Is this usual?

I have been invited to exhibit in a gallery at a high profile location in Italy. Now I'm not familiar with the usual procedure but they are requesting a fee for promotion & management of the exhibition which will be held at a famous landmark. The fee is not insignificant and I have never been charged a fee when I have been invited to present work at other exhibitions. Is this an unusual situation? It is unlikely I will accept as I'm too busy to prepare the work but I would be very interested in hearing your thoughts on this matter.

I'm sure they have considerable expenses as well. Here's a somewhat related interesting bit:

http://edwardwinkleman.blogspot.com/2007/06/logic-behind-5050-split.html

I guess it depends on how much you trust them to do a good job representing your work, and what value you think you will get from it. Personally, if it's totally out of the blue, I would probably not do it.

Guy

I'd sure do some research on the gallery before signing anything with them, much less sending them money.

Though it may be a perfectly legitimate offer merited by your work, there's also the potential for long distance proposals to be pure scams. We get two or three a day for wedding and portrait work, all cut-and-paste versions of a scam that circulated the web a couple of years ago. It's clear that the original scammers now make their living selling scam kits to up-and-coming scammers. The proposal you received has points in common and some degree of potential to originate from the same scam mill, so I'd investigate really carefully.

You have been "invited". Now you have to see if the investment required of you is worth it or not to you. Also, does this show fit into your marketing plans? Will it bring you closer to your goals? How many other artists are being "invited" to this show and how many will be featured? These are all important questions I recommend you look into and find answers for.

If you were "invited" via the internet (out of the blue), I would be sure it's a scam and there will be more "fees" coming up. We have a few of these every month from fine print sales in Brazil to photo festivals in Croatia and exhibitions in Italy...
For an exhibition you will have to make good personal contact, make some research.
Not knowing were you live, I have some Italian colleagues, good photographers, I could ask, if you wish. Let me know off line.
Georg

I'd contact Juza. Since he lives in Italy, he may be able to tell you a little something. About the locale, organization and whether or not it's legit. That's where I'd start before I'd make any further decisions.

If they were asking for a little bit of money for postcards, etc for promotion, OK. But to ask you for a "not insignificant" amount is a deal breaker in my book.

I too believe that you must be careful. I live in Italy so if you think that I can help with informations ... Juza is surely a good support.
Cheers.

Hi Kah Kit,
let me know if I can help!

I don't have much experience regarding exhibits,but if I can I'm glad to help :-)

Juza - eajuza@yahoo.it

Thank you for all your responses. I believe the offer is not a scam as I have already researched the gallery. The experiences of other artsists have been mixed which doesn't help much. I often go to Italy and I have in fact visited the building. As to whether the venture is worth my while & money I am not so sure. Also getting work through Italian customs can be a nightmare! I can understand why galleries may request a fee now but it looks like it may be easier to dip my toes closer to home.

Sounds suspiciously like the invitation I got from Trevisan Arte a couple of weeks ago. As I recall, when I checked out their website I found the exhibit was supposed to have been juried with submissions due for consideration months ago. It did look legit, but the fees seemed very high. If this is the same show, my guess is they didn't get enough submissions due to the high fees and are now trolling for artists to take up the slack.

Lori

I got this invite as well. I was pretty excited until I read about the fees tonight. Ridiculous, if you ask me. Way, Way, Way too much. Especially for a 6 foot by 6 foot square. I might do it if I got a whole room to myself. I'm personally going to write them and tell them that I will pay them exactly what I pay for my other showings...from $100 to $300. Then if I send my work...I will surely insure it against theft/wrong doings/whatever.

Thanks for your very helpful replies. I don't know much about exhibitions but the fees seemed way too high. Even without the fees, I would be hard pressed to make a profit. It's not cheap to send framed work overseas & buy insurance, etc. It must cost a bomb to rent space in that magnificent castle though.