Newsletter - July 22, 2009

NEW ARTISTS
Eight new Artists have joined the Artisan Direct network for the month of June, 2009.

NEW GALLERIES/RESOURCES
Five Artists have negotiated or signed deals with one of Artisan Direct’s art resources.

ARTISTS/RESOURCES
More than forty five of Artisan Direct’s Artists have negotiated deals with Artisan Direct art resources. Some Artists have had the opportunities to cut deals, but for whatever reason have chosen not to.

YAJNAVALKA
Our preferred art publisher and joint venture partner remains interested in Artisan Direct Artists in order to distribute Open Edition Prints. In addition to having a small Art Gallery in Houston, TX the Company has plans to open other Art Galleries around the Country and sell original art work. Obviously, they will be looking first to Artisan Direct Artists who have signed with them. Interested, please let us know.

QUALIFIED ARTISTS
We are always looking for qualified artists to join our artisan direct network. Please let us know if there is an artist that you know or are recommending. You will be compensated for a good referral that ends up as a completed sale.

UPDATE & STATE OF AFFAIRS

ECONOMY
No need to tell you that the art markets at every level have been dramatically affected by our economic recession. We happen to believe that as bad as it is there is a golden opportunity for the daring few to position themselves in the marketplace for the turnaround. And there will be a turnaround!

GOALS
When Artisan Works was established a year and a half ago, its goals were basically threefold:
1. To gain exposure for its network of artists work to thousands of art resources who may be interested in purchasing the work or representing the artist.
2. By introducing network artist’s work to thousands of art resources who may be interested in purchasing the work or representing the artist.
3. To build an artist community, whereby each of Artisan Direct’s member artists will find value in interacting with other artists and the management of Artisan Direct to promote their work.
To a great extent we have sought to put these goals in place and do everything in our power to help network artists reach their artistic goals. We have begun the process, but we have a long way to go both to satisfy our own internal, corporate goals and yours. We, too, have been hurt by the recession. Many of our goals and proposed programs have been put on hold and have not rolled out as we anticipated.

MUCH NEEDS TO BE DONE:
1. We have to do a better job of getting the message out to the art community that we have wonderful artists that need their attention.
2. We have to continue to replenish our databases of art prospects because of lost Galleries and other lost art resources.
3. Creating more interesting and effective ways of delivering your information to our resources is critical. How information is presented to an Art Gallery is very important.
4. Creating an environment that fosters good will among our artists and the resources that we are working to capture.
If I was grading our efforts, I would give us an A. If I was grading our effectiveness, I would give us a B-. We have a lot of work to do. Of course, many of the things that we had intended to do by now have been put on hold because of the economy. We now hope beginning at the end of this year or early next year we will begin to re-implement. That is reality of a market driven economy. Like you, we are hanging in there for a better day.

PLANS FOR THE FUTURE:
1. Dramatic expansion of our art resource databases both domestically and internationally.
2. New formats and looks in presenting Artist’s work to our resources - text, flash, video, web casts, etc.
3. A new Art Gallery program to be launched in order to give the Art Galleries incentive to take on our artists.
4. The creation of a national network of sales agents who will not only sell Artisan Direct products, but also physically visit and develop relationships with Art Galleries in your area. We want to supplement our e-commerce activities with “boots on the ground” to develop lasting relationships with our art resources.
5. Other sales programs to be launched to - Interior Designers, Private Art Collectors, charity Art Functions, Rent to Own Programs, Print on Demand, House to House Sales programs, a virtual reality Gallery, a virtual reality trade show and much, much more.

My frustration is that we are not a little further ahead, but we have been diligent in our work, hard working and care very much about helping you sell your work and gain needed exposure.

Last thought—”My father used to tell me that life can be very hard sometimes” so we simply have to suck it up, do the best we can, look skyward and fight through whatever adversity we have.


Artisan Direct, Ltd. 82 Callingham Road, Pittsford, NY 14534. Telephone 585-586-3535, Fax 585-586-8555, e-mail: info at artisan direct L T D dot net