10 Venues to Sell Your Art

There are lots of people out there that want to buy art just like yours, and the challenge is simply to figure out how to get your work in front of them. Here are 10 tried and true venues that I’ve personally used to sell my art. If you want more resources like this, sign up for my guide Pricing Your Art Made Easy!

1: Galleries or gift stores

We are most familiar with this option: brick and mortar stores that sell art and other handmade goods.

Pros: someone else handles money, distribution, customers

Cons: they take 40-60%, can be hard to find a good fit who is taking on new art

2: Art brokers

Like a gallery, there are agencies that work directly with clients (usually business organizations) to connect them with artists to buy existing or commissioned art.

Pros: they take care of connecting with the client, discussing the specifics, organizing shipping and installing the art.

Cons: they take 40-60%

3: Word of mouth

Pros: past clients tell their friends and family, direct recommendation is a powerful motivator

Cons: limited to your direct community

4: RFPs (Requests for Proposals)

In new business construction, especially in government and hospital sectors, there will often be a public request for proposals for art specific to the client’s needs. 

Pros: projects are usually well funded and good opportunities to create significant art

Cons: requires ongoing research to find the RFPs, are usually quite competitive and often require a time investment of a in depth proposal that is not funded

5: Craft fairs or art fairs

In most cities, there will be multiple festivals, fairs, and art crawls with opportunities for artisans to rent space to sell their work.

Pros: if you pick a good one, there can be abundant traffic there to see art

Cons: it can be expensive to participate, you need to spend all day or all weekend, set up can be complicated (eg you might need a tent for an outdoor show)

6: An open studio or party

Especially effective over the holidays, you can leverage your local network, and/or partner with another group of artists or business to have a gathering where your art will be available.

Pros: parties are fun, if you have a network in your city it can be a fun way to get people together.

Cons: limited to your local network, need a good space to host

7: Hosted commerce sites like Etsy or even Amazon or Ebay

Pros: they make it easy to upload and list your wares, people go there to find handmade goods

Cons: it’s a very saturated market and might be hard to stand out, can be less professional, you’ll have to package and ship, the service will charge you fees and has strict customer service requirements

8: Your own website

Pros: you control the entire process, less fees, cleaner design

Cons: you have to drive traffic to the website, you’re responsible for shipping, inventory and customer service

9: Social media platforms

Pros: huge capacity for broad exposure to many different audiences, great way to build an excited fan base

Cons: casual social media users are indifferent shoppers, logistics of purchases through messaging can be complex

10: Licensing sites, like Society 6

Pros: one design or image can be used tons of ways (like prints, bedsheets or stickers), some sites manage all production and shipping for you

Cons: your share of the profit will be low

 Onward + Upward!

– Josie