Hmmm..... do I really want to share this gem of a show? Well, it is a gem to me - perhaps not for others. This is my first year of attendance - the event's 51st year. The event location was moved this year from Presque Isle Park to Mattison Lower Harbor Park. Read the reason for change here. Some past attendees and few patrons grumbled about the move, but then many people do not adjust well to change. I personally loved the location and I certainly appreciate the organizers difficult decision to make that change. Part of that reason, as you can read in the above article, was to keep transportation via bus costs down in order not to increase entrance fees for the artists. The Presque Isle Park location required complete busing in the patrons. Once a coal pile, the area adjacent to the marina was transformed by the city of Marquette into a fabulous huge park, located a block from the downtown and surrounded by Lake Superior and marina on two sides and architectually pleasing condos on the other two sides. Marquette has some of the best bike and hiking trails I've seen and one surrounds this park - we had many hikers/bicyclists in our tent. Artists had the closest parking in the marina lot but patrons parking was in a close lot or on the downtown streets.Tent layout was structured to have artists around the parameter of the park, leaving a large center area open. I could see this open area was likely due to the drainage areas in the center. One row of artists were plagued with a water filled ditch directly in front of their tents on Sunday. Organizers filled these areas with wooden pallets, but I would have been upset at having a booth there. I would hope there will be a layout change for that area in future years. In my opinion the organizers (Lake Superior Art Association) did fantastic with respect to artist and patron comfort. Load in/out was simple. Setup was available on Friday and driving on the grass to artist booth allowed ease of setup. Not necessary to drop off, park, then set up. There were several booth areas along the outer section near the lake that were great for disabled artists as they could drive their vans up to that area and keep them behind their tents. Tent area was 12 x 12 allowing all to spread out a bit. Morning coffee/muffins were available and several volunteers continually circled the area in golf carts providing assistance to artists. If an artist needed to access their car/van/trailer, a volunteer drove them in the cart for quick retreival. I was checked in on frequently by great volunteers who offered tent sitting and any help an artist needed. In the acceptance packet each artist received instructions for a customer parcel pick up service. Stressing the importance of customer convenience, any customer parked too far away could drop off their purchase at the info tent. They then would be given a ticket and later pick up their item by driving to the marina parking lot and retreive it from the info tent.From what I observed, the selection of art was equally varied. About the same amount of photographers as jewelers, pottery, fiber, paintings etc. The venue included a childrens area and had a wonderful selection of rotating music/musicians. From what I observed, there were no buy/sell or "crafter" booths. Those not juried in to this show participated in an alternate show "The Outback" that was located about a mile away. While I did not visit that area, I heard nice comments about it.We stayed at the City of Marquette's Tourist Park (camping) and I would recommend that location to anyone with a motor home, camper or conversion van. Anyone familiar with areas immediately on any of the Great Lakes - especially in Michigan's U.P. knows the weather changes frequently. This weekend was no exception as it was lower 60's and raining one minute, then sunny and 70 the next. The majority of the weekend was rain. Sunday was the worst with morning rain lasting until about 2:00. I was very happy I did not have to tear down wet as after 2:00 the sun was great, the wind strong enough to dry the tent but not too strong as to cause concern. I read the anticipated attendance was 15,000 and while Saturday crowds were high, I think the weather kept the attendance a tad lower. Hats off to patrons - they came with their jackets & umbrellas and they purchased. While some artists were grumbling "won't be here next year", I observed a higher than average number with bags in hand. I did well, but then, much of my work is Great Lakes - Lake Superior, the U.P, and the Marquette area art. My price points ranged from $20 to $400. I nearly sold out of the $20 items (came well prepared) and had high sales in the $70 to $150 range. None of my framed items sold (unusual) but had high amount of purchases of the 18x24 matted pieces. Many were multiple purchases by individuals. Economic times are tough and I think especially in this area, patrons are comfortable purchasing more and framing their own rather than limiting their purchase to one framed item.Bottom line - I'll be back. But this event may not be for everyone. My work is so suitable for this area and I think that's what we all must do.... understand where we are likely to do well.I'll post my link to You Tube here sometime on TuesdayLinda Andersonhttp://www.andersonphotoworks.com
Oh Nels.... it's been on my to do list for a bit..... I have this weekend off - so glad for the break - to catch up on these kind of things. I'll try to get to it in the next couple of days. Thanks for the reminder!
My You Tube videos (3) are now available. Please keep in mind they were taken late on Sunday, after most storms had subsided and do not represent the most active day - Saturday. I imagine the space in the center would not have looked so large had the attendance been larger. I have corresponded with the organizers and they recognize the problems with this new location and have already discussed changes to be made for next year. Afterall - it took 50 years to perfect the prior location. With a little fine tuning, this location will keep this event as popular as it has been in the past. Happy selling all..... seems like summer is nearly over :-(
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Anyone have an update on Art on the Rocks?