Sophie made large sculpture and was running out of room to make it and store it.
She works primarily with stone and she wanted to get exhibits but it was hard to move the work and even harder to find a buying audience for her large abstract stone sculptures.
Her idea was not just to sell the sculpture and get exhibited, she wanted it to be in a public park in her city, that was her goal, but she couldn’t figure out how to do that – exhibit at a gallery and have a sculpture placed in a public park, and its hard to know where to turn for answers.
She ended up getting that large stone sculpture placed in a prominent public park which in turn gave her local and even national press, and an interview which resulted in more attention which led to invitations to shows and eventually more sales because more people wanted to visit her studio.
The big goal was accomplished – a large stone work in a public park accompanied by good press about it all and more visitors to her studio which resulted in sales.
What did she do to make this happen?
1. She crafted a letter to city officials, and she made calls to the local government to see who controlled park sculpture, and she made a proposal for a temporary work (it remained up for 18 months) in a specific park that was accepted.
2. She also sent out a press release that was picked up and that generated an article and an interview, and she responded to all email inquiries from interested people.
It’s not the most difficult thing to do, but it is a process, and if you take the steps I suggest above, the likelihood of success will increase for you.
However, as you know there is a right and wrong way to reach out to city hall and if you do it the wrong way, things can easily move in the other direction, like endlessly waiting for a reply.
If you want help with a task like this, it’s what Praxis Center is for. Expert teachers can help you with approaching city and government officials, professional editors will work on your bio and artist statement, you will learn how to craft a good press release, and you can get feedback on your ideas from multiple experts. With that expert support behind you, you won’t be afraid to approach the most powerful people who actually get to make the decisions, like the Mayor and others.
It takes a community of people to make dreams happen, and a community of supportive artists and teachers is what Praxis Center is.
All this support is just $40 a month through the Praxis Center membership site.