Last weekend I struck up a brief dialog with Cain Park Art Festival Director, George Kozmon, in a Linkedin discussion group, Art Business, about repros in shows and learned that Cain Park NOW allows painters and other 2D artists to have a print bin consisting of limited edition reproductions. SO the rules have changed recently. He didn't say whether his committee made the change this year or last year, but that it had in fact changed to allow repros.
I agree with the idea of being able to hawk repros at shows, especially since our orginals are expensive by many peoples' standards. I usually don't get involved with shows that don't allow them, but I'll do one or so that doesn't allow them each season or one per year. I did Winter Park Sidewalk in spring 2014 and will be in Chattanooga for Four Bridges this spring.
Anyone going to Cain Park or hoping to be there? I'm not applying since it's a summer show, and everyone knows my feelings about summer shows. Too hot.
I'm looking forward to other die-hard originals only shows lifting the ban just like Cain Park. Thanks, George K. and Cain Park. WOOHOO!
Replies
For decades I watched this issue of repros as it developed and gathered into a contentious cacophony of voices across the street show landscape. I had no dog in the fight since I was a sculptor, more or less a one-of-a-kind world by definition, and I could see merits on both sides from my detached point of view.
But now I'm considering re-entering the street shows with pen and ink drawings and have no real desire to part with my originals in any great number and would rather sell repros, partly due to a realism about the strength of the retail markets in general and the related issue of having to sell originals at depressed prices if repros are banned. I'm not suggesting booths can become haberdasheries of repros bins and blue light specials, simply allow artists to have repros on hand and exhibited secondarily to original work in a limited number of bins or whatever.
I hope show directors across the country pick up on this very real market development and relax standards for artists trying to navigate an increasingly difficult market environment. The media and politicians are claiming the "recession is over" when nothing is further from the truth: a glance under the hood tells a story of large and increasing numbers of retail store closings across the entire country including the likes of Macy's, Sears, JC Penney, along with many other less well known or small private outlets, and for the first time in our country's history businesses are closing faster than new ones are forming.
Plus, if you factor in inflation the economy is actually shrinking for most people so the art shows need a new paradigm and changed ground rules if they are to survive in the long haul which is something I know we all want to happen.
Hi Peter. We were neighbors at Cain Park one year. Directly across from us was watercolor painter Michael Weber. He tried the show a few years trying to find his "originals only" audience, then giving up on it at this show.
The retail environment has drastically changed in the last ten years, recession or not. Amazon gobbling up lots of sales that used to happen in small and larger stores.
I know 2D artists who prefer to do "originals only" shows, and many of the top shows are that exactly. The buyers knowing it and that is where they make their best sales. Some won't do other shows, but George will get more applications for sure and hopefully many new exhibitors for CP.
I was involved in a show that a reproduction policy. Not more than 10% of the work hanging could be repros. No limits in the bins. That can work and still keep the quality up at a show.
Btw, Barrie -- tell me more about this discussion group. Was it a google hang out, or was it strictly a forum exchange?
HERE'S A LINK TO NOENGA ART PROFESSIONALS GROUP When you get there, scroll down and find the thread called Photo Reproduction Verses Original Work. You might have to be a member of the group to even see the threads.
The Linkedin groups to which I belong should show up at the bottom of my Linkedin Profile, but I can't find them on there. Sometimes these social media things just change stuff and make you think you need to change stuff and so on. I don't participate in discussion groups very much, and Society of Gilders being the one I participate in the most. Sometimes I comment within Art Professionals, and I've commented in ArtBiz (Art Business, part of Alison Stanfield's stuff). Some folks comment in those things all the time. I don't see how they have the time to do that AND art.
AFI is the only forum I participate in regularly. I don't do anything Facebook and don't look at any other sites regarding art fairs.
Yeah, I don't see how a bin of repros would degrade the quality of any show. If they want to upgrade shows, why not get those artists who use certain artsy jury images to get in, but then crowd the booth with MERCHANDISE at the shows. I don't care about that, really. I'm all for everyone making a killing at this any way we can. I don't police buy and sell or lesser quality stuff at any time. I don't complain to shows about that or to other artists. I don't care if you have an Easy Up and I don't care if I'm the only Craft Hut in a sea of Easy Ups. I'm just looking for more ways to connect with more buyers in my booth. And in an originals only show, I'm not connecting with very many very often.
First, I want to congratulate Barrie for finding what sounds like a profitable path into today's art fair market. He MUST be a lot younger than me because us fossils have ever fewer peers climbing into and out of packed vans at 4am and eating meals behind the steering wheel. My one-of-a-kind higher end sculpture market (very small even on a good day) gave up the ghost once and for all about 8 years ago and I've been poking around ever since. I did black and white photography, too, which doubled my already perennially small market, until that gave out. Back to the drawing board turned literal as I tapped into my lost and first art of biological and naturalist pen and ink, a "smallish" habit by definition and one that screams "repros" to make enough money to survive in any market really. I know I'm not alone because getting past my penchant for being a hermit I've heard many a story of my long lost peers who have a similar tale and either married well, found a job they can stomach, or are catching a breeze from social security in order to stay breathing. I, myself, blessed with good health, just want to stay "out there" with my art and eek out the living I managed for 30 years, keep connected with humanity through the practice of art, and hope the art fair world stays current enough to make it possible. Hopefully conversations and websites like this help.
Thanks for commenting, Peter G. You might not have a dog in the 2D fight, but you could have and may have had one in 3D. If you are casting bronzes, you could have cast resin in the same mold, or made an altogether different sculpture expressly intended to be resin and never bronze. That's an analogy that I like to use where sculpture is concerned since resin is far less expensive than bronze and can be sold for way less giving the artist an opportunity to find the lower money spender. Shows haven't said NO RESIN, in fact a prominent sculptor was a few booths down from me in Winter Park and he had some resin stuff for less than $300 alongside his bronzes priced from $600 to $6,000. Should resin be considered a "repro"? Probably not. But it's certainly a lesser quality item than a bronze.
I hang originals in the booth. Sometimes I have one framed repro, but seldom do. I'm interested in what I can do with original art, but I want the option to captivate the low-spender. I need to be able to offer something for $65, and it's never going to be an original for that price. The bulk of our original art is $1,250 to $3,200 with an occasional $600 or less piece.