It is another summer season in the Chicagoland area. Amy Amdur kicks it off with her festival in Barrington.
The good and the bad about an Amdur festival is that you see a lot of the same artists at all of her shows. I say good and bad because if you like that artist, you get a lot of chances to see them but it also means you don't get to see as wide a variety of artists at her festivals.
I did find a new jewelry artist who makes very unique necklaces, some at very reasonable prices, so there went my plan to not buy jewelry. Fortunately for me (but not the artist) I forgot to stop back at another booth with amazing jewelry at great prices that I saw when we first got there.
Amy usually has signs indicating there is an art festival but we didn't see any on the way and since I am an on-line newsreader, I don't know if there was an ad in the Tribune like there has been in the past but there was an ok crowd during a cool, cloudy morning on Saturday. Didn't really see any packages but it was early.
There was some questionable art and an orphan booth area. 95% of the artists are on two streets that intersect. Mixed with a few sponsor booths were a few artists and they were to the left off one of the cross streets. The metal sculptor with the big animals was at the corner kind of hiding all those booths. These spots were definitely not getting the traffic that the other areas were. They seemed to be new artists to the show but I can't say for sure that they all were.
Amy is usually very particular about how the booths look but there is one jeweler that shows up at a lot of her shows with a booth full of what looks like junk jewelry. The booth looks like a flea market, visually crowded with way too much stuff on card tables. But, she buys a double booth to show all this stuff. As usual, money talks.
The candle people were there as well as a painter's rep who shows up at a multitude of Amy's shows representing an artist who lives on the east coast who had booths at 3 other shows this weekend.
And so it begins.......
Comments
Thanks for the report Geri and Carla!
Great to hear about a good start to the Chicago art fair season! I'm sure many artists can echo Carla, "let's get this show on the road!"
Thanks, Geri. I hope you have the opportunity many times over the coming months to make up for that booth you didn't get back to ;) Bet you will ...
Thanks Geri for reporting on this show. I have never been able to go to it but I always wonder. Glad you found some great jewelry to get for yourself.
Thank you Geri and Carla. I enjoy this show and too, have seen the growth. However, I am a jewelry artist and am offended by the "flea market" artists that slip through the jury process when most of us work so hard to produce quality work and take the jury process very seriously. I agree that Sunday, by far, was the better day ( of course because of the weather) and the Barrington Art Council do a FABULOUS job welcoming the artists and supporting this show. I will definitely return next year. I really like this show ( with some exceptions).
Geri, She advertised in the Tribune. I saw her ads all over. Saturday was tricky, people were cold zombies, it was chilly. Saturday the sun came out ant it turned beautiful. Big difference, people buying and more enthusiastic. I had a great Sunday. I asked every customer if they lived in Barrington and noticed that we had people from all over the suburbs excited to start visiting the art shows this season. The jewelry with double tent was a joke. Obviously buy/sell. I totally think they slipped through the cracks with the jurors. They must know how to fool jurors with pics but hopefully promoters realize and stop them. I did this show 3 years ago and noticed a better set up and sales plus I feel the show is growing. I live in Barrington and people just new the Art in the Barn show in September. They are now talking about this show and the city embraces it and supports it. They buy art every year from the artists and hang in in the Village hall. This year they bought from 3 artists and they get high priced quality art. I really enjoyed this show, hope it keeps growing, it will help all of us because it is an early show, and for all the IL artist that can't travel, we are soooo ready to start the season with a smile.