If you’re an artist, have you ever dreamed of having your art displayed at a gallery somewhere for people to come gaze and comment on your individual pieces? Most galleries in towns and cities are geared toward the artist that has already made a name for him or herself, has an agent in many cases and is willing to pay a good amount of money for the display time. However, there is a viable and creative solution to getting your art displayed and seen. You can set up a gallery in your own home or the home of a friend and host a gallery showing.

Clear off basement walls or another room of your choosing to mount all of your paintings and set the rest of them along the walls on the floor. You can put your favorite painting on a painter’s easel on a display table with cheese and crackers surrounding it. Next step is to sit down and think of all the people you can and would like to invite to see your art. You could invite friends, people from church, parents from your child’s sports teams and fellow artists. You can even branch out to strangers if you feel like having friends invite their friends over. If you’re really feeling bold and want to advertise your home gallery to the wider art community, you can advertise in the local newspaper. Then you will get art enthusiasts from all over coming to look at your art, maybe even an art critic that will write a favorable article on you. That’s good news if you are interested in selling your art.

I met a photographer who was having a large gathering of people at her home. She displayed all of my art along with her photography at her home. The gallery was a huge success. Her group was already scheduled to meet at her home, but if you are inviting people to a gallery show specifically, you can put together invitations with one of your pieces of art on the cover as a tickler using card software.

If you’re a musician, you can put together a home recital as easily as an art gallery. Naturally you would need your instrument. So I’m going on the assumption that you would have your instrument in your home. That being the case, the next thing you would need are several fold up chairs that you can rent from several places by going to your local Yellow Pages listing. If you’re only inviting just a handful of people you can group a few dining room chairs and a few extra lawn chairs from the backyard or balcony.

This event could take on an informal or a formal black tie feel depending on what you want. You can serve anything from chip, dip and cola to cheese, crackers and champaign. People can come simply for the music or they can come for the music and linger afterwards for evening conversation that moves out onto the lawn. Again, don’t forget to send out a nice recital invitation, perhaps with a photo of you on the cover.

You can get as creative as you like with both the artist gallery and the musical recital because there is no one to answer to but yourself. You are the host and the artist or musician. You’re in the driver’s seat. Best of all, you get to hang around and listen to what your critics have to say about you. Praise is a powerful motivator for an artist to want to produce more works.