This one had to be the show from Hell for me. It started going sour a week before. My van decided to go four paws up with a hole in the exhaust system that burned out the oxygen sensors, and then the power steering went out. A rental van wasn't available fro love or money. My old trusty Ford Escort wagon needed a/c which jumped from $800 to $1300 when a computerized control module waqs found to be bad. That gets fixed and the order is placed for a 4x8 U-Haul trailer to get my stuff to the show. Problem was a trailer hitch for it would be special order and wouldn't get there in time. It was a moot point as the promised trailer didn't arrive either.
So I bite the bullet and pack what I can in the wagon, leaving all the big framed pieces behind. The largest pieces I could take were 18x24 frames and some smaller stuff. The wagon is packed to the ceiling and the front seat has a 12 gal tub, my clothes, a tool box, and a cooler. The scary part was strapping 8 Pro-Panels to the roof using a couple of 1x2x4' furring srips to extend the roof rack bars. A couple of tarps to wrap it up and about a hundred feet of clothes line rope, and seeveral prayers and oaths to hope it all stays on top. It did, although with strange noises coming from the roof and tarps all the way from Indianapolis to Detroit.
Now for the show. It was a strange layout, a gigantic L shape that stretched out over a quarter mile along a service road that went around behind a shopping center and several commercial buildings. I was toward the end behind a stand alone Barnes and Noble and a hospital. Way behind those buildings. The space behind the booth was an earthern berm shielding off a condo complex. The angle was steep and I wished I had brought shims. The guy next to me had several pieces of 2x4, and that helped a bunch, although I still had to dig into the ground with a hand spade to lower the back of the chair.
It was hotter than hell the entire weekend, and I drank more than a gallon of fluid every day and still only visited the nearby portapots once or twice a day. At least twice I gave my chair to a patron who dizzy and ready to pass out. Traffic was very light and many times you could have sent several bowling balls down the lane and not hit anyone. I saw very few people carrying packages the entire weekend.
The organizer was on top of it, and I'll give that to Patty Narovzny. Her crew was evident the entire time, bringing water and snacks around, maintaining security, checking to see how things were going. The judges were efficient and each came around and introduced themselves, and they had a helper with them keeping track of the time they spent in each booth. The judges asked decent questions, which is more than I can say for most shows. Patty came around with one of the judges, and dropped some tidbits to help out. I was sitting behind the booth with a small table in front of me. She told me I should be in front as that was more inviting. I concurred and spent the rest of the show sitting in the doorway at the back of the booth. People talked more, but the traffic was so low that it still didn't translate into better sales.
A few of the artists who had spouses or help in the booth (I didn't) were able to walk the show. Traffic was higher at the entrance and many people just weren't goimng past the corner. Another point of concern is that there were booths at the other end for home builders, window sales, and so on. That sounds more like a county fair to me rather than a high end art show.
The extremely long layout is a fatal flaw, in my opinion, for a show like this. I saw a lot of older people walking the show and heard more than one family group complaining about the long distance to walk. The front end of the show is close to parking and the mall stores, but the other end is off in Siberia, or that weekend, Hell's Half Acre. Ample room was given for each booth space and if the end person in the group of 5 booths cooperates, the artists in the midddle can set up with a 6 foot space between the booths. Kudos for that.
Top credits for the organization of the show as far as logistics, low marks for the overly long arrangement of the show, lousy turnout which may or may not have ben the promoters fault. I was the last person clearing out as I had to remember how to pack everything back into the compact station wagon (BTW, I have a line on getting a Ford E350 XLT 11/12 passenger van in the next week or so), and a neighborhood person was walking their dog at dusk. He asked how the show was, and I told him truthfully that it was a lousy turnout. He said he usually goes to it, but it was too beastly hot to be out walking around in the afternoons.
Net result was that I had one sale on Saturday which didn't even cover the hotel expense. I would have to be crazy to go back to this show. It's on concrete, the configuration of the show is bad, and a high socioeconomic neighborhood still didn't translate into sales. A repetitive question was "Are these photos or paintings?" That question has seldom been asked so many times.
This was a show where my wife was able to say "I told you so!". She suggested cancelling when the transportation issue was looking grim. I've cancelled one show in 22 years when a vehicle began misfiring badly and blowing oil out of the crankcase back into the air filter when I was about 50 miles from home. I would have saved myself several hundred dollars had I heeded that suggestion this time. It's a shame when everything was in place except the crowd.
Comments
Judy;
There was no problem with the staff as they were all helpful. The food booths were too far away to get to as I was down at the south end of the L, actually an inverted L, so I got by on the apples and muffins that were brought around, and cheese/crackers I had. The foot traffic down at my end was less than the top of the show. A good indicator of the lack of traffic was that the portapots were still in good shape on Sunday down at my end ;-)
Nicole;
Interesting feedback there. All 3 bad situations are painful by themselves, but all 3 are just too much and it's starting to sound like it's a recurring problem.. Yikes on the donations issue! I thought it seemed a bit odd, but I wasn't paying much attention to that although I heard some of the other artists make some cracks about it.
BTW, how is the Ft. Wayne 3 Rivers/Art in the Park doing? I stopped doing that one back about ten years ago, and am reconsidering doing it next year if it's worthwhile.
I did this show last year and swore I would never go back. And it had less to do with extremely poor sales, small crowds, or even the bad layout (because we've all exprerienced combinations of that at shows before). It was absolutly horrific to me to see patrons pulled out of the fair and chased away by the organizers trying to force them to pay the "$5 Donation/Admission". I thought that was completely rediculous. Either make it a donation or make it an admission. Patty defended it by making it a big deal that all the profits go to: (taken from the HotWorks website)
*Helps Support Institute for the Arts & Education, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization dedicated to Educate and Promote Fine Arts and Crafts among all Artists and Students, of all age groups and diversity, and the General Public.*
Fine. Not a problem. Except that after a little research I found out the Patty owns this non-profit. After seeing how some things were handled in terms of patrons and false promises, and misleading promotion of the show, my gut just feels a little like it's not quite as ethical as it should be. I won't be doing any more Hot Works shows.
Oh dear Robert, I hopefully would have taken all the vehicle hassles as a 'sign'. Then again, sometimes we're so hyped up on getting there that we go to extraordinary lengths to overcome the barriers someone is putting up to stop us LOL.
I did a show last year where I was out in the boonies and I stuck it out even though most around me showed more sense and packed up and went home. I made costs by the end of the show but I was by myself for most of it, nary a customer in sight. Signage, advertising and a good layout is essential. *sigh*, the promoters will learn this I hope!
Robert, at least this one didn't result in health issues - that Des Moines one sounds like it would be anyone's show from hell.
I did this show last year, and chose to go to Glencoe this time around. Long story, that, but sales were just as bad in Glencoe. And it cost me more to do. $575 for a corner spot.
I had a double at Orchard Lake last year, and thankfully was in the front part of the show. The back end is brutal. I'm surprised that Patty doesn't get the message that the layout simply doesn't work. It doesn't help that the sponsor booths neatly divide the show in half, at the turn, and many patrons didn't realize that there was more show after the Chrysler cars and the food booths. And to make matters worse, there is a "suggested $5 donation". If you don't pay it, the show police run after you and force you back to the entrance and make you pay. They actually made a patron leave a booth last year in the middle of a transaction, and pay the entry "donation".
Rich people simply don't like to shop at art fairs when the temps are over 80, or it's raining. Walking more than a block also makes it tough on them. Bring the Rolls Royce around, Jeeves! We're going to Target!
Thanks for the interesting reading...sorry the show was a downer for you. Heat seems to be nailing everyone this summer. I give you lots of credit for doing what it took to keep your word and be at the show despite the misadventures.
I keep a "photo or painting index" (loftily nicknamed PPI): Every time I hear it, I put a tick mark on my invoice book. At the end of the show, when I run my numbers, I compare it to the my average sale per item. It's hardly scientific, but it's amazing how well a high PPI translates to low average $$ per item.
Last weekend at Cooper River (Cherry Hill NJ) about every fourth customer boosted he PPI. And the average sale was $45, about half my average.