`Tis the season: the holiday season can be one of the most lucrative times of the year. Start planning now to boost sales by taking advantage of consumers' holiday spending - art galleries

When it comes to the holiday season, in both business and in life, there's really no better time of year. It's a time to reflect, give thanks and gather with family and friends. But it is also a time when success is as vital to the survival of retail establishments as paint was to Picasso's canvas.

The holiday season presents a special set of opportunities that enables artists and art gallery owners alike to stretch their minds and imaginations to bring customers into the shop during the season and beyond. Whether an art gallery specializes in six-figure sales of high-profile pieces or $60 sales of paper, posters and plates, creative marketing techniques can increase sales during the holiday season and bring customers back after the last ornament has been taken off the tree.

Put Artists in the Holiday Spirit

Don't just rely on the tried-and-true holiday art walk to increase your seasonal sales. Sylvia White, owner of Contemporary Artists' Services, a management-consulting firm in Los Angeles which specializes in career development for visual artists, encourages gallery owners to tap into artists' creativity to bring customers in. Ask a group of artists to make Christmas-tree ornaments, she suggested, or ask a them to make menorahs. Ask a group of artists to use their creativity in a way they never have before.

"What I like to do is think of the artist I am working with and ask them to make something that might be particularly relevant to their work," she said. "I once asked a bronze sculptor to do a fireplace screen, and it turned out great. It's something he would have never done himself, and he loved the idea of someone suggesting it."

Once the artist creates that holiday piece, White recommended the gallery owner display it next to some of the artist's traditional work. Ask a glass blower to make an ornament, for example, and display it next to one of his $2,000 vases or bowls. Ask a woodworker to carve a dreidel, she said, and sit it next to one of his most exquisite works. "If the artist is a painter, have them use their style and adapt it to a functional object for the season," she said.

Give the Gift of Creative Shows

White also recommends gallery owners create a show around a holiday theme. "There was a toy show once where artists were invited to make toys that really worked," White added. "It was fabulous." Or, recommended Susan Schear, owner of ArtIsIn LTC, an Oradell, N.J.-based marketing firm that helps artists develop and market their businesses, "you could do a whole lighting show with all different candlesticks made by different artists in several different media," she said. "Kwanzaa is really evolved," she added. "Why not do a show on the history behind Kwanzaa?"

Jack Appelman, c.e.o. of Applejack Art Partners in Manchester, Vt., a company that prints and licenses artists' works, said gallery owners need to do more than just package items together to create an unforgettable show. "Years ago, a gallery could have a Christmas print released for the Christmas season," he said. "They would do a show with an artist and have some kind of event, and it would bring people in. That doesn't do it any longer. Successful galleries are moving toward the model of a gift shop in a way, where they revolve a show around a print and include other products that carry that theme as well."

For example, a gallery might hang a print of an angel and couple it with a piece of glass work that is an angel or a box of hand-painted cards with angels featured on the front. "It also plants the seed for the customer to come back," he said. "And it allows that customer to make impulse buys."

Festive Promotions

You can be impulsive about your promotional ideas as well, White said. For example, why not stop in at the five-and-dime and buy regular items--colorful string, or a Plexiglas box--and ask your artists to create something holiday-themed in their own individual way? "When you give an artist a generic tool to work with and say, `Do something,' you can use the pieces as a hook to get people in there," White said.

If you're more comfortable with traditional marketing techniques, such as a direct-mail campaign, White strongly suggested you don't simply send out a black-and-white postcard. She advised investing in design and color to guarantee your customers will come in. "A lot of gallery owners and artists make the mistake of saving money by not printing a color image on an announcement or by not sending out something that is really gorgeous," she said. "What you send out can really make or break someone's mind in terms of coming to see the show."

Jeffrey Salkin, co-owner of Sylvia Ullman American Crafts Gallery in Cleveland couldn't agree more. Salkin, a former advertising executive who bought the gallery from Ullman five years ago with his wife, Susan, and his partner, Sally Iannone, continued Ullman's longstanding tradition of introducing the holiday show by sending customers a four-color poster with a warm message from the staff. The poster, which features photographs of works to be featured in the show, serves as an unforgettable advertisement. "When people get the posters, they start calling the gallery wanting to know if they can come in early," he said. "It's three times more expensive, but it's been working for 38 years." Not only that; he never knows where that poster might end up. "It's amazing," Salkin added. "You walk into people's houses, and there on the wall, framed, is our poster."

Stuart Zolten, owner of Fiore Omni Fine Arts, located in the Little Italy neighborhood of Cleveland, uses a much simpler direct-mail campaign. "We have done print-media advertising, radio commercials, we've been in the newspaper, and it seems to me, the best response always comes from direct mail," he said. "I don't buy mailing lists. And I only mail to people who have actually been to our store."

But he also uses innovative show ideas to pull customers in. Drive down the quaint brick road where Fiore Omni sits and you'll see an array of quilts hanging in the window each holiday season. The quilts, which range from traditional to contemporary, not only make the perfect holiday gift, they also make Fiore Omni look its holiday best. "Hanging stufflike that up is a very festive thing to do for the holidays," he said.

To Tree or Not to Tree

Gallery owners differ on whether pulling out the Christmas lights, colorful trees and holly will increase sales or will send customers looking elsewhere for serenity. Jack Krauss, owner of Whitt/Krauss Objects of Fine Art in San Diego, feels the festive decor takes away from the art. "We'll put symbols around indicating the season, but we want you to look at the art, not the decor," he said. Salkin agreed: "We'll have some greenery around and a large display of ornaments," he said. "But that's about all."

Michael Curtis, owner of The Classical Gallery in Old Town Alexandria, Va., actually decorates the walls of his gallery with the pieces he hopes to sell for the season. "Usually our gallery looks like a museum," he said. "At the holiday time, we cover the walls like wallpaper, almost floor to ceiling with small paintings and sculpture, so when someone comes in, they can always find something. And we decorate the windows for the holiday season as well."

As a renowned gallery owner who represents sculptors, Curtis is well aware of the fact that people wouldn't typically walk into his gallery to find a gift to place under the tree. Therefore, he asks each of his artists to create pieces that are more appropriate for the holiday season and hangs those pieces up on the wall. "We ask artists to give us their small pieces--small drawings, sketches, sculptures--and we frame them attractively in small frames that would make appropriate gifts," he said. "We try to keep them at $200 to $250."

Krauss expands his inventory as well. The week before Thanksgiving, Krauss launches an extravagant show--his only annual show--that attracts buyers from all over the world. "I used to go to art shows, and I used to find them boring," he said. "You came for one artist, got a little piece of cheese and a glass of wine and maybe a grape or two. We usually bring in about 10 to 12 artists, and we probably spend $100,000 on the show," he said. "We have three full bars, a big buffet. And for 25 years, it has never rained on my parade."

Krauss believes holding the show right before Thanksgiving increases his success. "It gives us enough time for people to get in before Christmas," he said. "People are in the mood to buy. They haven't spent their money on everything else. So this is the time that's worked out the best for us."

Salkin also believes hosting art shows during the holiday season is the right way to go. "We have an opening-night reception the Friday night after Thanksgiving," he said. "There are always artists here in the evening and over the weekend. It's like a party, actually." But that party takes him at least two years to plan. "There may be artists you would just drool to have in the gallery, but they may be booked up," he said. "So we start shopping two years ahead."

But Schear said one of the best ways to keep people coming back, or in the store once they walk in, is through old-fashioned customer service. "Wrap things up in tissue with nice bags," she said. "Or have a place for customers to put their coat and check bags while they are shopping."

But, she warned, be wary of too many wrap-and-ready gifts. "A piece of art isn't going to be perfect. Each piece is going to be intrinsically, naturally different, and you want your customers to see that," she said. "If it's handmade, people like to see it."

The bottom line? "The holiday season gives us so many creative opportunities," White said. Don't let them pass you by.

SOURCES

* ArtIsIn LTC, (201) 599-9180

* Applejack Art Publishers, 800-243-6615

* The Classical Gallery, 888-272-5985

* Contemporary Artists Services, (310) 452-4000

* Fiore Omni Fine Arts, (216) 721-5319

* Patricia Palermino, (703) 360-4757

* Sylvia Ullman American Crafts Gallery, (216) 231-2008

* Whitt Krauss Objects of Fine Art, (877) 557-2877

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