How to Budget for Your First Art Show

Jan 27

Creating An Art Fair Budget Will Set You Up For Long-Term Success

With ever-changing gallery models and increasing competition for online sales, many independent artists are looking to exhibit in art fairs where they can meet and sell directly to collectors in-person. Once you’ve made up your mind to exhibit at an art show, what’s next?

The steps that come after deciding to exhibit at an art fair for individual artists are important ones that will set you up for success not only in the moment at art fairs but consistently throughout your business practice. If you’ve ever found yourself wondering “How much should I charge for my art?” it might just be time to sit down with a pad and paper and make plans for more than just an idea for your next piece.

There are many things to think about between concept and executing your art fair budget including registration fees, setup costs and supplies – not to mention setting goals for how much money you’d like to make your first time out.

Person holding multiple 100 dollar bills

Calculate Your Costs

Calculating how much you should charge for your art is easier than it sounds. Take stock of all the products, hours, and additional expenses that might come up and create a simple equation for yourself. It’s important to keep in mind that artwork isn’t really worth anything more than the cost of production until it sells, so be careful when estimating how much your work is worth on the market.

Many artists who find their work just isn’t selling base their pricing on the rates of better-known contemporaries (even famous artists). Trying to price match with someone who already has a dedicated client base and widespread name recognition is a recipe for a no-win record in the sales arena.

Don’t let this discourage you from valuing yourself appropriately! Once you have established a reputation, dedicated collector base and are pulling in consistent sales, you can begin to recalculate how much money a piece of art by you is worth! In the meantime, here are a few easy ways to calculate how much to charge for your art.

How Much To Charge For Your Art:

Cost of materials: every piece of material that goes into your artwork costs something. Whether that’s paint, canvas, gesso, concrete, copyright, a lawyer… everything material has some kind of price (including your time, but we’ll get into that further down in the list!). These materials should by all means be factored into the cost of the final product!
Printing: for photographs and prints, keep in mind that having archive quality prints created isn’t cheap. You want to make sure that collectors feel good investing in an edition of your work by not overpaying while being conscious that you still need to make a profit off of the sale. Do research into your competitors who are in similar stages of their careers, while keeping in mind the production cost of your unique process.
Transportation: Did creating the work involve travel? You may have needed to hire professional art handles to bring the work into an art fair. When pricing work, include this cost into the cost as well. Cost of transportation once the work has been sold most often is the responsibility of the collector, but some artists and galleries choose to add that service onto the bill afterwards for clienteling purposes.
Framing: this may or may not apply to you, but many artists choose to offer both framed and unframed pricing for artwork. Before you sell your work, check in with a framer to price out how much different framing options would be so you can factor in that price to any quotes you provide collectors.
Your hourly rate: how much time did you put into creating a piece? The number of hours you spend on your work should be reflected directly in the price of your artwork. Any freelancer will tell you that they work either on an hourly basis or by a project fee (the cost of the latter is usually determined by estimating the total amount of time it will take to complete the project). By assigning an hourly rate to yourself, you are automatically making it easier when assigning value to your work. Just calculate the estimated amount of time and multiply your hourly rate by those hours. For instance, if you determine based on skill and collector’s demand that your hourly rate is $175 and you spend a rough total of 22 hours on a piece of art, that’s $3,850 alone as a base fee.

How much product do you need?

Another potentially nerve-wracking question to ponder before setting up at an art fair is “how much product do I need to bring?” The thought of speedily creating multiple editions or working through the night to meet deadlines doesn’t need to turn all-consuming. Exhibiting artists might be inclined to follow the adage “less is more,” but unless you’re a blue-chip gallery selling $50,000 works by established artists, having more options available for prospective collectors will actually translate into more sales.

Having art at multiple price points will automatically cast a wider net for potential collectors. If you have a few big showstoppers, offer smaller versions and prints of that piece so that the people priced out by the larger work still have the option to take home the piece they fell in love with. We would suggest having work under $500, from $500-$2000, and $2000-$10,000 when exhibiting with us at Superfine Art Fair.

Make it known that you also sell commissions, if indeed that is part of your business model (and we highly recommend it to be!). Gathering leads for future projects is a very valid revenue stream, though by pricing your work appropriately and bringing work in a variety of accessible price points you are making it easier to sell work to more people in real time.

How much will operating costs be?

Exhibition fees, printed business cards, wall labels for your work, the coveted red dots… all the administrative aspects of exhibiting in an art show can add up when not budgeted for. Some art shows will even have artists pay a percentage of sales to the organization in addition to the exhibitor fee – but not Superfine!

Our affordable exhibitor fee includes year-round social media and marketing support in addition to on-site coaching and we never take a percentage of your hard-earned sales. View current spaces, fees, and apply for one of our upcoming art fairs here.

It’s helpful to make a spreadsheet of what your operational costs, material costs, and pricing matrix includes so that you can calculate how to appropriately budget for your first art show. With proper planning and care, nothing should pop up as a surprise – so you’ll be able to focus on making and selling your art rather than worrying about unexpected costs.