Artist Jan Owen has exhibited her calligraphic works all over the world. She has taught across the country and has been reviewed by nationwide publications.

Still, the Belfast resident knows she needs to spend more time marketing herself and her work, especially on the Internet.

That was one of the messages more than 50 artists and others heard Wednesday at a Maine Arts Commission workshop at the University of Maine Museum of Art in Bangor.

“You always need to learn more about it and what works,” said Owen, who has taken similar workshops over the years. “What’s really striking is I think almost all the artists in our group have a Web site. It’s not a rare thing [anymore].”

In addition to individual artists such as Owen, the seminar also drew representatives of nonprofit and creative associations.

Maren Brown, director of the Arts Extension Service at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, located in Hadley, Mass., spoke along with Dee Boyle-Clapp, an AES program coordinator. They discussed marketing basics and the importance of reaching out through electronic marketing.

Owen wasn’t the only artist who conceded she could do more marketing for herself. Most of the artists Wednesday admitted to spending little time on things like Web sites and e-mail lists.

Brown talked about ways to make things easier on lone artists and small cultural organizations that have few staff members. Technology such as databases and viral marketing – things such as a “forward to a friend” button on a Web site – can drive people to an artist’s site.

Brown suggested sites where artists can research demographics of a specific area in order to narrow or broaden a target audience.

“E-marketing has really opened up a whole world for artists, nonprofits and cultural organizations that I think is really terrific,” Brown said.

New technology has its own problems, the AES staffers added. Images on Web sites can be stolen and reproduced on the cheap as a form of piracy. In addition, anyone sending out mass e-mails with announcements needs to be wary of laws governing spam.

Owen, 61, spends most mornings working in her studio and doing commissions in the afternoon. Although she feels comfortable with her own five-year-old Web site, janowenarts.com, she knows there is always work to do because so many people have taken to buying art on the Internet.

The seminar gave her some inspiration to find time to tinker with the Internet and her site.

“It becomes, how much time do you want to invest,” Owen said.

Other workshops, also sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, scheduled for this year include Bar Harbor on Aug. 5 at the Abbe Museum, in Eastport on Aug. 6 at the Eastport Arts Center, and in Presque Isle on Sept. 24 at the University of Maine at Presque Isle.

jbloch@bangordailynews.net

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