Portsmouth VA. Sea wall art show

Comment by Nels Johnson on September 2, 2010 at 8:32pm

Tom, it all seems so good, but basically, you have given us glimmering generalities.For example, what about the setup--what happened. How is the setup, room in back or sides? What kind of sales are we talking about? Give us a little more info, I would love to hear what you have to say.

Comment by Tom Yates on September 2, 2010 at 9:56pm

The set up was an easy one for me cause I was on the very end. Thanks goodness for that because I had some monster carvings to unload. They encourage the artists to set up the night before. I believe there were around 80 artists of the highest caliber. The main area consisted of 2 rows of artists on both sides. They also had some artists that had to cart their work out on to the sea wall area . Most of the spaces were able to drive up and unload in front of your spot. Not sure if they were able to put inventory behind their booths. I believe if you were in the middle it might be a little harder to set up and break down. They had the basic 10x10 for the artists. Security there was great. The police station was right around the corner and they had police there all night. Sales for me were good I sold over 20 carvings ranging in prices from $20 to $400. Talking to the other artists most of them were having a good show as well. They also had an artist dinner on Saturday night were they gave awards for the best in show. Top prize was $2000..... missed that one. Great people to work with. I believe you can Google Portsmouth Sea Wall Art Show and find out about next year. The have been having this show for 40 years.

Comment by Walt Bennett on September 3, 2010 at 7:13am

This sounds like it's run by the same folks that do the Gosport Arts Festival in May. We vended there in 2007 and while our sales reflected our location (at the end near the water), everything else was the same. Very well managed, safe and pleasant.

Comment by Kathy Rose on September 6, 2010 at 5:21pm

Glad to hear the show went well - I messed up and missed the application deadline. I will be applying for the show next year. I did the Gosport this year and did well - I hear the Seawall is even better.

I live in Virginia Beach - so it's a good one for me.

Kathy Rose

Comment by Jill Beninato on September 10, 2010 at 8:21am

The show was very well run...I have NEVER had event staff come around every few hours giving out free water to all the vendors, coffee and danish in the morning, booth breaks anytime you need them and assistance with breakdown. We had a little room between the booths which was really nice for rolling up tent sides without serious effort and we had storage space behind the tents...My sales were just OK at the show.....Sunday was better than Sat. A lot of lookers...artists in my row overall said it was a down show for them compared to years past...I will do it again mainly because of the excellent staff. Kudos to Seawall Arts Festival!

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