Blog

February 22 & 23   
Miami, Florida
30th Anniversary Festival
Downtown South Miami
10am-6pm daily
145 Exhibitors

In  1984 a dedicated group of Red Sunset Merchants Association members  conceived an arts and crafts festival as a way to bring shoppers into  the area and also to serve the community well by bringing the arts  closer to the local population.  Started as a small show with only 25 booths, it has grown into one of Miami-Dade's most anticipated festivals.

The area is filled with historic buildings, restaurants and unique shops. Just 3 miles south of Miami's Coconut Grove, South Miami borders the University of Miami and the upscale neighborhoods of Coral Gables and Pinecrest.

The festival is now wholly produced by the dedicated volunteers of the Rotary Club of South Miami and its Rotary Foundation.  Our artists come from all over the U.S. and Canada.  Over the years the show has added an educational Children's Alley and engaged local musicians to play during the juried event.

Proceeds  from our festival fund a full college scholarship for a South Miami  student, elementary and middle school dictionary and atlas giveaways,  and other local, national and international service projects.

The festival is located in the heart of downtown South Miami, adjacent to the Shops at Sunset Place.  It is held on Sunset Drive (SW 72nd Street) between Red Road (SW 57th Avenue) and US 1.

We provide:

• free coffee and donuts at headquarters both mornings
• Booth sitters are available throughout the festival for brief breaks
• There is booth side load in and load out from your vehicle.   
• Free parking for artists with their festival parking cards.
• Cash awards of $3000

June 27-29, 2014
Downtown Des Moines, Iowa
195 Artists
Deadline: October 31, 2013
 
The City of Des Moines invites you to be part of the award-winning Des Moines Arts Festival® (DMAF) on June 27-29 in downtown Des Moines, Iowa.  The DMAF is one of the nation's most respected arts events hosting 195 of the nation's top artists in a beautiful urban setting surrounding the 4.4 acre John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park.
 
The outdoor Festival of arts and culture attracts more than 200,000 people each year to its downtown location in Iowa's capital city and largest metropolitan area.  DMAF is a show dedicated to the highest standards and works diligently to maintain a positive environment for artists and their clients.
 
DMAF is a non-profit organization founded by the Des Moines Art Center.  The Festival contributes more than $65,000 annually from its proceeds to support the Des Moines Art Center, numerous area arts-related non-profit organizations and the continuation of the DMAF.
 
Artist Information and Benefits:

• Projected attendance: 200,000+
• All-Original Show
• Promotion to art-buying public magazines, social media, radio, online, television, billboards, and collateral valued at $805,000
• $10,000 in cash awarded at the time of publication
• Award winners include an automatic invitation to 2014 show
• Official Festival Program includes color thumbnail image of each exhibiting artist
• Web site includes full-color image with name and live link to artist Web site.
• Free reserved parking
• Invitations to special events and receptions
• Hospitality Area including air-conditioned restroom facilities and exclusive "Express Lane" concessions. 24-hour security. Free electricity. Free WiFi
• Leisurely set-up (full day is available)
• Booth sitters and energetic volunteers
• Booth Amenities: 10'x10'  booth with at least 121 square feet (1' on sides and back).  All booths on street.  Storage behind booth.

Apply: Zapplication.org

Learn more: www.desmoinesartsfestival.org

Jury is Dec. 4-6, 2013 in Des Moines (open to the public on Dec. 4)
Notification Emailed on or before Dec 12, 2013

Facebook/DesMoinesArtsFestival

info@desmoinesartsfestival.org
515.286.4927

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Find even more of the nation's best art fairs looking for you: www.CallsforArtists.com

Maybe somebody shared one of my posts? I don't really know but I am getting an influx of South American likes on my facebook page. Does that mean I an now an international artist?

By the way, I am not paying facebook even a dime. I have no advertising and no post boosts. So how and where are these likes coming from? I went from 207 today to 242 in a matter of minutes. People that I do not know and have never visited my booth. This is very strange to me. What is going on? Am I master of social networking? I think not...

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 5:30 PM ET

ArtFairCalendar.com has just finished its 1st annual "America's Best Art Fairs" survey and we are announcing the winners on this podcast.

We asked our mailing list of nearly 50,000 art fair patrons  what was the best art fair in the country and had an amazing response from across the nation. Nearly 96% completed the lengthy 22 question survey and the answers were both expected and intriguing. 

Not surprising: people love to attend art fairs and many travel long distances to do so and plan them as part of their vacations. The overall conclusion is: Art is Alive and Well in America and attendance at the nations shows is proof.

Listen to find out what are the Top 50 shows in the country as voted on by the people who attend them and collect art. Find out which they have chosen as the best regional fairs, best urban fair, bestt small market show and the best cities for art fairs.

We'll share the survey answers on:

• what makes a show "Best"
• why people say they attend an art fair
• how art fair goers find out about shows to attend
• why they don't attend shows they used to love
• how far they travel to art fairs
• their suggestions for show organizers 

LISTEN BY CLICKING HERE: www.ArtFairRadio.com

CALL IN WITH COMMENTS & QUESTIONS: 805-243-1338

The Best Art Fairs Awards is the first national online survey of the nation’s juried fairs, designed to reward those festivals that create opportunities connecting artists and communities to celebrate the arts.

The mission of ArtFairCalendar.com is to promote the American tradition of art fairs by showcasing the events where art collectors can find hand-crafted, one-of-a-kind fine art pieces for sale by the professional artist community and encourage the interaction of client and creator. 

Not only is Melanie an accomplished artist, and a fine writer. Just in time for Halloween she has new tricks to show us:

Congratulations, Melanie and thank you for your thorough review of the Alexandria, VA, show.

Our thanks also go to long time member Chris Hoyt who over many years has shared a lot of helpful information on the business side of art fairs. Chris is now a "Community Leader" as you can see by the Red Dot on his profile photo.

OR, WHAT I DID NOT KNOW BEFORE THE SHOW

Not too long ago I requested information about this show and received one response.  I was surprised as this is a large show.

That prompted me to share my experience in hopes of helping other artists make informed decisions.  

My Medium:  Ceramic Sculptures (Cats)

My Price Points:  $250 - $700

Weather:  Hot and humid Saturday, rain on and off Sunday

Patrons:  Saturday:  steady flow but not a crowd, Sunday:  Thin traffic due to the weather.  In general, the public seemed apathetic

In spite of the weather and lack luster traffic I had a terrific show, although there were many artists that had marginal to zero sales.  The mood of the artists was mostly grim, at least on my street.  So my success was an exception rather than the rule.  Sadly, the buying mood of the public and the weather cannot be predicted with any accuracy. 

ACCEPTANCE - SELECTING A LOCATION

Once accepted you are requested to select the location you want.  This really stumped me as I had never done the show or even been in the area.  Also, not all locations have electricity.  What I thought to be the prime location (around a pond) had an early load in with 75 spaces available.  By the time I got to this point of the process, all of those spaces were full.  So I just tossed a dart and selected Walker St.  This turned out to be a good choice as the parks (cement pond and heritage) did not get as much traffic as the streets, or so it seemed to me.

LOAD IN

Oh my!

The cement pond and heritage park artists were able to load in around 4 pm, they are required to dolly in.

 My load in time was at 8 pm and they recommended we bring some sort of light in the event the street lights were obscured by trees as was the case in some locations.  We were OK, but I would bring "head lights" next time.  At 7 pm Friday they had us stage at some parking lot far away from the actual show (or so it seemed due to the horrible one way streets which were always going the wrong way).  Artists that donated to "Art Heist" lined up first for a 7:30 load in - then the 8 pm load in - and finally the 8:30 load in.

There was no staff present at 7 pm so most of us were milling around wondering what to do.  We were originally informed that we would have a police escort to our locations.  The staff showed around 7:30, got everyone sorted out and off we went - oops, where were we going . . .no escort, and we got stopped at a light a lost sight of the van in front of us.  But we were able to catch up, and were directed to the proper lane for our street.  With big color coded cards and color coded light sticks, this went smoothly.

We thought that there were not very many artists at the staging area and learned that "those in the know" skipped the staging and went directly to their street. Fortunately it did not present a problem for us and we had no problem locating our space and began setting up.

The booth spaces are located on both sides of the street, one side backs up on the cement pond, and the other side backs up on a steep berm, I think that is the east side.  But you cannot select which side of the street you are on.  Also the street slopes down to the curbs, so plan on leveling as needed.

Booth spaces are about 10.5' wide, no wiggle room at all.  Fortunately, not everyone tried to set up at 8 pm so there was a bit of room to maneuver, however you can imagine the congestion with a 10 ' space available for each artist to park their vehicle when many vehicles are twice that long. There is parking on both sides of the street, but it does get tight depending on your vehicle.  No one parks and unloads their display in the "allotted" hour or two. We all jockeyed around to accommodate the "big rigs" and it was not too bad.  We were there until 11 pm with many artists still setting up.  We were back at 7 am to complete our display.  So, it is an exhausting set up.

THE SHOW

I encountered no problems during the show.  Staff came by frequently to provide water, snacks, and relief as needed.  If you make prior arrangements, lunch is delivered for a fee.  Portable pottys are located conveniently. Judges made their usual "fly by" and did not deign to talk to me.  But that was OK, I had a great show.

LOAD OUT

We were provided with the usual load out instructions - start tearing down at 6 pm, wait for the patrons to clear, and plan to start driving in around 7-7:30 (once we got our Street Captain's OK).

However, due to the weather (even though the rain had stopped) we got the OK to start breaking down around 5:30 and drove to our space once everything was dismantled and ready to load.  This went surprisingly smooth even though we had to pause to jockey our position to allow other vehicles room to pass or park.  Our tear down is usually slow because of packing up the product, but we were on the road by 8:30.

Oh yes, the early load in folks did not have such an easy load out due to limited parking.

OTHER STUFF

Bring bug repellent.  Lots of mosquitoes and flys.

Great underground parking at the Theater District for $7 per day.  Exits to Walker and a short walk to our booth.  Artist parking is really removed from the show, and no shuttle was provided.

Crown Plaza was an acceptable hotel, although a bit pricey.  Even with "free valet parking" be prepared to tip the valet, frequently.  There is no other parking at the hotel.

Bring a fan.  It can be hot in October.

Of course, the staff may change any of the procedures that I have shared with you, but maybe there will be some information here that will be helpful.

It was a positive experience and I thought the staff did a pretty darn good job.

we were having problems weekend before last, on staurday, october 5.

we were in manhattan at crafts on columbus.  and it wasn't only us as a customer told me they had purchased something at other side of fair and that crafter had problems too.  the guy next to me, besides being a crafter husband was an ex apple store tech and we figured out that it wasn' our euqipment, or even our connection source (he had at&t and i verizon) but a square problem.  meant to check with them as to why, we even thought it might hae to do with apple upgrading their system.  our solution was cash and checks, temporarily.  and to think of it, he (this ex apple tech) took one sale for us.  

was your problem the same weekend?

my solution would be to get a second source, like quicken or the paypal one and use every once in a while to keeep it current.  what is your solution?

So there you are at an art fair, the judges come through and seemingly ignore your booth, but then you turn around and make a nice sale. We used to say, you can either win the prizes or you can win the sales. Which one do you think keeps the bills paid?

From September 18-October 6 a large public competition is held for big money in Grand Rapids, MI, ArtPrize. It touts the world's largest Art Prize - $200,000 awarded to an artist and who gets to choose? The public. 

I believe this was the fourth year. Over the years there has been some sniping about the "public's choices", not up to the standards of the art critics, so another prize was added of $200,000 chosen for a Juried Grand Prize.

The winner of the Public Vote:
"Sleeping Bear Dune Landshore", an art quilt by Ann Loveless

The winner of the Juried Grand Prize:

"Ecosystem", Carlos Bunga's site-specific work located in one of the galleries of the former Grand Rapids Public Museum. Please do click on the link to learn more about this winner. 

So, there you have it -- which one would you have chosen and which one are you at the art fair?

Here is the complete list of winners: http://www.artprize.org/blog/october4

And here is some of the criticism of the event: http://www.mlive.com/opinion/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2013/10/how_to_quell_criticisms_of_pop.html

Although with over 1500 entries and half a million votes being cast, this is not too shabby a showing! Grand Rapids "gets" it -- good job, GR. 

Has anyone else ever used the free online business planning software “Enloop”? http://www.enloop.com/

I just started messing around with this – it really makes you stop, think and ask the hard questions.  It calculates estimated income/expenses out three years based upon your inputs and provides some decent feedback.

If you’ve never done a business plan before it may be worthwhile – the free (forever) version of this has plenty of depth in my opinion.

WANTED TO POST MY OPINIONS OF ART SHOWS WE HAVE DONE ION THE PAST YEAR:

SCOTTSDALE AZ:  NOVEMBER 2012   BAD SHOW -  TOO SPREAD OUT I DON'T THINK MOST CUSTOMERS COVERED THE ENTIRE SHOW.  NO ONE SEEMED TO BE BUYING - NOT JUST AT MY BOOTH - BUT ANYWHERE - ALL THE ARTIST I TALKED TO WERE VERY DISAPPOINTED.  NICE ARE - VERY SMALL SALES

TUCSON STREET FAIR: DECEMBER 2012  GOOD SHOW - GOOD SALES, BUT SET UP AND TEAR DOWN WERE VERY DIFFICULT AND SINCE THEY PUT IN A TROLLY DOWN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET I EXPECT IT TO BE WORSE.  PAIN TO SET UP AND TEAR DOWN BUT SALES MADE IT WORTH THE EFFORT.

CHARLOTTE NC - ART IN THE PARK, SEPT 2013 - WORST SHOW!!!!  I HAD READ WONDERFUL THINGS ABOUT THIS SHOW ON THIS SITE A FEW YEARS AGO.  I SPOKE TO SEVERAL OTHER ARTIST WHO HAD READ THE SAME GREAT THINGS ABOUT THIS EVENT.  TRAVELED ALL THE WAY FROM CA TO NC WITH A FEW SHOWS ON THE WAY.  IT WAS AWFUL!!!!   TOUGH SET UP AND WORSE TEAR DOWN BUT THE WORST PART WAS THE ATMOSPHERE.  THIS IS NOT AN ART FAIR!!!  ITS A CARNIVAL!!!   KIDDIE RIDES ON ONE END OF THE PARK, CARNIVAL TYPE FOOD VENDORS,  COMMERCIAL BOOTHS FOR INSURANCE, LARGE FORD CAR DISPLAY, GIVING AWAY CRACKERS, YOU NAME IT!   WORST SHOW OF MY OVER 20 YEARS OF SHOWS.  CROWD WAS LITTLE MORE THAN PUSHING BABIES IN STROLLERS OR PRE-TEENS RUNNING FREE WITHOUT PARENTS.  I ACTUALLY STARTED KEEPING TRACK OF PEOPLE WITH ITEMS THEY HAD PURCHASED AND IT WAS LESS THAN ONE PER HOUR.  THE ONLY THING THESE PEOPLE BOUGHT WAS ICE CREAM.  THEN THE CHILDREN BROUGHT THE PRECARIOUSLY HELD ICE CREAM UP TO MY BOOTH AND SPREAD IT ON MY WORK.   DO NOT DO THIS SHOW IT IS NOT AN ART FAIR IT IS A CARNIVAL

I just came back from Glynn Art in the Park.  This was my 4th year.  I look forward to doing this show every year.  The venue is beautiful.  Set up and take down is super easy.  The folks who run it are the type of people you would love to have as your neighbor.  The reception is first class.  The quality of the art is top notch.  No junk here.  I always come out in the black.  And to make matters even better --- I took 2nd place in 2D this year.  Yeah for me!  And thank you Glynn Art Association for another wonderful weekend.  The weather was good.  The she-crab soup from 4th of May restaurant was scrumptious.  The gumbo delicious.  Jim and I really enjoyed the friendship and dinner at Iguanas with friends Patsy and Ed.  I sold my first large piece on Friday during set-up.  Saturday was a little slow.  Seemed to be that way with most of the artists I talked to.  It did not help that there was a GA game that afternoon.  But sales on Sunday definitely made up for the slow Saturday.  In fact my profit line was twice what I took in 2012.  My last sale was after we were well into the take down phase.  

Did you notice the shopping bags in hand?

Making the selection.

One happy artist.

We were at the Ohio Sauerkraut Festival in Waynesville, Ohio, and all set up... everything a go. Cell phone had 4 bars, square was up and running until about 11:30am when the entire bunch of us (440 artist vendors) lost internet and ability to run credit cards.  In fact, i lost everything but texting capability.  As we scrambled to rethink our processes we all realized this was an outage, or an overrun of the bandwidth of the internet provider/ cell towers.  Througout the entire weekend we experienced ups and downs. Oddly, after leaving Waynesville our cell phones returned to normal function, and all of the pended credit card transactions went through.   

So my first question is - has this happened to you?

Second question - what is your backup plan? Do you go to paper, and process the transactions when the system comes up?  

Congratulations to Larry Berman, who received a special award at the Arts Festival Conference in Louisville, October 7. I was there. When Anthony Radich Executive Director of Westaf, the home of Zapplication.org, presented this first ever award, Larry was speechless. Larry has been a fearless nagger representing the interests of artists in getting the technology right. It has been a long battle fighting over pixels, downloads, uploads, calibration, laptops, screen images, etc., but Larry has never wavered. All artists who use the Zapp system have him to thank for leveling the playing field.

Who would have thought the gadfly of this organization would be rewarded for his relentless pursuit of fairness? When I asked him what he would do next he told me this story:

You know in the movie the Shawshank Redemption when Tim Robbins writes to the library every week for a long time to get books delivered to the prison library and then they finally do, the library wants to know if he will now stop pestering them. His reply, "nope -- now I'm going to do it twice a week."

Larry says that is exactly what he will be doing. Congratulations, Larry, for all you do for our business. This is a well-deserved award.

Was wondering if people know of any good shows for painters in the spring in Austin, Tx. I have heard about the show in Georgetown but it is in Oct. 

Would appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks.

ff

I am sad that one of my projects have come to an end. Maybe it's due to the bankruptcy of the city but it is still sad nonetheless. A few years ago, I was contacted by the Detroit Institute of Arts marketing department to shoot Lego minifigures at the museum to display on their blog. My work is still up there. They were impressed with my minifigure shots on flickr in the DIA pool.

But my work has not been there for almost a year now. I contacted the marketing department a few weeks ago because at the Funky Ferndale Art Fair, someone came into my booth and I stated I did the work of the minifigures at the museum. They loved that series. And it was good publicity for me too.

But I guess some good things come to an end. For that I am sad... 

Why yes! I do take custom orders. Here are some of my recent requests...

In  a community renowned for its devotion to the arts, Scottsdale has one arts festival that rises above them all. Now one of the top-ranked arts  festivals in the country, the award-winning Scottsdale Arts Festival  features 200 jury-selected artists from throughout North America, top-notch live music and entertainment, fun activities for kids and  families,gourmet food trucks and much more.

Scottsdale's glorious spring weather complements the beautiful park-like setting of the Festival, creating a wonderful environment that attracts more than 30,000 residents and tourists.

The Scottsdale Arts Festival is produced by the nonprofit Scottsdale Cultural Council and proceeds from the event support the programs of Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts and Scottsdale Museum of  Contemporary Art.

Up to 200 artists will exhibit in the 2014 Festival, including the invited 2013 award winners.

The professional staff of the Scottsdale Arts Festival provides an outstanding experience for exhibiting artists.

• Artists are treated to a special artist hospitality area offering a complimentary continental breakfast, beverages and snacks throughout the day.
• A  strategic marketing campaign targets local and visiting art consumers through media partnerships in print, radio, television as well as direct mail, visitor guides, concierges and social media. The average attendee  is a married, college-educated professional between the ages of 30-65 with annual income of $50,000 - $150,000.

• Local hotel partners offer special discounted rates for exhibiting artists and their guests.

• Dedicated hospitality and volunteer booth sitters also are available to assist artists.

I just read on another forum that Fairhope, AL had to cancel their art show last weekend due to weather and even though they don't have to compensate the artists they have decided to give full refunds or a free show space for next year. That's awesome!

I know it wasn't the call of the show organizers of St. James to cancel the show on Sunday, but I hope they follow the fine example of Fairhope and compensate the artists in some way for the lose of revenue. A little good will goes a long way.