I am an older person who went back to school to study photography after my family business of over 50 years closed down. (I have an art degree from a LONG time ago.)
Before I go back up into the "real world" to try and make a living again, I thought I would TRY and see how I would do at several Art Fairs.
So I registered for 8 or 9 (thinking I MIGHT get accepted into 1 or 2.) However up to now I have been invited to 3 of the 4 that have been decided.
I have couple of questions that I would like to ask you people out there with more experience in these fairs that might help me:
CAN YOU MAKE MONEY ON THE FAIRS?
Taking into consideration the:
Cost of a tent
Cost of entry fees
Cost of booth fees
Cost to mount/and or frame your work
Cost of a hotel room, food, miss. income..
Is there enough left over to actually make a profit???
Comments
William.............I was fortunate enough to live thru the golden years of art shows. Up until about 6 years ago you could make significant money at shows. Investing $1,000 for a nice Lite Dome canopy and ditching the KD was easy when you drove home from Ann Arbor with $10,000 in your pocket. Shows had an exciting buying atmosphere.
Times have changed. Many shows are now kettle corn and cheese taco visitors. Many now buy on the internet. The old rule that ten times the booth fee was a minimum for a good show is not heard much anymore. Hotel and booth fees have gone up so much you need to sell $1500 before even making a dime. Cities are getting tougher. Just this weekend two booth neighbors got $125 parking tickets. So...........Yes you can make money but its doubtful that you will really make good bucks unless your work really transcends most of what you see out on the street. If you are over 65 I would take a nice easy job in the real world and enjoy my senior years.
I have been doing shows for about 4 years now. I sell unique photography. In my opinion, the only way to make good money in this is to have something the other photographers don't have. I see many people just walk past tents with nature scenes and waterfalls, but constantly have a full tent at my spot. I do about 8-10 shows a Summer and sell about 1200+ prints in that time. My bigger sellers are 16x20 metal prints @ $325 and 20x30 metal @ $450. I sell no originals or limited number pieces. I sell a lot of 8x10 matted to 11x14 for $30 each. I bring out about 500-700 matted/framed prints to each show in varying sizes.
There is money to be made, if you have what they want and have not seen before.
No, everyone here are millionaires and do it for fun, lol. It does amaze me how may people do art fairs at an older age and after retiring from a corporate job. Maybe it's too hard to do festivals and grow a family at the same time? That's my case anyways and I'm concentrating more on galleries and online sales and do a few shows each year.
Yes, it's possible, but difficult. I've been at it for ten years as a photographer, and each year gets a little harder, but I make a little more money. It helps that my wife is still employed and carries our health insurance.
Don't expect to make money quickly at this business. The capital expenditure to present yourself and your work are fairly high, unless you are doing second tier shows on a budget. There's a lot of competition at the local shows, both from the other photographers, and from other 2-D artists. People only have so much wall space, and photography is a tough sell as a gift for many people.
You have to balance the quality of the shows you are applying to with the number of people who might see your work and then purchase it. If you haven't walked the show as a visitor prior to applying, you may find that your work is priced higher or lower than the competition, that your audience isn't there, or there just aren't enough people to make it worth your while.
The weather is a significant variable, as are other events happening to dilute your potential buying crowd. Super Bowl Weekend in Florida is a good example of that.
It helps to create a financial model to predict possible outcomes for an individual show, especially if you're traveling to it.
Your main costs include your capital expenses, ongoing fixed expense, and show specific expense.
Capital Expense includes your canopy and display equipment, transportation equipment (van, trailer), photographic equipment, printers, framing equipment and other long-term investments.
Ongoing fixed expenses include your health insurance, business insurance (both liability and theft, as well as inland marine), transportation maintenance and insurance, and so forth. Perhaps your biggest ongoing costs will be maintaining an inventory in both framed or wrapped prints as well as matted prints. Your inventory also should consider materials that you use to create the finished product, such as ink, paper, mattes, frames, glass, tools, and other assorted bits & pieces.
Show specific expense includes your application fee, booth fee, hotel and meals, incidentals and so forth.
It all adds up, and it can take a while to figure out what your voice is, and why that's unique in the art fair world.
Here's an expense estimator that you might find useful. It's posted on my blog at http://www.parkerparker.info/studio/blog/?p=14
Ive only lost money on one show so far, thank you Lord. But you cant go to a small town craft fair where you spend $75 to get in and expect to make big bucks with art. You have to really research shows, the market, YOUR market, and unfortunately spend a lot of money before you hopefully see a good return on the money.
I may not be 72 but I am also still somewhat starting out into the art show world. I tech during the school year and then work a multitude of eclectic jobs in the summer. It doesn't exactly leave an open schedule to do a big show run like I see many people doing (which also works for them). So far I have held back and only tried to do some shows that are very close to me or in my hometown and that started back in college for me. To be honest I have only done maybe 3 or 4 shows total ever and I FINALLY have figured out the difference between an ART show and a CRAFT show etc... Here are the details: I bought a simple pop up 10 by 10 tent form a friend that had been used for about 65 bucks. It had a few little scratchy holes in the top but it worked nicely. I mainly sell ceramics and acrylic paintings. Not being able to afford, nor wanting to purchase pro panels, I decided to buy metal 3x3" grid walls. Now I could weight down my tent and display my work. It may look a little bit more tacky then pro panels but for me just starting ti fit the cost in the long run around 500 dollars after freight shipping and everything. The last art show I did I sold around 500 dollars worth of material so it still (in balancing figures and money mode) did not make me a profit. But it was fun and I have a small amount of people happy to see my work. Anytime I can I will try to camp with my tent instead of hotel. Or go couch surfing if you've ever heard of that. However I understand that since I am younger and just a single male looking to crash somewhere it may be a bit easier for me. As for now I have an at show down in Georgia coming up and am very excited. Again I plan to camp. My point of all of this is that I was able to balance costs a bit by having my walls weight down my tent and not use sandbags or cement cylinders, and it may not be making me money yet but I am somewhat stuck as a hobby artist. I am happy doing a show once in a while and it seems that once one gets the system down, one can turn a profit.
Yes, I make $$$ at art fairs. But my photography is quite different. I do regional shows. Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky. Sometime hotels eat into the profits. But the bigger the show the more $$$ I make.
We published two different coffee table books, these are sort of a compilation of sets of the photographs.
So for about $35, they purchase a gift book and they sell well.
I love doing the shows too, love meeting the audience, but, I can't say there's been a show where we've sold a print. We've done shows too at lots of different types. I see some of the non-pro photographers with prints priced $75 and $125 selling some prints.
However our booth's emphasis is on the books, we know that price point will do better. Maybe we're doing the wrong shows! We do sell from the website. You can see the books on www.ronlowery.com.
William, I have a full time job, but use art fairs to supplement our income. This year I only did 3 local shows and each was very profitable and one more next month. Photography is my medium. Like everyone else, I, too, work hard at it. But, for me it's very enjoyable. I keep my booth simple, pack light, I don't mat and frame any more. I sell canvas wraps and flat prints. Knowing your market is tantamount to succeeding - IMO.
Out of state exhibits are also an added bump in sales for me.
Wish you well,
Hal
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