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The bottom line (profit) - it was not as good as I hoped but better than I expected given the cold rainy weather. 

Disclaimer – I work alone and don’t get away from my tent much so all of this is observation from my tent at space 48 and a couple walks early in the morning.  YMMV   This is a relatively small show with two sections separated by a very busy road.  One section, where I was, is surrounded by stores that, with the exception of the closed Borders, look open and healthy.  The other section does not have stores around it and is all artists.  I did not get over to the other section but reports I heard on Saturday afternoon were not good.  The weather improved slightly on Sunday so hopefully the folks over there got some business.  My section was helped by a Saturday morning farmer’s market that brought a lot of people in and the various stores and restaurants.  There were a few booths in a dead zone at the every end.  A break in the booths for a parking garage entrance seemed to keep people from getting all the way down there.

Setup – Anytime you reduce the traveling area to one van wide you are going to have issues.  Clif and I arrived right on time and were able to get in and unloaded quickly.  At that time there were no tents setup so people were able to drive around us but once we got unloaded and went to move the van (as per instructions) security said to stay where we were because it was too congested and we couldn’t get out.  This was not a terrible thing for me since I have a lot of stuff I want to put back in the van after setting up but someone with a space in the middle who arrived late would have a hard time getting close to their booth.  But security was present and very helpful to get as many people in and out as possible.  This setup would benefit from staggered setup times – the end people first and so on.  The other side of the show setup on Saturday morning.

Show – This is a much more eclectic customer base than I was used to in Florida.  Every walk of life, race, and nationality was represented.  They were friendly, appreciative, and unfortunately surprised.  This is the one complaint I have about the show.  Many people said to me “I didn’t know this was here”.  Advertising fell down somewhere.  Most of the customers I got had come to the area for another errand, the stores, the farmers market.  The worst part was Sunday evening after breaking down when people asked me what was going on.  They were sorry they had missed it.  I made mostly framed sales  for $225 - $250 and a special order.  The guy next to me zeroed with $1000 - $3500 pieces although he thought he might have made some connections for future sales.  The woman next to me with handmade purses and clothes seemed to do quite well.  From those I talked to I would guess that mid-range works best here.

Other than the advertising I have nothing but good to say about Bill Kinney.  He was present, involved, and concerned.  Most shows I am lucky if I see the promoter at all.  Bill checked in several times throughout the day with everyone.  He did remove a buy-sell booth and I’m pretty sure he had someone move their van back to parking when they hadn’t broken down completely.  Security was also present and very supportive.

Load-out – The single filing eased as people broke down and moved their stuff to the sidewalk.  It was generally painless if you followed instructions.

There was a parking garage nearby for parking which was free on Saturday and Sunday.  It accomodated all but the tallest vans and there was space provided elsewhere for oversize vehicles.  There were several hotels within walking distance.  I stayed at a hotel 6 miles up the road.

Traffic is nasty all around Washington D.C.  Bring patience and leave in plenty of time to get where you are going.

June 17-19 the Milwaukee Art Museum hosted the the Lakefront Art Festival on the museum grounds fronting Lake Michigan. It is a lovely venue and one of the top art fairs in the country attracting applications from artists coast to coast.

From Journal-Sentinel online, reported by Mary Louise Schumacher:

Nine artists and one artist team, including three artists from Wisconsin, won top awards at the Lakefront Festival of Arts on the grounds of the Milwaukee Art Museum this weekend.

Jurors chose them from among a field of 179 artists.

The winners included:

Jill Bedford of Dousman for photography.

Theodore Gall of Ojai, Calif., for sculpture.

Daiga Henson and Sarmite Svilis of East Windsor, N.J., for wearable fiber art.

Ning Lee of Livingston, N.J., for painting.

Joe Limpert of River Falls for glass.

George Raab of Millbrook, Ontario, for printmaking.

Julie Seymour of Hill Point for jewelry.

Klaus Spies of Asheville, N.C., for jewelry.

Justin Teilhet of Yellow Springs, Ohio, for ceramics.

Zhou Yu of Yardley, Pa., for painting.

The winning artists each receive $1,000 and a commemorative piece of art. They also are invited to return to the festival for three years without being juried in.

Michael Imes of Pewaukee won the sculpture garden award for his work in ceramics. It included a $500 prize.

Several artists also received honorable mentions. They include:

Gene Brown of Urbandale, Iowa, for mixed-media work.

John Charbonneau of Santa Fe, N.M., for digital work.

Peter Flanary of Mineral Point for sculpture.

Matthew Hatala of Danielsville, Ga., for wood.

William Kidd of Miramar, Fla., for ceramics.

Kelly Marshall of Minneapolis for fiber art.

Jennifer McCurdy of Vineyard Haven, Mass., for ceramics.

Thomas Meyers of Hancock, N.H., for pastel drawing.

Larry Oliverson of Sullivan for photography.

Elaine Unzicker of Ojai, Calif., for metal works.

Here are some photos: http://www.jsonline.com/entertainment/multimedia/photos/124138004.html?page=1

The jurors were:

Susan Aurinko,a Chicago artist (photography) who curates the Chicago Artists' Coalition Gallery.

Robert Barnum, an artist (murals, oils, watercolors and metal) and educator from Mecosta, Mich.

Stephanie Wiles, the John G.W. Cowles director of the Allen Memorial Art Museum in Oberlin, Ohio.

The Lakefront Festival of Arts is presented by the Friends of Art, a support group of the Milwaukee Art Museum. Proceeds benefit the museum's acquisitions fund. The event continues at the art museum, 700 N. Art Museum Drive, Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $14 at the gate or $8 for museum members with valid membership cards. Children under 16 are admitted free with a paying adult.

I just want to say to Connie and all who particpate on this site that while I have disappeared for a month or two I am in love with this site all over again.  The content is great!  I love seeing booth shots and detailed reviews of art fairs.  The month of May was hectic - shows each weekend and no time to really catch up doing stock.  All the fairs were in Maryland and have to say Maryland is a good state to be in as my sales are better than last years totals.  

The "story" I have to share pertains to my dad.  I was lucky that I didn't have any fairs for June as my dad, who has been in poor health for 9 years took a turn for the worse - the month I didn't have fairs.  That month being June.  He passed away two weeks ago and just have to say that despite it being a hard thing to go through I am relieved he isn't suffering and didn't happen when in the middle of doing an art fair.  I was doing a great show - Wine in the Woods in Columbia, MD when I had the awful thought - what if I get "the call" in the middle of the fair".  I didn't but the thought scared me to death....  My dad was an avid photographer and taught me a lot about taking photographs, framing and appreciate art in general.  He, in return, was one of my biggest fans.  On that note, has anyone here had to deal with running a business on top of dealing with the death of a loved one?  Right now I am playing catch up as I do not have any fairs in July or August (but not ruling out August entirely) meanwhile helping my mom deal with, well paperwork and such.  I am guessing I should go by the old addage - Just do it - get the work done so it is out of the way and move on to more creative fun work.  So, does anyone have any stories or advice for me with regard to this topic?  My next show, the Maryland Seafood Festival,  is in early Sept. and going to be my biggest show ever which I think, providing the weather will be good, could be a great pay day for me.  My focus is taking the time now to get my ducks in a row so I can do a good job at that show.  Just an FYI in case people are wondering.   I hope all are having good shows and continue to have good shows.  I plan on checking in more often now.  :-)  - Michelle

P.S.  I now have a lot of his work, would it be a good idea to do a "private show" exhibiting his work?  Has anyone done anything like that before - like an open house, or showing at a library or something along that line?  I have only sold my items at art fairs, so this also is new territory 

This will be the third year for this show, run by promoter, Lynette Wallace. It is scheduled for the weekend after Houston's Bayou Downtown. Since I have friends in Georgetown that I could probably stay with, I am considering this show. The layout looks nice, in downtown Georgetown. Did anyone do this show the first two years? I would be interested in your feedback. Lynette has extensive experience as a show director, so I would think that she would probably do a good job promoting and in making it an artist friendly show.

Thanks!

I just finished exhibiting at the Belleville, IL, Art on the Square.  Without a doubt, the artists' treatment, care, hospitality and wellbeing is paramount to the people who run this show.  I can't really remember when I've had so much attention paid to my needs!  From continual water, snacks, food, buffet meals, volunteer booth sitters, runners for cocoa - it just doesn't get much better than what Patty Gregory, the director and chief cheerleader, and her seemingly endless number of concerned helpers will do for us street urchins!  And the buffets - Sat. night for the high school art exhibit to the Sun. awards banquet - I gained weight from all of the tasty foods offered to us artists.  And the pre-show money raised in non-refundable tickets sold solely for the purchase of art:  $104,000!!!

Even in the bitter cold winds and ceaseless drizzle (more about the weather later), volunteers were always available to take of our needs, even to watching our booth while we made a mad dash to the port-a-potties or to grab a bite to eat from the nearby food booths (which had good - and hot food at reasonable prices).

Unfortunately, the weather was a total downer.  On Thurs., those of us who wanted to set up could do so.  We had from about noon on.  It was hot - 86F - and humid.  The weather forecast was for some winds and a lot of light rain/drizzle from Fri. night to Sun. night, with a storm front hitting the area late Thurs. night

And the storm did hit!  The boomers woke me up about 2 AM.  Concerned for my booth, though I had cross braces, cement blocks, a bunch of sandbags (also another thoughtful consideration by the show folks) and a Lite Dome booth, at 2:30 AM, I found it to be taking the wind without a problem.  Not so for a lot of other booths.  There were a number of them with corners bent under, EZ-Ups mashed, even Lite Domes and Trimlines tossed about, with several of them spun around or upside down.  The wind was howling and the rain relentless.  Much of the damage, even to the better tents, came from poorly weighted corners and so many artists didn't use the sandbags offered in huge numbers or used them inadequately.

In spite of terrible conditions, there were about a half dozen Belleville firefighters and another half dozen Belleville police officers, plus a number of the volunteer show staff - all of them valiantly struggling to save tents.  A lot of artwork was loaded into police vans and carried to the police station to protect it.

I can't say enough good things about all of these people - watching them get soaked and battered by the wind while trying to save artists' tents.  Even the mayor came at about 3 AM and went to work helping out!

Well, Fri. night was chilly, so the public turnout, from artists who had done the show before, was down a bit.

Sat. and Sun.: temps in the low 50s, with a windchill factor near freezing from 15-25 mph gusts and almost non-stop drizzle (when it blows horizontal most of the day, everything and everyone gets wet) really reduced the size of the crowd.  From the artists I talked to, sales were from down a little to down a lot.  BTW, Fri. night is patrons' night, Sat. seems to be for folks coming from St. Louis and Sun. is when the local towns come to the show.

The forecast for the show?  I don't think anyone will hesitate to apply again next year.  According to Patty Gregory, over the years, the average temp for the show is 77F. - always a good temp!  I didn't do well, but I'll be sending in that jury fee next year!  How could I not, what with treatment like I received.  Now, I just have to lose that weight....

Hello!

I am new to this, but I have been reading your comments for a while now and they are so very helpful!! Has anyone ever done the Festival of the Vine in Geneva? This year it's Sep. 10 & 11, they are still accepting applications, but before I send mine and the $175 booth fee, I'd like to know a bit about it!

Thanks!

I havn't been to my first art festival/fair yet as an artist--that is coming up at the end of May. So when I went to the OKC festival tonight I was looking at everything from a different viewpoint than I ever had before. I never paid attention before to how people lit their work, or whether they had a rug of some kind in their tent, or what color their walls were, or if they have a sign what does it look like. 

It's my understanding that OKC festival is a little different in that they provide the artists with walls and the tent, and they aren't supposed to sell reproductions out of their booths. 

Anyway this is a break down of my newbie observations from a not-an-artist-there point of view: 

-A lot of people still had their own propanels or other walls to add to their booth space. 

-One booth had red fabric on their walls and it stood out and caught a lot of people's attention/caused them to stop and look at their paintings (which were complimented well by the color in my opinion)

-There were a lot of the same artists there that I see every year, and a some amount of them had the same stuff they had last year. 

-Most people framed their paintings. 

-Jewelers all had large nice photos of their jewelry hanging on their walls so you could see from a distance what their stuff looked like

-I overheard a couple artists mentioning having sold quite a bit already. And I saw a couple red dots on paintings (never knew what that meant before) 

-There were a lot of very brightly colored landscape paintings. 

-A lot of people had Oklahoma-themed art. I wonder if that sells better?

-The print tent was emptier than I've ever seen it before. I asked one of the print tent volunteers about it and she said "not a lot of artists gave us prints this year" and "I think a lot of them are selling them in their booths"

I read and reread all of the posts on Linda Shields' blog "If Jewelry is SUCH a COMPETITIVE arena...Why Don't Art Fairs Subdivide the Catagory?" with great interest.  It was quite thought provoking and encouraged me to do some soul searching and self-evaluating.

I began my life as a jewelry designer as a stringer and I'm proud of it!  My art or craft, if you prefer, has evolved and grown over the last few years.  I now include wire work - shaping, wrapping, hammering, crocheting, etc. I can make my own clasps, earwires, jump rings; but often choose not too. And I am looking forward to the time when I get out the torch and work with metal and/or glass.

I definitely related to Munks' musical references;  Phil Collins "I don't care anymore" and The Rolling Stones "You Can't Always Get what you want"

I don't care if metalsmiths look down at me.  and I'm most likely not going to get into the BIG shows.  So for now, I will "love the one I'm with". 

It's late and I'm tired but I wanted to get this out tonight!

Art in the Gardens (www.npbchamber.com/aitg) in located off PGA Boulevard in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida and took place on November20 and 21, 2010. The show is located ona road in the Midtown outdoor shopping center between the main buildings andcan’t be seen from the road. Midtownincludes a 500 seat theater, 300 room banquet hall, and 225 condo units. This project has been around forapproximately five years (reported from repeat offender artists), and is quiteempty – I’d say at least 50% has never been occupied.

I choose to make the three hour drive Saturday morning versus spending a second motel night and arrived 15 minutes prior to the show’sopening. And this is after a quick stopat McDonalds in Okeechobee, Florida for a morning sausage McMuffin and blackcoffee. The security guard was adamantthat even though I had my packet and parking pass that I could not drive in forsetup until I checked in. Check in wasquick and included another packet with show badges and my name on an 8 ½ by 11sheet of blue paper. She also went overthe artist amenities which included coffee, water, muffins, and fruit in themorning, and a sandwich and chips each afternoon. Very nice. They were set up in a vacant store front which included an indoorrestroom for artists. I drove right tomy booth and set up – piece of cake as most artists had set up Friday night –it doesn’t get any better than this.

I took a quick walk around the show prior to opening and the work quality was very nice. However,there was a lot of photography and jewelry. I’m pretty sure that I didn’t see any pottery and there was one othersculpture artist than myself. In oneblock, there were four photographers in a row with one across from them; I knowhow I’d feel if I were one of them. I’destimate there were about 100 artist booths and a few chamber of commercemember’s booths.

Saturday, Day 1, had a light crowd that did not appear to be buying from most artists around me. Isold four smaller items but nothing of any merit. One copper artist near me sold threereasonable size pieces but told me he had to discount one by 50% and another bya smaller percentage.

Sunday, Day 2, was worse for me but a few of my neighbors sold a few pieces. One photographer Ispoke with that lives ½ mile from the show said he’s been coming since the showstarted five years ago thinking that he was going to make some money and ithasn’t happened yet. Another I spokewith sold a few things but it was questionable that he’d make any money.

Tear down was a cluster. A few minutes before the show closed, vehicles started driving in fromtwo different directions. Fortunately, Iwas parked at the end of the road. Threecarts and 34 minutes later I was able to make my escape. There were a number of artists that weretrapped on the inside but everyone was polite.

Joe’s View

The best thing about this show was meeting two fellow AFI’s – Hi Rich and Sherry. This show is in anarea that has potential to draw a great art buying crowd. Unfortunately, it’s got a lot going againstit including: being in a near vacant shopping center with the booths hidden fromthe view of PGA Boulevard; no real signage from the road indicating a fine artshow is going on; and a very low turnout of potential art buyers. I do want to stress that the promoters dotreat the artists well. However, we dohave to make money and it’s going to take some changes if that’s going tohappen here.

Having bailed out at the last minute on 3 shows this year, it was time to see how things were going. The Denver show has the advantage of being organized by Jim DeLutes, a road show veteran. Jim is (almost) obcessed with making this an event of note and I trust the guy to actually do what he says, and he said he promoted the bejesus out of it. He was right.

The crowds were there, (most with hands in pockets), but we were blessed with 4 days of the best weather Colorado could offer. That, my friends, was a minor miracle.This one may have cost Jim his soul. Sales for us hit my goal of 5K, but what was unusual was what was purchased. I rarely sell a big framed piece, sold one. I usually sell a dozen or so canvas wraps, sold three. The matted prints flew out the tent, and most were purchased in groups of three or four. Very cool, since this product has the highest profit margain. A few commissions (we will see) a wedding (been a while for that). The neighbors (the dancing dachshunds,a jeweler, a scuptor and Heather the clothing lady all had varying degrees of success (and for two of them, this was the last show,both going on to bigger and better things).My good friend Jeff (analog BW) had a decent show as well. No one complained about anything but sales (well, Jeff dislikes the preponderance of what he refers to as "landscape porn" the overly saturated nature work in the 10X20 booths). Some observations from the show:

1) I am convinced that tent poles have a secret life. Despite careful packing, pre assembly and organization, once exposed thery are never where they were left.I can see the damn things snickering and laughing, jumping from bag to bag just to confuse the hell out of me during set up. I plan to install a nanny cam in the bags to prove my theory.

2) One of the most under rated benefits is people watching. I have my favorites, the hippie in the flesh colored body suit leading his llama thru a show in Nederland, my biker buds and goth people that readily identify with my work (damn, that's some sick s**t dude!), and my all time favorite, the white guy in shorts with black knee socks with the flip up sun glasses. This show had the March of the Cougars. It began quietly, a trickle of little black dresses, high heels and feather boas that turned into one of the oddest parades of prefumed and overly made up women I had ever wittnessed.Side by each, no male escorts in sight, I thought "this is one hell of a girls night out". Turned out to be the premier of Sex in the City. Quite a sight, and more than one husband got the shot to the ribs by the girlfriend/wife as his head swiveled to admire the scene.

3) Despite years of shows, I can still screw myself.Had a bike couple (pedal bikes) stop and exhibit some good interest in the work. We talked for 20 minutes or so, and they asked if it was OK to take a few pics of the booth for reference to take back to the hotel. I never allow this, but they were soooo nice. I said OK. It started with a few general pics, then she began to frame the images, he would hold them up for her.By the time I realized I had been set up, they had a half dozen shots.Very uncomfortable confrontation followed, I stopped short of asking them to delete the images (I really had no proof of their intentions). Never again.

4) As the show ended, had a guy (blue blazer/yellow pants) walking with his wife stop for a second.He raised his hands in disgust, and said loud enough to hurt the feelings of anyone within earshot" Why can't these people do something different, it's the same old crap at every show". Wow. That one really hit below the belt.Hard enough these days, and to have one a**hole summarily dismiss the creative efforts of all the hardworking people kinda got to me. Then I thought, this guy is probably the only male to see Sex in the City with his wife.Good enough for me.