Communication

One skill that I have strengthened thus far in my internship has been my ability to communicate, with clients from around the world, my own co-workers, and even other gallery and museum owners. This final form of communication has proven to be the hardest, as often reaching out to others electronically lead to often a lack of response or vague answers. This was most prevalent as I attempted to help SyArt collaborate on a winter exchange with galleries in the United States.

As I attempted to first reach out to potential collaborators to gauge their interest in an exchange, I found little responses, one of which being with a gallery entirely run by Spanish speaking collectors. This task to find a way to communicate our intentions was incredibly difficult to achieve via email, as made clear by my first- failed- attempt to reach out.

Therefor, with the help my my internship coordinator, there formed an idea to not solely send an informative yet brief email, but also a proposal document with pictures of our pieces, as well as a more in depth look at who we are and why we hope to ignite an exchange of art pieces. With this, I also decided to also translate this proposal in Spanish as well, to greater communicate with the Spanish speaking galleries.

As a result of this new method, we have found greater interest from clients that once were vague in their willingness, and a greater response rate from prospective galleries that once ignored our previous emails.

English Proposal Brochure

Spanish Proposal Brochure

Initiative

Another important skill that I have learned throughout this experience was the need to take initiative on projects that I believe in, yet may be overlooked by my superiors. In one case we had an important task to improve our presence around Sorrento as the high season was soon ending. We also wanted to keep our business' name in the mind of potential clients who demonstrated interest without yet buying a piece, as many of our orders are virtually from past visitors.

I thought of a way to accomplish both tasks in one cheap and effective way- to create stickers with our brand new business logo along with our local address. When I brought this idea up to my supervisors it was quickly overlooked, yet I understood that there has been a bigger interest in stickers as a form of promotion in modern American marketing, despite the lack of this trend in Italian culture- for the time being. Especially in my experience with young Americans- there is a desire for stickers and patches as souvenirs in Sorrento.

The reactions from my initiative to go through with my sticker plan were incredibly positive, as many visitors learned of the gallery from the stickers placed around the city, and many visitors who demonstrated interest in pieces not only kept my supervisor's business card, but also took the stickers, which they would place on their laptops, or keep to eventually put with other important documents from their trip, to keep the business' name always available.

SyArt Sticker Logo

Creativity

An aspect of my work involves coming up with creative new ways to promote the gallery to visiting guests, as exemplified by my sticker idea and video work, as well as our social media presence. I am in charge of using social media to draw new clients and peak the interest of current clients through unique and interesting posts.

In one case I thought of a video series in which my boss, Rossella, would introduce some of our favorite artists including Andy Warhol, Monk, and Marjan Fahimi.

These have resulted in great responses, with the more unique posts and Rossella's series becoming the most popular posts, as well as the posts most interacted with by follwers, including the artists themselves. We have also brought in the attention of many new, potential clients.