I am sure Nels will be writing a review as well and I am looking forward to it. Nels experience at a show and mine are very different. We have completely different markets and patrons. Nels price points are around $50-$500 and ours start at $2200. But from what I have heard it sounds like we landed in about the same place.
DMAF is held in the streets of downtown Des Moines around the sculpture park. This was our first year doing this show and hopefully not our last. I had heard about the show from other artists but became very interested and excited about the show when I attended the Zapp conference and the director Stephen King described the Des Moines Arts Festival Reveal. The event is held in the Wells Fargo Arena and the invited artists are revealed at this event the evening before artists are notified of their invitation to the show. What a wonderful way to not only get the people excited and engaged for the show but also a great alternative fundraiser for the festival. I wasn't sure if Iowa would be our market but DMAF would be the perfect place to find out.
Communication from the show is very good. Most of the information you need is on the website. The show is a LONG one. Friday 11am-10am, Saturday 11am-10am and Sunday 11am-5pm. You are provided electricity.
Set up is Thursday starting at 9am. They told us they had a leisurely set up and YES it is exactly that. You drive up to the entrance and they check you in right at your car. You don't even have to get out. They told us to go set up, they weren't going to micro manage the artists for set up since we do this all the time. That was music to my ears. This really was one of the easiest stress free set ups, especially for a downtown. The booths are on wide streets and most have booths across from each other. There is lots of room on the sides of each booth, enough to walk through and plenty in back. I don't think there is a bad booth location in the show.
On to the show. Friday Saturday and Sunday called for perfect weather. This show is known for high temps and strong storms. We did have wind but that seems to be the norm. Friday we arrived and veteran artists told us to pace ourselves, it was going to be a long day. For a Friday show the crowds were pretty strong especially after 5pm. Our booth was full of people all day Friday and folks waiting turns to enter the booth after 5pm. No sales on Friday and not many cards were handed out. It seemed to be a browsing day. By 10pm I couldn't wait to get into bed. Thank goodness we had good weather.
Saturday round two, another long one. Good strong crowds, more serious shoppers but man these Iowan folks are not spontaneous buyers. They come back 3 and 4 times and STILL need to think about it. Finally at 6pm we had our first sale and with in the next hour we received a phone call from a patron who also made a decision for a piece of art. Phew that was 18 hours of open show time before our first sale. Patience is the name of this game. Lots of people out Saturday night. A beautiful night and it really was pretty seeing all the booths lit up as the sun faded. 10 pm came and I was out for the count.
Sunday morning there is a wonderful artist breakfast at a resteraaunt on site. I am sure it is one of the top artist breakfasts out there BUT I was way too tired to get up early to attend the artist award breakfasts. I heard only good thing. We showed up to our booth at 10:30 am for this quick short day, only 11-5 and we had patrons waiting on us who had made their decision and were ready to buy. Sunday was definetly the day for big art purchases. I saw lots of large work go buy. Again the patrons here are not quick to make a decision. We had many people come back over 4 times and still weren't ready.
Breakdown. Down to the ground, get a pass, come in and get out. Lots of room for everyone. easy load out. Not much to say about it.
Sales wise many of us had great shows but not everyone did. I heard reports from artists across the board. Just like most shows. The artist amenities are very good. They have 1200 volunteers so we artists were wanting for nothing. This is avery well run all the way around, from set up, booth locations, advertising, communication with the asrtists. You name it they seemed to cover it. Booth fee was reasonable I think around $300. I can't find a bad thing to say. Housing was pretty affordable. We found a great 3 bedroom house 1 mile from the show for $100 a night. They also offered an artist hosting program.
Obviously we would really love to return to this show. On the way to Des Moines we hit Le Claire Iowa and visited Antique Archeology, American Pickers. Only a true fan of the show would enjoy it but Le Claire is a cute town on the Mississippi River and there are quaint bnbs in the historic district. Only 2 hours from the show so good place to spend the night before set up. After the show we drove to Chicago, parked the van at Ohare and are resting up in Costa Rica for the week. Wednesday's we fly back to Ohare and on to Madison. Love this artist life.
Pura Vida
Comments
Barry many were surprised about so many photographer awards I believe especially the photographers. Our both photographer neighbor won an award and it was very much deserved. I neglected to mention the judges at DMAF. They spent two long days visiting each booth. Each judge, there were three, spoke with us. One actually sat down with us in our directors chairs and asked us to tells him more. He was also one of the jurors. He talked to us about what stood out during the juring process to get into DMAF. That was priceless info when it comes to getting into these "A" shows. I was amazed he recalled all this information and shared it with the artists. I know this was not unique to us, he did the same with our artists neighbors. We really appreciated the time they took. Judging a show, especially this one, is no easy task.
Thanks Connie for for addding the pics. Yes air bnb and we shared with other artists. I love staying in a house vs a hotel while on the road.
Ha, Barry! I know that feeling. If we'd have a good Friday I'd take that sales total and times it by 3 -- so if we did $4000 I hoped for a $12,000 show. Best day ever at Cherry Creek I did that math and figured we'd be retiring soon. Well, you know how that goes.
Thanks, Melanie. I loved the people at Des Moines. Yes, conservative and careful but appreciative. One of the reasons this show works so well (besides the professional organization) is that this is an under the radar town with an excellent tax base and includes good clean white collar occupations, big in publishing, financial corporations, insurance companies. One of my kids goes here on business regularly to meet clients in the financial service industry and publishing. Those are jobs many cities would love to have.
Did you do Air BnB? Who did you share with?
This show is very hard to get into. It's one of a handful of shows that I consider the A shows. It is the best organized and best run show in the country. I wrote a glowing review, here, a couple of years ago. Yes, the awards breakfast is very good. I'm not sure I liked the fact that 5 of the 10 awards went to photographers. No awards to clay, jewelry, or glass(I think). No bias there. However, I was just happy to have been chosen.
My experience was just the opposite of you. Friday was a great day. I did better on Friday than I have at any 2 days at any other show. Saturday was just OK and then I zeroed on Sunday. It ended up being a good show. It was a letdown for me because, after Friday, I thought it was going to be as good as Ft Worth. Still, I hope I get in for the next 10 years.
There is plenty of money in this town.
I am glad it went so well.
I am going to write a blog either today or tomorrow.
I hear the golf course serenading me.