Art Makes Headlines – Know Your Audience

Making headlines can unlock the doors to recognition and sales for artists. But how do you start? Artists who want to get press and attention focus on populating our openings and garnering reviews. The press list for a DC artist with a local event should include the Washington Post Going Out Guide, Washington City Paper calendar, Art Beat at WAMU, and popular blogs like FreeinDCBlog and websites like BrightestYoungThings. These are key to getting the word out and getting seen here in DC. A coveted review in the Washington Post will bring you new fans, but that slot is highly competitive.

Do local event calendars and reviews truly reach your target audience?  Who is your audience for your art? Do you even know? This week, I am working with digital artist Brad Ulreich to outreach to the press and find his audience for his new show “La Femme Da Vine” at The Gallery at Vivid Solutions. It’s a striking show with posters of women, digitally decoupaged with the workings of Brad’s brain. The show opens March 12.

The first question I asked Brad was, “Who buys your art?” Other than your mom and your girlfriend, who are these people who put your art on their walls? What are the key themes and interests that tie them together? For Brad, in discussing the people who love his art, we realized that they were generally male, urban, modern renaissance people. Brad’s art shows skin, tattoos, and layers of imagery on skin that allude to body art. Put these two together and we’ve got a target audience of male tattoo artists.

Now that we have an idea of who is a target audience for Brad and “La Femme Da Vine,” we can then find the media that attracts them. A quick Google search of “tattoo blog Washington DC” reveals http://www.tattooblog.com. Under the category of “inspired,” we learn that tattooblogger goes to art shows. Jack pot! We have found a writer with keys to the audience door. Next steps: write a blog pitch, include the calendar for the opening and showing, include images, and a quick note about how we found the blogger and why we think their audience will connect with Brad’s art. We’ll also send a release to all the tattoo magazines and start building relationships.

Let me be clear, I am not suggesting that Brad pigeonhole himself by only pitching male tattoo artists. At the same time, the audience of “the public” or “art-lovers” is huge. We don’t have an advertising budget the size of the Smithsonian, so we have to be strategic and figure out who is attracted to the art. In the world of graffiti art, there is a natural coupling with hip hop fans. If your art is overtly political, you may have an audience with the inside the Beltway people and pitch Politico. Conducting media relations for your art is about working inside the media frame to use it to promote your art to new audiences. It’s highly likely that a story in Inked will lead to more sales for Brad than a review in the Washington City Paper.