I recently had the fun experience of learning how to ship artwork over to Paris. I had a similar experience in 2014 when I shipped a print over to Venice for the Arte Laguna Prize. However, that contest was a bit different as they didn’t give me the luxury of time that this curator has (BIG THANKS! 🙂 ). I had to get my work over there within 2-3 weeks and I thought it would’ve been more expensive to get it printed and framed there in Italy so I had it shipped and I wasn’t comfortable just blindly sending my images to print over to a country where I didn’t speak the language. Luckily for Venice, it was only one print, so it was only $300… one way… and I was able to “donate” the print to the institution. So the Romanian Institute of Humanistic Research and Culture has a bluebell print! 😀 Anyway, my work, this year was accepted into a group show by an emerging Parisian curator and she was curating a show centered around woman and ecology.

I did my initial research and went to the major companies that I usually ship artwork to UPS – FEDEX. At UPS it was about $600 for 2 framed prints one way … and Fedex was $200… which was doable, but still that was one way. I then went to the option of buying frames in Paris and shipping them to the curator before the exhibition. We decided on that, but she was nice enough to alert me that she had a second option and that was obtaining funding for the exhibition! So the $120 dollars I would’ve spent on frames that I would’ve just left there, is being funded by her organization. And by shipping my prints through one tube via USPS I was able to bring the cost down to $17 (+ customs fees eventually)!!! This is crazy. The price dropped from the initial $600 to $17 through funding and flexibility of those involved.

Also I’ve gotten some interest through my network of my european friends that they’d be interest in seeing the exhibit and some family too, so hopefully that’ll work out!