Managing Complexity
One of the many important day to day priorities for any artist is managing finances, schedules, and life's other plans. Here we'll assume you like the vast majority of artists work full-time at another job in addition to managing household and/or family obligations.
Digital Calendars Are Your Friend
The best way to schedule art show opportunities is by using a digital calendar that's available through most email providers. I use the Google calendar.
A good digital calendar will allow you to create more than one calendar. It makes a lot of sense to separate art events from your day-to-day activities. Calendars can then be overlaid, one into another when requiring a detailed look at more complex sets of arrangements. This becomes important to recognize and avoid timing conflicts.
In a previous Art Hacks entry, I discussed where you can look for art show opportunities. These sites will list local, national and sometimes international entry opportunities.
I also talked about how you might develop an algorithm to help you prioritize the importance and calculate the affordability of entering a show.
Scheduling Art Show Applications
The most important date requiring scheduling is the due date for application and payment. I'll borrow a computer science term here and refer to it as the last responsible moment. In other words, regardless of whatever else may get scheduled between now and that date, that date is our last chance to take responsible action on it. Today the date may look speculative because of conflicting other items of responsibility. However, things change all the time and if we keep that date as a placeholder our schedules may in fact open up and make applying possible.
Labeling the Opportunity
Once you find an opportunity to show art, its promotional material will give you a wealth of information. Using the unique name of the show for a label maintains a corresponding tag should you later need to search for it.
You may also want to create a priority or value code as part of that label. This code helps prioritize the opportunity in terms of affordability or desirability.
You can schedule the due date either as a meeting or an all day event depending on your taste.
So a label might look like: ****-$$$, Big City Big Deal Art show
So far, so good.
Notifications
Creating a system to notify yourself of impending opportunities is a great way to manage a schedule that will soon consist of multiple opportunities that are often competing for your attention.
I happen to like and recommend email notifications because they can be left in one of my email categories (a tab, folder, whatever affordance the email service offers). I can also star or label them to make their identification and sorting a no-brainer.
I like to notify myself two weeks in advance. That gives me plenty of time to plan and make decisions about my time and budget. Because these notifications are emails and because they aggregate in my email they will cluster around busy periods. This means I'm not only being notified of a shortly coming show but in my preview of those coming weeks I see *all* imminently available opportunities - a nice by-product of the email method.
If I wait until the last responsible moment to apply to any given opportunity, I've had the time to make the best choices. Its also sensible to wait until you've been accepted to prune unwanted noise in the calendar that makes itself obvious.
One last detail. Some galleries require a pre-application registration that may be different. Use *that* date instead.
Details
Now all that's left is to add as uch or as little more you care about. Location, times, and so on. In the comments or notes field I like to insert the url that points to the application form and prerequisites. It is not unusual for galleries to extend application deadlines. That bookmarked url becomes invaluable in maintaining your records.
Identifying what you plan to enter is a worthwhile note to self. Don't double book your work.
Rinse and Repeat
Every opportunity to show art means drop-off and pick-up dates, show openings, and if you volunteer time that's to be scheduled.
These scheduled activities can sometimes span days - schedule it that way - you'll need to know.
Use the same unique label convention you used for the application deadline entry. Drop-off notifications need to be received prior to your last responsible time to decide. If you can't drop-off then that's information you need up front. Pick-ups can be negotiated (usually).
Once accepted, edit the calendar entry to cover the time from drop-off to pick-up and note the work that's exclusive to that show.
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