You’re not obliged to have any information about your Free Little Art Gallery online, if you don’t want to. You can set it up in your yard just for your neighbors. No doubt there are many of these galleries I don’t have on the map because I don’t have any easy way to find them unless someone happens to tell me about them.
Those who are online, some are just there and don’t really post anything, others post just special events, like themed shows or gatherings, and some try to document all the art that shows up in the gallery. If you’re going to be online, I recommend that last approach.
Why might you choose to be online and post photos of people’s contributions?
- Even if it is just for your neighborhood, they are online and can participate that way in addition to showing up in person.
- Potential art contributors, especially the youngest ones, adore seeing a photo of their artwork posted online and themselves credited. It motivates people to contribute more.
- It serves as a record of what’s been in the gallery and when.
- It links you to a large community of other FLAG owners who trade tips and mail each other art, which is fun.
Most FLAGs with an online presence have Instagram accounts. This is because Instagram is visual oriented, easy to post to, and easy for people to follow you on. When people go looking for FLAG posts, this is where they look. You can also use location-based hashtags on Instagram to maybe get attention from other local people who might not know about your gallery.
There are a few galleries on Facebook also, or on both. These are both Meta platforms, so it’s easy to cross-post to both from Meta Business Suite.
If there are FLAG communities elsewhere online, I don’t know about them. Please let me know if you run across any.
What to do with the account
I’m always interested in innovative ideas for how to use online resources. What most people do is photograph anything new in the gallery and immediately post about it on Instagram. Make sure to notice what’s on the back and give credit to the artist, including tagging them if they’ve provided an Instagram account. Photos are fine, videos are better, music and effects are appreciated if you can find some that fit in with the subject matter.
Select an appropriate set of hashtags to accompany these posts, including #freelittleartgallery and #(yourtown)artist.
Instagram is also a good place to announce events for the neighborhood. You might set up a tent and tables and chairs, provide art supplies, and invite people to come over and create. Then post photos or videos of the event (maybe even while it’s in progress).
And you can announce special shows or seasonal calls for submissions — Halloween, Christmas, ….
If you’re posting on Instagram, you’ll need an image to accompany the post. If it’s a call for submissions or an upcoming event, this will be some virtual “flyer”. The free version of Canva is good for creating things like this. The Inkscape graphic editor is also free and also nice, but has a steeper learning curve.
Account deleted or disabled?
A few FLAG owners on Meta have had their accounts removed for violating “community guidelines on account integrity and authentic identity”. Meta’s Account Integrity and Authentic Identity help document purports to explain why they do this. It’s not very clear. One of the things they complain about is using a false name, but every business on Meta platforms uses names other than those of the account owners. Generally speaking, your account would have the name of your gallery, not your own name, and mostly there’s not a problem with this. Again, Meta doesn’t explain anything or identify in what exact respect the accounts have offended, so it’s hard to say whether this is a factor. But here are a few things you might want to avoid:
- Following many other accounts in a short period of time may look like spambot behavior.
- Leaving a lot of profile fields blank.
- Lots of changes to the profile information and photo.
- Anything else, guesses welcome especially if they are informed guesses…?
Create a website?
Should you have a website devoted to your Free Little Art Gallery? I would say no.
I am known for creating websites at the drop of a hat, but I haven’t created one for my own FLAG. I just don’t see the value in it. People are much more likely to be looking for FLAGs on social media, and aren’t going to want to subscribe to or repeatedly visit individual websites to find the latest news about something.
If you already have a website for other reasons, you might add a section or page about your FLAG. I think it’s nice to have an online FAQ or history or other resource that you can link to from your signage on the gallery. But a whole site just for that? No.
Unless, of course, you’re doing something really out of the ordinary that I’d love to hear more about. In that case, lay it on me!