Blog

Margaret covered most of the essentials in her post but we wanted to provide a little more information about our experience.  At the outset, I want to make it clear I do not intend to be bitchy or disagreeable in any way.  My intent on writing these reviews is to provide specific information about shows that we do in order to assist others in deciding if they want to apply in the future. I try to do so in an entertaining way.  But I am so upset at what happened at this show that I might seem a little over the top.  I apologize in advance and will try to stick to the facts as I know them. We have lived in Alabama for over 10 years and the Fairhope / Mobile area was the one part of the state we had not visited.  As our friends had said on many occasions, it is a beautiful area.  The city itself is quaint and inviting.  Indeed there are many great restaurants within walking distance of your booth.  I do not think you can go wrong on the food and beverage front.  Nice rooms are available at reasonable prices if you are willing to drive 10 miles back to the expressway.  It is an easy commute to the show. 

I am a stickler for following the rules.  The last thing I do before we leave for a show is read the information again to make sure I did not miss anything.  When I did that this time I saw that we needed to buy a vendors license from Baldwin County.  Well, I had missed that but after a quick phone call I learned that we could buy one in person when we rolled into town.  So after checking into the hotel we headed to the Probate Court and paid our $ 31.00 for a temporary vendors license.  It came on some very official looking paper.  I took it with me to registration thinking someone would want to verify we were legal but no one did then or at anytime thereafter.  

At 6pm everyone lines up to drive into the show to set up.  We had left our trailer at the motel as we did not know about the parking situation we would be dealing with.  By the time we had a quick bite to eat and retrieved our trailer it was 6:30 or so.  The police officer assisted us with maneuvering to our spot and we stayed parked there for our entire set up.  The bar across the street was playing some great music so it was quite pleasant.  Speaking of pleasant, the weather was perfect all weekend.  There was parking less than two blocks away at a vacant school lot.  We dropped our trailer and were on our way back to the motel by 10pm looking forward to a great show. 

Part of the registration packet was a Rules and Regulation sheet which re-stated much of what was in the prospectus for the show on Zapp. Included were rules prohibiting mass produced items, proxy exhibitors, work not representative of work submitted for jury, and a general statement about inappropriate work or displays being prohibited. It also included a statement that the organizers would be checking to make sure these rules were being followed.  Not really.

At the end of our row was a booth with pet accessories such as leashes, collars with local sports logos, and of course treats.  There were thousands of items on display with more in a nearby trailer.  Two cash registers were set up on commercial portable power units. After extensive internet research (about 2 minutes worth) we learned that these folks own a pet boutique in a nearby community.  Next to us was a very nice women selling hats. Her sales pitch was they were made by family members in Florida.  I saw them come out of boxes during set up that had markings on them that looked very much like manufacturers model numbers. I have no way of knowing if she made them or not. But her sales pitch which I heard over and over again was that she did not make them, family members did. This amounts to a proxy sale which according to the rules is strictly prohibited as noted in bold type on the rules sheet. We were obviously a little concerned about all of this but were told by our neighbors that had done the show previously that there were so many people at the show it would not matter.  Well it did matter.  

We ran into several artist friends on Friday morning as the show opened and asked them about their previous experience at the show.  It was the first time for all of us.  Friday sales were slow.  We saw more bags walking by from the local stores than work bought from the artists.  At the very nice artists dinner Friday night we spoke with several friends who reported the same thing.  They also had concerns about buy/sell booths in their areas.  On Saturday an artist friend in our area was so upset about the situation she notified the organizers in writing about the booths in our area, quoting verbatim their rules.  Others voiced concerns verbally and were told "we are aware of it".

Saturday sales were slow but on Sunday we saw some large pieces go by mainly on canvas.  It seemed to us that on Sunday people came back and bought things they had seen earlier, just not from us.  We did not make expenses and neither did a couple of our neighbors.  A jeweler a couple booths away from us, also a first timer at this show, thought he might have broken even. I do not know what impact the questionable booths had on our sales for the show.  Some good friends of ours who do modern acrylic paintings who were next door to the pet store did well.  I think our work did not fit the area.  As one guy said "this stuff is edgy".  The things we did sell were mainly Birmingham images to people with a connection to Birmingham. Knowing what I now know, I would have brought more traditional images but the abandoned stuff sold well in Florida so I did not even consider changing our display for this show. That is on me. But there is little doubt that store fronts at an art show devalue the work around it and make things more difficult.  

Load out was managed by the artists and went well.  Even with chat breaks with friends and neighbors we were out of there by 7pm and on our way to much needed cocktails. The bottom line on this show is the organizers are very nice, the artists' amenities are plentiful, the venue is great, and the crowds are huge.  Just do not count on the rules being enforced unless of course you transgress beyond your designated boundaries. There was an admonition to weight your tent.  There was a huge storm last year that wiped out several displays, including the pet store.  No one checked that either as our hat neighbor had an EZ Up with maybe 20 pounds on each leg. One good gust of wind and her whole display would have been in the back of our tent. There is another show held at the same time on adjacent streets run by the arts center.  I walked that show and there was nothing there that even hinted of buy/sell.  I read everything I can find about a show before we apply.  I did not see anything indicating that buy/sell was an issue here.  Now you know. After writing this I doubt I would ever have to be concerned about coming back, but I would with another body of work.  I would do so with the understanding that I may be next to a buy/sell booth, not the expectation that clear rules would be enforced.  Many, if not all the elements of this show are great, with the exception of this one issue. 

By the way, as I was writing this we received an e-mail from the show.  Apparently several artists on their post show reviews expressed the same concerns about buy/sell. I will take the opportunity to reply and make a direct report to the organizers.