Call for Artists, Making Money at Juried Art Fairs, Craft Shows and Festivals

Connie Mettler's Blog – March 2009 Archive (32)

Seven Things Every Artist Should Know -- The Book

Have you heard me say (to quote artist Bob Ragsdale) that being an artist is only half the job,

the other half is marketing your art? Here is a new list from the Huffington Post. Although it is more slanted to artists who are working toward the gallery scene, it has many good points for us in the art fair business. In that spirit, here is what you should know:

1. Every artist has a day job.

Most artists cannot live off their art--even relatively successful artists in… Continue

Added by Connie Mettler on March 31, 2009 at 10:34pm — No Comments

Report from an Embedded Reporter in Houston at Bayou City

As Texas seems to becoming the Happy Hunting Grounds for artists fleeing the North and other distressed areas we will be hearing more and more reports on these events.

Veteran artist Ginny Herzog decided to not exhibit in Florida this year but instead to focus on this area. Here is her report from Houston this weekend:

I exhibited at HB this past wkend for the first time. I decided to forego the FL shows this season because of the bad economy there and, instead, do four… Continue

Added by Connie Mettler on March 31, 2009 at 10:00am — 4 Comments

Or You Could Have Been in Tempe this weekend...

Another great art fair report from a sunny place...Tempe, AZ, and the Tempe Festival of Arts:

Hanging outside of Zeny Cieslikowski's photography booth at the Tempe Festival of the Arts is a sign that reads, "Invest in your happiness, surroundings, pleasure, understanding, senses. Invest in fine art."

Cieslikowski travels across the country to more than a dozen art festivals annually. The California photographer decided to put the sign up last year when the unemployment… Continue

Added by Connie Mettler on March 28, 2009 at 10:48pm — No Comments

My Apologies---

It looks like a spammer joined ArtFairInsiders.com yesterday. I have removed the comments and banned her from the site and taking steps to prevent this from happening again. I'm sorry for the inconvenience. Connie

Added by Connie Mettler on March 28, 2009 at 7:48am — 7 Comments

Call for Entries: Brookdale Park Spring Fine Arts & Craft Show

June 20 & 21 Montclair, New Jersey presented by Rose Squared Productions, Inc. 180 Exhibitors Deadline: as categories fill up In its 21st year, the Spring Fine Art & Crafts at Brookdale Park, will feature approximately 180 professional artists, photographers and crafts people displaying and selling their American-made, hand-crafted work. This longstanding show attracts a savvy audience with its furniture, jewelry, glass, fiber, pottery, oils, watercolors, serigraphs,… Continue

Added by Connie Mettler on March 27, 2009 at 1:57pm — No Comments

View a Zapplication Jury in Minneapolis

DATE: Friday, March 27, 2009

TIME: 5:30pm-8pm

LOCATION: Doubletree Park Place (1500 Park Place Blvd., Minneapolis, MN 55416)

Jurying for the 2009 Uptown Art Fair will take place March 27-29, 2009. Artists will be contacted shortly after the process and notified of whether or not they were accepted into the show. The public is invited to view work submitted for the show on Friday March 27, from 5:30pm-8pm. Each of the images submitted will be systematically projected onto a… Continue

Added by Connie Mettler on March 26, 2009 at 9:18pm — 1 Comment

Featured Artist: Sculptor James Eaton

It is a pleasure to showcase a friend of mine this month: sculptor James Eaton, a former industrial designer whose skills enabled him to emerge from the l983 recession with a new career: fabricating one-of-a-kind weather vanes. Jim's movement from employee to entrepreneur is a lesson for today and is an example to others as Jim says, "Who in the world would ever believe there's a market for something that's really high quality and special?" James' work adorns the poster for this… Continue

Added by Connie Mettler on March 26, 2009 at 7:23pm — No Comments

This Weekend's Big Show: Bayou City in Houston

As I recall from last fall, Houston's Bayou City Art Festival is making record money -- doing a great job of putting their art festival together and finding sponsors along the way. They also have a great publicist, Susan Farb Morris, who even promotes on the Internet - some good Web 2.0 going on here. Here is their email. I hope they have thousands of people on their mailing list. It sounds like they are getting a good headstart tonight! The

12th Annual Bayou City Art Festival Memorial… Continue

Added by Connie Mettler on March 26, 2009 at 7:00pm — 1 Comment

Helping Burned Out Artists

From photographer Jeane Vogel:

Could you please pass this message on to your members and as many people as you think would be interested? Time is short and I'm trying to get the word out as quickly as possible. The loss of art is incalculable. To put this in perspective, it's as if all the artist colonies, galleries, museums, sculpture parks and studios -- and all the art -- in New England was suddenly gone. It's catastrophic. I know we can… Continue

Added by Connie Mettler on March 26, 2009 at 11:00am — No Comments

Call for Entries: 47th Annual Art in the Park in Boulder, Nevada

October 3 & 4 405 Artists Deadline: April 15 Art in the Park is one of the largest outdoor juried art festivals in the Southwest and is the largest fundraiser for the Boulder City Hospital Foundation. The event is held over two days in beautiful Boulder City, Nevada, not far from Lake Mead, Hoover Dam and the bright lights of Las Vegas. It is free to the public, and although Boulder City's population is just over 16,800,

the event draws over 100,000 visitors.… Continue

Added by Connie Mettler on March 24, 2009 at 7:28pm — No Comments

The Good News: NEA Gives $20,000 to Art Festival in Nevada

Good news for Reno, NV, from the NEA - a grant for $20,000 for their art festival.

Read all about it here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/03/23/entertainment/e164834D47.DTL

Anyone on this site know anything about the Artown Festival in Reno?

Added by Connie Mettler on March 24, 2009 at 3:01pm — No Comments

What about those sales figures that shows tout to the press?

I came across this article today and thought you might be interested. It is from the Belleville, IL, paper:

Answer man: Do Art on the Square sales figures add up?

Q. Art on the Square is a wonderful show and very successful. Last year, Belleville reported that the artists sold $1.2 million in merchandise. How exactly is this determined? My calculations show that each artist would have needed to sell $600 an hour every hour. Whew!

-- Rosemarie Edwards,… Continue

Added by Connie Mettler on March 23, 2009 at 5:42pm — 2 Comments

American Craft Council Cuts Back

I recently received the following letter, forwarded from a member --

Feb. 5, 2009

Dear Artist:

We look forward to working with you to showcase some of the nation’s best craft at the 2009 American Craft Show in St. Paul.

This year, we face a unique challenge given the state of the economy. With falling revenue due to a decline in publishing proceeds, a decline in the number of craftspeople who are able to do shows, as well as a decline in philanthropy across the… Continue

Added by Connie Mettler on March 23, 2009 at 5:08pm — No Comments

March 20-22 Art Fair Reports - Winter Park, etc.

When the big events are taking place there are always good articles in the news about them. Here is around up of reports on the Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival:

Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival - from the Examiner.com…

Continue

Added by Connie Mettler on March 22, 2009 at 12:30pm — 4 Comments

Story for a Spring Day

The Team

It was early spring…..probably April, probably early April. We were headed up to the Mennonite community to pick up an order at Howard Habeggar’s store. It was more of a shop or a small shed full of hardware and sometimes Mennonite children. Actually Howard kept all the food orders in the house, but you had to go to the store/shed first. I think this was the hard sell for Howard, as hard as he could be was to direct you to the pots, pans, halters, knives, lanterns,… Continue

Added by Connie Mettler on March 20, 2009 at 4:39pm — 1 Comment

Profile of a Subscriber - A Tale for our Times

Do I know you? No, we have never met but let me introduce myself and my wife Linda.

LInda started making necklaces out of precious and semi-precious stones after the restaurant she worked at, Bill Knapps went belly-up several years ago.

After accumilating more inventory than she could ever wear in a lifetime, we got the idea to take the 'leap-of-faith' and do a small craft show. We made $52 and I said to myself, 'Hmmm, there might be something to this.' So I started making… Continue

Added by Connie Mettler on March 20, 2009 at 1:36pm — No Comments

Call for Entries: Arts, Beats & Eats

September 4-7 downtown streets, Pontiac, MI 150 Artists Deadline: April 7 This is a great example of an old-fashioned street festival that turns into a magical village at night under the lights. Arguably the best promoted event in the country, you will meet people from all walks of life who are drawn to its mix of fine art, great music and tasty food. The event mirrors the diverse cultures that comprise this large metropolitan area. Consistently ranked in the Top Twenty… Continue

Added by Connie Mettler on March 19, 2009 at 5:07pm — No Comments

Michigan Artist Going Out of Business Sale - Art Supplies and Equipment

Well known painter Jan Dorer is retiring and moving to Florida. After fifty years of art fairs she and her husband Gil have participated in their last art fair. They have their house up for sale and are hoping that this will be the last winter they will spend in Michigan. Attached is a material list of art supplies, studio equipment and art fair materials. Many great buys here. If you are interested please call Gil (734-475-4300) or attend the open house that they are having on

March… Continue

Added by Connie Mettler on March 19, 2009 at 3:00pm — 1 Comment

Welcome to Palm Springs! La Quinta Arts Festival's Home Host Program

Last weekend I was in Los Angeles and thinking about the La Quinta Arts Festival, and MapQuest said it was only 138 miles away, but as we had three pre-schoolers with us, it wasn't high on the list of activities. Nonetheless, I have two cool reports from the desert, a Home Host program where the festival matches artists with free lodging and a strong art in public places program from the City of La Quinta.

1. "La Quinta Arts Festival participants traveling from across the state and… Continue

Added by Connie Mettler on March 19, 2009 at 2:01pm — No Comments

Call for Entries: Art Rapids! In the Up North Country of Michigan

June 27 Art Rapids! Elk Rapids, MI Veteran's Memorial Park 75 Artists Deadline: April 1 Glass by

Douglas Becker Where is Elk Rapids?

Visit this link. Elk Rapids is at the center of some of the most affluent real estate in northern Michigan, on the shores of Grand Traverse Bay, near Charlevoix and… Continue

Added by Connie Mettler on March 16, 2009 at 4:00pm — No Comments