Call for Artists, Making Money at Juried Art Fairs, Craft Shows and Festivals
The Year of Awesome - Community Awards
The votes have been tallied and the winners are:
Member of the year: Geoff Coe - "He gives incredible answers to people's questions. He tells them the where, the when , the why and the how. He tells them where to stay, where not to stay and how much of his answer is from is personal experience and how much is what he heard. Then if that's not enough he tells them to e-mail him if they have any more questions."
Personality: Munks
Author: Nels Johnson - "People watch for how he answers and take the lead from him; consistently contributes the most interesting blog posts with show info. Plus his experiences are a hoot!"
ROFL: Caroline Kwas & Framer Dude - "appreciate hearing all of their adventures and always look forward to the next one"
Most Generous & Helpful: Larry Berman - "useful answers on Zapp"/Jim Parker - "all things computer"
Newcomer: Ruth Finkenbiner - "great to hear from the West Coast"
Special Recognition for hospitality and generosity: Geri Wegner and Annette Piper. Geri hangs out here with us and then goes out and meets us in person. Annette is the unofficial greeter from Australia who is part of our international community but who feels like she is a neighbor in the next booth.
Best Blog Post: Escalating Booth Fees--In This Recession What are They Thinking? from Nels Johnson - over 5000 views
Best Discussion: What's the Worst Question You Have been Asked at an Art Fair? Linda and Jim Dalton - nearly 7000 views and 32 pages of comments; runner up: Addicted to Gushers from Leo Charette
Special Award: Nels Johnson has been a frequent contributor here and we have especially enjoyed his 
Tequila Reports. Now that he has turned 67 and has resigned from this particular activity (drinking tequila), nonetheless when I attended BlogWorld and one of its sponsors was a new tequila, U4RIK, the product manager agreed that Nels should be the recipient of this special award. Coming your way Nels:
There was a lot of excellent writing and I want to note these particular posts which made a contribution:
Karole Bowlds: EZ-Up, Secure 40 Minute Set up the Maine Way
Corey Johnston's several thought-provoking blog posts
Nels Johnson's helpful post: How to Write an Interesting Blog and not Necessarily Be Witty
Kathy Oda's My 2011 Lessons Learned
Ray Hartl's photo blog from Madison, WI, Protest on the Square
Barry Bernstein's post about Oklahoma City: It's Cold, It's Hot, It's Rainy...
Helpful discussion: Where do you keep your money at an art fair
Best intervention with an art fair: http://www.artfairinsiders.com/profiles/blogs/old-town-art-fair-amp
Want to have some fun? Here is my personal favorite discussion: http://www.artfairinsiders.com/forum/topics/on-the-road-again-with-...
In Memoriam: We will surely miss artists Jackie Russo, Bob Vonesh, Sandra Sharon, Hank Bardenhagen, Todd Lundeen, Dee Segula, Sonny Dalton, Barbara Cook; promoter Audree Levy and Bill Batts former husband and best friend of Pam Bartl.
Many thanks to this site's administrators Larry Berman and Jacki Bilsborrow who keep us up to date.
Building a Community is the plan for this website. Helping artists help each other and entertaining them along the way is a big goal. 2011 was a very good year. The traffic to the site increases daily. We have members come and go and lots of lurkers. The list of contributors is lengthy. Google analytics say that over 500,000 visits occurred in the year, with nearly 65% of them return visitors. (2010 saw 120,000 visits and we thought that was a good year.) I hope you are finding this resource helpful and I look forward to meeting you here and in person in the coming year.
Views: 414
Tags: 2011 Community awards, Annette Piper, Caroline Kwas, Geoff Coe, Geri Wegner, Jim Parker, Larry Berman, Munks, Nels Johnson, Ruth Finkenbiner, More…
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Comment by Larry Berman on January 19, 2012 at 1:55pm -
You forgot Robert Barab.
Larry Berman
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Comment by Connie Mettler on January 19, 2012 at 2:34pm -
Oh yes, Larry! My apologies. Robert was a really solid member of the art fair business and a fine photographer and all round fine man. I'm adding him right now to the site.
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Comment by Nels Johnson on January 19, 2012 at 3:04pm -
Many thanks for all the votes that came in for all of us. The people recognized rightfully deserve the honor. Their info and help, and words of wisdom, make all of our days a little easier out there, and when somebody can put a big smile on your face because of a wry little comment that just caps your day. I don't know of another site out here that so furfills me like this onw. Kudos to Connie and Jackie for a job well done. Aloha, Nels. New Tequila Report coming up soon--hours from now--don't miss it.
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Comment by Nels Johnson on January 19, 2012 at 3:06pm
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I don't know where darn "e" went on my keyboard. First typo of 2012---more will be coming I am sure.
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Comment by Munks on January 19, 2012 at 3:46pm -
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Comment by Connie Mettler on January 19, 2012 at 4:01pm
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Funny -- that doesn't even resemble Munks. Ahh...in his absence he has been transforming himself. Now we know.
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Comment by Ruth Finkenbiner on January 19, 2012 at 4:32pm -
Thanks Connie, glad to provide some input from the West Coast! I will resume reports on shows when we start back up in March, however, those of you in Florida might get a chuckle our of this, I must admit I'd rather be in sunny Florida than Seattle. Today the NW portion of the West Coast is in a deep freeze, 29 degrees, freezing rain on top of 8 inches of snow, lost power at 6:55 AM this morning and they are saying it may be the weekend before we have power again. Really thinking hard about those shows in Arizona and California, ready for some sunshine and warmth.
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Comment by Connie Mettler on January 19, 2012 at 4:42pm
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Well, thank god, you were able to get enough power to find us at AFI, Ruth;)
Congrats to you.
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Comment by Barry Bernstein on January 19, 2012 at 5:21pm -
It looks just like him!!!
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Comment by Geoff Coe on January 19, 2012 at 5:39pm -
Wow, what a nice honor! Thanks, this made my day!! Contributing to AFI is my most fun non-shooting/selling task of just about any week. And nothing beats meeting fellow AFIers at shows! With that, I realize that I cannot possibly top Sally Field / Munks so I'll leave it at that.
I'm looking forward to meeting more of you in 2012!
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