Show@621
Apply by December 1, 2007 for 2008/2009.

SEND APPLICATIONS TO:

The 621 Gallery, Inc.
c/o Exhibition Committee
621 Industrial Drive
Tallahassee, FL 32310

THE PROCESS

The time between the application deadlines and notification for showing can be up to one year. Please be patient with the selection process.

Timelines forArtists Exhibiting at The 621 Gallery

• Artists will be informed of their selection by the January preceding the exhibition season
• 8 weeks prior = contract and timeline forwarded to artists
• 6 weeks prior = sponsorship arrangements solidified
• 4 weeks prior = invitation and banner designed and sent to printers
• 2 weeks prior = invitations sent, press releases submitted, banner installed
• 3 days prior = artwork installed in gallery, lights set, art labeled
• 1 day prior = final cleaning and reception set-up

THE FACILITIES

The 621 Gallery space for changing exhibitions consists of a large room 77' x 30' with a 12' wall dividing the space into two rooms. The building is part of a World War II era lumber mill warehouse. There is open ceiling, exposing old wooden beams, a metal roof and skylights. Track lighting is attached to suspended steel frames in the front and back gallery. The floors are painted gray cement. The walls are finished sheet rock up to 12' height. The back wall of the gallery has plywood under the sheet rock. The walls are pale gray with the center wall a shade darker. The space is 2300 square feet in area. The adjoining Nan Boynton Memorial Gallery provides a smaller exhibition space. This space is utilized for one-person shows or smaller group exhibitions. This room is approximately 31' x 14' or 400 square ft..

Also, a word of caution, the main gallery is not air conditioned. We take specific precautions to ensure that no damage occurs, however, some non-traditional art materials do not stand up well to our temperature and humidity range. Please notify us if you think you work merits special consideration.

Available Equipment
The 621 Gallery has a number of pedestals, projector and a 13" DVD/TV. Please make arrangements for any other needs or requirements known to the staff.

Commission on Sales
621 Gallery's commission is 40%.

SHOW SEASON APPLICATION

The 621 Gallery is seeking proposals for 2008/09 season. All media, cutting edge contemporary themes preferred. Artists living in the U.S. and abroad are accepted.  Main gallery space 77'x30' with 12' walls, 24' vaulted ceiling, additional 32'x16' space.  No fees, no limitations. 40% commission on sales.  A new 3 person exhibition each month with at least 1500 people attending opening night.  Please send application to The 621 Gallery, Inc., c/o Exhibition Committee, 621 Industrial Drive, Tallahassee , FL 32310 .  For more information call (850) 224-6163 .

Application Deadline for the 2008/2009 exhibition season is
December 1, 2007

Artists interested in exhibition at The 621 Gallery must include the following in their application packet:

• A cover letter containing a proposal for your exhibition
• Images (4x6 inches at 300 dpi) burned on CD (preferred), or 15-20 slides
• Slide list
• Resume or CV
• Artist’s Statement
• A self addressed stamped envelope for the return of your application materials (if necessary)
• Any additional information that you would like the committee to know
  about you or your work (optional)

SHOW SEASON SUBMISSIONS FAQ's

Ready to Show?
Marketing yourself as an artist is probably one of the hardest tasks an artist has to do. You will be approaching galleries that have limited space, many requests, financial worries, and their own particular vision or audience to consider in choosing artwork to display. The Board at The 621 Gallery annually reviews 40-100 artists for, at the most, twelve one or three-person exhibition slots on an exhibition schedule that begins one year later. When applying to a gallery be prepared for rejection, but most of all, be prepared.

Resume or Curriculum Vitae (CV)
An up-to-date resume, kept on your computer or on a disk, so that it can be updated constantly, is essential. It doesn't have to be fancy, but neat and easy-to-read is important. Not too long. With many resumes to review, a ten page resume will be not be read and seems totally excessive. List some 'selected exhibitions' with a note that a complete list of exhibitions is available. Where you studied art can be of interest as well. List work experience (paid or volunteer) if it enhances your vision as an artist, such as teaching art or work with an arts organization or if your work experience influenced your artwork, such as a cattle rancher that creates sculpture from cow bones.

Artist’s Statement
Periodically evaluate what you are doing and why. Develop an artist statement about the motivation and/or direction of your work. Just a paragraph or two can enhance your visual display. Lengthy statements or ones that go on and on about ethereal philosophies, can lose or irritate your reader, especially if they have a large stack to review.

Imagery
Have the best slides you can afford. Have slides of relatively current work finished within the last two or three years. If the prospectus asks for 10-20 slides do not send forty. Do not include mediocre work or bad slides. When viewing the artwork of 70 artists, a total of 700-1400 slides, poor quality slides puts you at an immediate disadvantage to the competition for the coveted exhibition slots. If you have two distinct styles or media, such as clay sculpture and watercolors, it wouldn't hurt to show some of each. But if you dabble in twenty different media, don't show one slide of each. Show your strengths, not your diversity.

Mark each slide with your name, title, medium and size. Prepare a slide list with the same information so that when your slides are in a carousel, being viewed by the selection committee, the information is at hand. If the prospectus asks for slides, send slides. You can include additional information such as xeroxed images, reviews, cards from other exhibits, a web site, etc. but keep the extras to a minimum and not as a substitution for the requested slides. Include a SASE, a self-addressed, stamped envelope, for the return of your slides. Do not send your only set of slides, always make duplicates. It may be a while before you get them back and sometimes they get lost.

Slides or Digital Imagery?
The 621 Gallery will accept digital reproductions of your work, although some places accept slides only. If a CD-Rom is acceptable, be sure to find out what exchange format (.jpg, .pdf, .html, etc.) is most desirable for the people reviewing your work. Because this technology is new to many people involved in an exhibition selection process, it is important that you cater to the gallery’s level of technical savvy, or you run the risk of being rejected due to “technical difficulties.”

Here at 621, we love digital files, and encourage you to submit them, however, slides have definite advantages. For one, the color will not be affected by the machine we use to view them. Nor will they ever “not work” (even glass mount slides which do not fit into standard projectors can be examined with a loupe and a light table -- they do tend to get crushed in the mail, though.) Digital imagery does have one distinct advantage in that you can control the presentation of it. Keep it simple, though. Like a resume, it should be brief, and focused on the relevant information – the imagery.

Image quality is, as always, essential. Use an image editor to black out anything that is not your art work (by photographing your work on black velvet, you can save lots of time. The fabric is a little expensive, but with proper storage will last a long time.) • Use a common exchange format such as .jpg, or .pdf. Powerpoint presentations or HTML documents (a.k.a. a web site), although a little more time consuming (you have to make pages, and include instructions for opening the document) allow you to control aspects of the presentation such the order of your imager, and the inclusion of titles and other information. • Always include an image list on paper, with the title of the works, the date completed, and your name – just like you would if you sent slides. • Test your CD-Rom on both a PC and a Mac, or at least two PC’s with different operating systems. Inherent differences in color technology and variations in user settings can affect your presentation. Also your CD burning software may present no problem when read by your computer, but might be unintelligible to another brand of CD-Rom reader. If your CD-Rom does not work we will notify you at the time of your rejection letter.

If the above paragraph doesn’t make any sense to you, or sounds too risky, send slides.

E-mail Query
Do not e-mail unsolicited attachments with images. A better alternative is to send a short introductory e-mail with an invitation to visit a web site or asking if you may send visual attachments. This is not a substitute for an application. Your query will be answered by an individual, but your application will be reviewed by a group of people with diverse concerns.

Where if not here?
Which galleries to submit to? You can check the listings in periodicals such as Art Calendar and Art Papers. Look for galleries throughout your region, if possible, visit the galleries several times to see what type of work they usually show. When you decide to submit an application be sure to include a cover letter with the other documents introducing yourself to the gallery and proposing an exhibition of your work. This letter is particularly helpful if you are proposing a group exhibition or one with a specific theme. As a general rule, find out what the gallery wants from an artist for exhibition consideration, and when. The 621 Gallery sets a deadline in September each year for submissions and has a committee that views applications and decides on all exhibitions. Other galleries have only one person that selects and may prefer to see you and your work in person, but call first – don’t just drop in.

Find out before you submit, what the gallery expects from the artist if chosen for exhibition i.e. commission percentage or if you have to install the work, if the gallery does an invitation and who pays for the invitation, opening reception, transportation, insurance, publicity, etc. It can be expensive to produce a exhibition and may be more than you are willing to do. Finally, do not have unrealistic expectations that once your work is on the walls of a gallery, it will all sell and cover all of your expenses. An exhibition is yet another learning experience and another step of the journey.

QUESTIONS?

Contact
Denise Drury
info@621gallery.org
(850) 224-6163