There is so much to be said about the Allentown Festival in Buffalo, that I hate to lead with bad news. But I'm going to anyway.
We had a slasher. Our tent and the 6 booths near ours had cuts in the back wall and, as it turned out, all of the streets got hit. Wherever you were sheltered by big trees or architectural hiding spots, there were slashes. They were all abut 12 inches long at at eye height, so I assume the Pathetic Loser would slash enough to peek in and then go to the next one if the booth was empty. Most of them were, of course, but one artist left her vintage suitcases that she uses for display behind and the PL took the slash all the way down and stole them. The police came and took info but what good was that, really? Unless you were going to try to get a whole new tent from your insurance company and good luck with that! It has been 25 years since the show had a serious theft issue, but for a lot of out of town folks it meant Buffalo is a dangerous city. I kept telling people this is my neighborhood and it is not dangerous. But the impression has been made and it will reinforced every time they see that cut. Stinks.
OK, enough with that. Saturday was cool and cloudy and the crowd was small and the sales were good. Sunday was hot and sunny and perfect and you could barely walk down the street and sales were half of Saturday. I think people who come out on imperfect days are coming to buy things. Sunday is strollers and dog walking day for many, although I did see a lot of people carrying purchases. Most artists said that the show was about the same as last year when Saturday was a rainy day and Sunday made up for it.
Most of the work was really lovely although the "dye your own scarf" virus did infect the show. I brought it up to one of the volunteers who looked surprised and said they would look into it.
This was my transition show. I decided to bring only a few books and focus on my new mixed media work to see if I was on the right track. I think I am. I made about the same as last year and it is a medium I really enjoy. So that was a real high. It has made the shows fun again. Now I need to get ProPanels but by the time I can afford them I may be too old to do shows anymore.
I am a pacifist by nature, but if I run into that PL with a box cutter of my own, all bets are off.
I talk big.
Comments
I know this man's work and he does some lovely etching. I doubt that he juried in with slumped bottles. The A'town folks are pretty vigilant about checking that what you have in your booth has some resemblance to what your images showed. You can certainly have "craft" items and there is a category for that. Stuff gets through, it's a huge show, but eventually you get stomped. A friend from Rochester does wonderful whimsical drawings that she prints and makes into cards. The cards are 90% of her business. People gobble them up. She had to remove them from her booth because they were reproductions and were about 90% of what she was selling. She was devastated, they would not budge. I see someone tossed out every year. If he's been doing the show forever, he knows the rules.( I'm wondering if the makeyourownscarf people were tossed. ) Now I am not judging the artistic merit of the bottles and I know people love them. But I would bet the farm that he did not submit jury images of them. (If you belong to this group, MrP, correct me if I'm wrong)
Another problem at Allentown. An artist felt cheated because the show organizers wouldn't let him sell one of his top sellers, a liquor bottle cheese tray because they told him it wasn't "art." More on this: http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/buffalo/allentown-art-festiv...
thanks!
Trimline sells a repair kit for the walls and canopy. It works very well.
I use alcohol swabs or lighter fluid on a soft cloth to remove magic marker from the metal in my wire wrap. I don't know if it would work on a painted surface. I guess you could try it on a small area and see.
I have been involved in 3 situations at shows where I have been the victim.
Last year my trailer went missing, after lots of fretting, searching, it was found. The show and the police were involved.
We all seem to act like this is just part of what we do. It's like anything, if no one says anything, nothing will change.
All three of the shows where I had incidents, prize money was given out, yet security was thin.
I have been a prizewinner a few times, but I would rather that shows had the security.
I have been assuming the prize money is to draw the higher quality artists- but why
would an artist want to bring their expensive work, trailer, vehicles, set up, etc, and leave it at the mercy of the streets?
I am no more vocal than anyone else, I like my shows and want to be a returning artist!
Good to hears other's perspective on this. It was so hard for me because I so love my hometown and my neighborhood. I also got the art show bug as a teen, going to the show and envying the exhibitors :) What I neglected to mention was that I saw a lot of really wonderful, new work and a bunch of younger artists. I think that a show needs to re-think its rigid "2nd full weekend" yaddayadda when that weekend has a holiday in it. I think Father's Day impacted sales on Sunday. On the issue of damage, it is beginning to sound like AVS needs to hire more security.
About ten years ago, a group of us had our tents slashed much like you say it happened this year. I just had the cut but my neighbor who had leather products and hadn't removed them, had all of his belts slashed, too. Not thievery, just pure vandalism. One bad apple in a very large crop of apples. Haven't participated in this show for a few years but this really does happen all over (happened to me again in New Bedford, MA) and wouldn't deter me.
Bad news aside, I enjoyed reading your review.
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