AUGUST 6 - 4 PM ET
When a city's largest employers pull out and the population begins to decline what do you do? Find new corporations, preserve the downtown, improve the quality of life by improving the schools, rebuild neighborhoods and focus on becoming one of the "Top 100 Arts Small Towns in the United States."
Enter Artisphere, now in its 12th year and awarded Top 20 event out of the "100 Best" Art Shows in the country by Sunshine Artist Magazine, a Top 10 Fine Arts and Fine Craft festival by the Art Fair Sourcebook, and #3 out of 20 finalists in USA Today's 10 Best Reader's Choice Award for Best Art Festival as well as one of ArtFairCalendar.com's Best Art Fairs in 2014.
Kerry Murphy, Executive Director of Artisphere and Liz Smith, Program Director, join us to share their experiences.
- We'll talk about how a city in the rural South, half way between Atlanta and Charlotte, attracts the nation's top artists and why those artists apply again and again to be part of the event.
- How a fine art event is "sold" to the town and how they attract buyers.
- The organizational structure of the event, recruiting working board members who expand the reach of the festival.
How you can participate:
- Listen by clicking the Art Fair Radio logo.
- Post questions for the guests in the comments below
- Call in to the show: (805) 243-1338
Comments
Hello Brandon, sorry I didn't see this earlier. Your second question has an easy answer. If you have a website, or even if you don't (hope you will at some point) there is also JuriedArtServices.org. I believe their prices are comparable to Zapp, but worth checking out. Also, entrythingy.com is a software that you can install on your site, or they can host it on theirs, that only costs the show organizers $2 per application. If you are serious about putting on a solid event there should be some kind of digital upload and I can recommend each of these services. I have met the ZAPP folks, Paul Fisher at JAS is an online "friend" of mine, and I've spent time with Chris Ritke who designed and hosts entrythingy.com.
How can you gain trust? That is so tricky and hard work, a lot of leg work too. I'd look around in your surrounding community and see if you can identify any artists who do shows out of the area. They can be great advisors and if they sign on with you they can be advocates, especially if they feel like you've got all the components in place for a decent festival.
I think there are a bunch of threads on this site about what makes an artist sign up for a first year show. Try a search for "first year shows" and see what you find.
Also, you might start a discussion about what makes an artist try a first art festival, or a blog post. Good luck to your group.
P.s. Always a good idea, visit as soon as possible all art fairs at all near you to see how the others do it. So many lessons to learn.
I'm in an organization looking at arranging our first art festival. How can we gather the artist's trust to gain critical mass for a successful festival? Also, is there an artist application software comparable to Zapp - but more affordable - that you would suggest for a first-time festival?