I think many of us were intrigued by a project in a Stockholm subway station a few years back, where piano keys were installed on the stairway to encourage people to use stairs instead of the overworked escalators. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw The project was amazingly successful, increasing stair traffic by more than 60%, and was repeated in many cities around the world. Why? Because it made the behavior of walking up stairs, fun!
I was at a show this past weekend in Atlanta that had good attendance, but few purchases. It is not that people didn't come, the promoter had done a good job promoting the Field of Dreams, but there remain a disconnect between artists and patron...no art buying! Wouldn't it be more fun to take the art home rather than just looking at it? How can we change that behavior?
The Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College (Ohio) has a really neat program for their students. Students can take significant pieces of art from the museum's collection home to their rooms to hang on their walls for a semester for a $5 rental fee. The result is that students developed an appreciation for the art! Can you imaging taking a Dali or Picasso home for a few months! Now that's what I call fun. It should be this way at art shows, people taking art home.
Some would say it's the economy... "people aren't spending as much"...hogwash, we need to change behavior and make buying art at shows fun! I'm not talking about eating kettle corn, or watching thespians dressed in giant tree costumes, or listening to top name music performers. No, that does not make buying art fun. That just adds another attraction to the Field of Dreams and increases the disconnect between patrons and artists.
So what can be done to make it fun for patrons to buy art? Simple, give 'em money to buy art! Art Bucks, Art Dollars, Art Cash what ever you want to call it. Promoters get your printing presses working. Every show should implement an Art Dollars program, why? Because it is the single thing that changes patron buying behavior in a down economy, in monsoon rains, and even in 100 degree temps. Patrons will come and they WILL buy if they have money that must be spent at the show!
I mentioned that I was in Atlanta, GA last weekend, but the weekend before I was in Belleville, IL and the story of patron buying was quite different. Before the show opened, $116,000 had been sold in Art Cash to be used only for purchasing art at the show. This meant that each artist could potentially have a $1000+ in Art Cash sales before they opened shop. Patrons could have a blast spending it... they had to or they would loose it...turns to confetti on Monday. The Art Cash program is in place year round and art cash gift certificates are given as gifts during holidays, birthdays, mother's day, anniversaries, etc. The result, people come to Belleville's Art on the Square to buy art.
My neighbor at the show was a painter. So far this year he had zeroed at 10 shows and desperately needed a good show. Belleville patrons love his work and more importantly, spent their Art Cash dollars. At the end of the show he had sold almost all that he brought and was overtaken by emotion... good for him and good for the patrons. For me, $1600 of my sales were the result of this program... actually more. several patrons added a few more dollars to their art cash to cover their purchases.
Promoters, please direct your attention and promotion dollars toward building such a prepaid art cash program within your shows. The strategy of only directing promotion dollars toward bring patrons to the Field of Dreams isn't working. We need to make buying at shows fun. Building a significant Art Cash program to encourage patron participation and buying should be a primary objective of most art festivals. .
There are a few shows besides Belleville that are already doing this... Krasl has a fledgling program and St. Johns River Festival in Sanford Fl has one but it misses the mark by using a third of the Art Bucks program to pay for show administrative cost.
Happy Trails,
Leo
Replies
forgive me, i must be missing something...is this program different than "purchase awards?"
Susan Thornton. Yes Ive heard that the Gatlinburg Fine Arts Festival does this. I will be doing this show for the first time at the end of the month. Im curious as to how this works.
Thought I'd share that the Marin Arts Festival has a $100 raffle each hour for use only at the festival.
Francisco's Farm in Midway, KY had patron bucks last year, we will be there again this year and have heard no notification that there will not be a similar program. It might be of some interest for some artists to pool resources and do a joint mailing to all of their patrons offering a discount to any returning patron of any of the participating artists, good for work at any artists location. Let's say we are doing the same show as Jim Parker, whom we were next door to at Ft. Worth last year. We do a shared expense joint mailing to our patron list, offering them a discount good at either of our locations, Since we and Jim produce art in different mediums, we are not competing, but both attract patrons with similar taste who might want to acquire art from either, or both, of us.
Linda and Jim,
Sorry for the pause in getting back with you... I'm just returning from a show.
I like this idea a lot; now let me see if I understand. This would be mini-consortia of artists (maybe 20 artists or more in the consortia) who do similar shows but in various complementary mediums. We would each send a flyer to our mailing list (I do email) offering a discount any artist work who are in the consortia and a list of participating shows where consortia artists will be participating. Yes! that would work. I'm on board.
I had forgotten about Francisco's Farm. I have done that show and received show bucks. I was there last year... sorry I didn't meet you. I decided to take a year off from the show this year while they go through management transition.
4 Bridges festival, Chattoanooga TN, "ART Bucks" program. Prepaid patron purchases: patrons given "coins" to spend at varying dollar amounts. Artists turn in the coins at the end of the show, and a check is cut and they pick it up after loadout.
Downtown St. Charles, IL on Memorial Day weekend has a "Purchase Award Sponsors" program. They raised $40k to be spent on art in 2011. Only 100 artists accepted to the show, so that's a fairly reasonable amount to be spent per artist. I haven't seen what was raised for 2012 yet.
http://downtownstcharles.org/fine_art_show.html
Winter Park has a patrons program.
This is done in Norfolk, VA, at the Ocean View Art Show, and in a few other local shows. They are called "Purchase Awards" around here. Selling them is aimed at small businesses and they owners can use them or give them to employees. When they buy a certain amount, they get a free ad in the program book.
One of the ideas behind them is that it gives the show some guaranteed money. Calling the "Purchase Awards" makes the artist feel special that they patron awarded them the sale. I know it did me the first time I got one!
Another advantage for the Art Show is that usually not 100% of the Awards are actually used.
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