Taubman Museum Sidewalk Show, Roanoke, VA 2017

Taubman Museum Sidewalk Art Show
June 3-4, 2017,Roanoke, VA
Booth fee $250

This is a small, lovely show that is hosted by and takes place near the fine and cool-looking Taubman Museum. Part of the show is on the street, and part is on a small, grassy square. That's where I was.

I'm an oil painter, with pieces from $75 to $4500, and I had a good, solid $3K-ish show. Though artists who had done this show in the past said attendance was way down, the crowds were robust enough to bring out the buyers.

Load-in and load-out are different, depending on your location. On the commercial streets, load-in began after 5 p.m. On the one side street along the green, and on the green itself, you could set up pretty much whenever you want.

As the show approached, I was sick, and getting sicker by the minute, so I'd gone to the site to get a close space to park, because I knew I was going to have a tough time of it. While I was waiting, a volunteer said I could go ahead and set up. I was the first one setting up. Load-out was a bit chaotic, but not bad. In my location, there was tons of storage space behind the booth, but I can't vouch for storage on the street booths.

Parking was somewhat of an issue, particularly in my location, as there's Amtrak construction going on just behind the museum and the grassy area where I was, and so you can't park on most of that street. There was a pay lot down the road a bit, $4 for the whole day. I was really sick and it felt like a long walk, but I think that in reality, it was pretty close.

There was a lovely breakfast on Saturday, with coffee, and I heard that the awards reception Saturday night was also very nice. Booth-sitting was available, but the artists in my section were happy to watch each other's booths.

The quality of the work was really good. Most was painting and photography. There was almost no jewelry or pottery, at least that I saw.

This was a nice show, and I'd do it again in a minute. And the people who run it could not have been kinder or more welcoming. They were great.

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Comments

  • Carrie, thanks for this solid review with enough information that artists can make some judgments for another day. Are you feeling better? Do you have any help setting up? Kind of fortuitous that you got to set up first, wasn't it?

    I've never even heard of this show. Has it been around for awhile? Have you done it before? I believe it is near where you live. Is your work known in the area so that people would recognize it and perhaps make a purchase. This seems like a decent payday for something close to home and with such a nice ambiance around a museum, making it a nice place to spend the weekend.

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