What a year it has been on our planet! Is there hope for our business? Art fairs are a cultural treasure and 1,000,000's of people attend them every year in our country. Will they survive? I'm kind of thinking there is a touch of eagerness in the air. Do you feel it? This just in from ZAPP, the software company that helps artists and art fairs connect.
1. Some of you were actually exhibiting at art fairs in May and June this year. Did you last year?
2. Can you imagine what this amounted
to in $$$?
Do the math ... how did the festivals stay afloat?
3. Impressive! Back to 2019 figures? Do you think we're going to get back to that?
When do you think we'll be back to normal? Will you be there?
Comments
I think that we are like any other industry out there in that the art show business may go through a bit of a shakeup. Restaurants and hair salons are two others that quickly come to my mind as not everyone is making it through the pandemic.
I assume that some artists will not return as well as some shows may have to make changes.
Much of this is not going to hurt those of us that are still standing. It may even get better.
Larger shows may switch around a bit, and smaller ones that don't go out may do better. My larger shows for early summer were cancelled so I did two small one day shows here, Ohio.
Did fine.
I had a horrible year in 2018. I realized I just did not have the stamina to do as many art shows or go as far as I had envisioned when I retired. Plus every show had awful weather. So I worked on getting other streams of income, redid my website, got into some galleries. In 2020 every show I was scheduled for was cancelled or went virtual except one. I have asthma and would not go out without a vaccine so I did no shows for 2020. My gallery sales (once they opened up) and my website sales were good. I realized how much money I was spending on show fees, hotels, meals, and gas. It was eye opening. I've decided to scale down and focus on Virginia. I have four shows for this fall that hopefully will happen. I was hoping to do them without a mask but I just put in an order for KN95 masks. I had planned on retiring from shows in 4 years but I may do it sooner. At the very least I'm planning on staying with Virginia shows for 2022.
I shared with others your purchase of the "death industry" stocks ... a good idea. Good luck with the dirt industry.
The plan going foward is to do 3 shows and build 2-3 trick saddles from May to September. That should be a double whammy on income. On the COIVID scene, I sold my "death indurstry" (yes that is what it is called for plots, caskets, urns and memorials) stock in early summer after the vaccine reports were good. It returned 115% over 12 months. I'm back in with the two leading industries stocks, but also building up infrastructure industries: dirt and trucks. Two hands at a bench can only produce so much and investing can be fun. A good plan for artists woild be to invest $100 after every show regardless. It would build up over time especially for the youngsters.
Very interesting, Dick. We are the same age. I've been trying to scale back also ;) Are you saying that the stopping of the events has made you completely revamp your plans for selling at art fairs? and you don't expect to do as many in the near future? My guess is that many people in our age group are looking at spending our time in other ways. I'm putting in place some good people to help me with my business, and I am grateful that when I moved 3 years ago I was able to move our inventory and equipment to other homes. It was very painful and laborious!
But you, like me, are not shut down totally and can continue to find markets for our work because of the long building of relationships and clients, a fabulous retirement plan ...
These are three good questions that artist should give some thought to. I’ll be 78 next month and have about $50K of art show leather goods sitting on the shelves waiting for the next show. Until 2019 and COVID, art shows were about 1/3 of the cash flow for my business. The other two being new saddles and tack, and restoration of antique saddles. Here is how I see it.
Thanks for that correction. Diversity in all manner contributes to the energy of the fairs, I'm glad to hear that.
Connie, at Ann arbor, guy on my right, glass artist, sold alot of work, he is maybe 32 years old. Couple across me on the right, she is a acrylic artist, sold most of what she brought, perhaps 26 years old. directly across from me, jeweler, she is perhaps 40 years old, across on the left, sketch artist, young 30's. So , the next generation is here! but I think they are all on instagram or whatever, to get them here we have to convince them that old age is not contagious, just with some luck, inevitable
Cool podcast, Mark. I listened to it all and it reminded me once again about my answer to the question, "where are all the young people in this business?" It is a business for adults, adventurers who have life experience, those who have explored many options and can handle the discouraging aspects of the business: bad weather, rejections, low sales, long hours, unexpected situations, high overhead who can turn those issues into learning situations. Like you, oftentimes the exhibitors are well educated, have held other jobs, hopefully have some solid financial footing and most often a lifelong urge to be creative, dabbling in art when young and continually being fascinated and curious, exploratory, and able to bring to the marketplace mature one of a kind work.
Thanks for sharing this ... what's next for you?
Did 3 shows so far in 2021: Chicago Old Town, Ann arbor, Geneva. Off to Sun Valley next week, then Golden Colorado.
At Ann Arbor people were exuberant again to be outside at a show! Even though we had a rainstorm, of biblical proportions on day 2, still tied for a record show for me.
And for my 15 seconds of fame, such as it is, from the Ann arbor show a producer called me, and interviewed me for a podcast. The premise of the interview was apparently supposed to be advice for younger people for alternative careers. We got pretty far off of that topic; if you have nothing to do for a few minutes, here it is, audio only: