Newsletter - October 12, 2009

Let me share my dream with you!

From its inception, the forming of Artisan Direct was my dream to create a vehicle for emerging artists to introduce their artwork to art resources worldwide. To be introduced to people who would appreciate their work and ultimately to purchase it. To present the work in such a way that would be professionally produced and pleasing to whomever would view it. To give an artist an opportunity to be discovered and be able to become a commercially successful artist. To have the artist’s work purchased directly from them or at a minimum putting the work in the hands of a third party or group who would sell, promote and additionally represent the artist. That dream remains the same today!

I want to continue to share with you my dream by telling you what are our short and medium range plans going forward in order to enhance our goal of building an artist network that we can all be proud of.

As a first step, we built a database of art galleries worldwide that are interested in viewing the work of Artisan Direct artists. We then built a simple delivery system to get our artist’s most important information - Bio, Images, Exhibition Information to the gallery. That concept has proven successful! We have introduced more than forty Artisan Direct artists to galleries and other art resources.

Secondly, we believe we can assist artists gain important exposure within the art community and gain sales by attending national art shows as a participant. We successfully brought twenty artists to artexpo - NYC in March, 2008. Although sales were not brisk, our artists received well deserved excellent reviews for their work and laid the groundwork for additional opportunities with galleries and patrons that they met there. Incidentally, some of those artists were contacted after the show for more information and conversation. As the art market improves and the art shows come back on line, we will continue to represent our artists at similar national art shows.

Of course, those first two steps were baby steps compared to where we want to go with Artisan Direct. Our plans are to grow all aspects of the business, find new and exciting services and products for you and simply work harder and smarter about how we can most effectively help you attain you artistic goals.

Let me tell you what are plans are:

1. Dramatically expand our art resource base to include: more art galleries worldwide, private collectors of emerging artist’s work, attendees at national art shows, subscribers to national art magazines, interior designers and decorators, frame shops, high end gift shops, charity art events, lease to own art companies, corporate buyers of art and real estate management firms who need art to furnish their buildings with art.

2. Revamp our web site to create greater visibility among the art community. Initially, our web site was set up for Artisan Direct artists who wanted to check the progress of their marketing materials and view information on Artisan Direct activities. It was purposely kept small and simple. Employing state of the art search engine marketing techniques, we now want and are ready to begin driving more people to our site. Our plan is to begin to increase the amount of exposure of your work off of our site. The re-make has begun!

3. Devise new e presentations for you so that our email presentations will look fresh, clean and innovative. Often how one delivers the information is as important as the actual information delivered.

4. Create a Sales Representative Group to support all of our activities by having sales people visiting with and building relationships with our art resources. The combination of e commerce coupled with hand - hand selling makes sense and we believe gives you the best opportunity to sell your work.

5. Develop a new Gallery Representation sales package, similar to our signature product that you have in order to get closer to the art gallery and potentially have some leverage with them.

6. Develop a new method to sell the works of art you have placed on your Artisan Direct web page on line. We have some interesting ideas how to innovatively get your work sold over the Internet!

7. We are now ready to sell your work through our own gallery called The Artisan Gallery. Located in Pittsford, New York, the gallery will feature the work of Artisan Direct artists. The Gallery will be a private, by appointment gallery promoted with individual showings, cocktail parties and charity affairs. We will be asking you for a few pieces from you to stock the Gallery.

We are currently working on all of these new programs and expect them fully operational next year. We have a ton of other new ideas that have been held back by the economy, but we are now ready to advance them again. However, first things first, we have a lot of work to do and we’re on it.

As always, your ideas and suggestions are welcome and wanted. Our goals are I suspect the same, to build an effective sales and marketing company representing artists worldwide.

Best Regards,
Artisan Direct


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