artist
membership
what do we
do?
The Ovenden Contemporary portfolio features a diverse
range of specially selected, high-quality new, emerging
and established Artists. We exhibit original artworks,
photography, sculpture and limited edition prints by our
Artists in a variety of Galleries and non-Gallery venues
across the East of England region. We carefully select
the Artists to ensure that we showcase high-quality new
and emerging international Artists who consistently
produce challenging, creative, individual and
inspirational works of art as well as fully established,
mid-career Artists who wish to concentrate more on their
work than on the distraction of self-representation.
Our experienced Exhibition Managers develop and organise
bespoke, timed & themed exhibitions for each of our
venue partners. We devise & conduct suitable
marketing strategies, install the exhibition, manage the
preview party (when required), handle all sales for the
duration of the exhibition & then remove all unsold
work at the end.
how does it
work?
Artists are required to apply
for membership and we would only accept an application if
we feel that we can place the work in a suitable
exhibition AT LEAST twice in any membership year. In
fact, we GUARANTEE to do just that. We are now able to
consider applications from Artists based outside UK. As
an Artist Member, you will be given opportunities to
feature at exhibitions around the UK that may not be
available to you otherwise, often with lower commission
rates than you would expect from the majority of
mainstream galleries. Exhibitions are an essential part
of the sales and career development of any Artist and
every exhibition creates exposure, raising profile.
We have an
extensive on-line gallery on this web-site (genre links
above) where collectors can buy affordable art. Our site
provides a great deal of 'editorial' information about
each of our Artist Members and provides an effective
sales and marketing tool. We offer our editorial-style
content to a variety of other organisations, bringing
traffic to our site and raising the profile of each of
our Artist Members. We all know by now, the internet is
an increasingly important part of any Artist's marketing
strategy and is becoming the standard method for buyers,
curators and dealers to research and discover new
Artists.
We
organise, promote, curate, install and remove the
exhibitions, produce, print and distribute invitation
cards for Preview Reception events, produce, print and
distribute catalogues where appropriate and occasionally
represent selected Artists from our portfolio at Art
Fairs around the country. We also endeavour to present
exhibition proposals to municipal Galleries using our
portfolio, whenever possible or appropriate.
which venues
do we work with?
We've worked with a variety
of venues in the last few years:
Needhams Restaurant in Witchford, Cambridgeshire
Artshed in Ware, Hertfordshire
The Carpenters Arms in Great Wilbraham, Cambridgeshire
Blackfriars Arts Centre in Boston, Lincolnshire
Three Cups Gallery in Ely, Cambridgeshire
Children of Vision Gallery in Portobello Road in Notting
Hill, London
Angles Theatre (via Atelier EAST) in Wisbech,
Cambridgeshire
Worcester City Museum in Worcester
We've also exhibited at selected regional art fairs,
including:
The Anglian Contemporary Art Fair in Braintree, Essex
(2006)
The Great Art Christmas Fair in Alexandra Palace, London
(2006)
The Hertfordshire Art Fair in Ware, Hertfordshire (2007)
We are also supporting partners for the CAN
managed Different Journeys project which was
exhibited at University of Northampton during 2007
with more planned.
We are always keen to discuss exhibition opportunities
with potential venues, particularly across the East of
England region. Suitable venues may be restaurants,
hotels, furniture retailers or anywhere with a good
amount of wall space that is used by the public. As you
will see from the list of venues above, we also work with
established galleries and arts centres, often filling
gaps in their own exhibition programmes.
what's the fee
for?
The
annual membership fee for Artists taking representation
from Ovenden Contemporary is currently:
£200.00 (UK
Sterling)
We charge this fee to cover the ongoing maintenance and
administration of the web-site, the Art Blog, the
installation of the exhibitions, the production of the
marketing materials including The Bullet magazine and
much more. If we did not charge a fee, we would not be
able to represent so many new and emerging Artists with
little or no sales history. Of course, this fee does very
little to cover the costs of running such a complex
business so there are commissions to pay on each sale.
These commissions vary depending on the type of sale,
whether it comes through the web-site or occurs during an
exhibition, but they never exceed the industry standard
of 50% and will always be agreed with you in advance.
is there
anything else?
Our Art Blog facility is a great
resource to our Members, providing direct access to a
supportive and friendly group of Artist peers. It also
acts as a noticeboard for opportunities such as
competitions that we or our members have heard about.
We have a quarterly review magazine called
'The Bullet'
which features
articles about our Artists, their work & the
exhibitions. The Bullet is e-mailed to our mailing
list four times a year and we try to include all our
Artist Members in this publication.
We are
developing our own range of limited edition prints by
Ovenden Contemporary Artist Members on paper and canvas.
This will be integrated into the established web-site of
our publishing partner and will benefit those
participating Artists by increasing exposure as well as
potential sales of multiples and prints.
We also have a myspace page which generates a
significant amount of 'traffic' as well as a
new youtube profile to help promote
our new FILM category.
want to apply
for membership?
If
you like the sound of what we offer to our
members, click here and send us an e-mail
telling us about you and your art. Alternatively send
us a CD-Rom (no exe files please- we use Apple Macs)
to our postal address. We'll try and get back to you
as soon as possible but it could take a number of
weeks so don't get disheartened if you don't hear from
us immediately.
