I only did the Grove one time many years ago. It was not a good experience. Miami is a tough city to get around in, the art fair is big and busy and confusing, and the sponsored booths take much away from the feeling of an art fair (my booth was across from Verizon, which hired a carnival barker to attract customers). I did ArtiGras in Jupiter last year, and again this year and I'm impressed with the civility and tasteful atmosphere.
The art fair is laid out on two cross streets in the Abacao neighborhood next to "Dean" Stadium where the Marlins and the Cardinals play their spring training games. Nice neighborhood. The committee was wise in scheduling setup all day on Friday without over organizing and scheduling specific times. Artists tend to self-organize these things much better than a committee can. We got there mid-morning and had a leisurely set-up being able to leave our van next to our booth for the entire time. We moved the van a little to accommodate other artists a couple of times... no problem. Weather was cool at first, but got a little hot in the afternoon. Booth size is generous at about 12 feet wide by 12 feet deep. We had a corner booth but arranged our booth with our neighbor to share a second side wall with an aisle between... lots of exhibition space! The one negative was a storm drain in our booth that necessitated bringing the booth out toward the street about 18 inches. Since we were early in our setup we kind of set the tone for our neighbors who also set up our from the curb. We flagged down a committee member zooming by on a golf cart to make sure we were OK in our arrangement before hanging panels and artwork. Another negative that reminded me of Coconut Grove, was out booth location. This year they placed a string of sponsored booths at the beginning of the show on University Avenue where we were located. Last year these were all artist booths and our booth was maybe the 10th or 12th one down. This time we were the first artist booth with and investment company next to us. Unfortunately they were a bit aggressive about drawing people into their booth... a bit distracting. They tempered their approach after we asked them to ease up a bit, but I still don't like being that close to sponsored booths. Next year I'll ask for a different location.
Saturday was the first day of this three day art fair (President's Day on Monday). In spite of the entry fee ($10-12, depending on discounts), the crowds were big. Lots of people coming in. Our booth was busy most of the day, and, although we didn't have a windfall, we did OK and I was happy with the sales total for the day. Weather was cool and pleasant; too cool for the beach.
Sunday was, again, nice weather and the people came again. Sales were about the same as Saturday, so we were happy again with our totals. About mid-morning we saw a parade of committee member with a trumpet player and a fog horn approaching our booth. They stopped in front of us and after a trumpet fanfare they made the announcement to all within hearing distance that we had won an award for best of category (Digital). I was presented with a custom made "helmut" decorated with digital artifacts and a $1000 check. Nice touch. Here's a picture of the crazy helmut I had to wear for all the promotional photos they took.
Monday dawned a little cloudy and with fewer crowds. Most people still have to work on Monday, so we got mostly educators and bankers for customers. Sales were mild and pretty much dried up (HA) after the rains started. It rained off and on all afternoon and made the pack up very difficult. Since the committee left it up the the artists to "self-organize" the break down, trucks and vans streamed into the art fair grounds right after the show closed. We carefully packed up our artwork and kept the tent up to keep things dry. We took it slow and brought our van in when traffic eased a little. We packed slowly and waited until most things were in the van before breaking down the tent. We had to move the van a couple of times to accommodate other artists. The rain and darkness made the break down difficult, but we got out of there at about 7:30, abut 30 minutes longer than it usually takes us. Not too bad.
In spite of a couple of negatives, I like this art fair. I won an award (I won the same award last year), and had decent sales. Not as good as last year, but Monday's rain kept the crowds away. We booked an Airb&b for our stay in Jupiter so, we had a nice condo to stay in. We will do the same next year and look for a better booth location.
Comments
Great review, John. It's really disappointing when the show puts artist booths too close to the sponsored booths; it certainly changes the ambiance and seems to affect sales negatively. But then that helmut pretty much makes up for everything, right? :)