How to Hold an Exhibit Opening That Gets Results

I received an e-mail from an eHow reader who'd enjoyed my article on How to Open an Art Gallery. She wanted to know what the secret was to holding a good opening. She wrote, "I am holding a small photography exhibition of my partner's work and wanted to find out what an opening night should comprise of? Are there a list of do's and don'ts for an opening night? or is it purely a personal thing?"

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• notebook
• plenty of time before the Opening
• people to help

1. Truth be told, your opening night should comprise of anything that makes sense for the "kind" of opening you want to have, which should be dictated by the outcome you are intending to achieve.
   
   Start by asking yourself a few questions:
   
   What results do we want out of this exhibit? Do we want exposure for the work to the broadest number of people? Are we targeting a smaller, more elite crowd? Do we want to sell the work? If yes, how many pieces sold would make our hearts sing? Do we want to generate buzz around the work and the artist? Are we trying to build the brand of the photographer? If so, which reporters and editors should be there? Which Museum Directors and Curators? Which Collectors?
   
   You really want to put a face on who you are targeting with the opening, and then you can think about all the pieces needed to reach and woo that kind of audience.
   
   Then follow this somewhat generic checklist, filling in the specifics as you go:
2. SIX WEEKS BEFORE THE EVENT
   Order show and business cards at least 6 weeks before the event. Turnaround should take no more than a couple of weeks if you use an online printer (think companies like VistaPrint.com or Overnightprints.com). If you print locally you can get these items in 48 hours – but the cost will be twice that of the online printers.
   
   If it’s too late, and the show opens in less than two weeks, forget the show cards, use evite or an e-mail service like ConstantContact.com to send beautiful HTML e-mail invites to your guests. ORDER BUSINESS CARDS THOUGH. And make certain the business card has a sample of your partner’s work – a visual artist goes far by using their biggest marketable asset – their work.
3. Mead® Grad® Recycled Wirebound Notebook, 80 Pages, 5 TWO TO FOUR WEEKS BEFORE OPENING NIGHT
   Get a notebook, one with pockets, that is to be used for Opening and Closing events only. Use this notebook to record ALL your notes about the event. A good one to use is the Mead® Grad® Recycled Wirebound Notebook, 80 Pages, 5" x 7 3/4". It’s meant to record class assignments, but is perfect for organizing your event.
4. Break your notebook into the following sections: Guest List; Invitations; Food/Catering; Music/Entertainment; Promotional Materials; Room Set-up; Opening Night Team. Brainstorm with your partner about what’s needed under each section. Make lists of things, sketch room layouts, write blurbs and paragraphs about things, tape samples of invitations into the book or pictures from magazines on entertaining showing how you’d like the space to look for the opening. Make checklists and use them.
   Don’t forget to create a team to support your partner in reaching their goal for the event. If warranted, have someone in charge of the catering, another person in charge of the music, another managing the mailing lists, and you be in charge of the promotional materials (Why? Because you’re the one who wrote to me, which means you’ve got the moxie to market.) The idea is to leave your partner completely free to talk to visitors about the work, and the inspiration behind it, because that’s what helps you achieve ANY goals you set out for yourselves at that opening.
5. Make your Opening Night shopping list and put it in one of the pockets for safe keeping. Add to this from all six sections of your notebook over the weeks leading up to the event. Go shopping NO LATER than two days before the event.
6. Send out all your paper invitations AT LEAST four weeks prior to the event. You may send out your e-mail invitations at the same time. Make certain you ask for an RSVP in both, requesting their e-mail address. Record the names and contact information of everyone who RSVP’d.
7. Send e-mail reminders two weeks out – with the same information as the first e-mail invitation.
8. When the event is 3 or 4 days out, you can send a simple e-mail text reminder to the folks who RSVP’d (but NOT to those who did not respond).
9. OPENING NIGHT
   Take your notebook with you. Follow your checklists.
10. Set up the room and have it ready to go AT LEAST one hour before the doors open. If you are serving food, make certain that chilled food is served chilled, and warm food is served warm. Oh, and room temperature food should be, yep, you guessed it, room temperature. If it’s a pot-luck, have someone working with the guests as they bring their yummy treats so they are served at the proper temperature.
11. Use glass, china and silverware. You can mix up the china patterns for an eclectic look, but nothing says starving artist more than plastic forks, knives, spoons and wine glasses accompanied by paper plates. Besides, using china and silverware is a green move – it’s an environmentally sound choice – and if you shop well at the Goodwill or other thrift store you can gather some of the snazziest mix and match sets of all the above.
12. Set out the guest book in a conspicuous, and appropriate, place. Make sure it’s clear you want their e-mail address as well as their snail mail address. Have a few friends sign it before the doors open so a blank page isn’t staring visitors in the face. Make sure one of the people on your Opening Night team is a greeter, and have that person encourage everyone to sign the Guest Book.
13. Pepper the room with show cards, the artist’s business cards, one or two mailing lists (to capture people’s contact info in the event the Greeter missed a person or two at the door), and other promotional information.
14. Have copies of the price list that have a fingernail of the piece for sale, its description and price so people can carry them along as they enjoy the work. Some galleries post the prices with the labels; others do not and rely on these price lists to do some of the work for them. Either way, people love walking around feeling as though they are seriously thinking of purchasing a work by the artist they’ve just met.
15. Have your partner and you talk to as many people as you comfortably can. Remember to ask for business cards, and when you receive them spend a few seconds looking at the information on the card to appreciate who this person is and what they do in their life. If that person was interested in a piece or two, make a note of that on the back of their card after you’ve finished talking with them. Put all the cards in another pocket in your notebook for safekeeping.
16. THE DAY AFTER OPENING NIGHT
    Send thank you cards and notes to EVERY person who visited the opening. No exceptions. If someone takes time to be at your opening, they deserve a thank you.
17. Make follow up calls to people who expressed a sincere interest in the work. Don’t wait any more than 3 days to begin making these calls.
18. By the end of the Opening you should already be onto the next event – an event that you had booked at least 4 weeks out form the opening. Why? So you can tell people at THIS opening, about the next one!
    
    Opening and Closing events are pivotal in building momentum around your partner’s work, talent and persona. Treat them as precious opportunities to build relationships with all the people your partner is interested in knowing about his/her work.
    
    I know this is a long answer to your simple question. But your partner and you deserve it. Now, go break a leg… And have fun!