A slide registry is a place where you send your slides-neatly labeled and photographed, of course-and then curators come and look at them and then you get a commission or sell your work or are asked to produce a work for your region's City Hall. At least, that's how it works in an ideal world. You should seriously consider sending your slides to a few good slide registries, however, not all slide registries are equal. How do you distinguish among the hundreds of slide registries out there? Here are some questions to ask:

1. Is your slide registry juried? If so, who judges the work and what are they looking for?

Many registries are juried. Some require you to be a resident of a particular state, or a member of a particular organization, or a sculptor or painter or ceramicist. Because preparing slides is expensive, do your research beforehand to ensure the registry is appropriate for your work. Although getting into a juried slide bank might be prestigious, there's also nothing wrong with unjuried registries. Artist Space, in New York, allows every artist into their Artist File, but keep the work of all 3,000 artists on display by showing selected slides once a month in their gallery. Of course, if you're one of only 500 artists in an elite registry (for instance, the National Museum of Women in the Arts has a database only of women artists who have had one solo show in a museum or gallery), all the better.

2. Is there a fee? If so, what do I get with the fee?

I hate fees. Some registries have fees. As always, you have to decide if the fee is worth the potential gain. The Chicago Artist's Coalition offers its members slide registration for $100, annually. For the fee you are allowed to register four slides, a self-portrait, and a bio. In Washington D.C., the Washington Project for the Arts/Corcoran charges $35 to be in their Art File. The fee covers membership in the WPA/C, invitations to all WPA/C events, and free admission for one to the Corcoran Gallery of Art. In the latter case the fee quickly seems to pay for itself; in the former, it's more of a gamble. Ask the slide manager why they think the listing is worth the fee. If they convince you, go for it.

3. How do you organize your artists?

It's important that your work is categorized correctly to increase its chance of being seen, admired, and bought. There should be a registration sheet that allows you to classify your work across different criteria-- at Artist Space they have 50 check boxes for medium and style--rather than simply an alphabetical filing system. A curator will approach a slide bank in search of sculptors who do site-specific installations, not in search of a sculptor whose last name begins with an "M."

4. Who looks at the slides? How often?

How many curators, artists, government officials, or corporate buyers look at their slides, and how often? Slide banks located in a gallery or government office should be able to tell you this immediately. Those that show the slides on the web will provide a more vague, and much larger, answer, but they should still be able to tell you how many web-viewers have contacted them for more information about their artists, as well as how copyright is maintained on their site.

5. Do you take a commission on sales through the registry?

I only came across one registry that took commission, and that was at the non-profit Woman Made Gallery. Again, there's a choice to be made here. Though giving up 30% of your selling price to a gallery is not ideal, not selling at all is even less ideal. Also, as always, if the gallery has a vested interest in selling your work, your work will be more likely to sell. Ask them if they do promote the artists in their slide bank, and ask them why they take commission. Again, if you're not convinced by the answer, don't send them your slides.

6. How many artists have received opportunities through your registry?

Most registries don't keep track of how many opportunities artists receive through their service. Still, it's worth asking. At the Artist Space I was told that a part-time worker there had submitted her slides to the registry and received many, many opportunities-whatever that means. Be sure to always ask your artist friends (if you don't have any, make some right away) how they receive their opportunities. If you hear of someone receiving a commission or selling a piece through a registry, be sure to send your slides to that bank.

Grand Finale

If you want to be a successful artist you must be constantly producing work, taking slides of your work, and sending those slides out. Try to register with one or two slide registries. For starters, there's the arts commission of your city or state, which you can find through the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies. Most offer registries that are regularly perused by city planners and corporate collectors. Try sending your work to a few galleries as well. Remember, no one is looking to "discover" you or your art. You must get your art out, and get your art seen. Slide Registries are one way to do that.

This article was originally created for TheArtBiz.com. It appears on NYFA Interactive courtesy of the Abigail Rebecca Cohen Library.