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After finishing  Las Olas we planned on doing a 4 night cruise to the Bahamas  in between shows out of Miami.  Usually costs $149-$189 pp but this year one of the cruise ships was dry docked that week so  it was too expensive this year.  We fortunately have some awesome artist friends who let us crash for the mid week and had a fun mini vacation in Fort Myers with friends.

Beaux Arts Festival of the Arts is one of our favorite SE Florida shows.   It is on the University of Miami campus near the museum in Coral Gables Miami.  Beautiful setting.   Hotels and vacation rentals were expensive, even more so than normal.  We finally found a two bedroom house about 15 minutes from the show and shared with another artist.  The food in Miami is amazing.  Make sure to take advantage of it.

 The show runs Saturday and Sunday with set up on Friday.  The weather this January in Florida was not art show friendly.  Friday morning we set up with no weather issues.  You can drive up to your booth and if you arent in anyones way you can stay put.  The weather was rough later in the day.  We went to the hardware store and bought extra weights for the tent.  Some booths are on grass and some on pavement.  Some booths are back to back some are across the street from each other.  Some booths have a lot of room all around some are tight.  You have a mix.  They offer close easy free parking for the artists.   Trailors are no problem.  They have a breakfast for the artists, your reguar carbs with some cheese and fruit.  There are food trucks and the campus has restaurants and normal college campus services.   This show has been reviewed many times so search here on AFI for more info.

Saturday the show opened at 10 am.  We lucked out with good weather.  The crowd was good, not huge but a good crowd.  Most people I talked to had an ok Saturday but this show is known as a  Sunday show. 

Sunday.... we knew the weather forecast was not pretty.  Our pilot friend gave us some inside scoop to the weather that was about to hit in the morning.   He was warning us that it was not looking good for the show site.  We arrived around 8:30 am.  Right after the front went through..  It was not good.  Lots of  tents down to the ground and work spread all over.  I won't post pics of that.  It is too hard for those artists to see and relive.  We were fortunate in our location and our tent  was basically fine with just a few things to deal with.   We spent the next couple hours  trying to help clean up.  My next part is a bit of advice for fellow artists and how to help when something like this happens at an art show.  There were so many tents down I think many artists didn't know how to react.  Of course many artists were helping especially in the areas where just one or two booths went down but in the big parking lot, that got hurt the worse, not as many pitched in.  The wind came through so hard and it wouldnt matter how much weight you had you were going down.   It was devastating to see.  I heard many people say they didn't know what to do.  Here are a few suggestions and if anyone else has some please add.  My partner was recovering from surgery.  He wasn't allowed to lift more than 15lbs.  So he went to the down booths, dug thru the rubble and found business cards and called the artists to give them a heads up.  Sucks to be the messenger but better than being blindsided when you arrive.  He also took pics of the damage for the artist so they could have it for insurance if needed.  Most of the artists didn't want to see the pics  so we offered to send the pics to a friend or relative for safe keeping.  We tried to save any work that we could.  There was a lot of standing water, still raining some and windy.  It would have helped to have some artist open up their booths to help store that art until the owners could get it to a safer place.  Get some tools, like a wire cutter, screw driver etc.  Brooms and lots of them were needed for broken glass.  Help pick up trash.  These booths and the set ups were all tangles and needed to be taken apart in bad weather conditions.   For an artist whose booth is down trying to find anything is difficult.    Offer help but most likely an artist will be in too much shock to answer.  Just wait around a bit and see what you can do.    Towels or anything that can help people dry off and clean up their art are a huge help.  For the artists who had the option and strength to set up again they will need supplies.  Zip ties, duck tape, rope, any extra tent parts help.  We had a few extra stay bars and tent legs.  Those were used to reinforce broken legs.   We broke out our cooler and served up beer, wine and cocktails to help settle nerves.  We are all in this together. 

The wind was still blowing but the forecast for the rest of the day looked good.  By 11 am everything was back up and running pretty much.  The wind died down and patrons showed up.  A lot of be backs came and folks were buying.  It turned out to be a good day for most of the artists we talked to.  Not the best Beaux Arts ever but considering the weather it was good.

The show ends at 5 pm.  Break down is kind of a free for all.  It works.  Those that have easy access to drive up to their booths usually go first and get out of the way for those in the back.  We had a really easy place to pull up right at 5 pm and were out by 5:30. 

I really love this show.  The setting is so beautiful.  The people have money and most live there.  You have some tourists but not a ton like many Florida shows.  Big work sells well.  People have money and are sophisticated buyers.  The staff is great and very friendly.

Next show is Coconut Grove.  Here is where living the artist life on the road pays off.  Instead of staying in Florida for the next month (which would be very expensive to do)  we found $200 rt flight from Miami to Cartagena.  The dollar is crazy strong in Colombia and we were able to rent a condo right on the beach for $900 for 3+ weeks.  Breakfast cost $1.50, Lunch $2 and dinner $5.  We were there for Carnaval and were able to attend the worlds second largest celebration, second only to Rios.  Once in a lifetime event for us.   Awesome vacation in between shows.  We use natural pigments in our work and try to find new ones from different parts of the world, so this was technically a business trip:)