Art Show Submissions: Tips for Getting Your Work Out There

The below is an excerpt from NMCC BME program graduate and artist Lauren Kelly’s book, From Canvas to Career: An Artist’s No-Sh*t Guide to Going Pro. After attending the BME program, Kelly says she was inspired to write this book and made the decision to go full-time as an artist.

“During the program, I realized I didn’t lack preparation,” she said in a talk with Program Director Henry Jake Foreman. “I just lacked a spine. Being surrounded by inspired community and hearing from accomplished Native artists and entrepreneurs is what gave me my spine. I want to pay that forward with this book.”

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Unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to submissions. Every entity putting out an open call will have different expectations. But I can give you a few tips to help you stay afloat in the submissions sea.

First, tailor your approach. Before you ever reach out to a gallery, business, or any other prospective partnership, do your research. Visit them, build rapport if you can, understand their programming and audience, and tailor your pitch accordingly. You’ll pitch differently to a tattoo studio than you will to a gallery, and differently to a coffee shop than you will to a hotel. Knowing your audience demonstrates you have respect for their mission and a genuine interest in collaborating. You’re not just rolling up to take from them– you’re there to build something meaningful together.

Second, if you’re submitting to a call for art or proposals or submitting to an art-specific organization, follow all submission guidelines to a T. Most galleries and shows and many businesses will have specific guidelines for submissions. Ensure you adhere to these instructions, as they will reflect your ability to follow directions and demonstrate professionalism. I promise you, whoever is receiving the submissions won’t have time to correct you or wait for you to figure it out. They’ll just reject your submission if you don’t follow the directions.

Third, be prepared for rejection. You’ll receive more rejections than acceptances, and that is okay. In fact, it’s healthy. A lot of folks don’t put themselves out there much at all prior to putting their art out there for the market, and for them it can be easy to take rejection really personally. I was fortunate to spend time in the car business prior to ever seriously putting my art out there, and it taught me some valuable lessons. One of those lessons was that a healthy success rate with high-value pitches is not 100%. It’s not even 80%. It’s more likely to be around 40%. 

See, if you’re succeeding way more often than that, it can indicate that you’re not casting a big enough fishing net, so to speak; if you only take 3 shots at the basketball hoop, all from your most comfortable distance, you’ll have 100% success. But to grow sustainably, you need challenges. You need to make yourself more vulnerable to failure. 

Consistently being way under 40%, on the other hand, can indicate you’re not targeting the right people. You’re casting your proverbial fishing net in the wrong direction. 

40% success is the sweet spot. You want to be rejected about 60% of the time. It’s a healthy metric. Don’t fear failure or rejection– it’s more than likely that you need more of it than you’re getting right now if you want to experience success.

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Lauren Kelly is a Citizen Potawatomi visual artist and arts advocate based in Oklahoma. Her book, From Canvas to Career: An Artist’s No-Sh*t Guide to Going Pro, is now available at IndigiExchange in the Resilience Hub in downtown Albuquerque. For more information about the book, head to: www.laurenkelly.art/from-canvas-to-career