Show Organizers & Directors

Comment

Comment by Joy Hafford on June 22, 2011 at 9:38pm

This year I was elected to the Board of our arts and crafts guild as the Publicity Chairperson (previously Secretary). I am finding this Group very helpful.  I found Barbara Berney's comment very interesting. It seems we have a similar size show; we have from 75 to 85 arts and crafts booths at our art festivals. In addition, we have about 6-8 food vendors (this to include assorted fudge and local honey, jams, etc.). I am doing very similar type of advertising as you mentioned; the media including TV, radio, newspapers and other publications, and online everywhere, posting flyers... I REALLY like your post card invitation idea! I am looking primarily for ALL THE IDEAS I CAN GET on advertising to attract customers to the shows. I don't know all of your situations, but we are not in the city but in a rural area up in the mountains, so people first have to want to make the drive! But I also use our breathtakingly beautiful scenery as a plus. I look forward to interracting with all of you in this group and seeing what we can learn from each other. What is important to me is increasing attendance at our festivals so that our vendors will have success.

 

Comment by Joy Hafford on June 22, 2011 at 9:08pm

Kristina, our local artists and crafters in the Pine-Strawberry Arts & Crafts Guild, (Arizona) sponsor 3 arts and crafts festivals a year as a fund raiser for non-profit groups in our community. It's a 31 year tradition here. We hold it at the Community Center and school grounds and there is a playground for the kids. We have volunteers from our Senior Center who are "Clowns"  to interract with the children, make balloons, etc., and we have talented "teens" who do face-painting. We also have someone who sets up a table and does some sort of craft with kids. All are volunteers. The kids activities are not the focus of our show, it is definitely the arts and crafts,  but  it's good to have something to entertain the children. These are simple things but they work very well.

 

Comment by Art on the Lawn: Barbara Berney on April 6, 2010 at 9:39am

I live in Illinois, in a city with 20% unemployment and direct a show that has had anywhere from 55-90 booths over the years. Currently, the maximum available space is 75 booths. This year, I had many more applications than the previous two years. I've submitted my listing to every free online directory, and have advertised in Midwest Art Fairs magazines every year. The state of Illinois used to publish an art fair directory, but has eliminated that and gone to an online listing. I publish the call to artists in the local newspaper as a free listing in the "GO" section, and did a call in interview with one of the radio stations to raise awareness and let people know that the call to artists was open. I also maintain a mailing list in an Excel spreadsheet that allows me to easily sort and use for a variety of functions, from basic mailing list to recording all the financial info. I mail a call to artists 6 months before the show. This year, I did not print applications, but sent a postcard that instructed artists to go to the show's Web site to download an application or to call or write me if they didn't have a computer. I was worried that it wouldn't work the first year, that people would misplace the invite or forget, but I was, happily, mistaken. This cut our costs in printing and mailing, as I only had to print a few of the apps and mail them.

I also have a group of dedicated artists who do my show who spread the word both to other artists at shows they do, and to all of their patrons. We advertise the show in the local newspaper that focuses on the arts and in all of the outlying areas, place announcements in the local paper the week of the show, and we do try to get a feature article in the GO section, with pictures. I design and produce an oversized postcard invitation and matching posters that are distributed all over town. We have also used yard signs in many neighborhoods. The artists mail the postcards to their patrons. Last year, I also began sending an e-version of the postcard to all our artists with email addresses for them to send out. The e-card was also sent to my and others' mailing lists, and posted online on Facebook and other social media sites. The call to artists for both my shows was posted online and has resulted in new applications and interest.

Most of the vehicles I use are free as there is little money for anything beyond putting on the show. Yet, we have a really beautiful, high quality show each year, with a return rate over the years of 70-85%.

Connie is right, it's VERY labor intensive. With imagination and a lot of hard work, it's possible to thrive, even in a crappy economy.

Comment by Christy LaRoy on April 6, 2010 at 9:11am

David I'm so glad you posted your question. I've been helping out with a show down here in Monroe, MI for the past few years. And it is hard to get a show up and running. We usually have about 60 artists, but only 45-50 tents. I would love to see our show grow up to 100 tents. And the info you Ladies posted for David was very helpful for us.
But my new question is where are the best places to gain new customers. We are a smaller show and I think we do get a good turn out most years but I being an artist myself would Love to see the number grow. Any suggestions on how to get more foot traffic?

Comment by David Csaszar on April 5, 2010 at 8:50pm

Thank You Connie & Kristina for the feed back, it will be very helpful in any up coming events we are planning in the near future. Also I hope you had a good time Connie in LA.

Comment by Connie Mettler on April 5, 2010 at 2:26pm

David, it is very labor intensive to start a new event anywhere, and certainly so in Michigan. The best way is to get it posted everywhere then visit every show you can find to talk to the exhibitors there to get them interested. (of course not when they have customers in their booths) Do your research on how other shows put themselves forward to attract artists. There is a new online newsletter put out in Ann Arbor, the Arts Alliance, who can do a call for artists and where you can gather a lot of information.

Comment by Kristina Jones on April 5, 2010 at 10:11am

Hi David! The Great Lakes Art Fair is having their best show ever. We have had our applications rise 150% over last year. It may be because we are on our 3rd show, but we are getting a lot of interest. Where are you promoting your show at? We spent a lot of time speaking with people at other shows before our first event to get them excited about it. We also had large mailing lists from other shows of artists.

Comment by David Csaszar on April 3, 2010 at 3:53pm

I was wondering if any other promoters in the state of Michigan is having problems bringing artists in to thier art fairs or events. With the way of the economy is these days I feel this can be a major problem in the state of Michigan. I need some feed back on this subject to help me decide what is the next step I should take if I can't find the artist to do our event in which I am very committed too.

Comment by Howard Rose on March 19, 2010 at 6:21pm

What Michelle wrote is accurate. That being said, the longer the parents are at a show, the more likely they will make purchases. Don't change the focus of the show, but be aware that sometimes the kids need a break.

Comment by Michelle Sholund on March 19, 2010 at 5:59pm

When I promoted our shows we didn't cater to "kids" we had a few artists that had great items geared towards kids - handcrafted ribbons/hair accessories, dolls, things like that. We were going to have a craft corner, but the efforts fell threw. My commitment was to the artists and promoting them after all our events were a fine art and craft market not a carnival or fund raiser. The events weren't billed as "family friendly" however did discounts for kids. Distractions for patrons like carnival games, bands, balloon artists, clowns, all that stuff do not help the artists. If you are holding an art fair, promoting it as an art fair, then it has to be an art fair.

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