Demystifying the Art World: Selling Artwork on Your Own

Session 8 of the series Demystifying the Art World: Practical Knowledge & Skills for Early-Career Artists addresses self-initiated sales, presenting methods, and tools that artists can use to value and sell their own work.

Whether artists want to side-step commercial galleries, learn to advocate on their own behalf, or take ownership over their own sales, this online session will introduce artists to some of the methods available. Artists Vanessa Dion Fletcher and Jenie Gao will share their experience valuing and selling their work outside of the commercial gallery system, including direct sales to collectors, renting dedicated booths at art fairs, and social media. A Q&A moderated by Su-Ying Lee will provide the opportunity to ask questions and discuss strategies with the group.

This session is free and open to all early-career and emerging artists. It will be hosted on Zoom, with captions. If you have other accommodation needs, please let us know through the registration form or contact dmg.utsc@utoronto.ca. After registering, attendees will be provided with a Zoom link to join the program virtually.

A second session about selling artwork, but through the commercial gallery system, will follow in May 2024.

About the presenters

Vanessa Dion Fletcher (she/her) is a Lenape and Potawatomi neurodiverse Artist. Her family is from Eelūnaapèewii Lahkèewiitt (displaced from Lenapehoking) and European settlers. She Employs porcupine quills, Wampum belts, and menstrual blood, to reveal the complexities of what defines a body physically and culturally. Reflecting on an Indigenous and gendered body with a neurodiverse mind, Dion Fletcher creates art using composite media, primarily working in performance, textiles and video.

Jenie Gao (she/her) is a full-time artist, creative director, and entrepreneur. Her arts practice is based in printmaking, public art, social practice, and storytelling. She also has a niche consulting in equitable best practices and systems for cultural organizations. She strives to create records and claim space for resilient, diverse stories, pulling from personal experiences as a second generation Taiwanese-Chinese American woman who grew up in rural Kansas, and worked her way into unexpected roles in the corporate world and beyond.

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This session is offered as part of the series Demystifying the Art World: Practical Knowledge & Skills for Early-Career Artists, running from September 2023 - May 2024.

Whether you’ve attended art school, pursued other forms of art education or are self-taught, there are foundational professional skills and practices that are rarely taught in formal environments. Artists often glean such knowledge through trial and error, having mentorship, or through information shared in their social and professional circles. Conceived of for early career and emerging artists, this series, organized by curator and educator Su-Ying Lee for the Doris McCarthy Gallery, aims to make key information accessible and demystify how artists approach essential tasks. Through nine sessions, some in-person and some online, participants will be familiarized with the practical knowledge needed to enhance and support their careers, through advice offered by a wide-range of experienced artists, curators, writers, and arts workers. The entire series is free, and participants can sign up for one session, multiple sessions, or the whole series – choose your own adventure and learn with us!

Session 1
Professionalism Starter Pack: Besides making art, what makes an artist a professional?
Thursday, September 21, 12:30 – 2 pm

Session 2
How to Talk About Yourself: Writing CV’s, artist statements, and artwork descriptions
Monday, October 23, 12:30 – 2 pm

Session 3
Get to Know Curators: What do they do, why approach them, and how?
Thursday, November 16, 6:30 – 8 pm

Session 4
See and Be Seen: Documenting your artwork
Saturday, December 9, 12 – 3 pm

Session 5, 6 & 7
Finding Funding: Where and how to apply for grants
Toronto Arts Council / Thursday, January 18, 12:30 – 2 pm
Ontario Arts Council / Thursday, February 15, 12:30 – 2 pm
Canada Council for the Arts / Thursday, March 21, 12:30 – 2 pm

Session 8 & 9
Selling Artwork
On Your Own / Thursday, April 18, 12:30 – 2 pm
Commercial Galleries / May 2024 TBA