The results of the survey are in. . . and to all of you who participated in our survey this month, thank you! As you may have already guessed from the title of this post, we WILL be launching a new online art gallery for EmptyEasel readers.
There’s a lot left to figure out, so for today I’ll just give a quick recap of the survey (you can read the original article here) and let you know how the voting turned out.
Survey results
In the survey, I asked which one of the following ideas you’d most like us to build:
1. An EE art gallery
2. A cooperative art advertising group
3. An art critique app
As I mentioned on Sunday, the voting was extremely close. . . but in the end, 47% of votes were cast for the EE art gallery, while 41% were cast for the artwork critique app and 12% were cast for the art advertising co-op.
I’m not abandoning the other two ideas (in fact, I may contact those groups separately) but I do want to focus on the winning idea first. Just remember to keep an eye out for the other two ideas down the road as well. :)
OK, so how do we get this gallery online?
I’ve already started a Google group where we can discuss how our gallery will be run and I’ll be sending out invites next week asking some of you to join. If you voted for the EE art gallery and asked to be kept up-to-date on the process, then you’ll be getting an invite.
If you DIDN’T vote for the gallery or take the survey, but you like the idea and want to be involved, please contact me and I’ll send you an invite as well.
Here are some of the questions that we’ll be deciding:
1. Will this gallery be free or paid?
Those of you who picked the EE art gallery in the survey already got to answer this question. Here’s how you voted:
51% said the gallery should be free to join, but with a commission on sales
23% said the gallery should be free, but accept donations
11% said there should be a small fee per artwork (less than $2) and that’s it
7% said the gallery should be completely free
4% said there should be a one-time fee to join (less than $40) and that’s it
4% said there should be a monthly fee to participate (less than $8) and that’s it
Nothing’s set in stone at this point, but it does seem like popular opinion is to keep the gallery free to join. If we went the commission route, I’d be interested in seeing what commission rate you all would feel is fair—I could see anything from 10% to 40% working.
We could even make it so that a certain percentage of the proceeds go directly towards advertising for the gallery, or, towards something else.
2. Can all artists join?
This is another question that we asked of those who picked the EE gallery as their favorite option. Here’s how you answered:
58% said “Yes” all artists should be able to join
37% said “No” there should be an application process and/or panel who decides
5% didn’t answer
I have a hunch this might be the hottest topic we discuss, but I do believe that either option could work.
3. What will be the name of this gallery?
I’m not convinced that including “EE” or “EmptyEasel” in the gallery name is the best way to go, but perhaps it would be. What are your thoughts?
We didn’t ask this question in the survey, but we’ll definitely open it up for discussion in the Google group!
OK, so what’s the timeline on this project?
My goal is to have this gallery up and running by the end of summer. That means by September 2015, at the latest. If you’re on board, let me know! I’d love to have ALL of you participating in the discussion group, if possible, because the more feedback we have, the better—and the better this gallery will be.
Lastly, let me just say that I really believe there’s no “right” or “wrong” way to do this. Maybe you’ve got some pretty crazy ideas for how this gallery could work. . . if so, great! I’ve got a few myself and I’d love to hear yours. :) Once the dust settles, I truly believe we’ll have something special, and that’s pretty exciting.
So get in touch—let me know if you want to be a part of the conversation and I’ll send you an invite to the Google group. I’m looking forward to seeing you there!
This post may contain affiliate links.