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Peer Sessions: Guilds and Membership Organizations
Moderators: Mary Lacer, American Association of Wood
Turners
Dana Singer, Society of North American Goldsmiths
June 2, 2006
Topic:
“Today’s Challenge’s”
How do
we successfully market our organizations, both
internally to grow our artist membership as well as
externally to educate the public about who we are?
Several
members shared that their organization seemed to have
saturated the market advertising in craft magazines and
questioned whether there was much benefit to these
traditional forms of advertising. Alternatives to
traditional advertising were offered:
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Launching a website gained many new members.
-
Tapping into local organizations (other guilds, city
governments, etc.).
-
Partnering with other guilds.
Applications and jurying process may intimidate new or
potential members:
-
Offer “Prepare to qualify workshops”, makes
application user-friendly.
-
Critique’s available at yearly conference for new
members.
-
“Pre-jury” session in different parts of the state
each year.
Other
ideas to broaden membership:
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“Why Join” flyer
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Open membership to collectors and buyers
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Maintain database of buyer/collectors from
exhibitions and organization events
-
Have different levels of membership
Exhibiting member artists
Non-exhibiting member artists
Patrons (buyer/collectors/supporters)
Educate
as part of mission statement: educate members and the
public, and experienced members become mentors
Membership requirements
-
All
organizations represented reported a system of fees,
with patrons paying more than artists. Artist
memberships ranged from $20 to $100 yearly, and
patron memberships - ranging from $50 to $1000.
-
Patron memberships were usually given some perks
like free tickets to events. One group had their
patrons pay a smaller fee but requires volunteer
work. While everyone agreed that artist members
grumble about the fees, it is better to make
incremental fee increases every year or two rather
than bump it up substantially after several years.
-
Some groups require members to participate in
educational demonstrations.
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Require photos/images as part of membership. This
helps the member to be more professional and gives
the organization a body of digital images to use for
publications. Offer a photo workshop at low cost to
help members or have organization pay for 1 shot
from each member by a pro. photographer.
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All
agreed that it is important to promote membership as
a means to support the crafts culture. Often people
want to join in order to access the exhibitions and
shows, this can be a negative influence on the
organization as it can promotes a “what does it do
for me?” environment. Focusing on education,
mentoring and socializing are important focuses.
How to
educate the public about who we are?
Press
Releases
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Press releases are free, keeps your org. name out in
the public
-
Know the contact person, cultivate relationship with
editors
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Send them out for any event, or news regarding your
organization
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Send them out to announce new board members too.
-
Local, State and National press releases are all
good
-
These help educate the public
-
Services are available that will send press releases
to all magazines ($75 yearly)
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Some media are only accepting hardcopies through the
mail, check with them
-
They were getting inundated with emailed press
releases
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Emailed versions can be considered “not targeted”
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Make downloadable versions of p.r.’s on your website
Educational postcards: Glass Bead blowers sent out a
pdf file of a postcard that illustrates the difference
between hand-made and mass produced. Recipients could
print it out and make available to their audience
(libraries, galleries, other guilds, etc.)
Artist’s stories: Articles to publish in local media
can be a way to also promote your
organization
Modern
communications require multiple communication styles
To
reach all age levels of your membership or the public,
you may need to have multiple forms styles
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Newsletters (hardcopy, emailed, websited and
podcasted)
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“Yahoo Groups” replaced print newsletters some
members don’t have internet
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“Constant Contact”
good economical email resource
has sign-out option (important legal
consideration)
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“Skype”
voice over internet system
(free phone)
good for conference calling
Does
the difference between artists who do functional work
and artists who are creating “fine craft” create issues
within your organizations?
Similarly, are there issues regarding the mix of amateur
artists vs. professionals creating art as their main
source of income? How do we balance serving the needs of
these two groups?
Some
organizations require juried memberships. In addition,
some also have non-juried members Some
non-professional artists pay for critique by a set of
professional members
One
person asked “what is our responsibility to reach out to
those not in “the club”? This can create a wider base
of support in community. One group says they have
“levels of membership” where one has to resubmit to be
juried every 3 years for 9 years…after that they become
“masters” and are no longer juried. Funding can
sometimes require that the group to outreach to all
possible members. Some funding requires minority
representation, but demographics can make this difficult
Most
agreed that friends and patrons need to be acknowledged
as integral to membership
June 3,
2006
Topic:
Successful Ideas That Have Made a Difference for
Guilds/Membership Organizations
Plan to
draw in young people by the American Association of Wood
Turners:
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Tools donated to conference/symposium (ex. Jet
mini-lathes)
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10-17 year olds were allowed into conference free w/
registered adult
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Drawing held for 20 complete set-ups for these young
people
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2
half days of instruction during the yearly symposium
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There was a waiting list for kids for this year
SNAG –
minority outreach to high schools (initially this
program was in urban areas):
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Guest artist with local school
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Half the program money went to the artist, half to
the school
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Hope was that the school would continue a metals
program
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Some schools went on to purchase exhibition cabinets
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Program on hold, SNAG members wanted this to be
offered to rural areas
Minneapolis Woodturner’s Association
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Rockler donated 3 lathes to local schools
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6
kids were given 6 weeks of classes
Question posed: Why not use craft as a means to teach
English as a second language? State Arts Council, is a
good resource for gaining access to teaching and
promoting crafts in schools. Demonstrations in Schools
are a good way to get young people interested in a
craft. AAW, Education Grant can be used to buy tools
for use in schools
Working
with museums and galleries can help promote exhibitions
and public interest
Airports sometimes have exhibition opportunities.
Atlanta and San Francisco airports were both mentioned
as good examples
Use
EBay for selling donated pieces
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List in the fundraising/charity category
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Tax
right off possible, depending on organization’s
status
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Publicize auction in appropriate trade/craft
magazines
Website
optimizing
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Buying keywords from Google, helps keep you high up
on search engine
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Check into “pay for click” service
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Organization may need to hire a service to optimize
their website
Professional Development
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Important to mentor/support young artists with this
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Craft Council regularly teaches professional
development. They found that this results in
increased membership
Summer
School
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High School age “Fame & Fortune” talks and
demonstrations
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Demonstrates to kids the opportunities in the craft
schools
Canadian Craft Council has noticed that the gap between
finishing higher education and the graduate becoming a
viable studio artist is becoming shorter
It is
important to educate the public about American crafts.
This insures continuation of interest and involvement in
the crafts
Promoting local crafts: one city buys local crafts for
city gifts for special visitors
They
also published a 13 page calendar with pictures of local
crafts for city to sell to realtors.
Membership Fees
Most
agreed that it is important to increase fees on a
regular (yearly or so) basis, rather than wait for many
years and then increase all at once
Requirements for Membership
Groups
found that certain requirements for their members helped
to make the organization more successful:
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a
minimum of 1 meeting every 3 years
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a
minimum of 1 demonstration per year
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a
minimum of 1 piece for the gallery
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a
minimum of 1 professional photo for publicity
purposes
Silent
Auction, many groups use a “Silent Auction” at events to
raise money, here are comments:
-
can
be viewed as unfair competition to artists at the
show
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have artist set the minimum bid, they get that and
the organization gets anything above
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some organizations have the artist fully donate
their piece
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some organizations give the artist a percentage of
the proceed, this can sometimes result in better
pieces donated
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“Draw Box” – visitors place a ticket in the box,
whomever is drawn gets to buy the piece at the price
indicated, this guarantees the required price to be
paid
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It
was discussed that artists are always being asked to
donate their work for charity, which results in
“Artist Fatigue”. Allowing the artist to have a
portion of the proceeds can help alleviate this.
For
example, at a Founder’s Dinner (fundraiser) for a $500
couple’s price, they are then eligible to win a $500
donated piece. This event would require as many pieces
donated as tickets sold
Gift
Certificates
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Can
be a good way to promote more sales
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Usually not all certificates are redeemed, so this
is good too.
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Gift cards (like a credit card) would be applicable
for this
Examples of Fundraising Events offered by various
Guilds/ Organizations
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Goblet Grab, Souper Bowl, Empty Bowl, Christmas
Ornaments
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Handmade items (goblets, bowls, cups, ornaments
etc.)
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People purchase tickets
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Drawing of tickets gives people a chance to pick a
piece
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