This first year event took place in my hometown of Jackson MI and was a combination of Fine Art, Taste of Jackson (restaurants) and a Run or Dye run. The fair took place in downtown Jackson on Michigan Ave which is a very wide street with plenty of room to set up. This was a juried event with a $35 application fee through ZAPP and a $100 fee for a 10 x 10 space. A $5,000 1st place, $2,500 2nd place and $1,000 third place prize was given for booth presentation. There was also three $500 “people’s choice” given. However the people’s choice was online voting and the total votes was close to 75,000 so it was more of an online popularity vote. I would have liked to see that vote take place at the event with a ballot system.
Set up took place on Friday night, however registration started at 4:00 and the streets were not closed yet so the Artists had to wait until the streets closed at around 6:00. There were some stragglers still parked on the street after the road closed and some of the Artist began set up before the road closure.
Saturday arrived and I was ready to go. There were a few “first year misses”. There was a volunteer tent set up but no “Information” area for those attending the fair to get information on what Artists and restaurants were at the event. The participants were not given a sign with identification and booth number to place on the outside of our tents, nor was there any kind of name tag provide (which did become a little bit of a problem when the tent was full). Also, no “Artist Parking” space was identified. Being familiar with the area, I found a spot very close to my tent. Traffic was steady all day Saturday and I did very well with my sales. My price range is $5 to $130 and I made sales at all of the price ranges. There were many Artist that had items for sale in the $500 to 2K range. I talked to a few of the Artist and they were having difficulty selling anything in that price range.
The Sunday traffic was very slow and I did hear from many of the attendees that they did not even know about the event. Another “first year miss” was the marketing campaign (plenty of marketing avenues but the marking only took place one week before the event). I did make some sales on Sunday and I would say that, for me, the event was a success.
All in all, I think the event was a success and the event organizers were very receptive to constructive feedback. I will be attending next year and plan on providing the organizers a link to this blog, so please “pipe in” with any constructive feedback that you think may be helpful for next years event.
Comments
Jacki, without a print out of the artist I would guess at about 30 artists. I believe they were from 4 different states around Michigan. I took a walk through and all artist were very high quality. I did well with my sales $5 to $130 photography. I don't know how well those that had prices in the 1k did. I think the prize money was a good draw.
Anne, thanks for posting about this show. How many artists did they have? Did they seem to have a good mix of different art media? Hopefully, the show will continue to improve and draw some great artists to the area.
Thanks Connie and Christina, not my first post, but I have not posted in about a year. I do love reading and learning from everyone! I need to put together my "second year" post to thank everyone at Art Fair Insiders for all of the help I received when I started out last year on the Art Fair circuit. Second year has been much more profitable, thanks to all of the member suggestions. I am very good at taking suggestions !
I believe this is your first post, Anne. Thanks so much for adding this.
This sounds good, Anne. I believe the people putting this together are well connected with the arts in Jackson. They were promoting it at the Ella Sharp show in June. When I think of Jackson, I think of a very down trodden town, auto industry problems that have eliminated a lot of jobs and even the huge prison is smaller now. Right?
Yet, this is in the heart of a region that can support a carefully put together event. People still have jobs, there are nice homes and there are some lake areas nearby, so there is money. Now the organizers have to tap deeper into their marketing and local connections. Were there restaurant booths on the streets also? People like a casual atmosphere where they can shop and get something good to eat also. If they can just position it so that people will want to come for the art and stay for the atmosphere and good food, that could work.
Thanks for that review, Anne. It sounds like they've got some first year issues but hopefully with enough feedback and future input from artists and attendees, they can figure it out for next year. I imagine very few venues hit it out of the park the first time out, let's hope they listen and improve things for next time.
I began reading this thinking this took place in Jackson, Mississippi, forgetting that MI is not the abbreviation for Mississippi. I had thought I would ask for a link for future reference but Michigan is way too far for me to go from south Louisiana, at this point. Maybe dh and I can do it in our (semi-) retirement. <vbg>