Duluth Pack is a real thing….for carrying your things.  For 140 years, the company has made canvas packs. 

In my case, the “Duluth Pack” is what I did this week for my traveling show

Bending Toward Beauty.

Steffl Gallery | Opens December 19, 2022 | Art Night Out Talk & Reception January 12, 2023

DAI Galleries & Business Office  |  View Map

506 West Michigan Street
Duluth, Minnesota 55802
218-733-7560

There are always expenses associated with exhibiting: trucks, boxes, fuel, shipping, strong muscles!

Bright and early Monday morning I rented a commercial van.  We loaded it with the empty boxes and drove to Hopkins, MN. My 2 assistants, Sarah and Dale, helped me take down the exhibit at Hopkins Center for the Arts. (You can listen to my artist talk on that link!)

Figuring out which pieces went where…was a feat!  Sarah developed this spreadsheet to help!

We then sorted the boxes into sections: those that were supposed to go to Duluth Art Institute and those that were to go to storage.  We toddled off to the storage facility to deliver things to storage and to pick up the rest of the artworks needed for Duluth.   On a snowy Wednesday, Dale and I drove the treasure trove to Duluth, through near whiteout conditions and black ice!

  I think we delivered 43 artworks!  It’s a big show.

But here is the thing to think about:  Was it cheaper to spend a day on the road with paid help, putting 300 miles on a rental van than shipping 43 boxes?

Yes!  If the average price to ship each box was $20, then, at minimum, it would have cost nearly $900 to ship in each direction!  And  that is a low estimate!

Yikes!  I never thought about this when I started making art!

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PS  Why not make a weekend of it and travel to Duluth to see the 3 shows that are opening in December, January and February?  The Duluth Art Institute is in the old Depot which also houses a train museum, a history museum, theater and more. Duluth is the gateway to Lake Superior, great hiking and skiing.