Course Focuses on Selling Art through Galleries

Anderson Artists Guild member Debbie Bzdyl is currently completing an intensive course focused on selling her artwork through galleries. The course, offered online, is called the Art Business Academy and is taught by gallery owner Jason Horejs.

Through this course, Bzdyl has learned how to present her work in a professional way, to create a spreadsheet of 100 galleries to apply to, and then to actually make digital submissions.

“I began submitting to the galleries in my spreadsheet in May,” said Bzdyl. “At the beginning of July I got gallery representation at Venvi Art Gallery in Tallahassee, Florida! The gallery owner also invited me to have a solo show in November and December of 2023. I'm very excited about that! I've also gotten some very positive feedback from three or four other galleries. They expressed interest in my work but had no openings at the moment. A couple of them asked me to resubmit in four to six months.”

One tip she picked up was to make the presentation of her work more consistent. “I sometimes let the color extend around the edges and sometimes I paint the edges black,” she said. “[The instructor] suggested that I stick with one or the other for greater consistency. I now paint all edges black.”

Perhaps the biggest surprise involved pricing her artwork. “One thing he stressed highly is to make sure your prices are consistent and in line with the prices of other artists!” said Bzdyl. “If your prices are lower, the galleries will not take you seriously. I went up quite a bit on my prices, sent my price list to Jason and he said I needed to go up at least another 30%. He said that, when starting out, it was fine to be on the low end of the pricing scale as long as it was pretty much in line with the typical prices other artists are charging.”

The course costs $79 per month. For more information, visit https://artbusinessacademy.net/. Horejs also offers free tips at https://reddotblog.com/.