Interested in becoming an exhibITion featured artist?
What is exhibITion?
As a local business, amshot typically focuses on IT services and software development, but our team is also passionate about supporting the local art community. With this in mind, we created exhibITion to promote local artists, give back to our community, and enjoy the company of fellow art-lovers.
Three times per year, we feature a local artist’s work on our office walls, host an art exhibition and sale, invite a local brewery, serve wine and hors d’oeuvres, and donate the proceeds of the event to a charitable organization.
The art show is hosted at amshot’s office in Downtown OKC. Admission to the gallery is free, but those 21+ can donate $5 to the featured charitable organization in exchange for a wristband that will allow them beer from the featured local brewery and wine. Light hors d’oeuvres are also served. All art displayed will be for sale and can be purchased with card or cash. The sold and unsold art will then hang in amshot’s office until the next exhibITion for all to enjoy.
To view past and present Featured Artists and learn more about exhibITion, please visit amshot.com/exhibition.
What kinds of artists does exhibITion feature?
While we love all kinds of art, our office features a lot of wall space and not so much open floor space, so works that can be hung on the wall (as opposed to sculptures or other forms of 3D art) makes the most sense for us and our featured artists.
However, we highly encourage artists to supply small supplementary “shop items” to sell at the art show (postcards, notecards, stickers, comic books, small prints, even small pieces of pottery or other items that can easily fit on three 6-foot tables) to provide a variety of offerings and price points.
Speaking of price points, exhibITion was created to make art accessible. We’re proud to host a diverse crowd, from fine art aficionados to those too intimidated to ever walk into a gallery. We currently have experience selling accessibly-priced art at exhibITion (hung works have historically ranged from $45 to $650, with with a few big-ticket items for the art aficionado and numerous small shop items available for the average buyer) and are certainly open to hosting larger, higher-priced items, but at this time expect to sell mostly accessibly-priced items. As Oklahoma City artist Kelsey Karper appropriately observed, “big works sell the little works.”
As a workplace, we request that artists feature only office-appropriate pieces at the exhibition.
Because we have so much wall space to fill (approximately 84 to 225 linear feet), artists are more than welcome to pair up with another artist. We ask that artist pairs submit their application together.
What should I expect as a Featured Artist?
Within a few weeks of an upcoming exhibITion, we select our next Featured Artist (for example, we select our Fall exhibITion artist before our Summer exhibITion). That means each Featured Artist gets at least three-months notice to prepare for their exhibITion.
After an artist is selected, we ask that they attend the upcoming exhibITion if possible to get a feel for the event. They are welcome to introduce themselves as the “next exhibITion artist.” After they are selected, they are welcome to inform friends and family immediately. However, the official announcement will be made by amshot approximately six weeks before the event.
The first step in the planning process is a pre-planning meeting to discuss date availability, organizational affiliation, charitable organization requests, and other ideas for the event. We aim to complete this meeting around two months before the event.
A final date will be chosen soon after the initial meeting in collaboration with the artist. amshot will then get to work promoting the event (more details in the “What to expect from amshot” section below). Good communication with the artist is key throughout the planning and promotion process so that we (and the artist) have the tools we need to make exhibITion a success!
The artist’s preparations will then begin at least eight weeks out from the event and will include things like:
- Providing us with digital materials (bio, images of the featured art, artist’s statement, headshot, digital materials to use in a slideshow, spreadsheet of pieces and prices, etc.)
- Planning the layout and installation of the pieces
- Installing art and wall labels
The full list of responsibilities and their due dates are detailed in the Featured Artist’s Responsibilities and Timeline section below. We like to have to fun at amshot, so we’ll make sure exhibITion prep is fun too!
When the day of the event arrives, we ask that the artist be in attendance, mingle with the guests, and have fun! amshot will handle the transactions, and 10% of art sales (amshot’s cut) will be donated to the featured Charitable Organization. The other 90% of the proceeds will be presented to the artist within one week of exhibITion in the form of a check.
If any art is sold during the exhibITion period after the evening of the event, a check will be presented to the artist at the time of art removal. Please note that sales and income taxes are not paid by amshot and will be the responsibility of the artist.
Featured Artist’s Responsibilities and Timeline
- Excellent communication
- Ability to meet at scheduled intervals (we are flexible with scheduling!)
- Selection of office-appropriate pieces (enough to fill 84 to 225 linear feet of wall space)
- Ability to lend art to amshot for a 2.5 to 3 month period
- Ability to provide and/or complete materials/tasks listed below:
Within seven weeks of exhibITion:
- Title of show
- Short bio for website
- High quality images of art that will be featured (at least 5) for webpage
- Links to website and art-centric social media channels
- Headshot of artist(s) (amshot can take photo in office if necessary. The artist is responsible for scheduling a headshot photoshoot with amshot before the materials are due, seven weeks out from the date of the show)
Within two weeks of exhibITion:
- Wall label info (amshot will print labels unless artist has professionally printed vinyl labels available)
- Including:
- Title of work
- Medium
- Price
- Dimensions
- May be presented in spreadsheet or Word document
- The labels must be installed by the artist or by an amshot employee with the artist’s assistance
- Including:
Within one week of exhibITion:
- Installations
- Installation are the artist’s responsibility. amshot will not provide assistance in installations other than with particularly large pieces, etc., as necessary.
- Artist must provide all necessary:
- Art*
- Hanging hardware**
- Tools
- *Please note: If the art were to be present in the office in the event of a disaster, amshot’s insurance would reimburse the artist for up to $10,000 worth of art.
- **Two walls in the conference room are magnetic and can not use traditional hanging hardware. Industrial-strength magnetic hooks are provided by amshot to hang artwork on these walls.
- Art must be installed in a professional manner, taking all steps necessary to ensure appropriate spacing, leveling, etc.
- Price sheet
- List of all pieces for sale (including small shop items) & prices
- Small “shop items” for sale are highly encouraged
- Typically a spreadsheet
- Slideshow content
- Slideshows run on TVs in the office during the show
- Artist must either provide a preassembled slideshow or content for the slideshow.
- Animations, sketches, work-in-progress photos, images of artist’s art featured elsewhere, interviews featuring the artist, etc. all work well.
During exhibITion:
- Be in attendance, talk to guests, answer questions about your art, and have fun!
Within one week after exhibITion
- Removal of extra supplies (hanging tools and hardware, prints, small items for sale, etc.)
- Will receive initial earnings check from amshot
Within two weeks of next exhibITion (approximately 2.5 to 3 months after show)
- Pickup of unsold art
- Removal of hardware on the wall
- Will receive secondary earnings check from amshot (if applicable)
What should I expect from amshot?
After the event date is set, amshot will get to work partnering with a local brewery, client, and charitable organization, promoting the event on our website, social media, posters and flyers distributed throughout the city, invitations and email announcements to amshot’s clients and others in amshot’s database, and generally spreading the word. exhibITion is our biggest and best event every quarter, so we try to spread the word wherever we go and however we can!
We do the heavy lifting when it comes to developing and promoting the event and strive to be as transparent as possible with the artist throughout the planning process. As much as possible, we aim to give the artist 24 hours to review some of our larger promotional pieces (like our updated amshot.com/exhibITion webpage and exhibITion press release) before they go “live”. However, please note that event attendance (and consequently, sales) rely heavily on promotion by the artist, since your friends, family, and social media followers are your biggest fans! As such, we highly encourage our artists to self-promote as much as possible.
If the art were to be present in the office in the event of a disaster, amshot’s insurance would reimburse the artist for up to $10,000 worth of art.
Here are some other things you can expect from amshot:
- Organizing the event
- Coordinating with all event partners, including the charitable organization, brewery, client partner, winery, etc.
- Providing volunteers and training the volunteers to run the event
- Promoting the event
- Communicating and coordinating with the artist
- Providing a measurement map to the artist for planning purposes
- Printing wall labels (unless artist has professionally printed vinyl labels available)
- Installing wall labels (if the artists chooses to have amshot install)
- Processing payments (registration and art checkout) during the event
- Providing the artist with their earnings check within one week of the event
- Providing the artist with additional art earnings from the exhibITion period at the time of art removal
- Providing the artist with photos taken at the event for their use
What should I expect at and after exhibITion?
We send invitations to everyone (local) on our email and mailing lists, which includes clients, potential clients, friends, family, influencers in the community, members organizations that we’re affiliated with, and anyone else who’s signed up to hear from us. For this reason, exhibITion tends to attract businesspeople, friends and family of the artist and amshot team members, other local artists, and affiliates of charitable organizations. The event is family-friendly and open to the public.
As we strive to make art accessible, small, relatively inexpensive “shop items” tend to make up the bulk of the sales. Most sales throughout the exhibition period are made during the event.
Our goal is that you’ll have fun during the event! Drink some beer, eat some snacks, and mingle with your biggest fans. The guests will start to arrive at around 4:00 PM and start trickling out after the official end at 8:00 PM.
After the event, the “gallery” is open to the public during our business hours (Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM), so friends and family that missed the opening are welcome to browse and purchase art. We also get a lot of client and community traffic, so the art on our walls is enjoyed by more than just amshot employees.
exhibITion Artist Application
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