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Maitland Rotary Art Fest

This, our first Art Fest experience, was held last weekend in Maitland, FL a suburb Northeast of Orlando in absolutely gorgeous weather… the kind that makes you feel “Life is Good!” The actual venue for this event was Lake Lily, a beautiful small lake with community facilities, nice walking trails and plenty of lakeside set-up spaces. Electricity was available for many of the sites within reasonable distances, good bathrooms nearby and fine interior spaces for the Artist’s Breakfast and High School art show. Run by the Maitland Rotary, the show is an example of the good works done by many charitable organizations and I don’t know what more they could have done to make things go smoothly for the artists attending. Hot coffee and Krispy Kreams in the mornings, chilled water bottles in the afternoon and constant attention by wandering Rotarians in addition to the general excellence of the venue made the show a pleasure to participate in. Knowing that this one event is THE fund raiser for the Rotary’s yearly charitable efforts should make us all feel good about where our booth fees are going.
Thank goodness for the early set ups available on Friday. We took over 5 hours to get the tent up and loaded with our inventory! After a 5 hour drive and that work, I was pretty busted Friday night. Great local dinner at Ravenous Pig in Winter Park followed by a heavy crash at the local Sheraton. And all of a sudden: it’s Showtime.
Show started at 10AM and by 11 I had my first selling experience as a generous and kind couple came by loving my stuff and actually following through! I had a major fear of mishaps with the card reader and sure enough, I must have willed the problems into existence. I stood like a fool trying to get the reader to work. Sweat started to pop out on my brow. I began to mutter. Oh, oh! Why Me? I went back through the process a half a dozen times. No! No! Then, I discovered that the reader wasn’t paired to my phone. I didn’t know you had to do it every time you turned things on. Most of my Bluetooth stuff stays paired once you get it connected. Oh well, what a relief when the phone indicated a transaction had gone through. I had my first sale. Two prints and about 2/3s of the booth fee.
This early success was followed by “Zero!” Many, many folks stopped in and the compliments were abundant. Anyone figured out how to turn a compliment into a tank of gas or a sandwich? Me neither. However, I found out that I really enjoyed just talking to folks and joking around. Wish I had sold more, but still wouldn’t trade the day. Probably the epitome of the experience was the fellow artists neighbors. Just plain great people and so willing to help the novices out and offer advice on one thing or another. Artists are just a super group, course we all knew that.
Debbie the painter across from us sold an original (sort of Degas-ish ballerinas about 24” x 24”) and a couple of prints that first day. She was pretty high. Nancy, the very talented illustrator next door had a steady stream at her tent. She had etchings, giclee’s and prints from around $60 to a few hundred dollars each. She sold but said everyone was nickel and diming her to death. Probably the most successful booth was the “Melted Crayon” artist next door. She probably sold several thousand bucks work of melted crayon Snoopys and Batmen. At the end of the show she had the biggest grin of anyone I saw!
Walking around and talking to other artists, however, most felt that the show was awful for sales. I talked to artists who said the show produced less than half the revenue compared to several years ago. Most said if they made half as much as they used to they’d consider it a moral victory. Reasons included: so many new shows, so many new artists who generate art off their computers, a lack of control by promoters who start shows where they shouldn’t be held and then have to let in applicants who are more craft oriented or even buy their stuff and resell it. The high booth fees were a pretty constant complaint. I saw at least a hint of disgust on the faces of many pros.
As a general business principle, it seems that the booth fees should be set at a point that all, or most, of the applicants should be able to cover their nuts. Yet, I heard many say they didn’t do even that well. And I’m one of them!
On Sunday, we did sell one more print, which got us close, but not quite. Then things went dead on the buying front. Plenty of dog walkers and young folks sipping beer. Lots of Looky-Loos. But the cards stayed in the pockets. Still great talking to everyone and people watching. We had a good time in spite of the poor sales.
I’m not too discouraged about that. I think I now understand what I’d been reading in blogs. One needs to pick the venue that appreciates the kind of art one does. My stuff is pretty modern and a bit edgy. Had a lot of artists tell me we’d sell like crazy in Coconut Grove or someplace like that. I just may not do well in smaller, more provincial events. Also, a lot of my pieces have a real local Southwest Florida Gulf Coast vibe. So, maybe shows closer to home. Course all of this speculation could just be rationalization, but I’m hoping it’s more of a working hypothesis.
Crowd size is another area of speculation but I doubt, if the truth was known, that 4K attended this event the whole weekend. Maybe more like 2K. I asked the Rotarians but they didn’t know the number. It seemed like a hundred or two people came by my tent every hour. For these abbreviated days that adds up to maybe 1500 a day or so. Certainly not the huge numbers I’ve read about in some of the bigger shows. Coconut Grove claims 350,000 visitors! I’ll believe that when I, and if, I see it. (waitlisted!)
Overall, great start to this endeavor. It was a small and simple show with a lot of attention from the Rotary and generous set up and take down opportunities. Not feeling badly about low sales. I just think it wasn’t “My Place.” Hey, we survived and are looking forward to the next one. And what a great community the Art Fair population is. I feel fortunate to have joined up.