The very latest, fresh out of Chicago, is Amdur Productions moving the granddaddy of all Chicago art fairs, the Gold Coast Art Fair, out of the River North where it has been for some years now to the larger expanse of Grant Park!
A couple of the problems that artists have had with the old location will be gone, specifically the constant flow of traffic near some booths and the crowded nature of the booth spaces.
Here are the details from the press release: Gold Coast Art Fair Moves to Grant Park
Have you participated in the Gold Coast? Have you ever attended this art fair? Tell us what you think of the move below. Please leave a comment.
Comments
10-Mar-10 – An announcement last night by 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly that the Gold Coast Art Fair would no longer be held in River North was greeted with applause....read it here: http://www.marinacityonline.com/news/reilly0310.htm
I have recently been informed that I have been accepted to exhibit at "Gold Coast" and while that is an achievement that I am proud of, I am sort of bewildered that I will be among 449 other artists, of different mediums to be sure, but 450?! Jeez! How big is Grant Park? I am also told that approximately 350,000 people attended this festival last year. That's more than the population of central coast California, where my studio is at!
Towing a trailer to Chicago from Carmel Valley, CA to the Windy City is an epic journey in itself, and knowing that you guys are having a NFL preseason game nearby (Bears, right?) at the same time as the festival adds to the excitement. I am going with some trepidation:
the only show I have done in your fantastic city was two years ago in December: One of a Kind Show and Art Sale, at the Merchandise Mart. Expenses where more than 6K and sold only 12 notecards! And that's with having paintings with a mid west theme! I have to say that the customer traffic was bumper to bumper (95% women in pairs) but very few 2-D art went out that really huge building. Dang! You guys have really subzero weather ! Great restaurants though, I give you credit for that! (Brazilian and Japanese? ) Back to Gold Coast: It's a common consensus that Amy is top notch, and delivers on what she says. What I have a concern is that when I read that the show includes children's section, big bands that eliminate conversation between artist and potential buyer, and parking problems, I get concerned. Any comments regarding the show would be greatly appreciated. By the way, my wife is a Buckeye, so I have a vested interest in your greater neck of the woods.
Best Wishes
David R.
As an artist
Location – Gold Coast was in River North and I liked that I could reach folks north of the Chicago River. They tend to hang out "north" and not venture too far south. I worry that this crowd won’t go to Grant Park. I still may do the new Gold Coast but I am looking for another show north-of-river.
Set up and tear down for Gold Coast in River North was okay for me – yes, you have to navigate inner city traffic but I was able to drive in, set up and get out pretty efficiently. I do get there early. With Grant Park, what is going to happen? Will I have to dolly over grass? Yuck to that. That is a BIG park.
Weather -- Yes, Grant Park is on beautiful Lake Michigan but there is a concern about wind. August is a mild weather month so maybe that will not be an issue.
As a patron --
Location – River North -- this is a cool area to go to, both as a tourist and as a resident. Yes, it is a bit gritty and crowded and it winds around narrow streets, but - hey- that was part of the charm. There are lots of little restaurants/bars to visit while doing the fair. You are walking through a neighborhood which is fun to do. You also had the feeling that the artists there were serious and professional.
Grant Park – by the lake. Yes, the lake is beautiful and so is Grant Park. But you know -- there are many events there and you could be there several times over the summer. I don't that excited about going there. (We Chicagoians are very spoiled, I know.)
As an artist again
Currently, I am on the wait list for Gold Coast and am glad for it. This way I have some time to think about what to do. Plus, now, my schedule is gnarled up -- I have already applied to shows on the "new" weekend and don't have a good back up for the original weekend.
--Barb
Art in Good Taste
www.SistakBaur.com
Here are my thoughts. We want Amy to win, we want the artists to win. Maybe this is the big blockbuster show Chicago has been looking for. Let's all cross our fingers.
For years I've heard stories about the difficulties of working with the Alderman and previously other people from the community at the Gold Coast, making lots of problems for the Amdurs as well as the artists. Hopefully the move away from here will alleviate all of that.
I'm sure she is hoping this will work. It has got to be a whole other group of hoops to jump through, working with the city in the city park, the trash pickup, the security, the parking, the porta-jons, the traffic pattern. Yikes! But she is tough and can make those things work, but it will be a lot of work for her and her staff, and I'm not sure it will lower her expenses. It depends on how well the city works with event promoters.
Picking up 50 new exhibitors can help that out. But will it all get eaten up by other expenses that she didn't have in the Gold Coast neighborhood?
For the artists, on the other hand, it really is like a whole new show. Chicagoans love their own neighborhood events and won't always travel to the other guy's neighborhood. So artists have a chance at a new market, as Jim Parker said. I'm with you, hoping everyone wins.
I will like to see the reports after the show. Best of luck and hope that I am wrong b/c this was the only show that I will consider doing with her. One note I do think that she is one of top 5 promoters.
I printed the website info at the time I applied. It said it would select 350 exhibitors for Gold Coast. Now the site says it has 450 exhibitors for GoldCoast/Grant Park. I've never been in a show with so many exhibitors. Most of my success at shows has been selling to residents (not tourists). So I have to be concerned how successful this could possibly be for me.
Butler Field is in between Columbus Drive and Lake Shore Drive, just south of Millenium Park. The old band shell is there, and they show movies there on summer evenings. It's also the home of the Chicago Jazz Festival, but the Symphony moved to the new Pritzker Pavilion in Millenium Park.
If you read the press release closely, Amy's also adding another 50 artists. Even though this is a new date and a new venue, she's still charging Gold Coast prices for the show ($585 for a single booth). The good news is that there is no city fee ($50 last year).
The biggest issue for me, however, is that the demographics are completely different. Grant Park in summer, and specifically the new location, is mostly a tourist crowd. That bodes well for jewelry and smaller souvenir items, but big serious work may suffer in this venue. It's going to take a lot of publicity to bring the Gold Coast residents down to Grant Park, I think. It's not really walking distance from the Gold Coast. And I'm not sure that the residents in the new high-rises off of Lake Shore Drive and Columbus are buying at art fairs. Maybe. This would compare more to the new Millennium Park show that Amy has been running the past couple of years in June. I bet that a lot of artists will have a hard time deciding to make the switch to the new location for those reasons. I hope I'm wrong though. With all its faults, Gold Coast had a loyal core base of patrons and artists.
If there is an NFL pre-season game at Soldier Field, it would make load-out hellacious due to game traffic on Lake Shore Drive. Soldier Field is at the far end of Grant Park, just past the Field Museum, so it's not really adjacent, but it will have an impact.
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