Just finished up 2 decent days in Annapolis. Thought I would share our experiences here while still fresh in the brain:
This is NOT a fine arts and crafts show. It is a festival. While there is probably a bit too much commercial and buy/sell, there is plenty of very nice hand crafted and fine art here. Several 2D better art, and lots of good craft. There was, however, a good crowd throughout the weekend. Plenty of "good shoes" and most artists reported "decent" sales. I am sure there are a few that had a GREAT show, and a few that had "horrible" sales. We fall in the decent category, certainly will stay on our schedule for a 4th consecutive year. So, why the "Whine" instead of "Wine"?
Seems to me that if you try hard enough, you can find something to complain about at any show. This one is held in the parking area (off the blacktop) of the Navy - Marine Corps Memorial Stadium at the Naval Academy. Not grass, pretty much fine gravel, dirt with a bit of grass and a lot of broken beer bottles. While not attractive, unless you are barefoot, not a big deal. Had one customer with a huge poodle complain about the glass. Lots of vendors did though. Load in and out is pretty darn easy, unless you are a jerk and in a huge hurry to leave, I guess. Don't think I am either. Drive to your booth in and out. Tons of Porta-pots and clean. Customers pay $30 per day for a wineglass and wristband to sample dozens of great wines. Vendors pay $5 for the same thing, and it's good for both days.
I guess the point is nothing spectacular, and nothing horrible. No reason to not return, unless you sold very little. If you didn't do well, it's either a simple fact that your genre did not match the customer's tastes, your prices didn't match the budgets, or you just weren't someone they wanted to buy from. We had several customers comment that they enjoyed doing business with folks that love what they are doing (us). While you can't make someone that doesn't like your 'stuff' buy it, you can certainly make them not want to give you their money regardless of how much they like your stuff!
Comments
I did this show twice and agree wholeheartedly with Alan Anderson. Yes, it's a sort of free-for-all in terms of quality of work - everything from people selling spice packs and olive oil (and both were really good, FYI) to artists selling gorgeous, expensive work. I had good, solid shows there both years, in the $2,000-$3,000 range. Set-up and load-out are easy, the crowds come out and they are ready to buy. Nice people, too. One thing to be aware of is that it can get very, very, very hot. Brutally hot.
Absolutely! Sales pick up as the wine goes down. And I am perfectly OK with that!
Thanks for that insightful review, Alan...I'm going to say that the wine probably helped a little bit too, ha!
Martha, please look at Annmarie Sculpture Gardens Artsfest in September, a bit more than an hour south of Annapolis in Solomons Island. Fantastic, pure Art/Fine Craft and juried in conjunction with the Smithsonian. Did not hear a negative comment from any of our neighbors....!!!
I can justify a return trip if we are able to stay with friends. I hate the buy sell, home service component and if husband weren't from Baltimore I wouldn't be part of this. I didn't sell any originals, just lots of $20-$50 dollar prints.
I keep hoping promoter will turn it around but at this point it's not likely. I may opt for the plain air festival next year which starts today because I LOVE ANNAPOLIS!
Anne, I had a conversation with Jim regarding the food situation after we were packed up. The challenge is that the Stadium controls who can vend food there, even the parking lot. Jim gets plenty of "Sure, we will be there" then cancels at the last minute, and he is stuck. I am going to make some suggestions to him for fixing this, but I completely agree. Not enough food, too much alcohol! Thanks for your comment!
Granted, there were plenty of pluses and minuses with this show. The crowd was surprisingly young but were good shoppers. The viability of the Annapolis market for art and fine craft is very strong. There were lots of outside bathroom units which was a major improvement over the Beer festival held there last September. Like Alan and Mark, I was not happy with the corporate companies vending at the show. This was called an Art and Wine event, not a home show.
However, the biggest drawback to the attendee was the lack of food. There was only one food vendor for this rather large show with wait times of half hour or more. Shoppers spent way too much time in line for food and for wine samples which detracted from browsing the artists.
The tent layout also needs attention. Too many large empty spaces.
An acquaintance remarked last year on his 40 plus year career in the arts and crafts profession. He said that fine arts was a going concern
in its hey day for the individual practitioner, but not so much anymore.
In the time I have been doing this show, I have watched the pool of fine artists shrink. The character of this event has evolved. All that needs to happen is for the name of the event to change from arts and crafts to merely crafts, and the transformation will be complete. It's not a fine arts event anymore. The promoter made their decisions and the fine arts collector has left the building because of that. The event is probably off my list of shows to do unless they make serious changes
I guess I will end with I sure am glad that we chose Fine Craft Jewelry as our medium, and that we outshine the competition! We do fairly well at this event and very well at Fine Art / Fine Craft shows. Best of all worlds!
I would suggest to you that the larger spenders have cast their vote with their feet as the show got dumbed-down. I had sales that made my trip there profitable for 3 of the 6 years I was there. To have three painters with distinctly different styles, but of high quality work all have bad weekends in plum location marred by buy/sell and Ven-duhs is telling for a 2-d artist.
The show is now a wine event with a craft and buy/sell component.
As for wearables not being easy to turn a profit at these events: wrong. Women will drop 20-50$ on stuff to wear at these events before they consider putting something on the walls. It is a rare man shopping by himself who is making purchases for the home. The majority of customers shopping and making buying decisions are women. Most of the men are basically 'in-tow' and do not make buying decisions except on very very expensive purchases when consulted with by their spouses. And often it's which piece of jewelry do you like better questions rather than can I buy a piece of jewelry.
Yes, the competition is fierce amongst jewelers, but that's because there are so freaking many of them and other women's wearable exhibitors at each and every show. And they are pulling a lot of the shopping budget away from traditional fine art sales. Shows which were much more oriented to fine art are now much less so.
The shows which are still geared to true fine art and fine artisanship are now the ones which are so extremely competitive to get into.
It's tough to be a 2-d artist these days even with all originals and most of those under 200$. And given that three stylistically diverse 2-d artists in relatively close proximity had such a rotten show, despite prime locations says something about the demographics of the customers and speaks also to how the addition of so much buy/sell and addition of goods and services vendors can affect sales.
If it wasn't such an expensive show relative to other craft shows I do, I'd take my soy candles to the event. There was a soy candle seller there who was selling scented 12 oz dye free candles there for $22/each who said they did well at the event.
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