The truth about the 62nd Annual Boardwalk Art Show produced by the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art MOCA:
The advertising states it has 275 artists and 250,000 tourists and locals "attending the show". Perhaps 275 artists, but under 15,000 walk along the boardwalk, while the show is going on. The majority of these people are low to moderate income vacationers who came to Virginia for only sand and surf. Since the show was going on while they were there, they would browse for the novelty of it. It is not a good show for a serious career fine artist seeking to earn a living.
I estimate less than 3,000 visitors are interested in purchasing art.
It should be at best, a local arts and crafts show.
NOTE: The weather did not affect the lack of attendance. Most of the professional fine artists were first timers, had poor sales and have no intention of returning.
What is bothersome is the advertising deception of a museum who hopes to save the show from changing its former historic significance. This show "did not survive the passage of time". Time to change it to a local arts and crafts show!
A large number of new artists are mislead by the advertising, apply each year, and do not return. This is only a fund raising concern for the museum.
The majority of professional business artists met with disappointment participating in this show.
In conclusion, a career fine artist who depends on outdoor juried fine art shows should not apply to this show, unless you are ok with a financially breaking even situation (at best) while you enjoy the beach for 5 days.
Why Sunshine Artist ranks this show within the top 40 is incomprehensible.
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It seems as if this show is becoming more of a home and food show and less of an art show & high end craft show. I have no idea what sort of booth-space fee shows charge food vendors and commercial advertisers but I would not be surprised to discover it being higher than us artists pay.
Have you ever notice that food and advertiser tents never have any color restrictions...while artists always are required to have white tents?
Greg, the shows we've done with food vendors ... the food vendors paid a higher booth fee than those like us there with our art/craft.
This was my 6th and probably last year of doing Virginia Beach. It just isn't the same. At my last show in North Carolina I spoke to a couple who had attended the show both early on and this year. They had bought their first print as a married couple at an early Virginia Beach. They noted the infustion of sponsors with booths and said in the early days sponsors were happy just to have their name noted. They also noted what I call the snack gauntlet. Last year I walked up to see some friends on one of the streets past the snack gauntlet and was deluged with people begging to give me stuff. One booth even had plastic bags available to be able to carry more. Other sponsors are mixed in with the artists and the sponsors are hawking so much that a wide berth is given to any artist unlucky enough to be near them. Saturday, usually my best day at the show I sold 0. Yes, the weather on Saturday was not ideal but people were walking by and not even glancing at the booths. I netted more money than Virginia Beach at every single show that I did this year so far and some of those were local filler shows. I don't get to get around much at any show since I work alone so I'm not sure what changes were made. I believe though that the sponsors used to be in one spot all together and except for last year I do not remember the snack guantlet. It appears that MOCA is more interested now in supporting sponsors than they are in supporting artists. I hope they figure out what they are doing wrong but this show is going downhill and no longer worth the difficult load in, the expense, the heat, and the wind.
I walked the 2017 show. I would like to add some data and personal observations to round out the picture a bit better:
1) I don’t know what they say in other advertisements, but on Zapp MOCA mentions three different estimates of attendance:
a. “an average attendance each year of more than 300,000”
b. “200,000+ visitors to the resort area during peak tourist season” (this seems reasonable and may have a factual basis)
c. “Strong local and out-of-town attendance of 300,000+”
2) My observation was that most of the visitors “to the resort area” were not paying any attention to the art fair. They were there for the beach. The 21 (!) food vendors were getting much more attention than the artists. But I think that your 15,000 estimate of people on the boardwalk is too low. Since the show is 15 blocks long and covers 4 days, your estimate would amount to only 250 visitors per block being on the boardwalk each day. That seems too low.
3) On Sunday afternoon, at least at the southern half of the boardwalk, the crowd was shoulder-to-shoulder. In other words, the boardwalk was at capacity, and could not accommodate any more visitors. It could never have accommodated any more visitors in its 62 year history, unless it was once wider.
4) Regarding the market demographics, MOCA published some data on their website: “Median age: 53. Mean Income: $113,000. 12% of attendees have an average income over $200,000.” Presumably this has some factual basis as well.
It would be interesting to know how much of the boardwalk crowd bought art, and how well the artists actually made out. Perhaps some of the exhibitors can help fill in that part of the picture.
I walked the show several times. I average 20 premier juried fine art shows per year, for many years. I participate in the top definitive outdoor juried art shows in the Untied States. This show is no longer one of them. The artist turnover is high during the past few years according to other artists who participated one time. These are artists who are successful and make a respectable living selling their art. Attendance over the 4 days was less than 15,000. I was being kind, I am sure there were less. 12% of attendees having an average income over $200,000 is irrelevant. It does not mean they purchased art or spend much. The quality of the show is no longer the quality show it may have been historically. The organization of the show is fair to poor. The artist selection is not competitive. Most artists were jewelers and crafts people who sold beach and ocean related art. It would make a wonderful arts and crafts show for the locals. I hope you did well. I did not and countless others did not do well as well.
I agree that shows, like many other events, change over time if they are long running enough.
There is an arts and crafts show here in my town that I believe is experiencing some struggles. It is a twice per year fundraiser for a plantation home. Without much effort I am hearing people say they are tired of seeing the same old thing there year after year. This report is coming from artists/crafters and shoppers alike, which is sad. It seems many are beginning to say it aloud so I believe it must have been felt for a while. I know there is a good number of sellers that return. But I believe those who, like me, are tired of it. I believe it could become a good show again but it's like turning a large ship, it's not an easy task.
Over 300 booth spaces are available so there is plenty of room for people to showcase what they've done. When I walked it this past spring I decided to count the number of empty spaces where I know it's normally a bookable both space. I counted 26 spaces, almost 10%. Now, I don't know how many were rented but the artist was a no show. Did they find a better show to do and took the loss on the booth fee? Was it simply an unrented space? I don't have a way to know that. At any rate, 10% seems like a lot to me. There may have been unfilled spaces I missed but I know that many were empty. :(
The plantation home, which is a museum, reportedly had a new board, director, and assistant director early last year. That was the spring we lost our tent there due to weather. Since then I've not done the show. So I cannot compare how it's run to previous years from the inside. I do know they have come up with a new logo for the show. There are some tweaks to the contract for the show. One tweak is that artists/crafters are not allowed to disparage or slander the plantation or show in social media. There was a of disparaging remarks after some weather came through. It was rough for artists, the home, the customers ... everyone. Things blew up on social media. Comments/questions got deleted by the plantation staff, then those making the remarks got angry for that happening ... rightfully so. All this (from all sides) sort of left a bad taste in my mouth. I am not sure how the plantation staff plans on policing the policy of no slandering comments. Sometimes these comments are slander in the eyes of the beholder, for others it's an honest opinion or report of what happened.
I am not sure what the answers are, except giving things some time to see what other changes happen.
Wow! No slander of the show ... never seen that in a contract. Sounds like to me, Cindy, that this show has gotten so large and the plantation is counting on those $$$ for the spaces in their budget. Sounds like it needs to be reduced to at least 200 which would give it a boost and get it back on the right foot. But it is really hard to make a show smaller. Whoever brings in less revenue would be in a lot of trouble, but in the long run could save the event.
Slander ... ! Who knew ...
It is difficult to understand why a show does not want to present itself as what it exactly is...regardless of it either evolving or "de-volving" into something different than originally intended in the past. Most all shows go through changes over time.
All of us have an excellent method of communicating our experiences and thoughts to each other by means of ArtfairInsiders and the other available social media methods. A dose of good old fashioned honesty and sincerity is needed by many promoters if they have any concerns of keeping our respect and continued participation in their shows...