Call for Artists, Making Money at Juried Art Fairs, Craft Shows and Festivals
Lill Street Craft Fair in Chicago... and a question about displaying on side walls...
I spent the first five years of my full time drawing career exhibiting at craft shows. I didn't have a display for nicer shows and they were the first ones I found. I still exhibit at some nearby craft shows (Step by Step Productions craft shows are worthwhile in the Chicago area... they are heavily advertised, well attended). So I decided to give the Lill Street Craft Fair - a new artist section in conjunction with The Taste of Lincoln Ave. Most of my images sell best in Chicago, so I'm trying to start venturing downtown more often. The fest was PACKED with mostly 20-something alcohol swilling partiers. Not exactly my target market. There was no sign pointing to our short, shady street of artists and only the more sober or shade-seeking attendees wandered down our way. Many of my greeting cards seemed to be disappearing on their own, probably during extended conversations with friendly drunks. If they improve the signage next year, it could be well worth doing. At $275, the price was low for a Chicago event. Set up was easy, parking was horrendous - definitely locate the parking garage suggested by the promoters. I'd suggest paying extra for electricity, there were lots of shoppers after dusk and only those with electricity were being visited. Tear down was a bit of a mess. If you waited till after 9 pm, you could drive right up to your booth, but most tired artists carted their stuff away.
I haven't been very good about posting show reviews, but an incident prompted me to write about this one. I would like your opinion about displaying on side walls. At this particular event, we were snuggled up every ten feet like sardines. I always pray that I'll have some room to display my work on the side walls of my tent. No such luck this time. Because of the heat, my very strange, negative jewelry neighbor took her entire tent down. "Finally," I thought, "some room to hang on the side." Crabby jewelry neighbor had first taped her signage to my vinyl side wall. When I took that down, she taped her sign to my mesh display wall. I told her I was going to hang a picture and that she should move her sign (that she taped to my tent without asking). She immediately became bristly and said that people would think that the work was hers and it would cause problems for her. Granted the attendees were imbibing, but would they really be clueless enough to think a jeweler would have a random pencil drawing hanging on the next person's tent? She was quite nasty about it. If she had been kind in the slightest, as I had been to her the whole time, I might have skipped hanging it. But I did anyway and she carefully crafted a sign with bold letters disowning the picture with arrows pointing to it stating, "This is NOT my work, don't ask me about it." So... is it rude to hang work on your own tent when it faces the display area of your neighbor? And a lesson... be kind to your artist neighbors. We're all fighting for crumbs. I bought work from the WONDERFUL jeweler on the other side of me and bartered with the sweet pottery artists on the other side of Ms Crabby Pants (who were making sympathetic faces at me about said crabster.) Three surrounding artists were all taken aback by the negativity and nastiness of this jeweler. Customers all asked me about the sign, and sober and drunk patrons alike asked, "What's with her?" But regardless of the mood or the personality of my neighbor, was it wrong of my to hang work on my own tent on the outside walls?
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Comment by S. Travis Lindenbaum on August 1, 2011 at 1:16pm -
As a general rule: I hang my work on my side wall(s) if there is enough space between me and My neighbor for the work to be admired without interfering with the neighbor. If patrons have to stand in my neighbor's booth to view my work, I don't hang it on the sides. I do not like to have people standing in front of my booth (my precious and expensive 10 feet!) to look at my neighbors work. So I avoid putting my neighbor in that position. A simple courtesy, but important to most artists/artisans.
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Comment by Megan Horan on August 1, 2011 at 1:24pm -
I agree with the above. Many times, I'll go to shows with a friend who does garden art, stained glass, etc. and most of her items hang from her canopy frame - we're usually butted right next to each other. I make it a point to have a table or shelves along the line where we meet. One time I did not and I had several people standing in my space looking at her stuff. Now, I'm sure many of them would not have bought from me anyway, but I paid for my space and I want people in my space to look at my things.
In your case, if there was a 2 to 3 foot gap between your canopies, that shouldn't be a problem. But I would have also been kind of irritated having your work there and would have said so if asked (I would NOT have written signs about it OR even thought about hanging something on your sidewall - permission or not). Hope this helps!
Megan
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Comment by Amy Ikenn on August 1, 2011 at 1:47pm -
A variation on the same theme... we had 12x12 spaces this weekend and they told us that up front. The jeweler on one side of me (seemed to be buy/sell but that's a story for a different thread) used tall shutters set at right angles to hang her cards on. She set the shutters up so that they extended all the way through that extra foot on each side and just about touched her neighbors tents. As a glass artist I don't hang things on my walls, so I didn't say anything. However, every time I wanted to adjust my walls (or clip my curtains against the wind) I had to walk around from the back right through where her chair was. Bottom line, she took advantage of the big space in a way that prevented me from getting any benefit.
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Comment by Jim Parker on August 1, 2011 at 6:37pm -
What Travis said.
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Comment by Larry Berman on August 1, 2011 at 6:55pm -
I agree with Jim and Travis also.
Additionally if there is extra space, ask your neighbor for each of you to set up at the opposite ends of your space. For example, if the spaces are 12x12 that would give you a four foot isle between you to allow people to stand comfortably to look at the work on the outside.
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100
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Comment by Patricia Hecker on August 1, 2011 at 7:03pm
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I ditto ditto what Parker-Parker said!
And yes, consideration goes a long way!
Treat others the way you wish to be treated.
If they continue to be rude, smile at them.
~Patricia
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Comment by Wendy Zumpano on August 1, 2011 at 7:14pm -
Holy heck, I wanted to EDIT my last comment because I misspelled a word and deleted the whole dang thing! The overall message was thanks so much for the help and education. In retrospect I shouldn't have hung the picture in her display area, even if it was my tent. I'm so used to artists being kind and supportive that I got thrown for a loop. I've always hung my work on my sides, even in close proximity, always asking my neighbor if it was okay. Perhaps some of them agreed, but would have preferred not to have anything of mine in their patrons' line of vision. I'm grateful for the feedback and I promise to be extra respectful of your space if I'm lucky enough to be the neighbor of any of you! Still... she should have asked to hang the sign on my tent. We could have had a dialogue and perhaps she could have helped me understand the protocal, just as you have. Good luck!
Many thanks,
Wendy Zumpano
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Wendy, you have beautiful work! Here's to better shows!
I believe art fairs are a micro-cosm of the rest of the world, we just get along better!!
( ....we dress more interestingly too!)
~Patricia
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Comment by Carla Bank on August 2, 2011 at 10:10am -
Wendy! I was going to do that craft show but chickened out in the last minute. I am doing Long Grove, I saw your name there. Have you done it before? What is your booth number? And if you are my neighbor, watch out with those pictures on my side! Just kidding. I know you are a great neighbor ;)
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Comment by Wendy Zumpano on August 2, 2011 at 12:36pm
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You're right Patricia, it is always fun to see artists' personal style along with their work. we're usually such fun people to meet... MOST of us. Hi Carla dear! I'm booth #76 at Long Grove and you're #51... not sure how close we'll be. I'll need to find you! I only did Long Grove once and it was rained out. Crossing my fingers for good weather and attendance. I have heard that Long Grove is kind of going down hill from the shopping mecca it once was. We'll see... the economy is hard on all of us.
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