Public Relations

I have never traveled because someone tried to sell me a destination. I’ve chosen my destinations to travel to because someone told me a good story or tall tale about their experience there, or they showed me a few of their magical and personal photographs. I’m attracted to a place because it’s an important contemporary art center or historical in some art or cultural or archaeological way and often the experience of being in a landscape also inspires me while the deeper mystery of a destination is what pulls me there. That’s what I try to share with my readers of this site. — Kimberly Kradel, publisher

artist-at-large is about art, culture and travel and a networking community of travelers, artists, writers, photographers, musicians, performers, and other creative people who want to share their work, their stories, and the information of life found along the way. Good for both the trip researcher and armchair traveler, you will find artists from all over the world and their work, travel stories, travel information, quirky survey questions, photos of the day, and listings for exhibitions and open studios and events in each region on the site. The stories and information presented on the site are written in a way that are meant to be valuable over a long period of time, like an art or travel magazine or guidebook that you keep by your desk and flip through when you need information, or just want to daydream.

Site Structure

The site is divided into two parts that make up the whole. One part consists of the regional destination blogs that include art and cultural travel stories and information. The other part consists of member blogs from around the world that focus on their own art, photography, and stories, which may be studio related or travel related. You may see a list of our active Members by clicking the Members Directory link from the Community tab in the gray admin bar at the top of the page.

Where the site is going this year is very exciting – the site’s twelfth year online! Look for some big new changes in 2012!

Statistics

The whole site gets about 300,000 +- hits per month. The alexa rank is hovering under 300,000 but, like all sites on the internet, that number goes up and down. During the site upgrade this past winter, search robots, including alexa, were blocked from spidering the site so the numbers went down. The site is now in recovery mode and the numbers are dropping steadily! On twitter, @artistatlarge is on over 530 lists and has over 2640 twitter followers that consist of travelers, artists, techies, galleries, museums, and friends. The site no longer has a Facebook page. All posts to the site get pushed to twitter and the site’s members can choose to push their own posts to their Facebook accounts, There is only one person working on the site at the moment. The site has been online, and growing, since September 4, 2000. We’re in it for the long haul. Need more information? Contact!

Demographic

Our readers are intelligent, well read, and are interested in culture. They make the most of their travels by getting the best local experiences within their budget. They travel independently, only using day tours when a site they want to visit is out of reach by any other means of transportation. They often rent cars, but prefer public transportation. They spend a lot of time in museums and archaeological sites, they love to eat and drink in a foodie sort of way, and they take a lot of photographs.

That’s our idea of who our readers are.

Alexa.com says that our audience is well educated, mostly at the four-year college level, some at the graduate level, mostly female, although men visit too, and most readers are between the ages of 45 and 64 although all age groups are represented. Most of our visitors visit us from their home internet connections.

Referring to artist-at-large

The moniker “artist at large” is common enough, all you have to do is a web search to see that. I’ve been using it as a personal tag line since the late 1970s, but since then other people have been taking it on.

So to avoid confusion with other web sites on the internet, when referring to this site in a blog post, link list, print article or sidebar, please respect the brand and refer to it as artist-at-large or artist-at-large.com. Absolutely all lower case letters and with the hyphens.

When referring to me as the site publisher, or when referring to one of the site’s contributors, please use our real names. For example: Kimberly Kradel from artist-at-large.

Using Our Travel Images

Contact me for more information about using images from the site in your project.

Destinations, PR, and Press Trips

2012 Travel Availability: I am available to travel in search of content, photographs, and for story research during this time period. If you have a press trip that falls within these dates, or have any questions about dates or destinations, please drop me an email.

2012 is wide open at the moment.

Available for San Francisco Bay Area day-long press trips throughout the year.

I tend to work backwards from the way a journalist might work. Because I write about personal experience, I don’t have story ideas or agendas or expectations when I travel. Rest assured though, if I can find experiences that fall into one of the categories below, I’ll probably write about it.

Arts Beat is the category on each regional site where a destination’s exhibitions, events, and newsy type items like new hotels and restaurants opening or cultural workshops that are happening, are published.

Culinary travel and restaurant stories are published in Food for the Table and interviews with chefs and local food purveyors (as well as artists, writers, and musicians) are published in Interviews.

Travel with a Twist is all about personal experiences and observations.

Photos of the Day happen randomly while traveling and are not usually taken that day. POTDs usually come out of the site’s photo archives. We like to publish photos in this section that either have an interesting back-story, will inspire a traveler, or will make the viewer think on some level. POTDs are on the arty side of photography rather than the PR side.

My favorite example of how I’ve used every minute of a Press Trip is the regional site on The Yucatan. Most of the original content was written from a two week trip that was partly sponsored by the Eco-Tulum properties. The best part of this story is – until I was invited by Eco-Tulum to visit their properties, I had no intention of going to The Yucatan anytime soon. Now I can’t wait to get back! My favorite sponsored stories from that trip were The Maya Spa at Copal and The Rest of the Magical Story.

The turnaround on a story can be quite quick – within days or weeks of a trip – for stories with a lot of factual information. Other more personal accounts about a particular trip can be written anytime, up to a year later, after the experience of a trip is really processed. I also write a lot from memory – years, sometimes decades, after a trip.

Site keywords: artist blogs, contemporary art, archaeology, architecture, art history, digital/tech, art and photography exhibitions, galleries, museums, restaurants, hotels, spas, culture, cultural travel, travel journal, reviews, language, landscape (photographing, hiking, writing about), interesting factory tours, local flavor, culinary travel, wine, winery tours, interviews with artists, writer and musicians, interviews with chefs, winemakers and artisan food producers, music, film, open studios, independent travel, solo travel, solo/independent woman travel

Current Regional Sites: Paris (inluding sidetrips to Champagne in the east, to Chartres in the southwest, to Beauvais in the north, so far), South of France, Tuscany, Rome, Prague, Berlin, San Francisco (including Napa/Sonoma down to Big Sur and the East Bay), Southwest US (Marfa, Texas across to Mojave Desert), Yucatan (Quintana Roo, Yucatan, Chiapas, part of Guatamala), Cuba, Baja

Perspective: The site is written primarily from the perspective of artists who travel for any kind of independent-minded traveler who is interested in art and cultural travel and also wants to point out great things to explore for any income level. A Luxury category can be added to each regional site to categorize the travel that may be out of reach for most artists, but would be in reach for most art collectors.

Twitter: artistatlarge

There is only one writer/photographer from artist-at-large available for Press Trips.

Interview artist-at-large

Are you looking for sources for your art and travel related stories? Traveling with cameras and tech? Women traveling alone? Social media and art and travel? We welcome interview requests.

Interviews, Profiles and Mentions

Kimberly Kradel’s an “artist at large” on TravelBlogSites.com : 2010

10 Questions For: Kimberly Kradel of artist-at-large on HappyHotelier.com : 2008

Interview with a travel writer…Kimberly Kradel on WriteToTravel.com : 2007

Reviewing Books and Films

Here at artist-at-large we love books and film! Books and films can be any genre (fiction/novels, narrative, documentary/non-fiction, coffee table art or photography books) except guidebooks and technical books. I’m not fond of reading travel narratives in the long book format unless it is extremely well written. I prefer to review books that are literary and have a strong sense of place or use a place as a character or coffee table style books. Think of titles like The Book of Salt, A Room With A View, Girl with a Pearl Earring. Please contact us regarding your book or film.

Road Testing and Reviewing Gear And Software

Please contact us regarding your product and how we might help you road test it. We are committed to using Canon cameras and lenses. Other camera and all computer equipment can be negotiated. (I have many years of work experience as a hardware and software QA Engineer.)

Image at left: Fly to the South Seas Isles, via Pan American Airways, c.1940s, by Paul George Lawler