How to Promote Art Group Shows and Attract more People

I recently received this message from fellow artist John Delaney concerning his frustrations with promoting art group shows and attracting people.

I belong to an up and coming Art group in my town and for the past year we have been having public art shows once a month. The problem we are having is that we are having a difficult time to get the public to come out to our shows.

The past couple of months we made our monthly show a charity show where we were collecting food and clothing for a local food bank/shelter. And along with collecting those items we (the artist) were offering to donate anywhere from 20 to 50% of sales of the art shown.

Now we promoted all shows on every social network online, flyers hung up around town in area's that have a high amount of public activity and even shared show info with local papers and radio. Our most recent show, which was on a Saturday from 1 to 8 pm, didn't have any visitors at all. I'm at a loss as to how to get the public to come out to our shows. With the new year coming up I would like to change this problem and I'm open to any ideas. Any help you can offer in advise I would greatly appreciate it.

John is doing many of the right things to promote the shows – having a charity fundraiser, promoting online, distributing flyers, and sharing it with local radio stations and newspapers, but even then not having any visitors. In such cases, it may be necessary to take a more direct advertising approach to attract more people – and even considering creating a larger unique art event. Ask yourself these questions.

What type of audience are you looking for?
Where do these people normally spend their free time? (recreational activities, restaurants, etc.) This will help you determine where to place emphasis for promotions.
Put yourself in their shoes. What would it take for you to skip your routine activities and leave the comfort of your home to visit any event?

Here are a few promotional ideas that may help. If anyone has any other ideas, please share them below in the comments.

Ideas for attracting more people to a group art exhibition event

Build an email list. If your group continually holds art shows, you can build this list more each time you host an event. Have a guestbook and include an heading there for email addresses.
Advertise your art show well beforehand and built momentum with your promotions toward the end. Send out a reminder email to your list a week before, and 1-2 days before the event.
Pay attention to other major events, art shows, movie openings and concerts happening around the same time. It’s best to hold the exhibition on a weekend when there is nothing else going on.
Brand your art group with a unique name and logo. Choose something that is simple and easily recognizable.
Location of art show. Ensure the location can be easily found, and has adequate parking. A location near a shopping center and restaurants may work better than something more secluded.
Create a theme around specific group exhibitions. If the exhibition is a charity event, the theme can center around this idea. An idea would be to ask all participants to create at least one artwork based on the theme. Certain themes may work better than others and appeal to broader audiences, such as world peace, environmental issues, events in the news, etc.
Ask all art group members to promote the group show at their Facebook, Twitter, and their own email lists. To make it simpler and more convenient, send them a sample Facebook post and email message.
Advertise the art exhibition in local newspapers, community channels, and radio.
Write a press release and submit it to newspapers, TV stations and radio.
Have plenty of refreshments and advertise this fact in your flyers.
Create flyers and include all information about the event, including all participants. Spread your flyers all around town – coffee shops, businesses, community bulletin boards, bookstores, art schools, and more. Place emphasis on places related to your intended audience.
As for art schools, post your flyer there, and ask for volunteers who will help in setup, organization, etc. – all of which will give them great experience.
Try to get corporate sponsorship from local businesses, who will advertise for you, or donate refreshments, etc., in exchange for their logo appearing on flyers.
Have live entertainment at the group exhibition (preferably at least one performer who is well known). Some examples may be poetry readings, musicians, actors, and other performers. Ask them to promote the show as well, and mention their name in your flyers.

You may also consider having multiple performers throughout the day, which could create an art festival type atmosphere. Each art show participant can have their own space of time in between performances for a talk about their artwork.

This could turn into a unique event, one which includes all facets of the arts.

This may require having groups shows less often, but may just be the thing that brings lots of people out of their homes to see the group artwork show.