Portrait Artist Forum - Make a PR album

When I managed a portrait artist, I took all past PR materials (from before my tenure), put them in chronological order, with the most recent first and created a PR album which was a leatherette, 3-ring binder with plastic page protectors.

Once created, I kept this PR book up to date on a regular basis. Whenever we had an exhibition, the PR book was always on a table close by for attendees to peruse. Seeing the artist's history in this book brought a lot of credibility and provided easy conversation starters.

I would also often copy recent sections of the PR book and send out with press releases to provide additional material that might catch the recipient's attention.

The PR book (which actually grew to 4 books) contained such things as:

1. Newspaper and magazine articles where he was either the main feature or where he was mentioned.

2. PR photos taken at an event.

Even if your participation in an event is never published, you can still create a story for a PR book.

For example, we attended a fund raiser for the Young Musician's Foundation in LA. We were invited by Shelley Conti, the wife of Bill Conti who won an Oscar fo the soundtrack of the movie Rocky. It just so happened that at that time, George Peppard was Bill's best friend (George is now deceased). I managed to get snapshots of the artist with Bill Conti and with George Peppard. Though our attendance at the event was never published anywhere, I created a story with these photos. At the event, I shot the artist next to the event's main large banner, giving a title to the event story and then assembled the photos with captions.

Another example of creating a story was when the artist painted a portrait of George Washington for the Bicentennial of the Constitution Celebration. When this painting was exhibited at Disneyworld, again I took photos of the event and make a story in the PR book. I included our name tags which had Mickey Mouse on them and the printed program where he and the painting were mentioned.

Presentation of a portrait to a VIP is an event that should be chronicled and included. When the artist I managed presented a portrait to former President of Costa Rico, Oscas Arias, photos were taken of that and included in the PR album with captions

Most important is to try and get photos of yourself with a VIP. But, even if you don't manage to get photos of an event, you can still include the printed program, highlighting any mention in the program of the artist.

3. Anything related to the artist that had been in print.

When one of his portraits was used for the cover of a Chick Corea album, I color copied and reduced the album cover and included it in the book with a caption.

When he painted the Man of the Year and it appeared on the cover of an important Austrian magazine, that was included in the album.

4. Special projects.

When the artist was commissioned to do a painting for the annual Donaulinselfest (Danube Island Festival) in Austria, I created a story behind the painting by photographing him photographing Vienna's mayor and a famous Austrian rock star, both of whom were to be in the painting. I submitted these photos along with a press release and we got an article in a Vienna newspaper, which I clipped, of course, and included in the PR book also.

Use your imagination and always collect materials and have the camera ready and I'm sure you'll find other things that might be included, such as the publication of a book by the artist.

Sometimes PR is something you do specifically for the potential publicity. Other times, it's something that you don't go out of your way for, but still has PR value that can be utilized. PR activities and activities that have PR value and a resultant PR album, which chronicles the artist's career, are often overlooked.