Call for Artists, Making Money at Juried Art Fairs, Craft Shows and Festivals
My 8th Annual Orchard Lake, MI Show Review
I made a comment early on Nel’s post but I thought best to put what I have to say in my own blog. Me I am a male 59 years old, I make fine metal art, or at least I think I can.
First off I think Patty did a good job on trying to make the Orchard Lake art fair a great fair with good artist and a diverse crowd. I hope it was a success on her end. It was a large art fair with 250 artists from all over the planet. I am very happy that I was accepted into the show because there were some really great art. The show was set up on two streets, Powers and Daly in L shaped. If you came in on Powers you have to travel through all of the booths to get to yours. From Powers to the L at Daly was a quarter mile long. Turing down Daly the booths stretched for another half mile. In between at the corner were the food vendors and the hander outers. First comment for future event is if you have the same lay out at the corner put signs pointing both directions that there are more artists. One customer commented that she was pissed that she missed me until she was told more artist around the corner. Walking up Powers there is a tree line and first thing you see is more hander outers. You cannot tell if there are artist unless you walked past the corner.
(Lokking down Powers St to main entrance Saturday morning from cell phone)
Since I live about 42 miles away I drove up that way on Thursday to stop at a supplier and also to scan out my booth location. Email was sent out that you could set up Thursday and if you wanted you could be on TV on Friday morning. It was also advised that unloading was going to be tight so show up early. Sure must have been a lot of artist that wanted to be on TV. Okay first mistake, when I stopped at the main gate the helper said she knew me “Mr. Trouble Maker”. Anyhow got checked in and proceeded to my spot. Well I made it up to the corner and pulled over and parked. No way was I going to be able to drive down there, very congested. Walked to the booth spot and looked it over. Hmmm on a downhill slope and measure the spot have to set up close to the curb. Hill coming down to the curb. Dang not too friendly of an area for the way I like to set up. Make a note to myself to bring plenty of blocks to help level things out. At the end the hill was nice because the artist could open up their back awning and had room for storage. Some even used the area for displaying.
Friday I went to set up and got there around 9AM. TV crew was filming and I had to wait a few minutes. Not bad at all it was my only stop until I got to my booth #199. I was able to park right in front of my spot and unload. No problem at all. I was willing to move if somebody came along but an artist figured out that if you pull in the parking lot you could go around some blocked areas.
Now back to Thursday unload, a lesson for the promoter to learn. Get some walkie talkies and hand out to the staff. Better to let us know at the main gate if our areas are opened for us to unload. Learn how to make traffic flow using them by suggesting alternatives to unload. It is a strange area to us and we need as much help possible to make our unloading easier.
The show started Friday night with a gala event where we artist gave out tickets that were worth $50 (two people were allowed on one ticket) to our favorite customers. Not sure how well it worked for most because if you were not from around the area the tickets did not have a value. I saw four of the ten I invited Friday night. We artist had some pizza to eat even though a very long walk. Beer was good once they got the tapper to work right. White wine with screw off top was also available then of course there was pop. Pizza was just okay.
Crowd Friday was a little more than I expected. Just enough of a trickle going by to keep you awake. It was nice because able to meet the artist around me and had some very good conversations. While waiting for one of my customers to show up I was crowd watching really close. Now it was suppose to be “meet” the artist night, so why was not anyone stopping in the booths. Noted I said booths. My neighbors were noticing the same thing. Oh well my customer showed up and I opened up a nice bottle of Merlot and we had a few glasses. As far as I heard it was a waste of time for most of the artist because nothing was sold. If so was a minor purchase. Another note to me, if the art fair has a meet the artist night with a party of some type, do not apply to that show. Five hours for zero dollars with a couple of slices of pizza and a few beers is not profitable.
Saturday the show ran from 10AM to 7PM. Waiting at the entry gates were our customers. Yes the entry gates. $5 a person to get in and free for the under twelves and you got a nice wrist band that was good for only that day. Well actually no was waiting at the gates that I could see. Some were there earlier and left because not allowed in until 10AM. Not sure how most of the patrons felt about having to pay. The few that I talked with were shocked that they had to pay. I was asked a few times about the money were being collected for what charity. Crowd was picking up a little but no one was stopping in many of the booths. Note I said booths again.
Oh no! It was the nasty yellow line curse. It was really funny; folks would come up to the line and not go in my booth. Neighbor put a mat over her yellow line and people than would come in more. Sales for me on Saturday were not there. A few interest and few said coming back but I think that too long of walks and also drizzle for a few minutes. Some more small packages going by and a few artist had made costs.
Sunday crowd was thin at times I mean it never really got packed in the walk area. Even Saturday never really got packed.
Most of the crowd was buying some what I call junky art. Not to be criticize anyone but that is not what I call art. I mean yeah some of it is cute but what the heck happened to folks buying good art. There was an artist I was talking to on Sunday and he made a great statement “Sells? Heck I cannot get anyone to stop in my booth to talk to”.
Sunday load up went really smooth in my area. You know when artist start getting ready to pack up two hours before the show ends, sells not great. So a lot of artist were carting to their vehicle and not going down the street.
I made just enough to pay for my costs. Just do not know what to do any more, when talking with my neighbor artist we are all puzzled on what to sell. No artist that I met at the show could say it was a money maker for them.
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Comment by Kristy Jo Beber on August 2, 2010 at 3:51pm -
Your description of the show is quite accurate. I was there....in booth #133. LOVE your comment about people not crossing the yellow line......what is wrong with people???
Adding 75 artists, changing the show location and adding an admission fee.....I know one person who made a good profit: the promoter. And, the admission fee was supposed to help cover the rising costs of putting on a show, yet it led the customer to believe they were supporting an arts charity....confusing! We noticed that they crossed off the word : "DONATION" and marked it "ADMISSION" on Sunday.
Mostly excellent quality artists from the parts of the show I saw. Will be interesting to see how many she can get next year......most who were around me were very unhappy. Sad.
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Comment by Nels Johnson on August 2, 2010 at 4:08pm -
Great report Warren, with good pictures. I hope you drank a bunch of that merlot wine Friday night, because it sounds like it was the HIGH-LIGHT of your show. Me, you won't catch me anywhere near that show, sorry, it don't work for me, life is too short. Again a great posting.
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Comment by Warren Townsend on August 2, 2010 at 5:30pm -
Kristy, yes that is what is disturbing is that the admission was sold to help some art foundation. Of course I think out of every dollar you collect, only 30 cents has to go to the charity.
Phil, I not too sure who he is, we never talked, he was too busy selling and replenishing his stock. I think I remember that he is from Kentucky. To many other artist they do not think his work was up to the show standards, I kind of agree. Only because I also do some found object sculptures, but left at home because what I thought the quality of the show should be. Rumor was going around that his stuff is made in a factory. But the folks were buying and I kind of wonder about our society buying some things. Well than again he must be something because at load up one of the judges pulled her car up to his booth. He gladly loaded a couple of his larger pieces into her car. Maybe that was her payment.
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Comment by Patricia Hecker on August 2, 2010 at 8:43pm
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I'm glad we didn't do this show. Looks like they missed the boat on several levels. Hats off to the show directors who 'do it right'--they stand head and shoulders above the others!
Patricia
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Comment by Connie Mettler on August 2, 2010 at 9:23pm -
I know who that was across from you. They should not be in art fairs. They have a big wholesale business and you can buy their goods at any "gallery" or gift shop in the country.
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Comment by Warren Townsend on August 2, 2010 at 11:46pm
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Hi Connie it was very nice meeting you. Well I was biting my tongue about the guy across from me. I do not think I have ever seen a dirty piece of peg board, well lets say everything was pretty grunge.
Susan I did give give one of my customers $5 off because of the admission charge. They thought that the admission was terrible.
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Comment by kerri trzyn on August 3, 2010 at 12:46pm
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I was there as a customer :) just to check it out for future reference. Took a local friend. She thought the $5 entry was high, but said the great Lakes Art Fair (formerly Sugarloaf Art Fair) was $6 or $7 to get in. She also thoght some of the art was high due to the "affluent" neighborhood. She said she should have worn a button that read :I'm not from West Bloomfield". She did make a couple of purchases as did I. She bought a dog sculpture from kentucky and i hope it was not factory made!!! Part of the Friday night problem (I think) was that on the local news and commercials, it said the art fair was fri, sat, and sunday-a local deli also said it was free. The Fox2 morning news said they were broadcasting from there, again seeming like it was open on friday. Not only when we went online to hotworks.com did we see it was a "preview for $25 including hors d'oerves and cocktails benefitting something or other from 6-9pm". Confusing. The weather report also i think kept some away. Fro the most part we enjoyed it, even in the rain. Some of the finest and unusual art and very gracious artists! Still upset about the lawn sculpture!
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Comment by Kristy Jo Beber on August 3, 2010 at 8:42pm
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From a customers point of view: It was a beautiful show...with high quality art for the most part. A few buy/sell or mass produced items slip into nearly every show. I'm not sure about artist raising prices just because it was in an affluent neighborhood.....but there were many high end artists there.
Met a few groups on Friday while I was setting up who saw the news and came to see the show. Most artists had closed their booths to go back to their hotels and relax before the preview night or were busy setting up.....so there wasn't much to see. (Potential) Customers weren't happy.
As far as being in an affluent neighborhood....I wonder if those people who live in all the big beautiful houses attend the show. I do know that I had a customer trying to talk me down to $10 on a $15 little pot (my lowest priced item). It's not a garage sale, people!
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Comment by Terri Drake on August 5, 2010 at 9:53pm -
Most of the art fairs and even arts/crafts fairs I go to are free; however, there are a few that charge, such as the "Paul Bunyon Festival" in Oscoda. I believe the admission is $5 or thereabouts. I have a friend who does quilts/art quilts and at the no admission fairs she couldn't sell a thing, but at the Paul Bunyon she made $1000 on 2 quilts to a lady who turned up her nose at them at the "free" admission fairs. When my friend asked her why the change, the woman's response was "if I have to pay to get in, then the quality of the products offered must be good to excellent." Go figure.
Terri at the Drake's Nest
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Comment by Robert Long on August 9, 2010 at 1:12am -
Phil, it's the same stuff that's sold in Accipiter right next to Amy's. I know this because I get so tired of being asked if I make that stuff.
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