Tag Archives: event promotion

Two upcoming art shows

“Nourish” virtual exhibition by Art Saint Louis

Art Saint Louis is having a virtual exhibition on their web site, from July 1 – September 1, 2022. I have had one piece selected for this show so I’ll be in it along with 25 other artists.

(all the) Feels show at Art Saint Louis

I’m also in an upcoming gallery show at Art St. Louis called “(all the) Feels”. It runs from July 30 – September 8, 2022. The opening reception is August 6 from 5-7 pm. One of my collages was selected for this show.

For several years I had pretty much given up on producing “fine art” pieces, even though I still had lots of ideas. The main reason was that my time seemed better spent making more craft-oriented things that helped promote my Etsy shop, the blog posts I was writing for Schnarr’s Hardware, or the teaching I was doing at the time. By then, life had taught me several times over not to put all my eggs in one basket when it comes to making a living. I was trying lots of things to see what worked and what didn’t.

In the fall of 2019 I started working on a Master’s Degree at Webster University in Advertising and Marketing Communications. My reasoning for studying communications is that art is a form of communication, and in addition picking up more knowledge about communications can make any of my activities more successful.

My communications classes are fascinating, absorbing, and creatively satisfying, but I cannot help but be jealous of the art majors. Many of the topics I study in communications are serious, and although art can also be serious it also can be pure play and I need some of that! My undergraduate degree is in fine art. Shortly after starting my studies at Webster University, every now and then I would walk over to the art building to see what the students were up to and to find out if there were any art shows that were open to all students and not just art majors. I found two in quick succession and to my great joy made new work and was accepted into both shows. One show was meant to be one night only, and the other show, “Back To Our Roots” was intended to be up for some time but was shut down early twice, the second time due to the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

I’m about halfway finished with the Master’s degree right now. I’m using the skills as I go, so I’m not putting undue pressure on myself to hurry to finish. Also I have taken a break due to tragedies in my family at the end of last summer that caused severe grief and trauma that are still greatly affecting my productivity. I’m going to resume taking classes again when I’m sure I can handle the course work. I’m getting there, but there are setbacks along the way that cause me a lot of frustration, as well as to other people who want or need something from me. I feel really guilty when I turn down any work that people want, or set any kind of boundaries. This inappropriate guilt causes me a great deal of distress that I’m trying to work through, but boundaries are necessary sometimes so that I can get my trauma symptoms under control. The art piece of mine that the judges selected for the “(all the) Feels” show is about this discomfort and guilt. It contains parts that I began earlier for a different reason, but that is what the final result is about.

One of the best ways I know to process difficult and complex feelings is to make art. So this spring I joined Art Saint Louis and have been making more art to enter into their shows. I’ve been in a few of their shows in the past but was never a member before. A friend asked me a few weeks ago why I was doing this – we were at a party, so I didn’t want to explain at that time and place that I was kind of doing it as therapy. Yes, entering shows is good for promotional purposes for myself and my work, I can practice and improve my communication skills, I might get a sale, I might even win a prize which would be good for my show history. But much more important to me is motivation to finish some pieces so that I process what is going on inside me. I’ve been through some life-changing events and personal turmoil, as many of us have. Yes the resulting feelings and symptoms are unwelcome and difficult, but I can’t just wish them away. I have to process them, and art is one of the great gifts from God that I’ve been blessed with that helps me do that. I am very grateful for the opportunity to express and exhibit.

More information about Art Saint Louis:

Web site: https://www.artstlouis.org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArtSaintLouis/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArtStLouis

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/art_st_louis/ or @art_st_louis

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ArtStLouis

Art Dialogue Blog: https://artstlouis.blogspot.com/

Links to examples of some past and present fine art and design work of mine:

Graphic design and art portfolio on Facebook

Pinterest – Carolyn’s Art and Design

Pinterest – My Ceramics

Pinterest – My Old Artwork

Etsy – Art and Crafts by Carolyn (yes I’m planning on expanding this section more as I get time to do it!)

QR Codes are handy for promotions that require a fast turnaround

When I was Creative Director for my former employer Webinar Resources, we built QR codes, that is Quick Response codes, into many of our campaigns. I liked them so much I made a header graphic for our Facebook page meant to celebrate their functionality and their high-tech look. They appealed to me for design reasons as well.

We put QR codes on any surface we could think of – door knockers, cards, posters, electronic slides, buttons, t-shirts, holiday wrapping… I’m probably forgetting some. Eventually I even had a rubber stamp made of a QR code for my online store! I also made some graphics at my boss Mark Rice’s direction along the way to try to show how they work.

A selection of a few past QR code projects I worked on, 2010-2021

I thought for awhile that it was difficult to get people to adopt QR codes and that they might die out. That possibility was disappointing to me because they are useful and a lot of fun. But while working on Marketing and Communications homework for my classes at Webster University recently, I’ve snapped some pictures while doing research that make it look like QR codes are here to stay after all. It’s possible that the COVID-19 pandemic may have helped speed up the adoption of QR codes a bit because they provide a quick way to disseminate information without people having to touch anything. QR codes are also easier to access now because in many cases you don’t need to install a special app – on my newest iPhone the QR code reader is built right into the camera.

QR code sightings within the last two years, from left to right: downtown St. Louis in the City Garden, a mobile police camera in Dutchtown, a store front in Dutchtown, and a WalMart promotional free sample bag with QR code on the bag and on the enclosed advertising piece.

I have a client who is appearing in a live performance in two days in Scottsdale, Arizona. This morning I took some graphics off of some of the existing promotional and ticketing web pages and made a collage of some of them with a QR code on it. My intention was to make something fast and easy for people to share if they are inclined to, with the link built in by way of the QR code so that people who are interested can get to the ticketing page easily no matter how the graphic is shared.

The Unapologetically American Comedy Tour
The Unapologetically American Comedy Tour
I made a graphic of just the ticket for instances when the code is too small on the screen to be read.

There is a lot you can do with QR codes if you build them into campaign planning at an early stage. Even when you are under a time crunch, incorporating a QR code into a shareable graphic for social media is a very convenient way to spread information.

Sell66stuff.com Vendor Guide

I’m the editor and co-owner of the web site Sell66stuff.com, which was created to help increase commerce on Historic Route 66 by bringing the right products together with the right buyers.

I did a lot of updating on the Sell66stuff.com vendor guide over the last few days. Any businesses with Route 66 related merchandise you want to find an outlet for, check it out! http://www.sell66stuff.com/vendor_guide.html

How to Make an Event Promotion Checklist

I’ve been working hard lately promoting my upcoming class, “Polymer Clay Beads with Pearl Ex Pigments”. It’s the first in a series, so I’m figuring out some new processes and making several new promotion pieces. The next one should take a lot less time to promote, but only if I remember what I did and can find all the parts – there are quite a lot as you will see!

First I’ll make an action list of all the tasks to perform in a logical order.

  1. Write up event description and create promotional image – a photo, a logo or whatever image shows what the event is about.
  2. Create event registration form on web site.
  3. Create any short URLs, campaign codes or QR Codes you might need.
  4. Write up event announcement with link to registration page and post on web site(s). If you have a separate mobile-optimized site post it there also.
  5. Write and send out press release to media outlets. If you’re new to this find some on this promotion resources page.
  6. List event on all the suitable free online events calendars you can find.
  7. Promote to all appropriate social media outlets.
    • Blog
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Tumblr
    • Google +
    • Pinterest
    • LinkedIn
    • YouTube (if you have video or slide show)
    • More!
  8. Create banner ads and place where appropriate.
  9. Create flyers and distribute.
  10. Create postcards and send to your snail mail list.
  11. Create announcement email and send to your email list. For my email I used ExactTarget software and made use of the Social Forward feature. I had more than one event to announce in my email and Social Forward allows me to break up the content into segments and enables recipients to share the parts of the email that are of interest to them with their own social networks.
  12. Send reminder emails to your list of those who have registered as event date gets closer.

I recommend you use my list above as a starting point and use it to make your own promotion checklist, adding and subtracting action items as needed. Then make some kind of master document that includes notes, links or whatever information you will need to carry out the tasks and remember what you did so you don’t have to figure everything out again the next time you have an event to promote. It’s useful to make this document in some kind of format that supports tables such as a private web page, Word document or Excel spreadsheet. Then you can put appropriate links and info in the row next to each action item to make everything easy to find and remember. If you are part of an organization share this document with others involved in the project so you can all benefit from the knowledge you’ll gain during the promotion.