I met a very nice potter from Indiana, whose name escapes me, that showed me where to park on the street where there were no meters. With his help, I found a spot for the first day.
The second day of the show (Thursday) is where the fun began. I went to the area that I had parked in on Wednesday and there were no spots left. I had heard there was a parking garage near the area of the show that I was in, so I plugged that into the GPS and found it. I parked and paid $12.00 for the whole day, a far cry from the Boy Scout shark that wanted $100 a day.
I left the garage in search of my booth, thinking I was going the right direction and quickly realized I was very wrong. Now, keep in mind it is wicked hot, even at 9am. It is hot, I am carrying a heavy cooler, purse,, coffee and repair kit. I am exhausted from the heat within about 15 minutes. I kept wandering, thinking I would find my area any minute. After about 30 minutes of being in a complete corn maze of white tents, I began to panic. I stopped and asked an artist where I was and she was super nice an helpful. She helped me orientate and told me where to go. I still had a long way to go, but she told me if I kept going until I hit State Street, I would be in The Guild's area. After another 15 minutes I finally recognized familiar territory. I arrived at my booth to find a concerned staff member wondering if I was ok, as it was 10:30am. The show opened at 10. I was lost for an hour and a half. I always give myself an hour to get ready for the day, so I had left the garage at 9am. I was exhausted, soaked through with sweat, tired and in tears when I finally got to my booth. My neighbors were all super nice and caring and helped me get open and cool down and calm down.
The Guild sent over a nice lady later in the day to help me with a map and exact directions on how to get from my garage to the show area. She was very nice and helpful. As it turned out, I was only 3 blocks away. Had I started off in the opposite direction, I would have been at my area of the show within minutes. I have to say I now know what it must be like to have Alzheimers. I was absolutely lost and totally terrified. When people say Ann Arbor is big, they aren't kidding. I saw 75% of the show that morning, not by choice. It was literally like being in a corn maze full of white tents.
Now on to the nitty gritty.... For those of you unfamiliar with how AA came to be, it was all started by the merchants of downtown. Years ago, they all got together and decided to invite artists to sell their works during their sidewalk sales in the summer. What a nice compliment, huh! Well, over the years AA evolved and evolved and co-existed with the sidewalk clearance sales and artists made money, lots of money. The economy was good, the art was great and there weren't 1100 artists competing for the dollars that were available. My how things have changed. In 2013, the economy is not so great, there are 1100 artists, scabs everywhere, tons and tons of buy/sell garbage, and mountains of crap for sale like you cannot even imagine unless you have been there.
What was once a serious money maker for many artists is an average sales show at best. I was told by a highly respected artist and name in the business that 9 out of 10 artists he had talked to said sales were way down. Now, the oppressive heat probably kept a lot of people away, but those that were there were not buying much more than low end items from artists. Now, on the other hand, what I did see was plenty of the crap walking by like: barbecue sauce, last year's shoes, last year's sunglasses, last year's winter coats and what art patron wouldn't feel blessed by some clearance deodorant and shaving cream from Mexico. Yes, they were buying that s**t like it was going out of style. What was not selling was: beautiful hand made jewelry, original photography, beautiful clothing, sculpture, glass, original paintings, leather and so on. You get the idea here.
In this sea of crap, scabs, clearance junk, abortion protestors, hari krishnas and everything else you could image were the serious art patrons, God bless them. They were like shining bits of gold in the sands of a river bank. They came and they bought what they could. They blessed artists like me with enough sales to make a paycheck profit. I am very grateful for the sales I had and the profit I made. The people I talked to were very nice, glad we were there and these patrons made a point of wading through this monstrosity each year to support the arts. For them, I will go back. It is worth it, to me to be available to these patrons who tolerate so much to support the artists.
It is a feat unto itself that an artist can compete for sales with 1100 others and God knows how many scabs and non-art selling vendors and still come out of this show with a profit. It says a lot about those of us that do this show and the patrons that support us.
I did not make a ton of money, I think for 4 days I should have made at least twice what I did, but I am grateful nonetheless. I will do it again and hope for cooler weather and more sales and a start to a client base. Some did not come out of this in the black and while I purchased art from 3 who were having bad shows in a effort to support them, I don't think they left happy. It is a shame.
In closing, I would like to say The Guild could not have been better. Everyone from staff to volunteers was exceptionally helpful, nice and understanding. I will continue to support The Guild's shows whenever I can. I think The Guild has definitely got art fairs down to a science and I have full confidence in them.
I am waitlisted for a show this coming weekend, if I am called I will review it next week. Otherwise, I will be doing Uptown Art Fair in Minneapolis, MN in two weeks. I will review that show here! Thanks for reading!!!
