(I've reviewed this show twice previously, and last year's show, truncated due to weather, was written about extensively. You can get all that history here.)
Goofy weather--cool and cloudy Saturday, sprinkles overnight, then mid-50s, clear and breezy Sunday--didn't keep the crowds away from this show at the Mercato Lifestyle Center, an uber-upscale shopping plaza and condo canyon in north Naples. But for the 100 fine artists at the von Liebig Museum's fourth annual show, this was perplexingly a hit-or-miss affair.
Unfortunately, I fell into the latter category, barely eking past $1K on the weekend, nearly all of it on Saturday. After the first hour or so that day, customers visited in a steady stream, praising my work to the skies, but when they bought, they bought small. Two of my key metrics--items per sale and average spend per item--sorely lagged what I've done in less upscale venues this year.
A few debated which large canvases they were going to buy, asked for pricing, and went off (they said) to see the rest of the show, or to measure the walls. But even those who returned wound up not pulling the trigger.
I didn't get the sense there there was any urgency to buy. Being local, even when I mentioned to the business card bandits that this was my last show in Naples for 10 months, it didn't matter. "We'll call you," they'd say, as they moved on. Some of them actually might, of course. But I can't help but wonder if this is a crowd that is more impressed by the "artists from afar" than the ones working in their own back yard.
This sentiment was shared by several other local artists I spoke with at the show, one of whom sardonically commented that based on the conversations he'd had, "I am thinking I'll need extra staff at my store when I open up on Tuesday morning to handle the crush of people."
Numbers don't lie. And the truth is that my average gross from Naples shows in 2010 (when I began exhibiting at shows there) was more than TWICE what it's been the last ten months. And, if I cast the net even closer to home, to the Howard Alan and HotWorks shows I do in Estero, the trend is similar: down by nearly half.
Did I benefit, in 2010, from being the new kid on the block (which, to show-goers, might be nearly as attractive as being an unfamiliar artist-from-afar?)
It is concerning to me that of my five best-grossing shows from the last 12 months, four are out-of-towners and only three are in Florida:
* Rehoboth Beach, DE (Art League Members' Show)
* Sanibel, FL (Lions Club show)
* Norfolk, VA (Stockley Gardens)
* St. Pete, FL (Mainsail)
* Jupiter, FL (ArtiGras 2012)
Several possible courses of action present themselves:
1) As one long-time glass artist suggested to me: Travel more, and raise my prices to cover the higher expenses.
2) Keep the local vs. distant show mix as-is, but do different shows within the local area: Swap in Bonita Springs for Naples; Sanibel for Estero; Sullivan Boulderbrook shows for Hotworks, etc., etc.
3) Do the same shows you have been, but market more heavily to the locals.
4) Move to smaller, lower-priced items. Embrace the middle class.
5) Screw the middle class. Move to larger, higher-priced items (which I did already, last year. Not the "screw the middle class" part, but you get my point).
6) Just ride it out.
7) Start drinking Scotch. Keep going until you come up with either an Option #8 even more palatable than the Scotch, or a new career.
Hmmm. I'll think those over. But in the meantime, there's a show review to finish. So let's trudge on. . .
This might just not have been my weekend. A few folks, including the aforementioned long-time glass artist, had killer shows. Several of my neighbors, and a reasonably high percentage of others I spoke with during loadout, were happy they came. They didn't share numbers, but said they were satisfied and would return.
So draw your own conclusions.
I can say with certainty that the show was well run by show director Marianne Megela and the museum staff and volunteers. Setup, which started at 3 AM Saturday, was a snap, especially for the well-caffeinated. Teardown, the same. There was an artist breakfast, ample booth-sitters, and very good promotion through traditional and social media, as well as to the museum's burgeoning mailing list.
And the art mix was diverse, the quality uniformly high (though no awards).
Bottom line: Despite the hit to MY bottom line, for many other artists, Mercato seems to be as decent a show as there is in Naples. The problem is: given the trend in the numbers, that isn't the high praise it used to be.
