ChicagoArt.Net Chicago individual gallery announcements. "Information for Exhibitors"

As an Exhibitor you will be able to send e-mail announcements to a large group of Chicago Area Patrons who have an interest in the Visual Arts. Topics listed below:

[Overview] [New Accounts] [Application Details] [Acceptable Usage Policy] [Browser Settings] [Character Set] [Editing Announcements] [Sample Announcements] [Adding E-mail Addresses] [Default Patron Settings] [Add a Patron Account] [Changing your e-mail address] [Getting Deleted]

Overview

• When you establish a new account, you will be asked to describe your gallery or organization. This is public information, available to any patron. The information can be edited at any time. Your e-mail address (which serves as your account name) is not public information.

• Notification of a gallery opening or event is made with an announcement sent by you from these pages (accessed from your Account page).

• You may type the announcement on-line, or use cut and paste, and will be able to view the announcement and re-edit it before sending.

• The Announcement is transmitted immediately to any patrons who have elected to receive announcements from you. This currently includes, by default, just about every e-mail address in our database (only about twenty percent of patrons make individual selections). You will be notified immediately of the total number of e-mails which are sent out.

• You may add e-mail addresses of your patrons to our database at any time. The list will remain hidden to everyone -- even yourself. You will be notified immediately of accepted e-mail addresses, but not their status. The addresses will be checked for duplicates, closed accounts, and embargoed addresses.

Use of this service is limited to visual art galleries and art organizations in the Chicago area with established histories of exhibitions or services. Currently these include fine art galleries and museums, experimental sound and film, art criticism magazines, arts programs, and arts coalitions, organizations, festivals, and foundations. Starting in 2002 we charge an annual fee of $40.00.

Outline of eligibility:

• We do not represent places such as hair salons, resale shops, or auto parts stores which go by the name of "gallery."
• We do not represent galleries or organizations outside of the Chicago metropolitan area.
• We do not represent individuals, studios, shared studios, or small groups of individuals who primarily show their own work.
• We also do not accept applications from start-up ventures - you must have an established record of prior exhibitions or services.

Secondly, please note:

• The emphasis is on exhibitions of fine art, experimental film, video, and sound, art criticism, and associated events;
• If you were planning to sell anything, list courses, or post calls for work, you should not apply.

Note: Please use an e-mail address which is reliable, since it represents our contact with you, and have the e-mail address assigned to a person at your organization who is specifically responsible for Announcements and for adding e-mail addresses.

It is your responsibility to keep your correct e-mail address updated with us. If your e-mail address returns a bounce notice there is nothing we can do.

Applicants for an Exhibitor Account will need to do the following:

1. Eligibility: Contact us via e-mail with enough information to establish eligibility.

2. Unless you are a well known gallery or arts organization, you will need to tell us more about your gallery or organization. Send this as a brief email. Please give some indication of how you qualify by submitting a short description of the history and exhibition record of your organization:
   • Tell us something of the history and space of your organization;
   • list some recent shows you have had (and what artists);
   • list some recent reviews which have been published; and
   • point to listings in the Reader or elsewhere.

3. Recommendation: Obtain the recommendation of another ChicagoArt.Net Exhibitor who has had an account for at least six months. Have the director of the gallery or organization submit the recommendation via e-mail directly to support@ChicagoArt.Net.

4. Application: Fill out an application form (below) which provides location and contact information for your gallery or organization and provides a capsule description. All except your e-mail address is public information and can be accessed by anyone.

5. Payment: Pay a fee of $40.00 -- this represents the annual fee for use of the service. This is due before an account is activated. We will contact you about a method of payment.

We will wait to receive your description, your application, and the recommendation, and then will bill you a startup fee of $40.00 on approval. The startup fee will cover use of ChicagoArt.Net for a year.

We will not take your money if we do not approve your application. However, the fee is not refundable if you fail to abide by the [Acceptable Usage Policies], and we suspend or delete your account.

Please use the links below to apply for a new Exhibitor Account. This process may take a few weeks. Hope you are not in a hurry.

Apply for new Exhibitor Account

Acceptable Usage Policy

Exhibitors are expected to use this service appropriately. The rules are simple: an Announcement has to be about an EVENT at YOUR gallery. Calls for work are not events. Reminders of on-going shows are not events. An exhibition elsewhere is not an event at YOUR gallery.

The purpose of the restrictions is to maintain the integrity of the database of people interested in visual art in Chicago. When Announcement become overwhelming in number or become spurious, we lose patrons.

Please see the requirements for the policy of [acceptable usage] of this site. We will warn you twice, and suspend your account on a second violation of acceptable usage policy.

Browser Settings

This website depends on Session Control and a No-Cache directive for its operation. The pages are designed for the default options of recent versions of Netscape, MS Internet Explorer, Opera, and Lynx. However, you may need to set some browser options for proper operation:

• To allow Session Control, set up the browser to accept cookies.

  Cookies are an identification number which distinguishes concurrent users from each other. ChicagoArt.Net cookies expire 15 minutes after your last page change.

• Set the browser to refresh files every time (no file caching).

  This will be required if you log on to make changes to your account, add e-mail addresses to the database, or send an Announcement.

We recommend you set your browser to use the iso-8858-1 character set, the default US standard for web browsers, which comes close to the default 7-bit "US-ASCII" e-mail character set. Select a mono-spaced font for the "fixed font" browser preference to see how most of the e-mails might look.

Using the iso-8859-1 character set you to come close to how most people will see your Announcement, and how odd characters and punctuation will be translated to a Patron's character set.

We also recommend that you compose in a block format, and avoid the use of tabs and gratuitous empty space. If left-adjusted your Announcement will more likely flow with some elegance onto a misadjusted e-mail reader windows -- which could be set to any width by a Patron.

Editing announcements

Announcements are composed on the "Compose page" and subsequently viewed on the "Preview page" before you can send them. The "Compose page" can be accessed from your Account page. Text can be typed on-line, or imported from another file.

Sample Announcements

In case you are wondering how other Exhibitors format their announcements, take a look at a list of [recent] announcements.

Adding e-mail addresses

E-mail addresses are added to the database from the "Add E-mail Addresses" page, which can be accessed from your Account page. Addresses may be added one at a time, or cut-and-paste can be used.

What e-mail addresses to add

We strongly urge you to be selective in adding e-mail addresses, for all new addresses will by default receive announcements from every Exhibitors. Collect e-mail addresses from your patrons at gallery openings, and make sure they understand that they will receive e-mail not only from your gallery, but also from many others.

Our current "greetings" message (sent to new patrons) is explicit about this.

What e-mail addresses NOT TO ADD

E-mail addresses of people not interested in the visual arts, or people not in the Chicago area are of little use when added to our database, and inevitably end up on the list of embargoed addresses.

• Do not add e-mail addresses for which you do not at least have implicit permission for their use.
• Do not add your address books, or lists of relatives and business acquaintances, unless they are devoted fans of the visual arts in Chicago.
• Avoid editors of magazines, and arts listing services. The e-mail announcement from ChicagoArt.Net is no substitute for a Press Release, and generally arrives too late for press inclusion.
• Avoid people who obviously do not live anywhere near Chicago, and avoid addresses in foreign countries (addresses ending in things like it, uk, de, nl, etc).

New e-mail Patrons will receive notification that they can access ChicagoArt.Net to make selections, and receive a password. They must confirm that they are interested in receiving email before any more email will be sent to them.

Once logged in, the default setting for a new patron is "subscribe to all exhibitors."

The tag lines at the bottom of e-mail Announcements give directions to the web site, directions for deletion from the database, and lists the actual e-mail address the announcement was sent to.

The tag line of an Announcement also includes an "instant removal" hot link, which allow patrons to unselect the Exhibitor which has just sent them an Announcement.

A patron who has expressed a desire to be completely "deleted" is actually "embargoed." If you, as an Exhibitor, add an e-mail address which has been embargoed by the system, it will be ignored. This is how we preserve the wishes of patrons. Only a patron can reinstitute themself after an e-mail address has been embargoed.

Patrons are also embargoed for other reasons, including our receipt of repeated bounced Announcements because their mailbox is full, or because their ISP refuses acceptance of e-mail, or refuses forwarding, or the e-mail address no longer exists. Keep this in mind in case your gallery patrons complain that they no longer receive e-mail from ChicagoArt.Net.

Be both an Exhibitor and a Patron

Exhibitor accounts do not default to receiving Announcements, but note that you can be both an "Exhibitor" and a "Patron" -- in which case you will receive the announcements sent by other galleries (or select the galleries you want to hear from). To also be a Patron, add your email address on the page "Add E-mail Addresses."

Changing your e-mail address

If you need to change the e-mail address of your Exhibitor account, contact us. Do not simply start a new account to change your e-mail address. Changing the e-mail address of your account cannot be done on-line.

Getting deleted

If you go out of business, or lose interest, let us know, and we will delete your account. If we send you e-mail, and it bounces a number of times, we will probably delete your account. Similarly if you post no Announcements in a year.

If you violate the Acceptable Usage Policies we will most certainly suspend your account, and may delete it.

Questions

If you have any questions, please contact us at [support@chicagoArt.Net].