At first I didn't like my spot and thought since this was my first year I was paying my dues with a bad spot. I was wrong, sales on all 3 days didn't really start until after 1 and then it was hard to get a break, as a nod to the bad economy I made a lot of the smaller pieces, should have made more bigger ones. Sold out of all my big dragons on sat, sun found one in the overstock boxes that I'd missed while setting up, put it out and by 2pm it had found a home. There were bathrooms real ones just for the artists, coffee and breakfast stuff all 3 mornings. A spaghetti dinner Sunday night, which we didn't go to, had other plans. A staff member came by at various times during the show to see how things were going. The judges actually came into the booths and talked to us. We were given breakdown instructions, lo and behold they stuck to them, had to breakdown your booth completely including the tent before you got a load out pass, then I just drove in and loaded up. What a pleasure, but then of course I had to navigate the downtown area to get back to 95 but I survived it. The staff at St. Stephen's did a good job and were available and friendly. I also liked the fact that when a patron came into the show they each got a program right away, with a map of the show included. Did see some buy sell but not a lot, overall the quality was good.
I walked the Grove show on Monday morning while my friend took care of my booth. First if you wanted a program you had to hunt one down, there was some very impressive art at the show and there was some not so great. I was surprised to see hammocks, wooden utensils, the obligatory Peruvian art which seems to be at every show, so so beaded jewelry. A friend was at the Grove show and blamed the doctored pics that were sent in. Also she noticed that none of the committee was comparing the zapp pics with the set up booths, which they do for Melbourne and Virginia Boardwalk. $800 is a hefty fee, surely for that kind of money they can do a better job at policing the exhibitors that they let in.
So to wrap things up I truly enjoyed my first St Stephen's experience, set up was a breeze, breakdown went smoothly, sales were good my own fault they weren't better. Will bring more bigger pieces next year and only got lost once. Oh and the van with over 423,000 miles on it didn't break down, a big plus any day.
Comments
I did St. Stephen's this year, too, and was satisfied with the show. (I'm an acrylic painter of dresses & dress forms.) It was my best so far this year out of four shows. The opinions of others around me were mixed. One painter & one jeweler did very little in sales. A potter and a woodmaker were pretty happy with the show. My expectations were exceeded with the sale of two big paintings, a lot of smaller ones, and some prints. I also have three commissions from the show. I'm just getting back to art fairs after a three year hiatus, so I consider myself a newbie, so my expectations aren't that high for this year.
Several people I met at Beaux Arts (Coral Gables) earlier in January during that horribly cold weekend came to see me, which was really nice. That show and St. Stephen's are a good combination for me.
Crowds at St. Stephens were lighter than at the concurrent Cocunut Grove. I saw a lot of good art at St. Stephens, much of it at some really good prices. As Greta said above, there was some buy/sell stuff. Why do they do that? I was downwind (sometimes) from the potpourri people and the soap guy, but overall I was pleased with the quality of the work. I didn't go through Coconut Grove, but some of my clients told me they think the prices are much higher there.
I'm not a good one to comment on load-in/out because I typically have the smallest car at any art fair, so it's usually pretty easy for me. I didn't run into any traffic jams getting in or out loading -- just when I leaving the fair on Saturday & Sunday, but that's Miami traffic for you.
One additional benefit of being at St. S's is that the pastor blessed our art (on site at the booths) on Sunday. I'm willing to take any help I can get.
Our sales were bad, customers had to climb a bank to get into the booth, another artist yelled at me for storing stuff where the director told us, claiming it was her area.
Glad to hear things have improved.
Teardown awful. No place to spread out and we had to wait until everyone else was gone so we could get our van in