This is my second year doing the Riverfront Art Festival. It is held in Genoa Park, Columbus, Ohio (same place the large Columbus Arts Festival is held in the spring).
This show was bought by the Columbus Dispatch in 2011. I did the 2011 show also, and they made great improvements in 2012. I did really horribly in 2011, but the weather was really awful (in the 40s and rainy), so I thought I would give it another shot. I mean, I certainly would not have gone out of the house in that weather if I didnt have to! This year, the weather was beautiful and I did leaps and bounds better.
There still werent a ton of people out. Nothing like the Columbus Arts Festival or even Easton I'd guess. There would be little spurts where there would be a good crowd and then really slow. But I saw quite a few 2D artwork being carried around, both small and large, so that was good. I sold 6 decent sized originals (between $200-400) and 12 prints. I'm a local artist so expenses were low for me, so I did quite well all things considered. I almost cleared $2000 profit, so I was definitely happy with that.
Load in/out was sort of silly. They have 4 sections. A and B are across from each other. C and D are down the road, also across from each other. They had all section A come at 8am, all section B come at 9am, etc. They called it staggered. In my book, making an entire section come at once is not staggered -- that is a cluster. Especially if the 8am people did not move, and now the 9am people come and its double blocked. Fortunately people didnt really listen and just came whenever they felt like it, or else it would have been a big mess. There were no instructions for tear down other than be out by 10pm (tear down was 5pm). Unfortunately people went and got their vans/trailers and parked in front of their tents while they took their merry time breaking down. I had broken down my entire tent and just needed to load the trailer, and I had to circle around several times until I could find a spot to park since everyone else was blocking my space and had barely even taken their artwork off the walls.
It seems there was a lot more advertising done this year. I live in Columbus and didnt see fliers or any commercials, but the newspaper was definitely advertising, as was their facebook page. The Dispatch is trying hard to be good promoters, and they are still learning, but at least they are trying. Which in my book, definitely counts for something.
They have a program called ArtBucks, which is really nice. Last year they gave each college student $100 artbucks to spend with the artists. This year, they gave out six $100 certificates every hour randomely. I dont think it worked as well this year as it did last year, (I hardly saw anyone with them) but I'm sure they will tweak that next year until they find the best way to do it. Its a great program and definitely helps draw people in.
The range of quality in artists was huge. There were some really great artists, some mediocre, and then there were some incredibly crafty vendors too. I can't remember, but I think they were part of an art league, so I think they might have been trying to sell little items to raise money. Still, that type of thing does not really do good things for the artists, especially the ones whose booths were right next to the craft tent. Fortunately, my booth was at the other end.
I had a good amount of space behind my booth for storage. I think everyone did. Easy access to electricity. The parking was a good walk away depending on where your booth was, but it was free and I don't know how they could get us any closer anyway unless artists got a free pass to park in the COSI parking lot. Good artist amenities including free coffee, water, panera bagels, chips, cookies, etc. Quite a nice spread. The staff were always walking around and very visable. The judging awards were great too. $1500 for best of show, $1000 for 2nd, and $500 for third. Although I really have to disagree with the judges.... sorry if anyone reading this won :/. I'm really not just being a sore "loser" either. Everyone I talked to was very surprised with the choices (including some of the winners).
I'd definitely do the show again. I think it has potential, and the Dispatch is really trying to bring people in. The patrons seemed very appreciative and interested. My suggestion would be to change the hours a bit though. The hours are Friday 5-9p, Saturday noon-9p, and Sunday noon-5p. Friday actually had a good crowd and I made half my sales. It seemed that most serious people came Saturday morning before noon. I made a big sale at 11am as I was opening my tent and another shortly after noon. Then it was all just little prints. So maybe change Saturday to 10-5p or at least 10-7p.
I'm intersted to know how others did. I heard mixed reviews as I was walking around. Either I did a lot better than others, or I have lower expectations ;).
Comments
THanks for the review Britt and glad to hear you did well.
nice review. I enjoyed reading it and the dialogue between the 2 of you who were there really added to it so it felt like I knew what you were talking about.
I like the idea of the Art bucks. You would think people would be hanging around to win a few of them. I would think as the crowd begins to really catch on to the bucks that will be very helpful.
Thanks for the good review. Hopefully the show management will stick and really build this show up.
Thanks for this report, Britt. I know these reviews are closely read and all your info is so helpful. Since the newspaper owns the show they should be advertising it and it sounds like they did. It really helps to have a partnership with some big media in the city, and since they own the event this is advertising that can be counted on going forward also.
Regarding the smaller crowd on Saturday afternoon -- it is Big 10 football season and there were places people had to be! This phenomena is repeated across the Midwest this time of year.
Good to hear the show was better this year and that Amanda Leeman and the staff were so accessible and helpful. Wishing you lots of sunshine another time.
Goodness, I think its had 4 names in the 8 years its been around!
Glad to see this show is moving in a positive direction under new management. I did it 5 years ago under Jay's management...the show even had a different name "Goodale Park Art Festival". It wasn't pretty for any of the artists participating. Thanks for the update review.
I did notice the scale and thought it was annoying. I actually was talking to the painter next to you Friday night and didnt realize it moved and started wondering if I had drank too much until I saw it actually was the ground moving. LOL. On a side note, I was pulling for him to win Best in Show (or me ;)).
Layout-wise, I thought it might be better to put the artists in the pavilion behind COSI (where they put all the "sciency" and techy stuff across from the music stage). It just seemed like grouping us in that semi circle would be better than having half the artists at the front, then to get to the rest of the artists people had to go through that long empty walk across the pavilion and then past the food vendors and finally get to the other artists. I doubt they did as well at that end. I had been put at that end and asked to be move when I saw my booth location.
I did fill out the survey. I gave them good reviews. I just suggested that the hours change on Saturday to open and close earlier.
OH! I did forget something too and I am not sure how since it was the the eyesore of my whole weekend. Britt- did you see that huge truck scale that was in front of the booths on the end- ie mine? OMG. I have never seen more adults be so fascinated my seeing their weight put up on a large screen! ALL WEEKEND LONG... between everyone who came through- adults and children alike- they all thought it was soooo cool to, "see how much I weigh? now you hop on and see how much we weigh together .. now the whole family all together... oh my gosh, now just me and the dog..." etc, etc... It drove me crazy. Plus it took most people to get down to my booth to realized the scale moved a bit underneath them, so they would stumble off the scale into my booth exclaiming, "I am going to be sick from that thing!" Greaaaat. And every single one of them always looked up at as if I hadnt heard the 50 people before them say the EXACT SAME THING. Haha... it became a running joke with us on the end. I even had one person stand on the scale in front of one of my pieces and say, "Oh my gosh, her work moves back and forth!" When it was them actually doing the moving... Oy!
But yes... other than that Mr Lincoln, how was the play? ;)
I heard someone say that they had to return to the art bucks stand and actually look to see if they had won or not, so i dont think a lot of people bothered...
Britt, I traveled to do the show, but am usually able to keep my expenses low. Did you fill out their survey?
Elissa, I'm glad it was profitable enough for you to do it again. Seeing how much it grew from 2011 was encouraging, so hopefully next year it will be even better! Are you local or did you have to travel?
I got $120 in ArtBucks Sunday afternoon I think. A guy and his wife both won and pooled theirs together. He said they called 18 names that hour, so that tells me a lot of winners were not returning or didnt know they won so Sunday afternoon they were giving away a ton! Hopefully they will figure out the best way to handle the ArtBucks since it is such a wonderful program!
Oh, and I also thought that even though a lot of other activities were going on that they were very tasteful and probably drew more people there than they detracted, so I don't think I'd change any of that. Although I did have a guy stumble into one of my paintings after he'd obviously had too many bloody marys.
Awesome Britt! I think I was actually only a few booths down from you (B23) and I eventually recognized you as the show went on, but we never got to speak. Your work is beautiful though and I am not surprised you did well.
I came to the show definitely not knowing what to expect with all the bad reviews of the show and its bad reputation. Everyone who I told I was going to fo Riverfront told me I was better off staying home and I thought that was unfortunate. By the end of the show I was pleasantly surprised, but I too heard a gambit of different sales stats.
The few people I talked to were all over the map, but Britt's account of the range people were buying in seems about right. No real high end stuff seemed to move. The photographer across from me did great, but he was the guy with all the pics of downtown Columbus, so those always seem to fly off the shelves. I know he got 600 alone in art bucks and probably did about 4000 for the show.
The painter next to me has a slow slow time and I hated that since his stuff was so beautiful... but it was higher end at 800- 1500 a piece and he only sold I think 2 prints all weekend. Ugh.
I am 2D Mixed Media and found the traffic, as Britt said, to be slow, but steady. I know the football game is obviously a big draw away from doing anything else. It wasn't my best show sales wise as I probably cleared 1500, but I think it has a lot of potential. Most of my sales were big though without many supplemental print sales. I did eventually see $100 in art bucks, but until then was beginning to think they had made them up!
My load in was easy as I was on a corner and called ahead to tell the show there was no way I going to get there at 8. I rolled in at noon without any trouble and could pull off to the the side without being in the way and spent the afternoon setting up. I didn't mind the parking because I dont think the weekend could have wished for better weather this year. I enjoyed the walk.
Everyone working the show was incredibly sweet and helpful. Constantly checking on us and as britt said offered a lot of amenities. While there were other things going on (food/ wine/ music..) it all seemed tastefully done and was separate form the art. Most of the food vendors would give us discounts as well if you had your badge with you.
Load out was easy for me too (again being on the corner) but I did tear all my stuff down first. I get frustrated when other people dont tear down first, but... they are always there. The show ended at 5 and I was out by 6, but didnt have a tent to tear down as they supplied a tent fro the artists on the corners.
So all in al was it a huge money maker? No. But as I said it does have potential and I think they are doing good things with it. I would do it again.