Make the most of your degree show

Start to think about your degree show when you begin your last year of study. Visit other degree shows, including where you study, and think about what works well. Talk to the students exhibiting about what they did and ask your tutors for their advice. If you have time you could volunteer to work with a someone on their degree show so you can find out how they set it up.

At the start of your last year of study try to meet with the students you will exhibit with. You can invite your tutors to this meeting too. Thinking about your own research, make a list together of the things you need to do and divide it up between you. Each student should take responsibility for some of these tasks. You can arrange to meet up often to see how everyone is doing with their tasks. Your show will work best if everyone works together.

Things will run better if you can meet up early in your last year of study to get organised. As the degree show gets closer you will all be busy making your work. Making preparations early will help everyone to agree before you are all too busy.

You might decide to:

• Set up an email mailing list and invite your email contacts to join it. Do not add them to a new mailing list without permission.
• Make a new social network account to help advertise your show. Many artists use Instagram because it lets you show images with words. Using hashtags lets you connect with other people and promote the show.
• Make a list of gallery directors and curators you think will be interested in your work. Invite them to join your mailing list. They might like to connect with your social network account too.
• Create a simple website ready to showcase all your work. Add everyone’s contact details.

As your show gets closer you can:

• Add images of everyone’s work to your website. Edit any contact details that have changed. Test that you can find it when you search for your name.
• Create a simple printed catalogue or brochure with everyone’s information:
  • a biography
  • artist statements
  • a map of the exhibition or a list of the works on display
  • individual contact details
• Make business cards for all the people in the exhibition
• Pick one or two people to curate the whole show

There should be someone from your group in the gallery when the show is open. Make a timetable so that everyone takes a turn looking after the gallery. This is called ‘invigilation’. The invigilator:

• looks after the work
• talks to visitors about the any of the work
• direct people to your mailing lists
• makes sure audio-visual work is on when the show is open, and off when the show closes
• keeps the gallery clean and tidy
• makes sure business cards and information handouts are available

Write clear instructions for the invigilator. Tell them how to care for your work and how to contact you if something goes wrong. Visitors go to a lot of degree shows and may not be able to come back if your work isn’t looking good when they are there.

Finally, try to find someone outside of your group to look at the show before it opens. An outside opinion will also help to settle arguments and make sure everyone has a fair chance.

Try to find a clear room to show your work. If your work isn’t in the way corridors can be good too. More people might see your work in a corridor than a room if it is hard to find. Try to make sure that your work won’t be damaged if it is in a place where lots of people will be walking past.

Make sure the walls in your gallery are clean and paint them if you can. Many galleries have white walls but you can paint them any colour that works well with your work. If you are making a projection black paint can work best. Make sure your fellow students know if you are going to paint your walls because they might be able to help. You could buy paint together to make it cheaper if your art school is not able to give you some. Fill in any holes in the walls with plaster or filler before you paint.

Make sure the lighting shows your work well. You might be able to get spotlights to show your work better. Block out windows to make the space darker if you are showing a projection. Always keep the place clean and tidy especially after the opening event.

You will probably make more work than you can show. Only hang the best work that you have. Keep some of your other work nearby if visitors ask to see more. If you can’t have more than one work in your gallery keep images of other work instead.

Your degree show is a chance to make a new audience for your work. It is important that it’s easy to tell which is your work and how to get in touch with you. Some visitors might need time to think before contacting you.

Make a physical business card with your contact information. You can print these yourself or find a cheap print shop. If all your fellow students agree to make one at the same time you might get a discount at a print shop. Ask your tutor if they have a contact. Include an image and contact information that will not change. Visitors might collect many cards and they should be able to identify yours easily. Your art school email address might stop working after a short time. Get a free email account that sounds professional and includes your name. If you use social networks for professional purposes include these too. Make it very easy for people to get in touch even after a long time.

Make an area near your work where people can leave their business cards for you. Keep these safe and get in touch as soon as you can. You can email people to thank them for visiting your show and ask if they want to join your mailing list. You can make a QR code to direct people to your website or mailing list but remember that phones run out of battery!

Put labels up near your work so that visitors know it is yours. Include the following on each of your labels:

• Your name
• The title of the work (or put ‘Untitled’ if you have not given it a title)
• The year you made the work
• What the work is made of
• The size (dimensions) of the work in centimetres (cm) or milimetres (mm)

Make a defined area for visitors to get information about you and your fellow students. This is a good place to have business cards, handouts or a catalogue. Your art school might have an area where they will hand out information about the show. Give them your business cards and handouts instead.

Ask someone else to read your handout information before you print. It should be easy to read for someone who is not a specialist. Not all your visitors will have studied art or read the same books as you.

Make it easy for people to sign up to your mailing list. This might be a book with a pen or a tablet / laptop computer with internet access to your mailing list. You might have a comments book where people can write their thoughts about your work.

Depending on the type of work you make you might be able to sell it. Decide if you want to sell your work or if you would rather keep it for a future exhibition.

Before you can sell anything you need to work out how much you want to sell it for. You can negotiate a price but you need to have some price in mind to begin.

Visitors who are coming to buy work and want to know clearly what it is about. Make some printed information that visitors can take away to think about. It’s unlikely that someone would buy something when they first see it. This is why it’s important to have business cards with an image. People are more likely to remember what a work looks like that to remember your name.

When you are negotiating a sale find a quiet place to talk. You and your buyer will be more relaxed if you can talk about money in private.

Make selling as easy as possible for the buyer. Ask them how they would prefer to pay and get the work. The buyer may want you to send them an invoice for the sale.

You might be able to make an edition of your work if it is photography, print, or moving image. This means you can sell more than one copy.

Stay in touch with everyone who buys your work:

• You might need to borrow the work for an exhibition
• The buyer might be interested in buying something else in future
• They will talk about the work with their friends and might want to put you in touch

Ask to add them to your email mailing list to tell them about your future exhibitions and projects. Follow up the sale a few weeks afterwards to make sure they are happy or have questions.