Yet another reason to move to Florida:
Series of fine arts festivals planned for Veterans Park
Does Florida need more art fairs? The City of Flagler Beach has just announced a series of six art fairs to be held on the third Saturday of the month, starting February 17. The city has entered into a partnership with Justine Wintersmith, who has organized similar festivals in Washington State and Arizona.
Wintersmith's hope is "to help "establish the artist/collector relationship" in the area through repetition so that collectors might come to the series of festivals to meet the artists and gain a better understanding of their work."
The city hopes that in addition to generating revenue for the city, the festivals will attract more visitors to city shops and restaurants.
Some interesting points:
- Veterans Park can accommodate between 50 and 80 artist booths.
- There is no application fee to enter but admissions will go through a jury process to ensure that three main criteria are met: work must be created by the artist who submits the piece; it is quality work; and it is considered fine art.
- Artists within 100 miles are eligible to participate.
Read the story here: http://www.news-journalonline.com/article/20130102/NEWS0402/301019988/1064?p=1&tc=pg
What do you think? Does this venue impinge on other nearby events?
Comments
I subscribe to Budget Travel -- it has good articles -- and I love to travel -- and I buy art, plus travel to see shows and buy art. As to will they just rent hotel rooms and enjoy the beach -- there they are, I know because I live near resort areas in Michigan, tourists love the art fairs and make them part of their vacations.
Justine, I'm sure being included in that list has increased tourism dollars. My question remains, will these same people purchase fine art? Or are they there to rent hotel rooms and enjoy the beach?
Lol--Pat, my point in mentioning the article is just as an example that we are not what you might call "Nowheresville". Believe it or not, being included on the list has made a significant impact on tourism numbers and dollars for previous years' finalists, so it's entirely likely that at least some of the people who read the magazine will buy art.
Alison, you've got a great point about the heat, and we may well just go February through June instead next season. We're giving July a try this first year because that gave us a solid 6 month season, and our location is right across the street from the beach, so we do get nice breezes off the ocean and tend to be at least 10 degrees cooler than temperatures inland.
The Tourism Development numbers actually show our area's bed tax revenues at their highest for July and August--which was a bit of a surprise to me--so there are a not only a lot of visitors here in July, but year-round residents as well who will be looking for activities to fill their days.
We're taking feedback from both artists and festival patrons right now to determine how best to meet everybody's needs for our next sessions/seasons--there's always a learning curve when beginning any new event series. :)
There is a lot of money in Flagler and the beach is one of the nicer ones in Florida. I think this could work but are you really going to have a one-day show in Florida in July? I almost got heat stroke doing a show in Florida in May, 102 degrees in the shade. After that I made a rule for myself to never do shows in Florida past the end of April.
Justine, Are people reading Budget Travel Magazine going to purchase fine art?
Well, everyone--I'm glad I'm able to address this! Firstoff, a little background: I'm a sculptor in clay and stone, and my 2D work usually tends to be in pastels. You can find some of it here: http://www.jwintersmith.com/fine-art.
I am a former art gallery owner, was co-creator of the first art guide to the White Mountains of Arizona--"State of the Arts", co-hosted a monthly local art television show called "Artspace" for over two years, and wrote a monthly column covering local art and cultural events for a regional magazine.
When the economy went downhill, not only did my gallery close (albeit due to the sale of the building we were sub-leasing), but so did most of the other galleries in our area. I created the Show Low Main Street Farmers' Market and Art Walk to address the needs of the community. It is a weekly event, held on Saturdays from mid-May through mid-October. I ran it for two seasons, then turned it over to a manager when I relocated to Florida for family reasons.
I proposed and created the Flagler Fine Art Festivals for the City of Flagler Beach as a series for several reasons:
First and foremost, this is my "dream show" series. As an artist myself, I created the series with artists' needs in mind.
a. It's a one day show--no need for overnight security, hotel, extra meals, etc. Right now we're only taking regional artists--and as someone who's seen the caliber of work in the area, I know there is plenty of talent here that needs an outlet.
b. It's monthly, so that all those people who tell you "I'll be back for that" actually have the opportunity to make good on their word. Not all of our artists are full-season, so there actually IS a rotation for variety, and actually so far our most successful artist is full season and is generating a following. As a gallery owner, I noticed that the lion's share of sales came during the openings, when the artists were able to tell the stories of their work and establish a connection with their collectors. Essentially, we have an opening once per month--it just happens to be outdoors.
c. crafts are strictly limited. Yes, I am from out West, but I DID do a bit of homework and have attended most of the large annual art fairs in the region. What I see is this: most of them now devote at least half of their space to crafts, which are generally lower priced items. I am NOT against crafts--I am a crafter as well as a fine artist, but I also know that it is far easier to spend the price of an original painting on many small items than it is to make the mental leap to commit to that one significant work. I have talked to quite literally hundreds of fine artists here, and many have said that their sales are down, while the crafters are doing well. So at our festivals the focus is on fine art alone, which actually is fairly unique for the area.
d. As for being in "Nowheresville", Nels--Flagler Beach just made it to the top 10 in this year's Budget Travel Magazine's "America's Coolest Small Towns" this year, so apparently we're not as nowhere as you might think. ;)
While it's true that with our first season small budget and short lead time between approval and the first festival, we're smaller right now than I would have hoped--but we've already been approved to begin working on a second season and the City Commission has asked for a fall session, so we'll see where we go. Feel free to check out FlaglerFineArtFest.com for more info., and if you have any more questions, please ask away! :)
That tends to happen in the little boutique galleries here in Michigan, too. I've participated in three of them, and unless you have a budget-priced line and constantly rotating stock, the co-op concept is not the greatest. Especially for high-end work.
This concept might work better, as the artists are in-residence, so to speak, rather than relying on a non-educated sales person to sell their work, or just let the customers wander about through it.
Another factor is what happens when the public comes back a second or third time and sees the same artists over and over. Attendance tanks and the concept gets stale.
Larry Berman
Since I do not live with 100 miles of these locations I would not be affected...but my first thoughts are how many artists, and of what quality work live within 100 miles?
My experience in Florida is that there were way too many shows in central and south Florida but there were fewer worthwhile shows north of Daytona Beach. In my time there I only did two shows north of Daytona Beach and one was a complete bust. I've been doing some boutique shows lately and I've done fairly well at them.
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