Home and Garden Art Link is not just a listing service or portfolio. There’s a lot more included in our membership. We link artists directly to designers, who promote your artwork to their clients. As working artists, we know it’s hard to manage marketing ideas, art events, expenses—all needed to create successful sales. For over 10 years, we’ve learned that building loyal relationships, plus consistently showing quality artwork are 2 key success factors.

Our vision is to recruit artists and artisans who are masters of their media for our evolving design portfolio. We’ll use our enhanced GalleryattheNetwork.com website AND our newly designed HomeandGardenArtLink.com website. Plus, we’ll use printed marketing materials: e-mail announcements; contact software; community events; media contacts, ads and articles; and VIP receptions to promote our growing team of artists. We’re especially excited to be affiliated with the San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles Home Shows, where we’ll have 1-3 professional booths at home and garden events.

We anticipate a lot of activity with CA’s Central Coast homeowners and designers. As word gets out we’re confident that prospective buyers throughout CA and beyond will use Home and Garden Art Link for their home and garden decor needs. The Gallery at The Network’s loyal clients are a blend of locals and out-of-area guests. We think growing numbers of CA and national artists will use Home and Garden Art Link as an easy, affordable art-marketing tool.

As studio artists-gallery owners, we’ve worked successfully with qualified artists for over 10 years. We also submit our own artwork to juried and invitational exhibits on a regular basis. We continue to learn about quality aesthetic standards. Our current selection criteria balance subject matter, suitability, plus artistic and quality craftsmanship.

We’ve watched shifts in art-buying trends during recent economic changes. One thing we’ve noticed is while new home building has slowed, many homeowners and their designer/contractor teams have continued to renovate existing homes and gardens. We’d like to make it easy for art consumers to have one location to see colorful mosaic or mural walls, custom furniture, unique garden art, glass or metal installations, or one-of-a-kind sculpture. Just as a designer or contractor may have a favorite team of workers to create a house, we envision a convenient, affordable way for a team of artists to transform a house into an artful home with Home and Garden Art Link.

It depends what your goal is. Let’s say you paint watercolors and recently started making new stone carvings. If your goal is to increase sales quickly, and you’ve been most successful with watercolors, it may make sense to introduce those first to design customers. On the other hand, if your goal is to increase exposure to your new stone artwork and you have a sizable contact list, starting with our Stone Art Category may be a smart move. You can monitor your new leads and sales. Then, decide later on if adding a 2nd Art Category will work for you. Because our rates are manageable for artists’ budgets, some members decide to have multiple pages right away. Then, their clients can view a full spectrum of their artwork. Other members prefer starting with a single Art Category. Our flexibility allows you to decide what’s right for you.

You can show artwork for sale. Or, you can show representative examples of your art to start a conversation with designers or buyers for commission work. It’s up to you.

Our program is designed so artists work directly with the client. You manage the sale, the timeline, insurance, contracts, sales tax, and any outside workers needed for a successful project or installation. Our main involvement is to get you more prospective buyers. So, basically nothing would change about how you install your artwork; you’d just have more sales!

Although taking photos and getting the images to us is the artist’s responsibility, we can share our photographer and graphic designer resources to help you. Also, we can give you tips and suggestions we’ve all learned over the years. Of course, the value of collecting clear, quality photos is that artists can use these same photos for their own websites, juried exhibits, and their own media announcements and marketing materials, too.

Artists can change their photos at no charge 2 times/year. There is a service fee to change more frequently. If you decide to add more than 4 photos, you can do that, too. The most cost-effective way would be to use our ‘Enhanced Pricing’. You can add 8 photos for an additional $40. And/or you can change your photos 4 times/year for an additional $40/year. That’s something many artists like about our Home and Garden Art Link Program. We built in lots of flexibility so members can customize their Artist Page to their individual needs and budget.

First, we share similar quality standards with owners of the San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles Home Shows--for our booth presentation & for the selected artwork we display. We know our art offerings will stand out from other vendors. From our experience working large art shows, we know some visitors will stop to shop because we’re different from typical booths’ products. Other Home Show visitors will stop because they recognize us from local art events and The Gallery at the Network. The Home Show owners are happy to include fine art for their 5000+ visitors and vendors. We’re very excited to create an opportunity for artist-members to spend time at the booths to meet the buying public!

We want to make it easy to link artists and the CA design community. Each quarter, we’ll add new artists and make changes to existing Artist Pages. Home and Garden Art Link is a full-service program so you can build new client relationships and handle all sales steps. You only pay $150/year for all ‘Primary Listing’ Program features. As your unique art business changes, you can add new features for only $40/item annually. If you have other art media you’d like to promote, you can add new Artist Pages for only $150/year/Art Category. When you sell artwork, you pay no fees or commissions to The Gallery.

First, to increase repeat business, we suggest offering an industry-standard 5% “Referral Fee” to designers. Next, we know that membership renewals and billing need to be simple to work. So we’ve designed payments, website updates, reports, etc. to happen on a quarterly schedule. Let’s say you join July 1, 2009 for $150. Next year, you’ll renew your membership July 1, 2010. Artists’ NEW ‘Enhanced Listing’ choices will be added quarterly. Artists who start their ‘Primary Listing’ mid-quarter will pay a pro-rated fee, plus the annual fee. For example, if someone starts December 1, 2009, their pro-rated $162.50 membership fee would last until December 31, 2010! So, no matter what time of year you or your artist friends decide to join, for less than $3/week, your artwork will be promoted throughout the CA design community in new ways! Don’t miss out!