Tuesday, August 17, 2010

The Painter's Palette

I am opening a gallery and working studio called The Painter’s Palette in the Moycullen Shopping Centre (Co Galway) during October / November 2010 … and have two opportunities to offer artists – as below.

Contact me on : lyndacookson (at) gmail (dot) com

The Painter’s Palette

I am inviting Contract Guest Artists to join me at The Painter’s Palette.

Guest Artists are limited to 6 artists on a one year contract @ €120 per month payable by debit order or one annual payment, with the following being offered:

* 6 medium-size paintings to be held in gallery (breaks down to €20 per painting pm)
* Insurance of paintings included (to a specified value)
* 4 weeks corridor display window every three months (16 weeks pa)
4 weeks road display window every three months (16 weeks pa)
TOTAL 32 weeks per annum window space
* No commission on sales of original art
* 30% commission on sales of prints or giclees
* 50% commission on sales of cards and other merchandise
20% commission on sales of artist’s books
* 1 Opening Night per annum as exhibition including at least 6 extra medium/large sized paintings on solo exhibition within the gallery (not including windows) for a 48 hour period;
100 postcard invitations designed and supplied (addressed and posted at artist's expense);
email invitations designed (and sent to artist’s email database, if required, at no extra charge);
3 red wine, 3 white wine, bottled water, wine glasses, tumblers, and one bowl snacks included;
staff members from The Painter’s Palette on hand to conduct admin of sales and to arrange cleaning up after the Opening Night;
music and/or speaker optional extra.
* Opportunity to hold paid workshops and/or demonstrations on a 60/40 basis instead of a 50/50 basis
* Portfolio and/or contact details and business cards displayed continually on premises
* Inclusion on website – www.ThePaintersPalette.ie (presently under construction)
* Inclusion in internet and other advertising when appropriate at The Painter's Palette's discretion


The second opportunity:
Moycullen Shopping Centre Window Lessees

The Moycullen Shopping Centre has granted me the contract to temporarily lease out their window space and to negotiate the temporary (part-time) leasing of a larger unit space if requested for daily, weekly or weekend exhibitions.

Monthly contracts for window space are priced per size and position of window. Prices are given below in both monthly and weekly segments for your information, but contracts are monthly, not weekly. Space is limited to the window and 1.5 metres of floor space away from the window (enough to allow space for an easel to stand):

OFFER :
When you rent a window for 3 months the third month is half price
When you rent a window for 6 months the sixth month is free

These are the rentals per month:
Roadside Windows €100 (approx €25 per week or €3.33 a day for a monthly contract)
Windows within the Centre €80 (€20 per week or €2.67 a day for a monthly contract)
Small Windows €72 (€18 per week or €2.40 a day for a monthly contract)


Should the Window Lessees wish to make a little further use of the space by being there to promote their work during weekends or weekdays if they are able, the use of the window and 1 table and chair space is an extra €10 per day. No further artwork is permitted apart from the window space.

For the use of a larger area of unit space for one day, or a longer period, the rental is negotiable depending on the size of the unit or the amount of space required by the Window Lessee.

No keys to the premises will be given to the temporary lessees at any time so opening and closing times must depend on the working hours of the Moycullen Shopping Centre caretakers.

There is also a CLASSIFIEDS WINDOW where businesses can advertise on an A4 size sheet placed on two large boards in the unit opposite the entrance to Supervalu. The price for this is €10 per month with the same 3 month and 6 month Specials.
Lastly (before the images):
I have been awarded the contract to organise 5 events for the Shopping Centre per annum - Christmas, St Patrick's Day, Easter, Summer and Halloween. This will create even more of a buzz in the centre.

Now .....
Here are some rainy day pics taken of where The Painter's Palette is setting up home in Moycullen, approximately 10 miles or 15 kms from Galway city - and one of the gateway villages to Connemara.

More about Moycullen on : www.Moycullen.net

I have recently curated a successful exhibition, "Riding High", in the Moycullen Shopping Centre, involving just more than 40 artists and in excess of 220 paintings. I counted visitors on my little people-counter-clicker-thingamajiggy and in the first week we had an average of 90 visitors a day (excluding children) and in the second week, which coincided with Galway Race Week, we had between 50 and 100 people through the door each day. Painting sales were satisfactory leaning towards good (for the times), artist merchandise sales were very good indeed and demonstration/workshop response and participation excellent.

One of the nice things about Moycullen is that the residential population is large and increasing - which means that business does not rely entirely on the tourist trade. Also, the unit I have chosen in the Moycullen Shopping Centre is perfect for early-morning traffic jam viewing :-)

If you were travelling from Oughterard or Clifden (Connemara, in other words) towards Galway, this is your view of the shopping centre as you approach the main intersection.
You would take a left at the traffic light to go down to the basement parking of
the centre, passing The Painter's Palette as you do so.


This is the view of The Painter's Palette's 4 roadside windows
once you have taken that left turn down from the Main N59 road.
They are the two large windows in the stone part of the building
(closest to the right hand side of the image)
and the two smaller windows in the reddish-painted part of the building.
This is where the morning traffic - and loads of other traffic - builds up.


A close-up view of The Painter's Palette and her neighbour, Fat Tony's the Barber.
You can also see the first of 3 large corridor windows, and the front door,
of The Painter's Palette.


Another close-up, and a different angle, showing the steps
which take pedestrians down next to The Painter's Palette
as they enter the corridor which takes them towards
Supervalue and the Matt O'Flaherty's Pharmacy.


The steps and a full frontal of The Painter's Palette's
three corridor windows and double front door.


That's The Painter's Palette on the right at the end of the corridor.
This corridor leads to the Pharmacy on the corner (you can see
it's green windows on the left here) and Supervalu.
Fat Tony's is there on the left opposite The Painter's Palette.

This red-coated future-painting-buying-customer (:-) !!)
has just come from the corridor past The Painter's Palette
is passing the Pharmacy and on his way to Supervalu
which is off the image to the left.


It appears I caught the same red-coated person leaving
Supervalue and passing the escalator which takes you
upstairs to The Village Bookshop (lovely big bookshop!)
and to Arabica coffee shop. The other units up there are
emtpy so far ... until we fill them with artists!


Another view of the central courtyard with the Pharmacy on the right,
Supervalu on the left, the escalator in the middle and there's a hidden
shop call WebSaver's on the same level. A staircase (or the lift)
takes you down to the car parking level where there is a stunning
fresh fish shop and a couple of other units awaiting tenants.


Standing inside the still-raw unit for The Painter's Palette
and looking out from where the counter and staff member
will spend their days selling nice arty-farty things.
I'm pretty sure my figures are correct (ish) when I say
that the gallery space is about 51 sq metres.
The workroom area goes off at an Lshape on the
right hand side of this image.


There you are - we're now standing at the inner end of the
working studio part of The Painter's Palette with the counter
and staff member's position off to the left around the corner of the Lshape.
The working studio (for dems and workshops and classes)
is approximately 37 sq metres. We also have a super low-ceilinged
storage area known affectionately as The Cave.


Sunday, August 08, 2010

How To Build Stocks of Merchandise to Sell