I haven't posted in awhile. I have been busy so figured I would limit my posts to new shows for me. This past week I attended the Zapp Art Festival Conference in Houston and showed at Bayou City Arts Festival Downtown in Houston Texas. What a week. I love me some Texas.
First a little bit on the zapp conference. This was the first time I have gone. One of the highlights was I finally had a chance to meet Connie Mettler. Wonderful person and a great asset at the conference. The conference was everything I had hoped for and more. I will be there next year even if I am not doing the show in the same town. Well worth the expense and time. They offer an artist track and an Admin track as well as combined meetings. I wanted to be in two places at once. All the discussions were eye opening and informative on both sides. If there are two of you split up. That is what we did. Michael attended the artist track and I attended the admin track. We had two days with artists and show directors across the country mingling together and discussing our business. I loved all of it.
The best part for me was the mock jury. You can send in a jury application and they set up a projected mock jury. They had top jurors critique our images. I have sat in on many open juries but those don't offer feedback. This one did and even if it wasn't your set of slides you learned something from every single app. That alone was worth the trip. Zapp did a great job with the conference, selection of venue, discussions and speakers and a good mix of social time. If possible attend one. The conference really does deserve its own review. Maybe Connie is up for that:)
Now the show. Saturday 10am-6pm same on Sunday. It was a bit hard on Friday to go from conference mode to show mode. The conference ended on Friday and set up began late Friday. The show is in Downtown Houston on the streets. Houston is the 4th largest city in The States. There is an $18 entrance fee for patrons but you do get a discount if you buy your tickets online. The show offers hotel rates for the artists. Doubletree is at the show. We stayed at Whitehall since the conference was also held in the same place and about 5 blocks to the show. The show had free parking for the artists at a lot not too far away. Easy to walk to but harder to drive because of all the one way streets. Doing a show for the first time is always stressful especially in a big city.
Load in. Its downtown on the streets. All the streets are one way. I am so happy we were there early to get a lay of the land. Load in involves lining up and officially they start letting people in at 8pm IF everything is clear. If you can dolly in do it. That is what we did. We were able to start setting up right at 8pm because we dollied. I think it was 9pm when vehicles arrived at our area. We were done by 9:30pm and it was getting crazy. Never so happy to have invested in the best dolly gear for our work. Worth every penny. There are some booths in the park. they were allowed to start setting up around noon on Friday I believe.
Booths are on the streets and across from each other. Our space was on McKinney in front of city hall. The street was about 4 big lanes wide. I think Bagby is a wider street. Most booths had lots of storage behind on wide sidewalks. Many artists blew out the back. Like most shows some are shaded, tall buildings in downtown, and some not so much. There are also some areas that get more wind then others. If you are in a shaded area bring lights.
The weather was close to perfect. Houston is hot and humid. Saturday was on the hot and humid side. Not horrible but I did need to keep my hair up all day. We never needed our fans though. Sunday was awesome. My hair stayed down all day and I don't think I smelled too much like an artist:) I know many of us have different opinions on gate fees. One nice thing about gate fees is that the show doesn't start until the official time. Setting up late into the night on Friday makes it difficult to open up early if people want to start shopping early. So it was nice that we didn't need to stress out about being ready before 10 am.
Crowds were lining up early. The patrons were ready to shop. they came in strong right at 10 am and we never shut up or sat down until 2 pm. It took two of us working the booth and we didn't get a break until around 2 pm to take turns to pee. Sales were good but many were going home to measure. I was a bit worried about that because of the gate fee. Patrons were not allowed reentry into the show. That is a big expense for be backs. Saturday night we had people email and call us to finalize sales. So the be backs work a little differently at this show.
Sunday folks were lined up again to get in. Crowds were strong but not as crazy as Saturday. For us the real big buyers came on Sunday. we had a great day. At the end of the show we had folks contact us or arrive at the booth to try and wheel and deal but the pieces they wanted were gone. Hope to pull out some commission work from them.
Load out was typical for an event like this. The show has lots of volunteers and they do a good job but a show of this size and on the streets of such a big city is not easy for anyone when it comes to load in and out. We dollied out. Again I was so happy we had all the right dolly out gear. The show closed at 6pm. They started handing out passes at 7pm. We were leaving at 7:15pm and cars were just starting to come in. On a happy side note the sunset was gorgeous during breakdown. All the colors bouncing off the buildings stopped me in my tracks.
Over all the show is well run. Excellent communication with the artists. If you read the emails you really didn't have any unanswered questions. Lots of volunteers, booth sitters, water and snacks. They even had an art drop off and pick up tent. If you sold a piece volunteers would pick up your piece and deliver it to a patron pick up tent. Great service. Actually had a patron so weighed down trying to carry her purchases that she dropped a piece and it broke. We contacted the show and they came and got all her purchases and delivered to the tent. She was able to continue to shop and pick up her new work at her convince. Great service.
I finally had the chance to meet The Mr. Nels Johnson. One of my highlights of the show. Can't wait to read his take on the show. I have left out a ton about this show. There is a lot to cover. I don't have great pictures or know much about other artists sales. We were just too busy to get around. Overall the feed back I have from friends is that they were happy. The pictures I did post are of our area on Saturday morning and of the Sunday people waiting to get into the show as I ran into the show for opening. On the way home we would have loved to have stopped over in NOLA but we were too exhausted for that city so opted to stay at one of our favorite bed and breakfasts in Louisiana and be pampered.
Next time we will do our best to add some time to Houston and visit more amazing Museums. We did find time to go to Menil Collection. Awesome. Rothko Chapel is right there but I was too rushed and wanted to wait until I had more time. We decided to apply to the spring show after this adventure. Hope to get in and try that venue.
Comments
What a great review Melanie. I always enjoy reading about you and your shows. What a great idea to plan a show and the Zapp conference so you could do both.
Was this your first time doing this show? $18 seems high to get into an art show. Must be thought that the cost didn't seem to scare the good shoppers off.
Thanks for the review.
Enjoyed your critique, Melanie, and glad you got to meet Connie and Nels! The conference sounded interesting and informative, something that all artists should look into attending. The show sounds massive but good, glad you did well. Maybe those patrons that wish to leave and return could get a hand stamp? Or, heck, how about some picnic tables surrounding the food trucks...yes!
I heard a few people complain about tables. Come to think of it I didn't see any seating. It is a big show and the patrons do need a place to take a break. Hopefully in the shade becsause of the heat. Once the patrons left they would have to pay to get back in. At $18 each few would be willing to leave and come back.
Memorial park shuttles in the patrons from a parking area I believe.
Thanks Melanie, for this thorough review.
It was great to finally meet you and Michael in Houston and glad that you thought the conference worthwhile. I don't think people stop to think about these kind of events, attending them. To me they are always interesting and I learn a lot and it is SO good to get away from the office and see old friends.
There used to be more of an adversarial relationship between show directors and artists, but over the years that wall has broken down and I think both sides are more comfortable with one another. The takeaway I often get is that artists are surprised at how approachable and caring the show directors are. Listen folks, no one is getting rich here, all of us could make more money elsewhere, but we have chosen this life because of its idiosyncratic attractions and lifestyle. The show organizers like it too and they want you to be happy.
I'm surprised to hear that you dollied in. You had a double booth and very large paintings (how large?). I would never have been willing to haul all of that in. Twice you mentioned you had the right equipment to make it easy. Do tell. What do you have?
The show setting was lovely and people were in the booths talking to the artists. This is a great place to host a show with large shade trees and wide streets. Good for you for selling so well. Guess I don't have to ask, are you going back?
I spent Tuesday night at my college roommate's home near Memorial Park where the Spring show is held. She drove me past the park and talked about what a lovely event the show was. It was a large park. Then I asked her, "where do the customers park?" There were no parking lots in view. Her reply, "I'm not sure."
What was missing at this show was tables where you could sit down and eat. Good food trucks but no tables. Friends who attended the show said they were hungry but wanted to sit down to eat left the show site to get food and didn't come back, thereby missing about half the show.
Also the layout was difficult. Only experienced show attendees would carry that map and determine not to miss a booth. There were two wide streets that intersected and then there was another area around city hall.