Show evaluations - do you take them seriously

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Dave Hinde on June 20, 2009 at 3:00pm

Yes, we do! I'm a big example of that. Last year at the Ocean View Art Show (Norfolk, VA) I said it was a great show, but it just needed better publicity to draw more people. I also suggested several publicity ideas. This year, I'm the Publicity Chairman - so yes, our committee (Chesapeake Bay Art Association) does read the surveys. We actually reviewed them again during this year's show committee meeting.

Permalink Reply by don crozier on June 21, 2009 at 11:20am

Oh sure, but there are some good ones and some not-so-good. ARTstravaganza, our annual show, is at the St Louis Artists' Guild in an elegant restored mansion with a too small parking lot. One great suggestion was to put twinkle lights up the grand staircase to draw people upstairs. One that we didn't use was to change the venue to one with a larger parking lot.

Permalink Reply by Howard Rose on June 23, 2009 at 10:41pm

We used to do evaluations but found that we did not get the feedback we were looking for. For us exhibitors will seek us out for both negative and positive aspects of our shows and that seems to work. I would love to see your evaluation form you use, if possible. Thanks Howard@rosesquared.com

Permalink Reply by Art on the Lawn: Barbara Berney on January 22, 2010 at 8:02pm

I also take evals seriously. Every year that we've done a survey, we've had suggestions that I've implemented the following year. As an artist, myself, there are things I look for in a show, and knowing that someone is actually paying attention goes a long way in the PR department.

Barbara

Permalink Reply by Mark Loeb on March 18, 2010 at 2:15pm

I too read every comment. Artists is it too much to get a show survey, a Sunshine Artist Survey and and Art Fair Source Book Survey? I imagine that if there were a way to complete one and have it honestly shared by all we would get a better response rate.

Permalink Reply by Kristina Jones on July 9, 2010 at 2:13pm

We look at each one and take most of the comments seriously (serve Coke, not Pepsi?!? Really....) Artists do this every weekend and know what works and doesn't, so they would be the ones to let us know how to make things better. The problem always comes in when the comments conflict each other...

Permalink Reply by Bonnie Blandford on November 6, 2010 at 11:34am

I'm an artist first, doing shows all over the country and a show director second.

As an artist I love having a show evaluation sheet to fill out. It gives me an easy place for thanks, suggestions and complaints. Hopefully the show will actually read each one (thanks Mark) and take what is on them seriously since, as someone mentioned, we do this for a living. We've seen the good, the bad and all the stuff in between. We have easy fixes to some of your stickiest problems. Sometimes over thinking a situation just makes it worse. Ask your artists! Ask them how other shows handle it. Set up an artist advisory board to get input.

Our show is a little different. It's a funky little one day indoor show in February in Michigan. It's run by two artists who make their living exhibiting at art fairs. We keep it very simple. We have very few rules which really works well for us. We trust that our artists know enough that if they park in the fire lane, they risk a ticket or towing. It's amazing how smoothly everything runs.

Okay, I'm totally off subject so back to evaluations. We used to do them but had a tiny response so we stopped doing a paper one at the show. When we send out our thank you notes to our artists for doing the show, we ask everyone to please e-mail us with any compliments, complaints or suggestions. The artists actually doing the show have great insight to changes that could be made and we listen to them.