Asheville Fine Art Show, Hot Works
Asheville, NC -- May 20-21, 2017
I just returned from the Asheville Fine Art Show in Asheville, NC. This was an indoor event at the U.S. Cellular Center downtown. Asheville is a fun, funky town with a big art scene and a lot of food choices, and LOTS of beer breweries downtown. What's not to love?
This show had some amazing potential. There was a boatload of advertising for the show, the weather outside was supposed to be storms and rain and this was indoors, it was a central location, and only about a six hour drive from home. It was an expensive (to me) show, though -- booth fee was $625, add $85 if you wanted electric. I chose to bring my battery setup and skip the extra cost -- make that rig pay for itself, right? Patty (Hot Works) was wonderful in keeping good contact with everyone, sending links to the advertising, news articles, TV spots, and more.
Set up and load in was flawless. You could actually drive into the venue and unload very close to your booth, the day before the show. In my case, about two feet from my booth. It is a relatively small show of about 85 spaces, on two levels -- the Arena floor and the concourse (entry) level. The entry level had about 9 booths, walk down a ramp to the arena floor for the rest of the artists. You could purchase parking about six blocks away for the duration of the show for $20, which I did. It was quite the hike from the parking lot, turns out. There's not a level stretch of road in this town!
There was such a wonderful variety of artists, across all mediums and price points. Looking at the other artists involved made me think "Man, I'm lucky to have been accepted to this show!" A few familiar faces and quite a few new ones, since this was my first NC show and first visit to Asheville. We all had high hopes for the show!
A few photos are at the Photobucket link below, more on my Instagram @joellockridge, then the review continues below.
The problem with the show is that very few people came. There was a "Gallery Walk" going on that weekend in the famous art district, as well as two other outdoor shows I had no idea were going on. Saturday's two sales totaled $100. Sunday's sales totaled $95. Many artists didn't even get that much, just a few lucky souls made their booth fee back. I don't know of anyone who made a real profit. Even the driving rain on Sunday didn't bring people inside. I've never had such a huge loss for a show before, and after two bad shows in a row, things are getting somewhat desperate around here.
Load out was again, flawless. No shoppers to get in the way of the load-out process.
So what went wrong? No idea. Too much going on? Lack of parking? The locals just didn't show up for this. Any insights?
Comments
I agree with you on his attitude, but I can't speak for most judging so much -- I'm used to being overlooked by them.
Sorry to hear this show did not bring forth the buyers. The work pictured in the slides is wonderful. The public missed out on this one! It seems that fine art/craft shows are no longer the place where people shop for artist's work if they shop for it at all. I don't know what the answer is but I know the shows are not working for anyone these days. That area should have produced more traffic. Such a loss of time and income hurts. Hope your next show is better.
I am happy for you for the good part .... easy load in and load out, plus good art.
I am sorry for the low sales ... low number of sales numbers and $$. That is a disappointment no matter what level of show you are doing. It stings more when you've invested that much in just the booth fee.
We vacationed in that area few years back. That part of the country is just lovely so I can see why it would draw you there for a show. I hope you were able to take time while in the area to see some of the sites. The Biltmore is worth the trip alone.
Sorry to hear that, and I'm with you- lost money last year and bombed my first show this one. Anyway a friend of mine had the same report, and I have a couple thoughts. (I was so close to doing this show, had I had the money for the booth fee I would have- argh)
Indoors in May. Nobody wants to be indoors in May. Too many events as well. I think the biggest thing though is that Asheville has a huge home grown arts and crafts seen. This is the center of craft for the south, I just don't imagine a huge interest in other work.
Sorry you lost out, hopefully your next show is kickass