Feature Articles


June Issue 2002

Charlotte, NC, Website Offers Home for Artists to Market Themselves - to the World

With over 65 local artists featured on its website, CharlotteArtists.com, is bringing local artists together. Each artist's online gallery features three to 12 images. Visitors can connect to an artist's site or contact them directly. CharlotteArtists.com is a convenient way for artists, gallery owners, art lovers, and art students to browse over 250 pieces of original work and to learn about local artists.

Frustrated by the limited number of places local artists had to display their art, photographer and web designer, Jim Antley, decided to create a venue where area artists can showcase their work. "Gallery wall space is at a premium and they may charge 50% commission," Antley says. "Sometimes it's hard for the up and coming artist to find representation in a gallery."

CharlotteArtists.com features artists from Charlotte, NC, and surrounding areas, including Davidson, Gastonia, Matthews, and Cornelius. True to the name CharlotteArtists.com, Antley concentrates on areas that are no more than 20 miles from downtown Charlotte. The site features a wide variety of styles and mediums. Oil, acrylic, and watercolor painters, photographers, and potters are well represented. There is also an eclectic mix of work in mixed media, charcoal, oil pastels, glass, mosaic, jewelry, and batik, to name just a few. Site searches can be conducted four ways: by artist, medium, style or subject matter.

"The beauty of CharlotteArtists.com is kind of like Concord Mills. You can have a store and people will find you because they found the mall." Antley adds, "My interpretation of the world wide web is that it's a beach full of sand and if you throw your sand out there it gets lost. But through an advertised website like CharlotteArtists.com people can find the artists, view their art, and link to their websites from there."

Antley encourages artists to use the website as a marketing tool. "Some artists are contacting gallery owners who can view their work by simply logging on to the site. Some are letting friends and family members in other parts of the world know about it, so they can see what kind of art they are creating."

For further information contact Jim Antley by calling 704/825-8903 or e-mail at (jim.antley@charlottearists.com). Check the site out at (www.CharlotteArtists.com).

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