Paint it Black 5: Branding & Sales Strategies

Robert Villamagna, mixed-media artist, WV Tinman  
Karen Jacobson, Woodlands Community Lenders
August 18th, Tygart Hotel, Elkins, WV

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Branding and Sales Strategies
make your travel worth it, connect with your audience, and find how you fit in

Robert will share lessons learned from showing and selling his art at fairs, galleries, and museums. Over the course of his lifelong career, Robert has spent years travelling from his home in Wheeling, WV to art fairs near and far, from St. Louis to upstate New York, often attending over 15 fairs a year. With fairs promising great sales but requiring a lot of time, labor and travel, he will discuss how to choose events that are a good fit for your work, tips for setting up your booth, and how to troubleshoot difficult situations to make fairs and festivals worthwhile sales events. On the topic of branding, Robert will share the story of how he acquired the name WV Tin Man and open a conversation about how branding can create connection with the public and how it is also nuanced. Together we will consider both the limitations and opportunities in branding oneself and one’s art. In what promises to be a lively conversation, you will leave this seminar with practical tips for making sales, as well a discussion to reflect on about how you have are making a name for yourself as an artist.

Karen Jacobson will discuss opportunities to fund growth of your art-based business.

Mountain Arts District will lead a roundtable discussion as attendees pop out to their one-on-one sessions with Elaine.

Presenter Bio:

Robert Villamagna was born in Oakland, CA, and raised in Ohio and West Virginia. Villamagna has worked as a map draftsman, USAF illustrator, commercial artist, steel mill laborer, sign painter, art therapist, and college art professor. Villamagna was an assistant Professor of Art at West Liberty University and Director of the Nutting Gallery until retiring from that institution in 2018. Villamagna creates his mixed media works in his Wheeling studio, primarily using repurposed lithographed metal and found objects.

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