Top 30 art galleries and museums in 2010

The Art Newspaper recently published its annual review of visitor numbers to art exhibitions and art galleries and museums in 2010.  I'm going to provide my digest and commentary on this information in this and tomorrow's post.

I incline towards the view that the total museum numbers are probably more accurate than the exhibition numbers since there are so very many different ways tickets are sold and visitors are counted for exhibitions.  Hence commentary on exhibitions comes later.

The top 30 art galleries and museums in 2010

The top 30 art galleries and museums in 2010, based on their annual visitor numbers are as follows.  The list below includes the ranked position (which I added in!), the number of visitors, the name of the museum, and the city that the museum is located in.

POLL: Exhibition frames: How much do you spend per frame on average?

The Making A Mark Poll for April is all about how much we spend on exhibition frames.  It was prompted by a comment by Tina Mammoser on the results of the March Poll - see Poll Results: Annual Spend on Art Materials

The reason I've chosen exhibition frames is because when we are framing for ourselves we can either put up with something very cheap or spend a lot of money.  Neither of which are probably typical of the average cost of an exhibition frame.

The Best Ever Diagram of Picture Frame Mouldings
courtesy of FW Holroyd Framing Supplies Ltd - a leading UK supplier

It's always struck me that getting the framing cost right for your market is the key to making a profit when exhibiting artwork in frames

The Best Art Books in March

I've updated my two Squidoo sites for the best art books in March

• Makingamark's Top 10 Fine Art Books now lists both the best selling and the top rated art books in March
• The Best NEW Art Books lists all the fine art books in the top 100 books in the Amazon Arts and Photography category in March.  (You'd be surprised how many of these are nothing to do with art!)

As many of you know the reason why I produce these is because Amazon is so utterly awful at categorising art books!   Or maybe it's the people who do the listings?  Whatever the reason it's difficult to wade through the irrelevant books to get to the ones relevant to art (excluding books for kids, comics and commercial artists).

Main changes this month

Review: 199th Annual Exhibition of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour

The 199th Annual Exhibition of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours is currently on display at the Mall Galleries in London.  The exhibition continues until Sunday 10th April and I highly recommend a visit if you are a lover of traditional watercolour.  This post is a review of the exhibition and it highlights artists who won awards and other artists whose work I liked.

You can preview some of the members' images in the exhibition on the RI website.

RI 199th Annual Open Exhibition - West Gallery

I went to the Private View with my blogging friend and soon to be painting buddie on holiday Sarah Wimperis (The Red Shoes).  Her painting of a London Garden was hung in one of "the" places in the gallery - in line with the view through to the North gallery which always seems to be used for really strong paintings which can carry across a room. I have to say having seen Sarah's painting I am persuaded that bigger is better - so long as it's also good!

Poll Results: Annual Spend on Art Materials

The Making A Mark Poll for March examined annual expenditure on art materials (including art equipment and technology).  It asked how much do you spend per annum and how much do you claim against tax due.   

Rather less artists than usual responded to the two polls (plus a poll within a poll about treatment of expenses for tax), however the results have been fascinating.

This month the Making A Mark Poll is asking you to 'fess up!!!

How much do you spend on art materials, art equipment and technology to support your art habit in a year?

The headlines are:

• USA artists spend much more on art materials/equipment & technology when compared to UK artists
• USA artists claim more of their expenditure on art materials against tax