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ART IN THE PARK Review- Plymouth MI July 10-13 2009
I greatly enjoyed the 30th anniversary of Art In the Park. The weather cooperated for the 3 day show except for a downpour Saturday morning from 8 to 10. The show opened at noon and closed at 8pm on Friday, but I had patrons in my booth by 9am and did not close up until 9 as the crowds kept coming. Ditto for Saturday - closing time was 7pm but patrons lingered. My neighbor reported he did not close up until close to 10 as his booth remained busy. Thankfully on Sunday, the lovely people of Plymouth did not linger and everyone could start take down at 5. The Sunday Plymouth paper announced "Record Crowds Predicted" and I believe they were correct as the streets were filled all 3 days as was my booth.
I found set up and tear down very well planned and drive up to booth was great. There was no “check in” – You received your booth assignment, and unloading instructions in the mail. Once you were set up, a volunteer brought you the booth tag. I found it nice that the food vendor area had their own street as their large trucks did not venture into most art areas.
I talked with several artists and their list of complaints included:
Entry fee too high (I agree)
No booth sitters
No one giving out water (I will add that the local high school band had a couple of water booths and several times walked around offering to sell water – this was their major fund raiser and perhaps the reason organizers did not offer the water)
Music in the center core too loud
Crafters and commercial businesses were interwoven with artists. Evidentially this used to be fine art only, but there was a varied cross section of booths.
From what I observed, the layout for approximately 400 booths was as good as possible. The core of the event was at a downtown intersection and booths spread out on adjoining streets. I was 3rd from the end of one of those streets. Typically I may have groaned about paying my dues as a first timer at this event, but patrons actually entered from all points of the perimeter. Greyhound type busses ran continually from various park & ride locations and dropped patrons off at one of the less desirable ends. I’m not sure if it was the design of the show or the very experienced event patrons, but I’m fairly sure any patron that attended came down to my end. It was nice to have an active booth, even though not all were buyers. They may be one day.
Kellogg Park takes up an entire block and one corner is at the event’s core. The entire park was dedicated to a variety of creative, hands on, kid’s art activities including a kid vendor area where kids sold their art. Throughout the weekend I was thrilled with the higher than average amount of teens & preteens that visited my booth, initiated great art savvy conversations and even purchased some of my photography. I did not make the connection until late Sunday when I realized this lovely community is quite active in its efforts to get kids involved and comfortable with art at a young age. How great is this?
Two school lots served for artist parking and ours was approximately 5 blocks away. Overnight parking for those sleeping in motor homes or vans was allowed. The organizers had arranged for discount rates at several hotels. Several of the nearby restaurants dropped off menus and offered booth delivery. Security was provided by city police – not rent a cops. A great majority of the people I spoke with (now remember, I do like to talk) had been severely affected by the problems within the automotive industry and my heart goes out to them. Having said that, I had quite a profitable show. No framed items sold, but I nearly sold out of my 8x10’s and 16x20’s. I also have (9) 18x24 & larger orders to complete when I arrive home Tuesday. I’m thinking I’ll get better gas mileage with (4) empty crates in my trailer!
I do so enjoy Michigan & its lovely people. I think I’ll take the long way home to Wisconsin via the U.P. rather than deal with the high van/trailer tolls in Chicago. Yes – it’s probably a wash with the extra gas, but I get to enjoy Michigan for just a tad longer.
Bottom line – Entry is high and it is not an all fine art only event. For me, it was an enjoyable show and I will return. I’ll have my typical videos on YouTube later.
I found set up and tear down very well planned and drive up to booth was great. There was no “check in” – You received your booth assignment, and unloading instructions in the mail. Once you were set up, a volunteer brought you the booth tag. I found it nice that the food vendor area had their own street as their large trucks did not venture into most art areas.
I talked with several artists and their list of complaints included:
Entry fee too high (I agree)
No booth sitters
No one giving out water (I will add that the local high school band had a couple of water booths and several times walked around offering to sell water – this was their major fund raiser and perhaps the reason organizers did not offer the water)
Music in the center core too loud
Crafters and commercial businesses were interwoven with artists. Evidentially this used to be fine art only, but there was a varied cross section of booths.
From what I observed, the layout for approximately 400 booths was as good as possible. The core of the event was at a downtown intersection and booths spread out on adjoining streets. I was 3rd from the end of one of those streets. Typically I may have groaned about paying my dues as a first timer at this event, but patrons actually entered from all points of the perimeter. Greyhound type busses ran continually from various park & ride locations and dropped patrons off at one of the less desirable ends. I’m not sure if it was the design of the show or the very experienced event patrons, but I’m fairly sure any patron that attended came down to my end. It was nice to have an active booth, even though not all were buyers. They may be one day.
Kellogg Park takes up an entire block and one corner is at the event’s core. The entire park was dedicated to a variety of creative, hands on, kid’s art activities including a kid vendor area where kids sold their art. Throughout the weekend I was thrilled with the higher than average amount of teens & preteens that visited my booth, initiated great art savvy conversations and even purchased some of my photography. I did not make the connection until late Sunday when I realized this lovely community is quite active in its efforts to get kids involved and comfortable with art at a young age. How great is this?
Two school lots served for artist parking and ours was approximately 5 blocks away. Overnight parking for those sleeping in motor homes or vans was allowed. The organizers had arranged for discount rates at several hotels. Several of the nearby restaurants dropped off menus and offered booth delivery. Security was provided by city police – not rent a cops. A great majority of the people I spoke with (now remember, I do like to talk) had been severely affected by the problems within the automotive industry and my heart goes out to them. Having said that, I had quite a profitable show. No framed items sold, but I nearly sold out of my 8x10’s and 16x20’s. I also have (9) 18x24 & larger orders to complete when I arrive home Tuesday. I’m thinking I’ll get better gas mileage with (4) empty crates in my trailer!
I do so enjoy Michigan & its lovely people. I think I’ll take the long way home to Wisconsin via the U.P. rather than deal with the high van/trailer tolls in Chicago. Yes – it’s probably a wash with the extra gas, but I get to enjoy Michigan for just a tad longer.
Bottom line – Entry is high and it is not an all fine art only event. For me, it was an enjoyable show and I will return. I’ll have my typical videos on YouTube later.
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Comment by Charles Bingham on July 14, 2009 at 8:15am -
Sounds like you had a good time... I'm glad. We both lucked out on the weather since the forecast early on was predicting rain for all 3 days. A couple of hours of light rain on one day is only a minor inconvenience. I hope your trip through the U.P. was relaxing after a long weekend selling.
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Comment by Linda Anderson on July 15, 2009 at 1:27am -
Below is the link to my husband's You Tube video. There are several on his sight. this was taken shortly before 2 on Friday. While the attendance was pretty good Friday, it was about half that of Saturday and Sunday. Additional videos of the Plymouth event are on his site as well. You can ignore the ones labeled Plymouth Children's Theater - I had him film that as an idea for one of the children's thing we do locally. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfBZc5nWII8&feature=channel
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Comment by Terry Melman on July 15, 2009 at 11:05am -
Hi Linda,
Thanks for stopping by my booth Sunday morning. I agree with most of your comments, but I'm one of those who really had a problem with the music, since my booth was much closer to the band. When they were playing it was difficult to hear the comments made by people in my booth, and they didn't seem to stay as long. I also had to contend with a band playing outside a store across the street at the same time. I complained several time to the management of the art fair, and they did get their band to lower their volume a few times, but it alway crept back up. I had a guy right outside my booth giving away some sort of advertisements for a local cigar bar, and that caused a lot of people walk quickly by to avoid contact with him and not even look in my booth. I asked him to move a couple of times, and he moved about 10 feet away, which did help. Saturday night, the fair organizer stopped by and offered to have a team help me move my booth to another location. It was a very nice offer, but I was too tired to do it, and I had promised a couple of photos to people who said they'd be back Sunday, so I really didn't want to move.
Someone stopped by my booth asking if I had photos of lighthouses, so I directed them to you. You were the one who told me she had lighthouse photos, weren't you? My sales were good enough not to call them "bad", but not enough to call "good". This was my second outdoor fair, so I'm still figuring out price points and merchandise mix, and I think I made a bit of progress at that for the next show.
I really enjoyed talking with the people who stopped by my booth, and I got invited to two other art fairs (which, unfortunately, I can't attend). I also learned that, when possible, I should specify that I don't want to be near the entertainment!
I too think the that the booth fee is a bit too high, and I agree that this isn't really a fine art fair. I feel a bit bad about complaining about the band so much, since the organizer (and I'm forgetting names here) told me that when her daughter saw the sample photos I submitted with my application she really loved them and wanted me accepted. Then I gave her grief! Nothing like offending your fans, ay?
Have good Summer, and perhaps I'll see you at another art fair!
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Comment by Linda Anderson on July 15, 2009 at 11:24am
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Was GREAT meeting you too Terry. Such a bummer about the band and I'm glad you spoke up to the organizers about the problem. That is exactly the feedback they need to know when planning subsequent years festivities. Thanks for sending the people my way - yes, I have lighthouses. You certainly have beautiful photos and your booth set up looked great. It's a tough year to be a newbie at shows. Hope to see you again. Best to you in upcoming events!
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Comment by Terry Melman on July 15, 2009 at 12:02pm
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I've thought a bit more about my exerience at this show, and I realize that I really don't know what goes on behind the scenes to manage good sized art fair like this one, except that it must be a LOT of work. Although I wan't happy about the band near my booth, when I think about it, there were a lot of things done right. As Linda mentioned, city police provided security (which had to be really expensive), there was at least one emergency med unit cruising through the fair (also expensive), the trash was picked up well before it overflowed, load in and load out went very smoothly, the streets were cleaned every day, and there were countless other details to arrange. This was not a trivial event to manage. The organizers deserve credit for doing a pretty good job, even if I, personally, had a bad booth location!
I know that a number of art fairs have been cancelled this year, and I hope that the organizers of this one did well enough to do it again next year (albeit with a quieter band). It would be a real shame if economic circumstances prevented it. Oh yeah, I guess that means high booth fees...
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