Does your website need updating?
Consider print marketing options – business cards, postcards? Design and print early to avoid feeling rushed.
If you live in a remote area, collaborate with nearby artists to draw visitors. Combine mailing lists, create a neighborhood flyer with mini-maps of artists in your area, or pool resources and place a group ad in a local paper. Share postcards with one another to have on hand at your studio. Encourage people to visit neighboring studios.

Are you in a studio with other artists? Pool your resources! Marketing as a group is a great way to magnify your impact, but you need to organize early for best effects.
Distribute Open Studio digital postcards or have them printed

Get your marketing outreach efforts into full swing:

Promote your event to patrons, friends, and supporters – call, email, send an event postcard - now is the time!)
Distribute postcards and plaster your neighborhood with event posters
Put the Open Studio Louisville logo on your website
Invite friends and share the Open Studio Louisville Facebook event/page with your mailing list
Pick up your yard sign at LVA or designated distributors (TBA)
Additional yard signs are available at the LVA office
Let LVA know if you are holding a special event as part of your OSW – a demonstration, artist talk, performance, special receptions, etc. We will help spread the word!
Email your event details to taylor@louisvillevisualart.org
E-mail your list again with an invitation.
Exchange postcards with other artists to cross promote.
Facebook, Instagram, Tweet, blog, Pin...
Promote your friends’ Open Studios on your social media, and encourage them to do the same. The more awareness there is, the better it is for everybody!

Ensure your exhibition space is ready:

Clean your space. Consider how you might create a welcoming atmosphere (food/drinks, lighting, temperature control, etc.). Safeguard valuable materials, tools, and small artworks.
Assess the risk of your work and take appropriate precautions.
Safety of your guests. Unplug power tools, remove acids and dangerous chemicals, put up signs or rope off unsafe areas, and mark steps or uneven pavement.
Create labels for each work with your name, title, date, medium and price, and/or create a numbered price list for your work.
Think about how you will process sales. What payment methods will you accept? Will you offer bags/wrapping for smaller works? Can you arrange shipping/delivery for larger works? If you want to sell your work, make sure you have cardboard, bubblewrap, tape, etc. so collectors can safely take the art home.
Have business cards available with your contact information.
Have a folder with an artist statement, resume/CV, recent press/news, any upcoming shows and projects. Think about what is helpful for you when in a gallery or museum.
Have a guestbook so people can sign up for future mailings, and you can build your audience.
Consider offering an installment (layaway) payment plan for more expensive works.

Finishing prepping your space
Purchase hand sanitizer and disinfectant
Continue promoting your event to patrons, friends, and supporters – call them, email them!

Greet everyone that visits your studio - introduce yourself so visitors know you're the artist.
If possible, have a work-in-progress available to illustrate your technique and process.
Offer demonstrations to people interested in your technique.
Invite your friends, family and neighbors to come by your studio - create a friendly atmosphere and build a following, beginning with your personal community.
Actively invite people to sign your guestbook.

Make sure you are paid in full before letting anyone leave your studio with art, or you have a contract for payments.
Remember to charge sales tax. In Kentucky, it is 6%.
Have some kind of receipt/record of your sale.
Don’t price pieces low just because you think it will make it easier for collectors to decide. You can always offer a discount. Decide what you think your retail price should be, what the lowest you’re willing to sell your work for is, and leave the difference for discounts/negotiating.
Frame costs should be added on top of the price. If a collector doesn’t want to pay the extra money it cost to frame the work, consider letting them buy it unframed.
If someone buys your work, get their email address and add them to your mailing list.

Develop your mailing list for the next OSW. Add new contacts to your mailing list and send them thank you notes/emails.
Follow up quickly on prospective collectors, contacts, galleries, etc. with notes or letters, art show announcements, etc. Notes could include pictures of specific works they showed interest in.
Add new contacts to your mailing list.
Make notes of what worked and what didn't for your next Open Studios event.
Compile any data you may have gathered about how people heard about your Open Studio to use in planning your next marketing effort
Go make more art!