Number three, artist experience/portfolio. In large cities there presumably would be an abundance of artists to choose from with varying degrees of experience and styles. However, in smaller cities experience and resources can be limited. In these cases, organizations and businesses must do more research than normally needed to find the right artist for the project. In any case, an artist that is being considered for a mural project should provide the following: an organized portfolio of past projects with details such as scope and scale, budget, and plenty of documented photos and or video. The estimate provided by the artist should reflect the most recent mural completed by the artist/team with a transparent explanation for how the estimate is calculated. Finally the organization or business should ask for a W-9 IRS form to accurately report income for the artist and document expenses for the organization/business.
In summary organizations and businesses must do their due diligence in finding the right artist with relevant experience to match the expectations of the project, however in cases where artists in the local area have limited mural experience, artists from other areas may need to be considered. In most cases artists with substantial experience should be relatively easy to find through a web or social media search in the area. If in the case where an artist cannot be easily found through a web search, then calling your local Chamber of Commerce, local downtown association, or local art club may be necessary.