Montana Ave Artwalk & Music Festival
July 17th 5 – 9 PM
Once again we have
established an Art Walk Committee to help co-ordinate this event. For those of
you who were not here last year, the Art Walk was a great success with many
stores participating, hosting & promoting their own special events for the
evening.
The aim is to make the
event a vibrant, fun, & visually exciting experience for our neighborhood
and to highlight Montana Avenue to the broader community as a lively and
interesting destination.
When: Thursday, July 17th from 5pm-9pm
What is the Art
Walk/Music festival?
This is an opportunity for
artists and businesses on Montana Ave. to create an evening event that
showcases the creative spirit of our street and our community. Businesses can
feature the artist's work inside their store or outside. We have a permit
to use the sidewalk so artists & musicians can be outside of your business
as well.
Information For Merchants
The Art Walk Committee
will be visiting businesses in the next few weeks to talk with you about how
you might participate to make this a success.
How does it work?
Choose an artist that
you already know and would like to partner with. Or the Art Walk Committee has
a list of artists & their websites for you to choose from. When you find an
artist you would like to feature, please contact them directly. The Art
Walk Committee is not involved in the selection process.
Merchants usually
charge a 15 -20% commission on artwork that sells during the event.
This is completely optional and up to you and the artist to negotiate between
yourselves. The Montana Avenue
Merchant Association has no involvement with any financial arrangements you
make.
You can provide live
music outside or inside your business. The Art Walk Committee will need
information about music so we can ensure musicians are not playing too close to
each other. Email your plans to:
Alex Winston, the Merchants Association Secretary at
montana.santamonica@gmail.com
Promotion
It is very helpful to
have promotional material (postcard, bio) in your business during the weeks
before the event to promote both the event & your featured artist. The
artist/musician you are featuring can provide these for you. A poster in your
window of your featured artist/musician also will help make this event more
visible from the street. The Art Walk committee can advise on inexpensive
poster printing.
Email
blasts sent to your customers are a key factor in bringing people to the event.
This is an opportunity to remind your clients to come in and visit your store.
Add extra perks to entice your customers (wine and cheese, new summer fashions,
etc) and include these details in your emails!
Please let us know what
you are doing so we can include it in our advertising campaign. Email Alex Winston, the Merchants
Association Secretary at montana.santamonica@gmail.com
Information for Artists:
This is an opportunity to show your work on Montana Ave. in
Santa Monica during the height of the summer season. Montana Ave. is an
upscale, tree-lined shopping district consisting of 10 blocks of boutiques,
restaurants, and salons.
The Art Walk Committee is putting together a list of
potential artists for this year’s event. In the next few weeks we will be
visiting stores and businesses on the street and offering them help in finding
an artist if they haven’t done so already.
Who
Local artists who have experience showing their work in
galleries and exhibitions and will be able to provide stands or easels for
their art if needed. The art can be displayed outside on the sidewalk or inside
the stores.
How it works.
The Art Walk Committee will put together a list of artists
interested in participating. This list will be distributed to the businesses on
Montana Ave. for them to contact you directly. It will be up to the artist and
business owner to work out details of the arrangement themselves, including set
up & take down, extra lighting if outside etc.
Some stores will want to take a percentage of the artist’s
sales while others see the Art Walk solely as a promotional event. The Art Walk
Committee is suggesting a commission of 15 – 20% in their guide to businesses.
Artists should be prepared to be at the event to meet
customers, and if requested to have a postcard, brochure or bio that can be
handed out on the night.
Promotion
Stores will be encouraged to order a large poster and/or
postcards to advertise their featured artist and to create interest in the
event ahead of time. Artists may be asked to provide digital images for a
poster and/or email promotions.
The Montana Ave Merchants Association will also be promoting
the event on their website as well as in print advertising. You are encouraged
to do your own promotion through social media and email blasts.
If you are interested in participating in the Art Walk
please email Anthea Brown at antheaart@gmail.com with the following
information:
Your name,
contact email, a brief description of your work, and a link to your website.
The business owner will contact you directly if they are
interested in featuring your work. The Art Walk Committee is not involved in
the selection process.
Art Walk Committee Members Are:
Anthea Brown – Artist at Ten Women Gallery,
Kara Taub – Artist at Ten Women Gallery, Merchants
Association Treasurer.
Jane Walker – Texture (formerly Three Bags Full), Merchants
Association Board Member.
Jean McCoy – To Wag For, Merchants Association Board Chair
