Sjogren's Art Exhibit

[SjoDry]

I think I mis-read/interpreted the idea. I thought you were just having an exhibit & did not realize you were looking to raise any funds.

[iraisin]

MissyLouWho - that sounds beautiful!

SjoDry - yes, I'm sorry I didn't have that written in this thread - I had it in another thread and just didn't think of typing it again, my apologies. Yes, the copyrights would be signed over to the Sjogren's Foundation and proceeds as well for them to desiminate for research grants, patient support sites like this one, more awareness, etc.

Anthony - sure would like to talk to you, buddy. I would like some education on developing a few pages to facilitate the showing of the art as well as the purchasing. I would like to have some sort of concept together to show to the SF and discuss w/them whether they would like a free-standing site or add it as a menu item on their own site. I know they are limited in funds and will discuss w/them the need for having someone develop the pages or if they will be doing it in-house using our concept. Would like the art visible along with a description of the art and introduction offered by the artist. Then a catalog page of sorts for just prints of the art (not the originals) so multiple pieces show on a page that allows add to cart options next to each. Pretty basic stuff, but I'm not knowledgeable enough to really put it together or to know if there is a better way to do it. take a look at imagekind.com, maybe we can work out an arrangement with them to handle the prints, shipping, etc.

Jackles - girl, I am so loaded at work it's not even funny. But I see you've got big plans to help advance yourself as well. We can discuss this offline if you'd like, but I sure don't want to inhibit the making of your success. What a sweetheart you are. Thank you so much for offering nonetheless. I appreciate it. PM me. One thing I could use is someone to help proof these letters with a second set of eyes. I can see everyone else's mistakes but can be blind to my own.

Progress thus far: I'm working with my old boss (pres. of ad firm - he's a good guy to do this, huh) to write letters for sponsorship to help the effort along. So, Working up a plan of action and hopefully promises of sponsorship or wisdom to help the effort along and the website stuff to present to the SF.

My hope is to find some time during work hours to call my SF contact to fill her in on all of this and let her know the effort is still ongoing - but like I said, I am so swamped at work I don't know whether to scratch my watch or wind my a$$. I tried calling her Monday as I had the day off, but alas, seems she did too.

Things to work out:

Logistics: need to call and ask galleries, art leagues, museum curators what issues we need to be aware of and best practices. take in any advice they may have for this effort. Options to handle this: 1) buyer purchases via website, then artist ships to buyer. SF would reimburse artist for shipping. 2) art shipped from artist to central warehouse then SF facilitates the shipping using the proceeds.

• Option 1 seems more feasible and allows more money to go to the effort but adds one more step to the artist by submitting a reimbursement form and shipping receipt. Also risks bad pictures of art to be posted to the site risking poor purchase viability. Most if not all proceeds would go just to house and manage the art.

• Option 2 allows for a professional image capture to post to the auction site, but greatly reduces funds to SF

interface: described above. Maybe Anthony is the answer to my prayers?

sponsorship: in-work, described above

[xANTHONYx]

Well I am going to be completely honest...I have never built or maintained a commercial website, but I did stay in a Holiday Express.(Ok, so that one is dated)

I have only built some minor web pages and sites as part of my engineering electives and as my former job in tech support for a local elementary school. The one thing I do have going for me is access to web developers all around me that literally work for beer money. This is a long shot, but there are several individuals that roam the halls hopped up on caffeine just looking to make a name for themselves. They may be willing to do something pro bono in exchange for being able to take credit for the work somewhere on the page and to also have the ability to send future customers to the site to check it out.

I will certainly ask around and see which hosting company would be the easiest on the pocketbook. Also, if you are wanting to sell prints of the artwork, check out cafepress.com. They have the ability to print anything that you might want on a shirt, bag, or any other fabric item. I'm not sure how things work on the money side, but what you do is design a print and submit  it to them where they will place it on their website and print it onto whatever media the customer requests. They will set up a virtual store for you to display electronic samples of the prints on various items and send you the royalties as the print owner.

In my opinion, the time and effort required to launch an in house marketplace is not always worth it. What you will need to
do is calculate the risk vs the reward for various scenarios. The safest option is to let someone else handle the listing, selling, printing, and shipping. This minimizes your risk and capital investment. The downside is, they do get a hefty cut of the profit considering they are doing most of the work.

Doing things in house makes a lot of sense in situations where high volume is concerned as saving a dollar or so per transaction really adds up over 10,000 transactions. However, in small volume cases there are a few drawbacks to consider. For starters, the initial set up likely involves subscribing to a few companies and purchasing the software to publish the webpages which is honestly not particularly cheap or user friendly. I have a copy of Adobe DreamWeaver which is supposedly the easiest to use web publishing software. The only way I was able to afford it was to buy it off the 'grey' market from a Korean exchange student  The obvious advantage of in house design is getting exactly what you want on your site exactly when and where you want it.

I'm thinking the best thing to do is to start small, use a online marketing company like cafepress.com, then when sales pick up and become regular and profitable use that money to invest in your own web market.

[SjoDry]

I might be able to help in some capacity...I own a custom sign & graphics company: vitalsignspgh.com
We used to have a partnership of sorts with some web designers (it is still listed on our web site), but that is not in effect anymore.  Unfortunately, My Web Design Contact
would not be willing to do anything pro bono.

My company (Vital Signs) has many capabilities. We have suppliers that we use for branding apparel/giveaways,etc. We have in-house large digital printing capabilities (vinyl printing; prints on canvas; posters, etc..

When the time comes, we could see if there is a supplier in our network for a specific commodity.

Take care.
SjoDry

[xANTHONYx]

http://www.sjogrens.org/ssfstore?page=shop.browse&category_id=7

I just looked at the sjogrens foundation website and I noticed they already have a complete functioning webstore.

Is it unreasonable to add art merchandise to their current offerings?

[RaceCarYaarYaar]

Howdy   I'm a member here now- thought it would make it easier.  If you need anymore help, just let me know. xoxo

[iraisin]

Howdy!!!

I've sent my letter to the boss guy for review, so I'm waiting to see how much he bleeds all over it.HA!

Anthony, I saw that too. It would probably have to be a separate page for the art, but it is good that they already have merchant capabilities built in, so that won't be an issue I think.

I finally went to print today on a project I've been on hot-and-heavy, so I should be able to call my SF contact tomorrow. At least until some wallygag manager has me running another chinese firedrill - new guy, seems he's making a name for himself...and it's not a good one.

SjoDry, that's good to know, I may PM you later and get costs for some of my other artwork. I can have high-res scans done here, but am always looking for different printing options. Do you do canvas stretching too? For the giclees?

Does anyone here have any good ideas on how the individual artists can get good captures of their work? To post. Not everyone has a high-end camera and even I'm not willing to give up the cost for a high-res scan for giclee printing - that can be quite expensive if the piece is large. Ideas?

We may want to consider limiting the size of the art, so it can be scanned cheaply. Thoughts?

It may be necessary to have everyone ship their pieces to one location for good captures - it'll just be a thing to add to the list.

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!

[Peony]

I love the idea of an art show event!

I am artsy myself - will brainstorm on how I could contribute