Hello,
I found Artfair Insiders just be chance and I signed up. I recently moved to Athens, TN and I'm trying to get established here as a woodworker. I make a number of things, dulcimers, harps, clocks, kitchenware and furniture. I can't afford to travel to stay overnight for craft shows and I'm even reluctant to participate in local ones. I would like to find galleries that will sell my work at a reasonable consignment rate.
Bob
NEW VENUE: Viera (Melbourne, FL)
Background music, a children's hands-on art area, and food vendors add to the ambiance, as do the Pier Village restaurants and shops, which are just down the block.October 7-9
Downtown Lee's Summit, Missouri
Fri. 4pm-8pm; Sat. 10am-8pm; Sun. noon-4pm
90 Artist booths
Deadline: August 10
Application fee: $30; Booth fee; $165 (half booth) to $490 (double)
Apply: ZAPPlication.org
The Summit Art Festival is a 3-day high quality fine art event in the heart of historic downtown Lee's Summit, organized & hosted by Summit Art in collaboration with Downtown Lee's Summit Main Street and completely managed and run by the volunteer efforts of Summit Art members, Downtown Main Street members, & community volunteers.
Lee's Summit is a vibrant town approaching 100,000 residents with very active visual & performing art programs presented by Summit Art, the Lee's Summit Symphony, and The Summit Players. The Missouri Arts Council has designated Lee's Summit as Missouri's "Creative Community".
Historic Downtown Lee's Summit is known for its many locally owned shops, boutiques, local restaurants and vibrant nightlife. New residential lofts and adjacent historic neighborhoods make Downtown an excellent place to call home.
Artist amenities:
For additional information: www.summitartfest.org
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Even more art fairs for 2016? Visit www.callsforartists.com
This is an exercise in improving. I'm sure many of you recognize the hallmarks of display that are "no-no's" at the big shows ... let's deconstruct/reconstruct it.
If this was your booth at a show do you think it can be improved? If so, how?
The Loring Park Arts Festival had lived in the shadow of the Uptown Art Fair since it's inception 17 years ago. Minneapolis had three major art fairs on the same weekend including the Powderhorn Park Art Festival. This was A LOT of art for the public to take in all at once. Only a few diehards made it to more than one. Personally I started veering away from all three shows finding that the weekend was just oversaturated and spreading the buying "love" way too thin. But when the Loring Park Festival organizers announced they were breaking away I decided to give it a shot again.
In the weeks and even months ahead of the event I saw them working very hard to get the word out that the date had changed. I was especially glad to hear them on Minnesota Public Radio. They also seemed to be working the social media scene pretty well. I was hopeful that it would work. Of course another big obstacle was terrible construction going on right on the main road leading to the park- this was not going to be easy to pull off.
Luckily they had weather going for them- two perfect days- temps in the 70's light breeze and cloud cover. Hardly even humid.
Load in on Friday was super easy- they know how to work this park after all this time. I had a sweet spot with plenty of room to park behind my booth and load out and set up without having to move my car. Everyone was enjoying a relaxing set up in perfect weather.
Saturday started a bit slow but picked up about 11:00. My sales were steady with two big purchases ($500+). But I would say a majority of my sales came because of my presence in the local area. Many of my purchases were from previous customers or ones that had seen me at the Wayzata show I did in June. I did feel like I talked to a lot of people that had not seen my work before which is good when you can start feeling like you have oversaturated a market but I would say most of those new people were not buying (yet!).
Sunday was a lot slower in the area of sales. It seemed the crowds were a bit down. I only got to talk to a few artists in my area but they reported good sales. I'd be interested to hear how other's did. Hopefully next weekend when I get to GO to Uptown and Powderhorn I can chat with some that are doing both and get a broader view of results of the big switch.
Overall I really think it was a good move on Loring Park's. They probably gained some more artists- especially those that travel from far away to Uptown and want to add another show to their schedule. The patrons I talked to were also happy with it because that meant they could spread out their art shopping to two weekends.
October 14-16
Fashion shows and a very special exhibit to generate more interest and bring more people out.
Little late on this review but here it is. There was a great review done on AFI for this show a few years ago. Here is an update. This was the first time showing in Madison. It is a big show, over 400 artist I believe. It is set up on the streets around the capitol building. Beautiful place for a show. There is also a second show very close, Art Off The Square with another 200 or so artists that feature Wisconsin artists. There are lots of artists. Most of the work is very high end. Fortunately there are lots of people who come to this show, around 200K.
Load in starts at 5pm on Friday. Depending on your section, you line up on a designated street and wait to be let in. It is highly organized and run well. You are only let in if you have a place to park and unload. They have a gate keeper and a person on the ground with walkie talkies making sure there is room for you and the type of rig you have. I like this but it can slow down the process. When you are let in everyone parks in a line along the right hand side of the road. You are given 15 minutes to unload. We are fast but not that fast. We had a double so I was wondering if we could get 30 minutes for unloading:) We moved fast and did it in 18 minutes. I didn't see them enforcing the 15 minute rule so don't let that worry you if doing the show. Basically unload as quickly as possible and get out so they can let the next set of artists in. Parking can be tricky if you have a taller vehicle. There are a lot of moving parts to this show. Hotels are not cheap. The streets can be confusing. The first time doing any show can be intimidating and this one especially. We did as much research as we could and arrived early on Friday but basically doing the show is the only way you can really figure it out. Next time we do the show it will be much easier.
Booths are on both sides of a wide street across from each other. Part of your booth, the backside, will be up on a curb. You will need to plan a set up to allow the front 8' of the booth to be at a different level then the back 2'. They ask that you keep storage in the back to a minimum and to keep it looking tidy. There is no room on the sides.
The show officially starts at 9am on Saturday. There is a farmers market nearby and they suggest you open early. Take that advice and open early, as early as you can. By 8am there are a ton of people shopping and buying. The picture of the crowd I posted was taken at 10am. Seriously big crowds on Saturday. It is interesting because there must be a guide for patrons on how to approach this show. They all walk the show in the same direction, counter clockwise around the square. They all do at least two laps around. Once for the inner booths and next for the outer booths or vice versa. You can hear the patrons discuss their strategy when they arrive. They wait all year for this show and I heard many husbands say this was the one art show of the year they were willing to attend. The serious buyers are known to come out on Saturday. Sunday the crowds are not as big but a good crowd, much more manageable. The reports from artists as far as sales were all over the place. In my section on Saturday I watched a nonstop parade of large work walking out behind the booths. For most of us that were new to the show we killed it. Many vets were not happy. The weather was absolutely perfect. Mid 80s and we only had a little bit of rain on Sunday.
Load out. Load in went slowly waiting for each car to come in. Load out worried us. We asked a bunch of artists and volunteers about load out so we could plan our strategy and no one seemed to remember the drill. Here is how it went. The show closed at 5pm. They handed out passes as soon as you were broken down and let cars in around 5:20. We had our vehicle at the booth by 5:30pm and driving out by 6pm. Easy peasy load out.
Madison is a beautiful city. The venue is wonderful for an art show. The patrons are serious about the art. This show is extremely well attended and the patrons are loyal buyers. I mentioned on Sunday afternoon that I hadn't seen any dogs in strollers, ferrets on leashes or birds on peoples shoulder the entire show. The capitol building is a great backdrop. Find sometime and go up to the observation deck and check out the 360 degree view of the town.
Hotels near the square are not cheap. We usually spend the extra money and stay within walking distance but I found a great deal at a nice Best Western Plus about 2 miles away that offered free shuttle service. They also had great outdoor parking for oversized vehicles. It worked out well. The show has challenges, like the later set up on Friday and early open on Saturday. Staying close by would have been great and next time we might consider the extra expense to have the convince.
This is a well organized show. Lots of communication before and after the show. You can contact the show and get through to an actual person and get answers. The show has a ton of volunteers and plenty of booth sitters. You get a packet when you check in that gives you a couple of coupons for water or soda. On Sunday morning an organization walks around handing out a basic breakfast and lots of drinks to stock up on. I am not clear about the awards system. They did have about 3 judges who walked the show individually. They placed a dot in your booth so you knew they had been there. We spent time with a couple of them. This is a big job for a big show. I believe around 50 artists were awarded with invitations back for the next year.
Over all I would love to come back to Madison for Art on The Square. There is a lot of competition but a lot of buyers as well. It is kind of a haul from Atlanta but worth it for us even though it was a single show. It was a bonus to get out of Hotlanta.
Seems like there is always an added investment to make your portable 'gallery" more attractive to those elusive buyers. Its hard to put a number on how this kind of an "upgrade" will help, but Marcia and I decided to move ahead and get new (or used) display panels.
My black fabric Graphic Display Systems Display Panels are showing their age. They have served me well over the years and I've done several upgrades to make them more secure and easier to set up. I originally bought the two part, six foot tall panels thinking that they would be easier to transport from show to show. But I later got tired of putting them together and slipping on the black fabric at every show. I finally wired the two parts together for every panel and sewed the fabric on permanently. I also added a twelve inch extension to each panel and the black fabric to match, and also wired the extension on. Now I have ten seven foot panels that are ready to go at every show... much more convenient and fast for setup and take down. Of course I also have a van now, which I didn't have when I bought these panels. Another upgrade was fabricating aluminum tubes with velcro fasteners that fit into the top of each panel with the velcro attaching securely to the horizontal bar at the top of my Trimline. I have ten 7-foot panels, plus two 18-inch wide panels. The setup is very secure.
Now I'm in the market for light gray seven foot Propanels with all the needed attachments. I need nine of them. I'll probably wind up taking out a second mortgage (HA) and buying them new from Propanels, but if there's anyone within a couple hundred miles of Saugatuck, Michigan with Propanels to sell, let me know this week. I'm gonna take the plunge next week in an effort to get them in before Lake Forest, my next show in early September. I can pick them up in Chicago or Detroit or northern Indiana.
And, if there are some newbies out there that want to get started on a low budget, I've got some serviceable Graphic Display System panels that can be had for a song. And they can be unwired fairly easily if you need them in pieces for ease of transport. They are definitely not "like new" condition, but they work. Email me: jleben@lebenart.com.
This is our first full year doing art fairs. Being new to this, our philosophy has been to take things as they come and try to learn from our experiences. Ann Arbor was our ninth show of the year. After the previous eight it was an easy call as to whether or not we wanted to come back. It was equally apparent what lessons we could take away from those experiences. Not so with Ann Arbor. I would like to relate what happened and ask those that have done the Ann Arbor shows if they can offer any insight. I do not want this to sound like complaining but it probably will anyway.
We applied to the Guild show and State Street. We did a Guild show in Birmingham, Mi. over Mother's Day weekend and did reasonably well. Sunday of that show was our second best sales day. The work we displayed in Ann Arbor was substantially the same with some new images added. We were called of the wait list for the Guild Show while waiting to hear from State Street. We needed to make a decision right away so we accepted the Guild invitation. As is to be expected, the booth choices available were limited so we took one on S. State Street S. of South University. A couple of days later we were accepted for the State Street show and declined that invitation.
Sara is a native of Ann Arbor and her parents still live there. I served on the Ann Arbor Police Dept for nearly 29 years, and in the late 90s was in charge of after hours security. In those days the students would return during art fair to party, particularly the fraternities. In a kind of full circle moment, our booth was across the sidewalk from one of the frats I had the most trouble with. It looked abandoned now, with a lone beer keg on the balcony above the front porch. We should have snagged that thing and returned it for the deposit. That would have improved our bottom line. Based on our local experience, we knew it was going to be hot, muggy, uncomfortable and probably wet at some point. In other words we had a good idea what we were getting into.
We had an assigned set up time of 5pm on Thursday. We drove by the check in point at 10:30am where we picked up our information packet but were told we had to abide by the schedule. We drove by our booth location and saw there was practically no one on the street. We ran a short errand and came back to ask if we could set up if we dollied in. Knock yourself out we were told. So, we found a parking spot on the street about a block away from our booth location and set up. We were done with the tent at about 2pm and decided to come back at our scheduled time to hang our work. During that whole time the street was pretty much empty except for some Sprint contractors setting up a temporary cell tower at the end of our row powered by two diesel generators. We were downwind, and the fumes were overpowering. When we came back at 5pm the street was jammed with people trying to unload to set up. Why more people were not scheduled earlier is a mystery.
We arrived on Thursday with high hopes and great anticipation. We were two booths in from the boundary of the fair near a shuttle bus stop for remote parking. This can either be a good or bad thing so we hoped for the best. Another photographer across from us said he had been in his spot for three years and had his best sales there. But, he said that everyone else every year was new. After a couple of hours it was clear why. As the shuttle buses unloaded about 2/3 of the crowd walked down the sidewalk and never walked to our row of booths or they looked at the ones closest to the sidewalk. We were on the other side of the street. When we did get traffic, if they liked a piece the usual response was "we just got here, we need to look around". We thought they would have to come back by our booth to catch the bus, so we were not too concerned. We should have been. There were other points to catch a return ride. Those folks walking back to the bus stop were hot, tired, and just looking for one thing, air conditioning. There was a gully washer thunderstorm in the afternoon that cleared a lot of the crowd out early. A lot of debris from other booths came through our tent on the whitewater. It was kind of entertaining. Mixed in with the smells of fresh rain was the odor of the diesel generators no more than 50 feet from us. The painter next to us had to go into the student union for a while as he was about to become ill.
The next day one of the generators was being moved as we arrived. I do not know if someone complained or if they just needed it elsewhere, but it was leaving. It was fun to watch someone not very experienced at backing a trailer try to hook onto a generator and maneuver it between some very expensive art. We tried a new approach with early shoppers. If someone showed interest in a piece we would offer to store their purchase pointing out that we only had one print of certain images. We had a couple of takers but watched with amusement as several other tried to hide the ones they liked in the back of the bin, not willing to commit so early in their art fair experience. As the day wore on sales were slow so it was not necessary for both of us to be there. Thinking our sales problem was due to our location I walked the State Street Fair and the Original. I ran into a few folks we had met at other events. Some reported OK sales, others were in the same boat as us. I tried to determine if there might be a better location for us in the future. It was apparent to me that there were a lot of booths set up into dead ends that looked like dead zones to me. Foot traffic at the Original show was sparse and that is being kind.
Hope sprung anew with Saturday morning. I checked with everyone in our little half block peninsula cut off from the rest of the fair to see how the location was impacting their sales. A potter and a jeweler both said they had two good, not great days and were happy more or less. The photographer across from us that had been there three years had steady traffic and good sales. The rest of us had tanked so far. Again sales did not require my presence so I started walking around on a fact finding mission. I introduced myself to several of the other artists who did not look too depressed to talk. Most attributed slow sales to the heat. One person who had done the show for over 30 years said it was the worst heat he could remember.
It rained Sunday morning but a few people brought their umbrellas to take advantage to the cooler weather. Sara had enough so she used the shuttle to go to the mall and shop. Eventually the clouds cleared and the heat returned for breakdown. The process was to get a ticket from a volunteer when you were on the ground and ready to load. The ticket had to be presented at the original check in point about two blocks away to obtain a pass that would let you in to the venue to load. Our jeweler neighbor left to get her pass to load, leaving her friend behind. About 45 minutes passed and she still had not returned. We were concerned. When I arrived at the check in point I saw the problem. Artist traffic was backed up clear down the block, around the corner blocking through traffic on a major street, as well as half way up the block on an a joining street. There was one person handing out the passes after radioing to a person in the vicinity of the booth to see if there was room. I decided to park on the street and dolly out instead of waiting in line for an hour. That was the last straw for me. Between the heat, rain and practically no sales I sort of lost it at that point.
So, the bottom line is we had very high expectations for this show based on what we had done in the Detroit area previously. In fact we had done shows in Kalamazoo and South Haven and had OK sales there as well. We did not cover expenses despite not having a motel bill and minimal restaurant meals. I am convinced location had a role in this. But I am also left to wonder if our work did not play well here. Much of our work is industrial/abandoned mixed in with some more traditional images. Our price point is $50.00 to 950.00. We are still trying to sort out where we ultimately want to focus. The more traditional images of our neighbors sold better than ours. We did have some limited interest in our larger works but in retrospect we did not handle those encounters as well as we could have. We have missed some opportunities there. I walked all of the shows east of Division Street. I noticed as the weekend wore on some photographers were offering show specials and $5.00 small prints to generate revenue, which leads me to believe sales were slow for them as well. Many of the artists I talked with said we should not give up on the show as it is usually very good for them. Yet I read posts here that say the shows have been in decline for a while and it is no longer viable to do them. I am sure we would never return to spot we occupied this year. But, if we were offered a spot on Main or further in the middle of the fair on State would it be worth trying again? That is the question I am trying to answer and would appreciate any input from those who were on Main or that vicinity.
By the way, if you have a normal size vehicle and are on the State Street side of the shows it really is not necessary to buy a parking pass for $100.00 as we did. We have a half ton pick up. You can park in the Forest or Maynard Parking Garage for $15.00 per day. Meters are not enforced on Sundays so you can park for free hopefully near your booth so you can dolly out if you have to. We basically paid $100.00 for parking we could have paid $45.00 for had we not bought a permit.
On the bright side, word got out that we were in the show and many of my old colleagues stopped by to say hello. Some of our neighbors thought crime was afoot because of all the cops around. Another point which may be due to my faulty memory but I remember a lot of characters at the art fairs in the day. Wild clothes, even wilder hair styles, tattoos before they were so fashionable, protesters, political activists and anyone with a cause real or imagined were everywhere. This year's crowd looked straight out of suburbia. What ever happened to the "weird" side of Ann Arbor. I cannot believe I am saying this, but I miss it.
Sorry this was so long...thanks for reading.
Dear Artists,
There's just one week left to take advantage of early-bird pricing. Don't miss your chance to get the best rate on your conference registration! Early-bird pricing ends July 31, 2016.
Early Bird Pricing: $150 for a single-day pass or $265 for an all-access pass
This year's conference will feature sessions specifically crafted for artists. With the opportunity to meet with the ZAPP® team one-on-one, and sessions that include topics such as creative new ideas for festivals, the public portfolio critique, and optimizing your success as an artist, we have something to appeal to everyone in the industry!
Come for the conference and stay for the culture! This year's conference will be held in Houston - home of the Bayou City Arts Festival, the Rothko Chapel and much more.
September 24-October 16 
Brooklyn, New York
Presented by: Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition (BWAC)
500 Artists
Deadline: August 8
Application Fee: Early Bird $45/5, 7/25
Final Deadline $65/5, $5 each additional image
New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York) as well as the bonus pieces selected by the artists.
We will be using 8,000 square feet for this show, and look forward to exhibiting artists' work from all over the USA.as well as the bonus pieces selected by the artists. We will be using 8000 square feet for this show and look forward to exhibiting artists' work from all over the USA.
The broad theme encompasses all the possibilities of your imagination-allowing you to think, play and create outside the box with few inhibitions, restrictions, rules, or guidelines. Just set yourself free to explore the possibilities of creativity and let Ms. Christoffersen put together an exciting show.
Since Art Fair Insiders allows blog posts, I thought I'd clog up the bandwidth with a few posts.
About me. Ehhhh........ not much actually.
Avid obsessed photographer. I have a day job. I have all the amenities (mortgage, bills, family, dog, ad nausem).
And I've just started into the Art Fair market this year. Have only made a few local artsy-craftsy shows and flea markets (don't ask!) and starting the learning curve......... straight up!
I'll be posting here occasionally when I'm idle and the typing fingers are bored. Hopefully the posts will be of interest to some of you.
Thanks for reading,
Randall_D
November 19 & 20 
Estero, Florida
(between Naples/Fort Myers)
Miromar Design Center
Presented by Hot Works
175 Artists
Deadline: August 5
Application Fee: $30; Booth Fee: $395-$750; Corner and Electric $75
Located outdoors at gorgeous Miramar Design Center, Southwest Florida's premier destination for design professionals and the general public, across the street from original location at Mall.
Noteworthy:
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Award winner Allen Tuttle, mixed media |
October 15 & 16 
Brookhaven, Georgia
Presented by: Brookhaven Community Foundation
125+ Artists
Deadline: August 1
Application Fee: $25; Booth Fee: $195
The Brookhaven Arts Festival is the premier Art Festival in Brookhaven, Georgia.
Brookhaven is the fastest growing city in Georgia, located inside the 285 perimeter beltline of Atlanta and attracting approximately 10-12,000 visitors. The Festival is held on Apple Valley Road directly behind the MARTA transportation station making it convenient for patrons to travel and/or park to attend this art festival. Brookhaven is one of the hottest markets within the perimeter of Atlanta, and the Brookhaven Arts Festival is always a great event for artists and patrons!
The juried Festival has been an annual event since 2004, after skipping 2014, the Festival is back for it's 12th year in the same location. The festival is produced with the input of local artists and The Brookhaven Community Foundation, a non-profit organization made up of community leaders who live in the City of Brookhaven who are interested in supporting the arts.
Artist amenities:
