Blog

The following should be taken with a very large grain of salt. Better yet maybe an entire salt block because my impressions couldn't come from a place of less experience. I'm about to report on the first two art fairs that I've ever done.

I got my initiation in Greenville SC at Artisphere, weekend before last. Greenville has a beautiful and vibrant downtown and booths are set up in a long line down both sides of picturesque Main Street. This set up made for an easy load in (even for a novice) and it made every artist's booth visible and easily accessible. No one got overlooked.

Almost to the point of embarrassment we were made to feel special. Greenville's mayor came by and we got into a long chat. Other city officials introduced themselves as did members of the event Board. We were thanked repeatedly for coming and there was clearly the attitude that Artisphere is an important and classy event that the city takes seriously. So do the patrons.

Last year's attendance was estimated at 95,000 and this year it couldn't have been fewer. The crowd was energetic and genuinely engaged. People asked serious questions and seemed excited about art. They came to buy and buy they did, across the price range. I was told by a member of the Board that a wood sculptor had sold several pieces each priced at $15,000. My neighbor glass blower sold several large pieces at $2200 and many smaller. I make unglazed raku vessels priced from $175 to $600.00 and I sold 32 pieces, many at the high end.

It was a terrific show from beginning to end. Beautiful art and an enthusiastic, generous crowd. I wrote a note to Liz Rundorf the Program Director and told her that my only complaint was that she had set the expectation bar way too high.

Boy was I right. A threat of rain hung over Broad Ripple Art Fair in Indianapolis this past weekend, which almost certainly kept attendance down. I'm guessing it was well below last year's 15,000, but even if there were more it wouldn't have mattered. This was not a crowd, it seemed to me, interested in or intent on buying fine art.

I set up for an optional pre-event cocktail party showing Friday night for art center supporters and dignitaries. This was billed as an opportunity for party guests to get a first look at the art and a first chance to buy. We were told before the event that 200 guests were expected at the party (which seemed like a low number), and during the two hour showing we counted 30 people who walked by our booth. Most of that 30 strolled by without even a sideways glance at the art.

About the art-- this event is described as a fine art and craft fair but it seemed heavy on the craft (pens, wrist bands, yard art) and those few who did buy seemed oriented in that direction. A local potter told me, kindly, that my work did not belong at the event because it was too far into the fine art category.

My neighbors were a metal sculptor, a wood turner/sculptor, and a watercolorist, all of whom did beautiful work. Exceptional work. The painter sold nothing, the metal sculptor sold nothing, the wood turner sold a few low end pieces, and I sold two pots. That's two.

For the most part people shuffled by, zombie-like. Many didn't look into the booths. I wondered for a time if my booth was situated in a difficult spot, near the corner of a square formation. Was it that people turned the corner and tended not to see me? Maybe, but that didn't explain the painter or the sculptors. I got my beautiful wife to pretend to be a shopper in my booth. She was wearing this flowing skirt and she gets attention anyhow but she could have taken the skirt off and it wouldn't have helped. I could have butchered a live steer in the tent and those few people who might have turned their heads in my direction would have blinked once between handfuls of popcorn and ambled on.

In the context of poor attendance, too many booths, and horrific sales, it seems beside the point to say that set up was a bit difficult (cart in) and that none of the welcome and care for the artists so obvious at Artisphere was evident here. Sometime Saturday morning when you just knew that this wasn't going to go well, I stopped caring about those things. I just started to think about expenses.

There were a few saving graces. We got to know Michael the wood guy and his wife and had a blast with them and helped each other through. He's been in this business for 30 years and he taught me a lot in two days that I'll take with me down the road. He said this was one of his worst shows ever and that he would not be back. Ditto the painter, a 15 year veteran. Their opinions I would not take with a grain of salt.

Then there was a great beer truck by Broad Ripple Brewery. Their IPA eased the pain and made my booth neighbor, a funny guy anyhow, seem hysterically so. And I bought a cool knife with a mammoth tooth handle from a fellow artist, thereby blowing almost half of my meager income. My wife suggested that I put the knife in a place that, while anatomically possible I suppose, would be somewhat painful. I declined.