest…..

STOP PRESS  – see email sent a few days ago about Evolver and Listed advertising.  If you have missed the EVOLVER deadline and want to be included – still try to make your link with Simon Barber before Tuesday.  

Listed – we need to know your interest by 09am Wednesday

DAW VENUE NUMBERS    Confirmed to us and now passed on to your Area Coordinator.  If you saw the proof hard copy, very few have changed since then but…you know the odds!  Please don’t assume your’s hasn’t – we did warn more than once not to take the proof number as fact.

Your area coordinator will probably send a you a simple list of numbers in your area.  If by any chance you happen to see their pdf file, please note that this is a low resolution version – it doesn’t represent the final quality.

We will add the venue numbers to the website early this coming week.

THE BROCHURE    The Brochure is at the print – NOW.  It is on-schedule to be on the road with the distribution company from the 16 April, six weeks ahead of the event.

To make it bearable, proof reading inevitably generated quite a lot of black humour!  Nevertheless, and despite being faced with more than we bargained for, we have sought to go the extra mile and hope you will find the 2012 brochure a smart object.  Whatever effort has been made, there will be the odd glitch – not everyone played their part in the process and in trying to accommodate one issue we have, no doubt caused an odd problem down the line. In this case, sorry in advance.  Image corrections have all been sorted within, but sometimes stretching, the limits of the resolution of the original.  We have stopped short of forgery – hopefully!!

Your area coordinator will soon let you know about their arrangements for getting your allocation of brochures and signage to you four weeks ahead of the event.  Postcards earlier, if this is at all possible – though this is the one variable.  Your coordinator will also have plans and requests for supporting particularly local distribution – all help gratefully received.  Their aim is to fill the gaps the distribution company obviously can’t fill.  Also to top-up all distribution points during the fortnight.

WEB MAPS     Now the brochure is ‘off-desk’, we will address the ‘many’ web map issues that have come our way. Some errors result from either a typo error in the post code, or if it has been entered in the wrong box.  These are easily sorted.

For the rest, we have to over-ride the default on Google Maps which puts the map pin at the centre of a post code.  In outlying areas, this can cover quite some territory.  We have to enter the coordinates from the OS maps your area coordinator has worked on.  Once done, we will ask you to check using password access to the site or as soon as the site goes live, whichever is easiest at the time. If it’s still not right, notify us and we’ll call you for further assistance.

As you will appreciate, this is quite time consuming. We’ll inform you when we think we have it right.  We aim to complete work by the16th April before the full DAW website goes live to the world.

A frustration can be that having moved a pin there is no guarantee it won’t jump back when no-one is looking!  If you have an awkward one – let us know – ‘politely’ please – and we’ll seek to re-set it. In the most awkward cases well revisit the problem in the lead-in before you receive your allocation of brochures and cards.

At the end of the day, if the map pin is close, your yellow signs should pick up the last leg of the journey to your studio door.

N.B. We can only work on the notifications sent to corrections during proof reading week.

POST CARDS   Two versions of the Dorset Art Weeks postcard are being printed.  One goes out on the road with the distributors and via all of us – i.e. you too – for putting in shops, pubs, cafes, hotels, B&Bs, schools, places of worship – anywhere you can get them.  Its primary purpose is to give the DAW dates, tell people where they can get brochures, and in particular to visit the website.

The other version is for you – exhibitors – to mail to your client list and friends.  It includes a dedicated space for you to include your name, venue number, etc.

The first version includes space for visitors to collect signatures which we can check against your Membership Form and enter into the prize draw.  Please cooperate with this as the returns give us useful contacts from whom we gain additional, valuable feedback.

MARKETING    The paragraphs below are primarily for our first timers to DAW.  It is meant just as a helpful introduction to the subject.  It aims to address the specific questions we have been asked and is not meant to be in any way condescending to those with professional experience.

Marketing is most successful when everyone treats it as their responsibility and communicates enthusiasm and pride in the event.  Word of mouth is still the most important and effective form of marketing – something everyone can join in.  Your neighbours should be amongst DAW’s best advocates.

Neighbours – Invite them in.  Several Members have staged a ‘No-Sales’ evening for neighbours and found it successful.  No pressure to buy saves any embarrassment.  Neighbours won’t usually  want to buy in front of others – they’ll come back.  If you wow them with what’s on offer they are more likely to become advocates and spread the word about the scale and range of the event than they ever would from picking up a card.  They don’t have to like your work  to do this – it helps of course! -  and, invaluably, you have the chance to practice discussing the context of and why and how you do what you do.

The DAW team is obviously working hard on what we could term headline marketing:  ‘Ads,’ two pull-out supplements, focused press stories, print and web listings, networking, and a growing presence on Facebook and Twitter – by the way, do join in – as well as determined approaches to gain access to broadcasting, are all on the go.  As part of our aim to develop a great DAW archive, you may find a photographer turn up on our behalf.

This work obviously sharpens focus over the coming two and three weeks to coincide with the launch of the brochure and cards.

We are also keen to support your ideas and events – not take them over.  The contact details below are a repeat of the information given in the last E-News – see below on this Blog.  We are available if you want some advice on writing or editing, knowledge or tricks about getting a good story out there digitally or in print, or for ideas about who might take your sort of story on.

Marketing Stories – reminder of links given previously:

http://www.dorsetvisualarts.org/docs/Writing_a_Press_Story_for_DAW1.pdf

http://www.dorsetvisualarts.org/docs/Facebook_tips1.pdf                                          http://www.dorsetvisualarts.org/docs/Twitter_Tips1.pdf

The marketing boot fits the other foot too – We welcome your ideas about where we might get a free listing in a journal, on a website, in a community news circular or other public forum that you know about but don’t have the time or experience to deal with.  This could increase our reach exponentially.

For all marketing enquiries Email:    marketing@ – followed by – dorsetvisualarts.org

Please use the subject box to help us put the right person on the case:

For social and digital media – please enter: Tracey (McGarrigan)

For printed and broadcast media – please enter – Rosie (Staal)

For listings – please enter – Katherine (Morgan)

PLEASE NOTIFY ROSIE AND THE OFFICE IF YOU HAVE OBTAINED PRESS COVERAGE – If possible, send a copy as an attachment.  We may be able to include further reference to this and your work in what we send out.

For other marketing matters simply email either Jem or Suzy via the usual:

admin@ - followed by – dorsetvisualarts.org

PRESENTATION – starting points - You only get one opportunity to create a good impression.

And, we can’t all do minimalist chique – nor want to!

The way you present your work should tell your story.  The studio, the stimuli and the processes are the focus of interest for most visitors.  This provides the rich sensory experience that  DAW provides in abundance.  The welcome, tolerance of browsers, respect for those that don’t like your work as much as those who do, are essential in encouraging they length of their visit, encouraging them to visit more DAW venues and is sometimes the extended preface to a sale.

Presentation should make the best use of daylight – ask whether you want to isolate particular works from the rest and give them space for couples or groups to gather and converse about it together.  Is there a good place where you can put things that you don’t mind being handled.  If you don’t want to do much talking, perhaps you could prepare a hand-out with a narrative that is separate from a price list.  Are you prepared to demonstrate.  Have you made it clear in a notice that you are happy for people to contact you beyond DAW opening days or times to make an appointment for a private viewing

It may be that you are in a popular holiday location – half term week offers a more extreme difference in the DAW audience from first week to the second.  REMEMBER – this year – week 2 is half term week and both Monday and Tuesday are Bank Holidays. Particularly in holiday locations, you may want to think about whether there is a reason for presenting your work slightly differently each week.

Feedback from the 2010 revealed the extent to which people given time and no pressure on a first visit return a second time to the ones they are most inspired by, often buying on this occasion rather than the first.  There is clear evidence that some visitors want to spend, but to a pre-planned limit, so make a first visit as a research trip.  A good number of sales were made on the last day by return visitors.

Balancing engaging with people in dialogue and giving them space to enjoy and reflect on your work is an art.  Pressure usually makes people run away.

OUR WEBSITES     Several Members are still confused by the difference between our two websites and the Blog. When we have the new site we hope this problem will diminish.

To clarify:

The DVA Blog    www.dorsetvisualarts.org/blog

The blog is where you are reading this – it runs alongside the main Dorset Visual Arts Website. It’s like a rolling news page.  You can scroll down and read previous information in one place.  In time it will be made more interactive.  Increasingly, we are using it to post up-dates and links to articles on the DVA site and elsewhere.  This will ensure no-one will be distanced from news when we form a brand new DVA site later this year.

Dorset Visual Arts Website    www.dorsetvisualarts.org

This is the site where our programme and your DVA Membership resides – not your Dorset Art Weeks Registration.  It is the gateway to your personal DVA MEMBERSHIP PAGE.  With your Member No. and password you have access to to up-date the  images, descriptive text and contact details.

IF YOUR PAGE ON THE DVA SITE IS OUT OF DATE you aren’t selling yourself well to DAW visitors researching their Dorset tour.  N.B. Scroll down to the last post below.  This reminds you to make the best use of your Membership Page.  Remember, up-dates automatically quarantine your page.  It is essential you let us know when you have made amendments so that we make sure it goes live again as soon as possible:  Email: admin@ - followed by - dorsetvisualarts.org

NEW DVA SITE -  We are already working on the plan to create a new, hugely more interactive website later this year.  This will improve both our individual and collective front to the world.

DORSET ART WEEKS WEBSITE    www.dorsetartweeks.co.uk    but not quite yet……..

From 16th April at the latest, this will be the Dorset Art Weeks 2012 on-line brochure and news site.  It is slightly different to the one you used to proof your entry.  That particular link will have gone entirely by the time this site goes live.

Summary: We’re in this together and there are enough financial, Royal, Olympic activities this summer to make it vitally important to for everyone to decide individually which are threats to success and which present opportunities that a little lateral thinking prompt you to exploit.  We have to help ourselves as much collaboratively via the organisation as individually.

On which note, we are keen to hear from those artists using there venue as a feature of any village / town Jubilee events.  Perhaps we can share positive ideas for making the most of the extended Bank Holiday.

INSURANCE    Please make sure your DAW event is covered by public liability insurance.  Most domestic insurers used to cover temporary activities such as our without charge, but almost always on condition you have informed them beforehand.  Given how insurance is now sold, discounts usually means elements like PLI that were included are now excluded.

If your insurance won’t provide either free or cheap cover, our best suggestion is to join the organisation Artist’s Newsletter.

A-N Membership includes their insurance – named AIR.  It covers your studio, work, materials and public liability for your exhibition.  Please check that their policy is appropriate for your circumstances.  For illustration – my recent Membership and Insurance renewal premium was £31

A-N Enews which forms part of your Membership is very useful if you are engaged in art practice full time. See:

http://www.a-n.co.uk  or, direct to: https://www.a-n.co.uk/join_in/article/472193

HOSPITALITY    Several DAW venues intend to offer refreshments.  Whether free of for sale, please be aware of all the risks you are taking on and which won’t be covered either by domestic or A-N insurance.  Strict Trading Standards rules apply about what and what you can’t do.  We strongly advise you to be absolutely clear that you know the law in relation to your plans.  Please don’t act illegally and discredit Dorset Art Weeks organisation.

To give you a start, the Harorough document linked below seems to present an easy to read view of what you are faced with!

See: Trading Standards and Control of Food Websites: Running a food business from domestic premises – Guidance on running a food business from a domestic premises – Harborough District Council

& specific to Dorset – follow the relevant links from this page on the Dorset for You website.  http://www.dorsetforyou.com/400094

If any Members expert in the field is willing to share some top tips – please get in touch.

All I can say is – Good Luck – rather you than me!

SELLING WORK    In two year’s time it will probably be common practice to take payments via your mobile phone!  In the meantime – we have included the phrase ‘Bring a Cheque Book’ in the brochure.  This will also appear on-line.  We will try to add that when accepting cheques, artist’s will expect to see photo-ID that includes an address.  It is not a good idea to send people off to the nearest cash-point – they are unlikely to return!

Otherwise, it is largely a matter of trust.  If someone is keen to buy expensive work, but is sitting on the fence with the though that they can’t afford it now, it is your decision whether to accept installments with post-dated cheques.  If you do this, ensure the payment period is less than six-months, keep full contact details and that their signature is on a bill of sale that states clearly and precisely all details of the arrangement.  Both parties should have an ‘exact’ copy – not a handwritten note.  Always issue a receipt for the work and keep a copy of that too; as much to protect your interests as the purchasers.

The alternative is on-line banking.  If your purchaser has this facility on their phone, or you are willing to allow them to use your computer to make a transfer to your account, this might well ensure a safer sale than taking cheques for large sums.

Other decisions you need to be prepared for are:

• whether or not to release the work until the last payment has cleared
• whether to seek agreement that you may have access to the work to include in any future exhibition

RIGHTS    On substantial sales, be clear where you stand on guaranteeing the quality, safety and durability of the materials and skills used.  You may also be asked about environmental issues related to materials.

In the case of works that have a collectable, and potentially increasing re-sale value you are advised to enhance this prospect with a certificate of authenticity or ‘provenance.’  This should clearly identify you as the maker, include your contact details, precisely describe the title, medium, all surface and base materials used, their quality and, for interest, the context of the work.

It is too complicated to include here artists’ entitlement to royalties on the re-sale of artworks.  If this is applicable to your work by reputation and, or arrangements with galleries and you aren’t informed on the subject – also on copyright issues see the Design and Copyright Society – website:

DACS: http://www.dacs.org.uk/

DVA/DAW Studio Project at Alsop Gallery, Bridport Arts Centre     Two places for ‘emergent artists’ are still available.  Please pass the news item linked from the last E-News below to anyone you know who might be interested and ensure they make contact with us soon.

DVA BURSARIES

The three ExLab Bursaries announced in the last E-News have been awarded to:

Sarah Gilpin, Frances Hatch and Karen Hansen.

More details of their projects will be added and linked from the blog soon.  Their work becomes part of the ExLab 2012 project and will be disseminated via DVA in the autumn.

For more information about ExLab see:  www.big.pic.org    and    www.exlab.org.uk

A.O.B 

WE NEED YOUR DAW NEWS and ideas to share with Members

ENCOURAGE VISITORS TO READ THE BLOG AND USE THE LINK TO SIGN UP FOR DVA NEWS – new programme starts 01 October.  

FRIENDS OF DVA    When you see the brochure you will see we are launching a Friends Scheme.  One aim is to develop a loyal audience for your work.  A second for visual arts enthusiasts to join in new, non-making events.

REMINDERS

BLOG:    Items will be added to this blog regularly during the countdown to DAW – so please keep up to date with it.

IF YOU USE SOCIAL MEDIA:    Follow the Facebook and Twitter Links above

Advance Notice:    Data and Feedback Forms will be published with guidelines on the DVA website by the end of April.  The link will be sent via the mailer and blog.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Attention All DVA Artists – DAW and non DAW participants

Make the most of your page on the DVA website

This is a reminder to you all to make the most of your DVA page.  As part of your membership fee you have all paid for a directory page on the DVA website and it is in your best interest to keep it updated with current images and text.

By having content on your page it not only means that anyone looking for you name and examples of your work can find something, it also makes us look better as a functioning organisation.  People are more likely to use the DVA website if they have had a successful search than if not.

Also if you are a DAW participant visitors may use the DVA website to view further examples of your work before deciding to make a visit or not.

You can access and add content to your DVA page on the website www.dorsetvisualarts.org - then go the Artists Area.  You then need to input your username and password, you should have received this on joining DVA but do email admin@dorsetvisualarts.org for a reminder if necessary.

There is an additional document to help you upload information available on the news pages of the DVA website.

Due to the spate of metal theft, artists are warned to hide lead pencils during Arts Weeks.