Does anyone have good tips for closing a sale? I like talking to people, I greet them when they stop by my booth and I am friendly and helpful and knowlegable. I have a great product, I think (custom coloring books and hand-poured crayons) and my pr
Read more…How I Research Art Shows – Part 2
Eureka! The Art Show Reviews site has a person, Julie Cottin, who is taking care of getting the reviews posted. That is really great news.
Before we get started lets replace the self fulfilling prophesy of “starving
How I Research Art Shows – Part 3, The Last Part Up until now we have had lists of shows and reviews to read to evaluate which shows in our geographic area are going to be the winners. If there are no reviews, the next best source of information on A
Read more…Nels and I have been bantering back and forth about art show reviews (“Art Show Reviews – Just Curious”) and this thought came to me this morning while hiking home from church with one of the dogs. New people to the site want to know “what are the be
Read more…Working on our art fair websites is a mission that gives me great satisfaction, but has a high cost in time and money. So glad you understand and I'm sending out a big thanks to the following people who get that and have contributed to our 2016 Pledg
We lost one of our own this week and I just want to say that I will miss glass blower Joe Becker. He was a fine artist, a true character and an interesting man. He was my friend and a neighbor in the winter when the artist tribe from Minnesota made t
Read more…I did a show this weekend at a convention center in my city. I set up 2 nights before the show. The night before the show, one of the exhibit hall contractors ran into my booth with an electric cart, causing a wall to fall, and damaging over $1000
Read more…I know this has been discussed here before, but I can't seem to find it. There's always a lot of talk about how jury fees are out of hand, and that shows are making money hand over fist with the record number of artists who apply. But what does it RE
Read more…Hi I am a photographer. I am not going to actually get to my first fair until April of 2016. My question is how far back can I go in writing off expense, I bought a new camera and have been traveling taking photos since May to create my portfolio. Ca
Read more…In other words, "How time fly's".
It has been a month since I attended the Zapplication Conference. Due to life's busyness and a family funeral, I am finally fulfilling a promise to Art Fair Insider/Connie Mettler in writing a report. I helped suppo
Read more…Dear AFI friends, artists in Arizona could use your support! If you can get behind local artists who are contributing to a lively and vital downtown Scottsdale but are facing battles with galleries and merchants who feel threatened by what they call
Read more…I was recently in a disappointing art fair (sales were very low and there was little to no advertising of the art fair). I do paintings for art fairs that I consider fine art and I was a part of this art fair because it supposedly emphasized art, not
Read more…This link was on Facebook today and I changed the title as it is appropriate to the art business as well:
I have been in bu
Read more…Well, the shows finally got a little better here in Western NY. The rain storms stopped messing with us in July and I could assess things without factoring in "except for the rain".
My best shows, as always, have been at the Chautauqua Institution. I
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I’m a newcomer, trying to find a niche in the Artisan/craft market, and in need of some timely, sage advice.
I am sure that it is a common dilemma, but, the products I have been able to develop so far (see photo), sell well retail, but take too long
Read more…When reading a review I always read between the lines. This is why. I have done a lot of shows where one artist on my right does exceptionally well, while the artist on my left makes nothing. What I make from this is that the show is a good for f
Read more…I've been scanning AFI for months now searching for clues as to what to expect from the shows out there. I started in this racket back in 1985 with a hard-to-sell form of sculpture that was informed by "minimalism" aesthetics and nearly invisible to
Read more…Okay, I have some questions on going bigger, and hopefully better, as far as shows. Most of my shows' booth fees have been in the $60-$150 for 1-2 day shows. I did Oak Alley last spring, which turned out to be their last show and it was over $200.
Read more…I love photography. I suck at it, but I love it. I like the way it trains your eye to see the world differently. I enjoy shooting odd things and then playing in photoshop. I have no desire or ability to make a profession of this! It is a creative out
Last September I got into St Louis and last week I was accepted to Cherry Creek for the first time since the first show where people were personally invited after the committee went around to a few shows and invited people. There are not that many re
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