“So, you’ve decided to become an art dealer. What’s next? Well, let me tell you, it takes a lot of hard work, long hours, and knowledge to make it as a professional, but if you’re passionate about art, this is a dream job for you. Below are a few tips to help you become a successful art dealer, and by following these guidelines you can be on your way that much sooner.

1. Be prepared to pick great work: Of course you want artwork that will sell, but it’s much more than that. It’s important to look for artists that have a story behind their work. Collectors love to hear about the meaning behind the work they might potentially buy—it causes them to have an emotional attachment to the piece. It will also be a great conversation starter when someone comments on the art. Make sure your artists are also friendly and relatable. A lot of times collectors like to meet the artists, and personality compatibility can make or break the sale.

2. Establish your brand: You have to have business cards, a logo, a letterhead, printed material, postcards, etc., and it all must be cohesive. Your branding should tell your story and give insight on the type of art dealer you are. This has to also carry through to your website—remember to embrace the power of your computer. Your website is essentially a modern-day business card; it must be the perfect representation of your business, because it will be the first thing people see. Ensure that you are constantly updating it, even if it has to be on a daily basis.

3. It’s not as sexy as it seems: Yes, you might get to go to swanky art parties and gallery openings, but juggling it all can be a lot of work. An art dealer’s schedule isn’t 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., Monday through Friday—expect to work in the evenings and on the weekends. Remember that it’s the extra hours that will make you successful.

4. Be prepared to do home shows: You’ve taken the art off the wall and you got the clients into the viewing room—so why aren’t they buying? Early on in my career as an art dealer, I learned that if I offered to take pieces to a prospective client’s home, my chances of closing the sale increased exponentially. Home shows can make all the difference. This will require you to have a van or some sort of transportation that can carry artwork so that clients can see what the art will look like on their wall.

5. Sales are king: Revenue solves all problems, so get creative on how to achieve sales. Do art shows and fairs, reach out to the community, and try to get as much art on the wall as you can. All in all, be a hustler. This is the best way to increase exposure for yourself, your business, and your artists.

6. Be prepared to do the back-end work: There is a lot more to being an art dealer than selling the art. To be able to successfully sell art, you must be willing to do the back-end work that goes along with it—framing the work, stretching the canvas, shipping it, getting insurance, etc. Make sure you do your research on what needs to be done before a piece is ready to be sold and be prepared to put the time and money into making it perfect.

7. Work in a gallery: Before you step out on your own, take three to six months and work at a gallery. You need to understand how the industry works, and there is no better way to do that than by putting in some time at a gallery. Not only will you get hands-on experience, but you may also make contacts that will be useful once you are out of the gallery setting. Relationships matter in this industry.

8. Have a strong art knowledge: When I first started in this industry, I read every book I could get my hands on. You need to become an expert, because the second your client or potential client knows more than you, you have most likely lost the sale. People will be looking to you to know the answers to their questions, so you’d better have them.

9. Structure your business properly: The 50/50 model with artists is dead. You need to be able to have open, honest discussions with your artists about how much it costs for you to run your business and what it will take for you to remain profitable. In today’s market, you should be receiving 65–70 percent of each sale. This ensures that you’ll be able to uphold a proper marketing budget, travel to art shows, host gallery events, advertise in art-industry publications, and still walk away with a profit.

10. Establish a collector base: All of the above tips will help you establish a collector base, but this should be an overall goal when beginning your career as an art dealer. In the long run, your collector base will be the most important thing.”

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DECOR: Redwood Media Group has a storied history with iconic art shows, such as Artexpo New York and [SOLO], along with exciting new shows, such as SPECTRUM Miami and Art San Diego. What made you decide to get into the framing expo business?

Eric Smith: Opportunity and history. Art and framing have always gone hand in hand, and it’s a natural fit for our business. I’m also very familiar with the framing market: From 2000 to 2008, I was vice president of Summit Business Media, and I ran DECOR Expo until we sold it in 2008. At that point, it went to another company, and I didn’t really hear much about it. But in its heyday, DECOR was huge! It was a mainstay in the framing industry, and everyone, including me, had really fond memories of the show.

So naturally, when in late 2012 I received a call from a business associate who asked me if I was interested in purchasing the DECOR properties—which included Art Business News, DECOR, DECOR Expo Atlanta and DECOR Expo New York—I couldn’t resist. I really missed the show. And now that my company, Redwood Media, is in a growth phase, I see no better time. The first step was launching DECOR Expo Showcase in New York this spring, alongside Artexpo New York and [SOLO]. That was a big success. We’re looking forward to bringing the showcase back to Pier 94 next spring and then launching the all-new DECOR Expo Atlanta in the fall.

DECOR: Why do you think the original DECOR Expo Atlanta tapered off?

ES: It’s important to realize that, from 2009 to 2012, it was under entirely different ownership. I’m not actually 100 percent sure the owners even produced the show, although they owned the name. I believe that group went on to other businesses in the end. Since Redwood Media Group acquired the show, we’ve been sort of incubating ideas around it for the past year or two. We believe in the slow-but-steady approach, just like we’ve taken with all our other shows: We’ve more than doubled the size of our company in the last two years! So, what framers really need to know is that DECOR Expo Atlanta and New York are under completely new management and will give them an exemplary experience.

DECOR: Tell us about that debut of the showcase in New York. How did it go?

ES: It was great. We have a small venue that we allocated for framing exhibitors, and we had about 30 exhibitors right at the front of the hall, so they got excellent traffic. More than 22,000 people go through Artexpo New York each year, and, of those, about 4,000 are trade buyers. So, we made a really big deal about getting the trade in to see the framing products, and our exhibitors were quite happy with that.

On the last day of the show, I did an exit interview and went around shaking people’s hands. Of the 30 exhibitors, 28 said they’d return. Bear in mind: The New York event’s really more of a showcase, not an expo. The full-blown expo we’ll be doing in Atlanta is a much bigger event. We’ll have product demonstrations, extensive education, a larger floor plan, and more exhibitors. At the showcase, it’s more of an add-on to Artexpo, and we’re really just showcasing new products. That said, it could grow into a full-blown show someday. If we could double the size next year, we think that would be great.

DECOR: You launched DECOR at the showcase this spring in New York. What’s your vision for the publication?

ES: Well, as I mentioned earlier, Redwood Media Group acquired DECOR, DECOR Expo, and Art Business News all together in late 2012. Our first initiative was to get Art Business News back in the market because it fits so well with the four art shows we’re already producing: Artexpo New York, [SOLO], SPECTRUM Miami and Art San Diego. Once we got that back into publication, we added a decor/framing component to it via our DECOR section, which readers seem to be enjoying.

We have excellent resources and writers within the framing industry—our show director and publisher Michael Pacitti, “the Guerrilla Framer” Paul Cascio, Tara Crichton; the list goes on and on. And, of course, we’re always on the lookout for more writers and more intriguing content, and we encourage interested parties to contact us. To date, we’ve been pleased to feature some really exciting profiles on industry players, like Roma Moulding and Urban Ashes. It’s an industry that keeps reinventing itself, and it’s exciting to play a part in documenting that.

Over the last 90 days, we’ve attracted over 300 subscribers to the new DECOR. If that continues, we’ll have 1,400 to 1,500 brand-new subscribers to the magazine in the next year to add to our list of 4,000. This all circles back to the shows: One reason exhibitors exhibit at shows is to meet new customers and peers, so we’re going to invite all of our subscribers to the expos. We want to make it easy for framers throughout the continent to network and connect.

DECOR: What new initiatives do you have for the new DECOR Expo Atlanta?

ES: For starters, we’ve got an all-new venue. We’re not going back to the Georgia World Congress Center, where the show was usually held. We’ve decided to take a three-year growth approach, building year upon year, and hold it at the Marriott in downtown Atlanta. It creates a beehive of buying and networking. Everybody will stay in the hotel, eat in the hotel, drink at the bars and enjoy an excellent, three-day framing expo in the ballroom.

We’re also planning a really compelling front-of-the-shop educational series, which will be free for all attendees. We’re going to have cutting-edge product demonstrations on the show floor. And we are going to revive our extremely popular DECOR Expo Top 100 Art and Framing Retailer Program. We’re going to throw a big party during the show and honor these hardworking framers and also give them exposure in DECOR magazine. There will be other surprises mixed in to make things exciting, interesting and fun for participants. It’s going to be a very exciting event, and we hope framers from across North America will join us.

DECOR: What do you hope exhibitors and attendees will take away from these two new framing expos?

ES: For attendees, seeing new products, sharpening their skills … and, hopefully, they’ll take home a Top 100 Retailer Award. For the exhibitors, they’ll meet lots of attendees they don’t see at the West Coast show. There are a lot of framers in the South and Southeast—and, for that matter, the Northeast—we’ve made contacts with over the past year, and everyone has been telling us they miss DECOR Expo Atlanta.
As art-industry veterans, we try to stay on the forefront of all the latest advancements in the world of artists, galleries and frame shops, and we have a lot to offer framers in that regard. We can’t wait to welcome everyone back to DECOR Expo Atlanta next fall.

Christine Schrum is editor-in-chief of DECOR magazine. She has extensive experience in the fine-art industry, particularly in art-show marketing and production, social media, blogging and magazine writing. She is currently director of content and social media for Redwood Media Group, purveyor of fine-art shows and publications.

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