These tips can help you on the day of the Studio Tour to help you make visitors feel welcome in your space.
It’s the day of your big art studio tour. You’re both excited and nervous and you’ve done all that you can ahead of time to be the most prepared to be ready for visitors and to promote your open studio. Let’s make your visitors feel welcome and be a gracious host to your studio guests.
- Ensure Your Studio or Home Entrance is Completely Inviting
It is important for your visitors to have a clear sense of where they are to go to enter your studio space. Signs placed strategicly in locations around the outside of your home or studio space will help with a smooth welcome for your visitors. You definitely want people to only walk in where they should be going.
Ensure that your entrance, or path to the entrance to your studio or home is very clearly marked with signs welcoming guests and letting them know they are welcome to come in.
PARC Studio Tour organizers will provide you with official Tour signs to mark your location, but it may also be wise for you to add your own signs if you need added assistance for your visitors to help direct people to the correct entrance if it is not clear where people should enter, or telling people to come on in.
- Should You Consider Serving Refreshments?
Serving refreshments is not always practical. It won’t be right for everyone. But sometimes simple refreshments can help set a mood and make visitors to your studio feel welcome.
You can use refreshments to create a homey, welcoming vibe. Be sure to serve simple, easy to eat or drink items that can be quickly picked up and nibbled or sipped. You don’t want people to be too distracted by the food or drink, and you don’t want to serve anything that might make a mess in your studio.
A few things to avoid:
- Avoid anything sticky or messy
- Avoid anything requiring concentration to eat
- Avoid anything difficult to serve
You want to concentrate on talking with your customers; you don’t want to spend the day focused on serving food.
- Be Prepared to Talk About Your Work
Be ready to greet visitors. A few simple opening lines that you can use throughout the day will help to start conversations.
You can build conversations by:
- Asking visitors how they are enjoying the Tour
- Talking about your work, what inspires you, what makes your work special and different from other creators
- Talking about other shows you are participating in
Once you get the conversation started, it will likely flow fairly naturally. Remember, your visitors made a specific trip to your studio because they were interested in your work, so they will be interested in hearing more about how you do what you do.
It is not imperative for you to do a demo of your work, but visitors might be interested if this is something that you’ve been considering.
If you are not in your studio, perhaps you could show a work in progress or some of the tools you use to create your work.
- Find Ways to Encourage a Second Contact with Interested Visitors
Be sure to tell your visitors about a show you have coming up at an art gallery, or classes that you teach, or your website. Provide marketing materials (business cards or brochures) visitors can take away so they can find you again easily.
Consider providing a guest book that you encourage visitors to sign, which will allow you to grow a mailing list of people you can contact whenever you have an upcoming show.
Sometimes art studio tours are more about building your name and making a first contact with people. This is particularly true for people who sell higher-end items. You’ll want to be able to build on that first connection by giving customers a way to connect with you again.
- You’ll Need an Assistant
Don’t try to do a studio tour by yourself without an assistant. If your studio gets busy or you need a quick break, you’ll be happy to have the help.
Do be careful to avoid taking long or frequent breaks, though, because your visitors have come to see you (the artist) in your work space. But if you’ve been able to have a quick break when you need one, you’ll be able to give visitors your full attention. Likewise, if your studio gets busy, your assistant will be able to speak with guests while you’re busy with others.
Next Steps
Make sure to have fun!
