In my last post, I offered some questions for the artist who is considering participating in an exhibition to showcase their work.

So now you decided to take the plunge and you need to invite as many people as you can in order to have the work seen. Inviting friends and acquaintances can actually help your show be a success financially and press wise. But there are some questions you want to ask of yourself before you splash the event all over your Facebook page or other social media outlets. By being selective you can alleviate potential embarrassing situations from occurring while still maintaining a professional appearance with potential clients.

First, pick your friends that don’t get sloppy or loud when they drink. You don’t want to be embarrassed by them.

Second, pick the friends the friends with respectable jobs. They can invite their co-workers to the event.

Third, invite high scale staff, managers and owners to the event. Private country clubs,hotels, salons, prestige auto dealerships, bankers and law firms, restaurant owners, even gallery owners. Invite the staff from the mayor’s office all the way up to the mayor himself or herself. They like being invited to events like this and they don’t get to go to many art related functions.

Also, invite any local newspaper and web journalist in the area to cover your showing. Make sure you know who all these people are along with their names so that when they show, you can immediately give them the time to talk to them.

In my next post, I’ll discuss what social media to use and how best to use them to get more people exposed to your event.