Been doing shows for 20something years. Applied to 9 Colorado summer resort area shows and got accepted for 6. Three rejects were all Howard Allen. First time I applied as have heard both good and bad about them. Of the six two were new for me, one is a keeper the other was ok but won't do it again. Dropped one show that was ok but showed no increase in sales over three years. The other four I have done before and are keepers. Keepers are at least $2K sales in two days.
Applied to 6 or 7 out of state shows last winter and got accepted for 4. Made money at all in TX and AZ but would have been farther ahead working on studio orders. Art shows constitute about a fourth of my business, the rest is studio orders.
Geoff Coe > Richard L. ShererJuly 18, 2012 at 7:50pm
Richard: I don't know if the Howard Alan rejections bother you or not, but I do a lot of their shows and talk to lots of artists there. Based on those conversations, artists who get into other shows but not HAE's are often falling short in the booth-shot area. Their advice would be to read the HAE booth shot guidelines on the website (it's actually pretty well done, with lots of pictures) and see if that's helpful. (Of course, if you're not concerned about their guidelines, or about spending more dough to get 'in compliance', then no worries...it's your business! :-) )
Thanks Geoff. I don't let any rejections bother me. I applied to HA just to see what would happen. After that I had Jim Delutes massage my photos and learned a great deal from him, I.e. background colors, staged booth shots. I may apply to the three HA shows next year or maybe just one of them to see what happens. I like to have two-three weeks between shows to try to stay on top of studio work. Still not real happy with the staged booth shots and may set something up in the studio this winter along line recommended by HA. I have a theory that has worked in part that shows produced by local arts organizations that get local funding from tax revenue, look for quality work and booth shots that show inventory. Non locals that don't have a horse in the race want booth shots to look like a museum display.
Geoff Coe > Richard L. ShererJuly 19, 2012 at 7:44am
Interesting theory you have there...never thought about that! It would be interesting to have others weigh in on that, just for fun
Hope I'm replying right! New to website and just making a general reply, not specific to one person..
I've been researching some shows relatively local to me this spring and summer just to see if I even wish to start doing this again. I live in Ct., really have NO plans on traveling the countryside to do this. Last weekend my wife and I took in a pair of shows on the Ct shoreline for consideration. Old Saybrook and Guilford. $7.00 fee just to enter the Guilford show which in this economy is a deterrant to some i'm sure.
The Guilford show always had a good reputation for quality fine crafts. Artrider now runs it and all her shows have entrance fees. Don't know if it means anything. I don't think the $7 fee really keeps attendance down. It might weed out the lookers from the buyers though.
Well it was a nice show to attend, however I balked at providing feedback I recieved from those selling "Fine Art" as opposed to Crafters. That was my purpose to attend both events, to gauge what the Fine Art painters and photographers had to say about sales and sales leads. In a nutshell, LOTSA lookers. As of late Saturday, 3 days into the event fine art sales left much to be desired. Put it this way, the show was scratched..er ripped off my page of potential venues.
I think many crafters, hand made clothes, leather shops, glass works and jewelers had nice days. My wife took notice however that NOT many folks left the art show with their hands full!
The display booths were all amazing. Works of art unto themselves.
I'm fairly new at this and I'm still trying to figure out where I fit. That said, last year I applied to 14 shows. I was accepted to 7, waitlisted on 5 (ACK!) and rejected from 2. I ended up doing 5 shows. I hope to eventually do about 8-10. So far this year I have 11 apps out with 1 rejection and the jury's still out on the others. I have more to apply to depending on what happens with this batch. There's some long shots in there.
I am in a very competitive category (jewelry) and my work doesn't fit into the usual categories. It is somewhat "nicer" (whatever that means) than jewelry at craft shows, but is clearly not nice enough for the big shows. I do not make "art jewelry." I almost always apply to multiple shows for any given weekend.
In 2011 I applied to 39 shows and got into 20 of them. This year has been brutal, in terms of acceptances. So far I have applied to 24 shows and only been accepted to 5! I am still waiting to hear from 9 shows, and won't be surprised in I only get into two of those. I am still planning my fall shows, so haven't applied to anything beyond August.
Replies
I have already or will apply to 25 shows in 2013. We'll see what happens, I will post the results when I get them. Fingers crossed....
Applied to 6 or 7 out of state shows last winter and got accepted for 4. Made money at all in TX and AZ but would have been farther ahead working on studio orders. Art shows constitute about a fourth of my business, the rest is studio orders.
Richard: I don't know if the Howard Alan rejections bother you or not, but I do a lot of their shows and talk to lots of artists there. Based on those conversations, artists who get into other shows but not HAE's are often falling short in the booth-shot area. Their advice would be to read the HAE booth shot guidelines on the website (it's actually pretty well done, with lots of pictures) and see if that's helpful. (Of course, if you're not concerned about their guidelines, or about spending more dough to get 'in compliance', then no worries...it's your business! :-) )
Interesting theory you have there...never thought about that! It would be interesting to have others weigh in on that, just for fun
Hope I'm replying right! New to website and just making a general reply, not specific to one person..
I've been researching some shows relatively local to me this spring and summer just to see if I even wish to start doing this again. I live in Ct., really have NO plans on traveling the countryside to do this. Last weekend my wife and I took in a pair of shows on the Ct shoreline for consideration. Old Saybrook and Guilford. $7.00 fee just to enter the Guilford show which in this economy is a deterrant to some i'm sure.
The Guilford show always had a good reputation for quality fine crafts. Artrider now runs it and all her shows have entrance fees. Don't know if it means anything. I don't think the $7 fee really keeps attendance down. It might weed out the lookers from the buyers though.
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100
Well it was a nice show to attend, however I balked at providing feedback I recieved from those selling "Fine Art" as opposed to Crafters. That was my purpose to attend both events, to gauge what the Fine Art painters and photographers had to say about sales and sales leads. In a nutshell, LOTSA lookers. As of late Saturday, 3 days into the event fine art sales left much to be desired. Put it this way, the show was scratched..er ripped off my page of potential venues.
I think many crafters, hand made clothes, leather shops, glass works and jewelers had nice days. My wife took notice however that NOT many folks left the art show with their hands full!
The display booths were all amazing. Works of art unto themselves.
I'm fairly new at this and I'm still trying to figure out where I fit. That said, last year I applied to 14 shows. I was accepted to 7, waitlisted on 5 (ACK!) and rejected from 2. I ended up doing 5 shows. I hope to eventually do about 8-10. So far this year I have 11 apps out with 1 rejection and the jury's still out on the others. I have more to apply to depending on what happens with this batch. There's some long shots in there.
I am in a very competitive category (jewelry) and my work doesn't fit into the usual categories. It is somewhat "nicer" (whatever that means) than jewelry at craft shows, but is clearly not nice enough for the big shows. I do not make "art jewelry." I almost always apply to multiple shows for any given weekend.
In 2011 I applied to 39 shows and got into 20 of them. This year has been brutal, in terms of acceptances. So far I have applied to 24 shows and only been accepted to 5! I am still waiting to hear from 9 shows, and won't be surprised in I only get into two of those. I am still planning my fall shows, so haven't applied to anything beyond August.
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