It’s a Wrap – Séwllkwe Exhibition

Summary of my first foray into the exhibition world

I noticed back in July 2022 that the Salmon Arm Arts Centre, Salmon Arm, Canada was holding an Open Call for an exhibition entitled Séwllkwe (pronounced sow(wh)kwa) to be from 5 November – 10 December 2022. The call was for artists of all ages and all backgrounds. Up to three works could be submitted if size was 24” or less in any direction, or one work if size is above 24” in any direction. I decided to submit three of my photomontage images from my BOW. In hindsight I should probably have chosen at least one image that didn’t feature people in it for sales purposes, as this might have had more appeal to the general public. I realise that having a print of unknown people hanging on someone’s wall might not have the same appeal as it would to those descendants of that particular family.

I opted to cost my artwork for sale by the gallery (detailed on this post). This is an extremely valuable exercise to work through as I now have built a template on a spreadsheet that I can easily apply to other print sizes.

Reflections

Taking part in a group exhibition as an ice-breaker for my work was a positive experience. It definitely removed the stress factor having the gallery staff do the hanging of the work. The only stressful part for me was the artist talk as I couldn’t really go into too much detail about my whole body of work as it wasn’t present. So I had to apply my remarks just to the three images that were there, just mentioning they were part of a larger body of work. I didn’t write out any notes, but did mentally go over what I wanted to convey and for the most part I remembered it all. We were only supposed to speak for 1 minute, but of course I went on for about 3 minutes which included a brief Q&A session from the curator.

Unfortunately, bar one photographer who wasn’t present, all the other exhibitors were from painting, textiles, drawing and sculptural backgrounds. Not sure how this is going to help my networking opportunities, but perhaps this is a gap that needs to be explored. I will definitely go along to the ProD days that the gallery offers. I have no idea how frequently they are offered so will have to wait and see. I did find it extremely helpful to follow the Gallery’s lead and reposted their publicity feeds on social media as they occurred to build momentum. Each feed used a different image and generated a vibe and enthusiasm for the event. Definitely something to remember to do when doing the book launch and/or an exhibition.

I have reached out to the curator to see if I can have a 1 on 1 meeting with her. As we are located in a very small rural community, it will be helpful to obtain her insights in how I can get my work out in the public in this community. I am currently preparing a list of questions that I would like to ask regarding exhibitions and would also like her thoughts on the planned book. I plan to take along my book maquette and perhaps another body of work I did in the Documentary module as the gallery seems to favour work related to the Secwépemc First Nations. I will probably only hear back from her in mid-January as the gallery has closed for the year.

Delivery day

Timeline

The gallery sent out an email to all participating artists on 30 September 2022 with all relevant timelines:

• Delivery day: 31 October between 10 am and 1 pm. Name, title, media and price to be ready for each item.
• Artwork to be hung by gallery staff. Wall text also provided by gallery on transparent labels which were stuck on the wall next to the images.
• Opening day: 4 November from 11 am to 1 pm. Opening remarks at 11:30 am. Attending artists to be acknowledged at this time.
• Artist talk: 17 November at 2 pm. Style was a walkabout style talk, with coffee and cookies
• Exhibition closes and take down and pickup is on 10 December at 4:05 pm.
• If unable to pickup on 10 December, then alternate date is 12 December from 10 am to 12 pm.

Marketing Strategy

• Salmon Arm Arts Centre publicized the exhibition on their website, Facebook and Instagram channels. 2 thousand followers on Facebook and 1,397 followers on Instagram.
• I promoted the exhibition via my Instagram (169 followers), and FB accounts (225 followers).  
• I used the #weareoca tag to post the exhibition details on the OCA student site.
• I also made use of my Shutterhub’s membership Good News announcement where Shutterhub does a public announcement of its members’ success stories (Instagram – 7,110 followers; Twitter – 5,701 followers).

Costs

• Salmon Arm Arts Centre annual membership: $15.00
• 3 x 8.5″x11″ prints printed by me (Canon Matt paper and Canon Proxima P-100 ink costs included in calculation): $150.78
• 3 x frames: $67.41
• Gallery commission factored into pricing (25% if sold) per item: $23.80 (not applicable as there were no sales)
• Website, domain name purchase: $154.00

LO5 confidently engage a public audience with your practice and analyse, review and evaluate information relevant to your practice, identifying opportunities for professional development

Séwllkwe Exhibition Opening Day

Opening day dawned and I was feeling a sick as a dog, but dragged myself over to the gallery. Opening remarks were made by Curator and Director, Tracey Kutschker and the traditional welcome by Neskonlith Councillor Louis Thomas (below). As can be seen from the image below, the gallery is quite small. The image below pretty much shows most of the entire square footage. The building’s previous life was that of Salmon Arm’s first post office built in 1937 and is now designated a heritage building. Coffee, hot chocolate and biscuits were provided as refreshments – most welcome as snow was threatening.

My work was hung in a lovely spot – just to the right of the pillar (above) and between two windows. So lots of natural light and can be seen from the main entrance quite easily.

There was only another photographer who was exhibiting. The balance of the work was mixed media, painting – oils, acrylics and watercolours, collage

To be honest, I didn’t manage to walk around the gallery as I was feeling so poorly. I basically just grabbed seat and sat down before I fell down. I did enjoy watching various viewers’ reactions to my work though (below).

The gallery catalogue showing the page with my work listed and the sale price.

On 17 November there is a walk-about artist talk scheduled which I need to prepare for. Hopefully I can get my husband to record my talk, although I don’t hold out much hope for the quality of his video skills. He tends to get rather excited and shake the camera around a bit, or else he sticks his finger over the lens. The gallery might do a recording – fingers crossed.

Update: I was featured on the Salmon Arm Arts Centre Instagram feed yesterday chatting to a viewer. Given that the Centre has 1,392 followers I am rather chuffed about this.

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A post shared by Salmon Arm Arts Centre 🎨 (@salmonarmartscentre)

LO5 confidently engage a public audience with your practice and analyse, review and evaluate information relevant to your practice, identifying opportunities for professional development

Séwllkwe Exhibition Preparations

(Salmon Arm Arts Centre, 2022)

I am taking part in the Séwllkwe (pronounced sow(wh)kwa) group exhibition that is being held at the Salmon Arm Arts Centre in Salmon Arm, BC, Canada from 5 November – 10 December 2022.

I thought that my photomontages would fit the brief, but later started doubting myself. So I sent off an email with a link to my LensCulture portfolio, asking the curator her opinion whether they would fit or not. She replied stating that she could definitely see a fit. I confirmed my participation with her.

Sourcing frames where I live proved rather difficult. I didn’t have enough time to get proper gallery quality frames over the internet as the delivery schedule was too long and I was really struggling to find frames with mats for an 8.5″x11″ print. I managed to purchase three frames from a big box store that shall remain nameless. The frames are 11″x14″ and have a mat for 8.5″x11″ prints.

Fig. 1 Frames

I spent the better part of an afternoon figuring out my pricing for the gallery (details on my Working out Costs for Prints post). Now that I’ve gone through that exercise, it should be easy to develop a spreadsheet with all the necessary formulas for different size prints. One would only need a slight adjustment depending on paper used and frames purchased.

Getting the prints in the frames took longer than I anticipated as I had to check for dust specks on the glass and mats and that took a few tries before I was satisfied with the outcome.

Fig. 2 Kuit, L. (2022) Riley’s Sawmill logging truck, Celista. [Photograph] 8.5”x11”

I had to supply the gallery with the title (maximum of 10 words in length), medium and price for each of the works. I was in a bit of a tizz wondering whether I should title my images according to the brief, or keep to what I’ve used thus far with my body of work. I eventually decided to go with my original titles, as these would allow the viewer to create their own connotations to the brief. I lightly taped a letter size sheet of paper with the information for each print on the front of the frame as in the example below.

Fig. 3 Example of Title, Medium, Price Information

The curator was quite pleased with the way I had provided the information, stating that I was very organised. Almost commented that it was from habit doing all those Harvard references! She then allocated numbers to my work – that’s the square white sticker that can be seen on the edge of the frame in the image below. She really liked my work and mentioned that it was good to see some contemporary work for a change. As I glanced over to the table just behind the curator, I noticed similar quality frames on some of the other works on a table close by so that is probably par for the course for exhibiting in a rural area. I also noticed someone else’s titling, which also didn’t reference the brief in any way, so I’m feeling more confident about my decision to stick with the original title. I also paid up my membership to the gallery. Apparently we get some pro-d days included in the membership, which would be good for networking.

Fig. 4 Prints dropped off at the gallery

I have also sent two of the ladies who provided photos for my project an email notifying them of the exhibition as I used their photos for the photomontages. Hopefully one will be able to pop in and take a look. The other one lives around 400km from her so probably won’t be able to make it. Throughout this process I have been posting to my Instagram account (@lynda.kuit) to try and create a bit of a buzz. The gallery is also do an Instagram blitz, but probably only later this week. Opening day is 5 November and now that I’ve done the drop off the reality has set in. My first work in an exhibition! Very excited!!

Bibliography

Salmon Arm Arts Centre (2022) Exhibitions. At: https://www.salmonarmartscentre.ca/exhibitions (Accessed  31/10/2022).

Kuit, L. (s.d.) Lynda Kuit (@lynda.kuit) • Instagram photos and videos. At: https://www.instagram.com/lynda.kuit/ (Accessed  31/10/2022).

LO1 demonstrate comprehensive knowledge of the professional context(s) relevant to your practice and have an understanding of the professional dimensions that underpin a successful photographic practice

LO3 operate in complex commercial contexts requiring the application of specific interpersonal, professional and business skills within an ethical framework

Working out Costs for Prints

I have to provide Salmon Arm Art Centre a price for my prints so have delved into this morass of figuring out what to charge for my work.

Ink cartridge for Canon Pixma Pro-100 = CAD$25.19 each.
There are 8 colours. Total CAD$201.52.

Canon matt photo paper 8.5×11 (50 pack) = CAD$22.49 so CAD$0.45 each).

I used the ink cost per print calculation that I got off the Red River Paper site (Red River Paper, 2021) where thankfully they have already worked out a Cartridge Equivalent Usage measure which is too complicated for my brain. Their calculation reads:

(Cartridge per Square Inch) x (Square Inches) x (Cost of one ink cartridge) = Ink Cost Per Print

So to calculate the price of an 8.5″x11″ print it is:

.000643 x 93.5 x CAD$25.19 = CAD$1.51. I’m assuming that this would be using only one colour so I have multiplied this amount by 8 to get an approximation for a colour print which is CAD$12.12. This chimes more with a photo processing lab’s costs (which are cheaper because they don’t use inkjet).

So if I add the ink cost per print plus the paper cost I then get CAD$12.57 per print.

According to the Trafft Team, the PPA’s Benchmark states that hard costs (COGS – costs of goods sold) must be less than 25% of the overall income. So the charge should be 4 or 5 times the COGS figure (Trafft Team, 2021).

That means for me an 8.5″x11″ print should be priced at $50.26 (excluding a frame).

My frame costs CAD$22.47 so using the PPA benchmark that would bring the framed print to CAD$140.14.

The frames I purchased are not gallery standard as there is nothing local offers anything like that, but they are acceptable. Therefore I’m not comfortable charging 4 times the COGS figure for the frame. I’m quite happy just doubling that figure.

That puts my pricing at CAD$95.20 which I will round down to CAD$95.00. I think this is reasonable, as I’ve not accounted for expenses such as office overheads, petrol, etc. So this figure would just represent my costs plus some of my time.

Brian Tremblay writing for PetaPixel states he learnt a lesson from painters and that is to charge $1 per square inch as a starting point (Tremblay, 2022). This is a good measure as a 8.5″x11″ print has 93.5 square inches.

The Salmon Arm Arts Centre charges a 25% commission on work sold and advise that we should factor this into our price point. This adds CAD$23.80 to my total, bringing the amount up to CAD$119.00, which I will round up to CAD$120.00 for convenience.

Bibliography

Red River Paper (2021) Cost of Inkjet Printing Canon PRO-100. At: https://www.redrivercatalog.com/rr/cost-of-inkjet-printing-canon-pro-100.html (Accessed  27/10/2022).

Trafft Team (2021) Pricing Photography Prints: The Guide You Absolutely Need. At: https://trafft.com/pricing-photography-prints/ (Accessed  27/10/2022).

Tremblay, B. (2022) How to Price Your Fine Art Photography. At: https://petapixel.com/pricing-fine-art-photography/ (Accessed  27/10/2022).

LO1 demonstrate comprehensive knowledge of the professional context(s) relevant to your practice and have an understanding of the professional dimensions that underpin a successful photographic practice

LO3 operate in complex commercial contexts requiring the application of specific interpersonal, professional and business skills within an ethical framework.

Séwllkwe Exhibition

I noticed that the local gallery in Salmon Arm (Salmon Arm Arts Centre) is holding an open exhibition in November 2022 on the theme of water. Séwllkwe is a Secwepemc word meaning water, and artists of all ages and all backgrounds are welcome to participate. Up to three works can be submitted if size is 24” or less in any direction, or one work if size is above 24” in any direction. I have been thinking about taking out membership with the Arts Centre as it seems to be a major networking facility here in this rural town where I live. The gallery is not large by any means. It was built in 1937 as a post office, but it is local and I have seen some interesting work there. I will apply for membership which is quite cheap – only CAD$15 for a senior. As I can only submit 3 photographs I will probably make a selection from my photomontages. Something to carry forward for SYP, as I should have started that module by the time this exhibition comes around.