To all my dear friends in the Art Fair Community,
I will be leaving my post at the ArtFairCalendar.com websites and social media at the end of the year after 40+ years in the business.
The good news: I’m so proud and honored to introduce you to Mary Strope, our incoming manager. Mary and I have worked together for over 30 years in various art fair related projects. She is the perfect successor who really knows our art fair industry.
Thank you personally for your support in these endeavors over the years. I'll miss you all very much. Love to each and every one of you.
Connie Mettler
EXCITING CHANGES ~~ WELCOME MARY STROPE
Please join us in welcoming Mary Strope, our new Operations Manager. You may know Mary from Juried Art Services, where she assists artists, art fair and gallery exhibition directors to navigate the website (2017-current). Maybe you met her when she produced the American Craft Retailers Expo, Las Vegas (2004-2009).
Perhaps you read the helpful business articles she wrote for craftspeople in The Crafts Reportmagazine (2000-2004). Surely you met her if you visited or exhibited in George Little Management’s wholesale shows (1997-2004) where she managed the Handmade division at 7 gift shows from New York to San Francisco. During this time, she was a steering committee member for the Craft Organization Development Association which published The CODA Survey: Impact of Crafts on the National Economy (1997- 1998).
If you go way back, you may remember her from The Guild’s Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair (1986-1996) where she started as a student intern fresh out of college and worked her way up the ranks to eventually become the Executive Director, where she met Connie and her husband Norm Darwish.
Mary has also worked with or consulted for Integrity Shows, National Association of Independent Artists (NA(A), and Buyers’ Market of American Crafts. Mary, who lives in Michigan, has worked in the fine art and fine craft business, both wholesale and retail, for almost 40 years.
“Mary’s background will be a strong addition to the team. Her depth of experience and industry-wide relationships will be a great asset helping us continue to support artists and art fairs nationwide,” says Connie Mettler, founder and Publisher of ArtFairInsiders.com; ArtFairCalendar.com; CallsforArtists.com; and ArtShowReviews.com.
You may reach Mary via email at Mary@ArtFairCalendar.com
P.S. You'll be meeting Mary here on AFI, you're going to love her. She'll probably do a better job here than I did!
Comments
I wish you all the best Connie. You have been a warm and welcoming presence here and you will be missed by so many.
And it's no surprise you would care enough to find just the right person to take the helm. Welcome to you Mary.
Welcome Mary. Connie has done great, I'm sure you will do great as well.
Thank you, Gerome. I appreciate that very much.
Mary and I have crossed paths for many years, she is devoted to this business and we share so much the same mission. I have been fearful of finding someone who would continue the advocacy that we've established here, luckily I've found her! And, of course, she has skills that I don't have so she should be helpful to everybody in the business in the coming years.