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In an effort to keep from wasting everyone's valuable time, I just wanted to say that I've found what I was looking for on the Square Card Reader.  I would still welcome any other tips, things to watch out for, etc.  But, I've found an answer to the question of making manual entries.  Thank you.

 I am switching over from my current credit card processing system to the Square and have a couple of questions.

I've been practicing with the Square for a couple of weeks but will be using it for the first time at St. James and am just a little nervous about it.  There has been a fair amount of conversation about it on this site but I haven't been able to find anything that addresses my question.  Hopefully, someone on here will be able to help me.

Is there any way to make a manual entry when using this system?  If a card is bent or dirty or anything that prevents it's swiping correctly, is there any way possible to make a manual entry?  If so, could you please give me a brief lesson on how to do this?

One possible negative that concerns me with the Square is that there seems to be no live support that one can talk to about any sort of problem.  With other systems, if you run into a problem that you can't solve, you can usually pick up the phone and get a customer support person to actually talk with.  I haven't found this capabilty with the Square.

Any tips, advice, things to watch out for, etc. would be greaty appreciated.   I'll be carrying a back-up system but I'd like to think that things will go smoothly the first time.  Thanks to any, and all, that would care to offer some input on this subject

hi -- come see us -- i think we're 4-157 ... you can't miss jay since he uses a wheelchair.  i'll be the one holding up the wall and psyching myself up to be comfortable, smiling (well, i do that all the time - so that's not an issue) and ready to sell, sell, sell. 

following week - sugarloaf - timonion

Thursday, September 27, 6 pm ET
Who gets into almost all of the top shows and win Best of Show? Meet Jody dePew McLeane (pastel drawings) and Ted Gall (sculptor), involved in the art fair business for over 30 years and consistently exhibiting at the "dream shows."

The essence of this show will be:

• how to build a long term career selling at art fairs
• sustaining a body of work that continues to grow and yield creative fulfillment
• adapting to changing economic conditions
• art fair vs gallery sales
• lessons learned
• tips for someone starting out today

Jody is a member of the Pastel Society of America in New York and was elected as a master panelist by the Society. Her works have been featured in four books including "The Best of Pastel II" and her work is in many public collections.

Ted has served consultant to the Art Institute of Chicago and the Illinois Arts Council. He has taught art classes in Illinois and in California. His corporate collections include The Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum, Walt Disney, Bell & Howell, Standard Oil and others.

Do you have a question you would like to ask them? Please post that below. Also, we'll be taking phone calls and you can call in at this #(805) 243-1338.

I had my first art show yesterday, Art on the Bluffs in Columbia, Illinois.  This was a one day show in a small city about 20 miles South East of St. Louis, Missouri. 

I am a photographer and my work consists of flowers and insects.  Most of my images are close-ups and I print them on textured 100% cotton water color paper with rather heavy color saturation.  My selling prices are for signed and numbered, matted prints in a 11x14 inch mat for $65 and in a 18x24 inch mat for $175. 

This show seems to have a diverse mixture of participants with some having less than a year of experience in their field and some seasoned artists.  Many arts were represented with a total of 50 artists.

As this was my first show, and as I am limiting my expenditures until I know if my work will sell and until I have a better definition of what  kind of equipment I will need, I rented an ez-up type of tent.  It was delivered without sidewalls and with an 80 pound weight hung from, the roof line at each corner.  I hung the heavy story display type of wire grids on three sides.

Right after getting my art work hung, we were hit with light gusts of perhaps 10-15 mph and the gusts were met with the sounds of much breaking glass and other objects.  My ez-up tent had no problems, I assume that this was due to the open mesh sides and the heavy weights which  saved the day for me.

The show opened at 10am and I was ready to start making some money.  I was not disappointed, as by 3 pm I had amassed an amazing total sale amount of $20, two of small unsigned prints mounted in 8x10 inch mats.  At this time, I started to have serious doubts of my decision to sell my artwork and questions rang in my head - priced too high?, not of sufficient quality/interest?, etc.  One couple had come by at about noon and said that they wanted to buy one of my framed images that had a price of $200.  After looking for a while, they said that they would be back after lunch and I dismissed the sale when they had not returned by three.

Suddenly at three, the dam burst and the couple returned and others suddenly showed up and I sold $600+ and had an order for another $300, all within the next hour for a total of almost $1,000.  I had been hoping for a bit more, but none the less, I left a happy camper. I have no idea of how the vendors in general did but those that I talked to around me, had substantially less sales.  I also saw very few of the attendees with purchased artwork.

Amazed as too how many of the potential buyers were mainly interested in how well the color would go with their interior design.  Very few seemed to be very interested in mundane facts such that only acid free components were used or that they were pigment and not dye prints.

I do not know why my items were selected for purchase but hopefully I have hit upon a successful formula of interesting subjects well presented.  I do not have sufficient experience to know if this one day show is what is considered to be a good show but at the present time I am happy.

When I was first accepted at an art fair, I did not realize the amount of money and time doing a show would entail.  I have now spent multiple thousand and many, many hours on my inventory of  a couple of hundred matted prints and about 60 framed images.  I have hopes that the next show will bring me closer to the break even point. 

One of my biggest concerns was the price point - too high, too low, how do you know how to price the artwork?

It took me almost 2.5 hours to move the stuff from the house to the car, another couple of hours to set up (in a waiting rented tent), 8 hours at the show, two hours to pack up and get home and another couple of hours to get everything moved into the house and stored again.  Although the packing was done the previous day, still much more effort than I had been anticipating.  My hats are off to all of you that do this on a regular basis.

I also have come up with a solution to pacify my wife as to the amount of time that I am expending on doing the art and the fairs - she gets 1/3 of the sales (of course before taxes).

I have a second show scheduled for two weeks from now, a much larger show with much higher attendance and this one may well decide my future direction in doing art fairs, although, at my age of 70, they will be limited to the local area and they are not required for my main source of income.

This has been an interesting journey thus far and rather educational.

Here's a pic of some knock down pro panels that I made, just a quick set up to see how they would work and they worked out great. What do you think? It wasn't easy figuring out all the measurements and materials but I wanted something professional looking and had a limited budget. Once I figured it all out and wrote down instructions, they would be easy to make again. These are not perfect as I figured out several ways to perfect them as I went along but they do the job and don't think the average patron would notice. The best part about them is that I made them to the same specs as pro panels so that their accessories will work on them. For example I bought their couplers for connecting top/bottom pieces, leather connectors & levelers.  I made my own support bars but theirs would work too. Since I took time to figure out how to make them, I was thinking about making an ebook available for artists. Do you think this would be valuable info for artists and worth the time creating? All the materials cost me around $300 for eight 6' panels, saving me a lot of money compared to $130 each.

I just bought a 6 x 12 cargo trailer to use for storage between shows, to travel to the shows and also to alleviate having to load and unload the pottery and my display before and after each show. Should I contact my auto insurance company to add this on or should I buy some other kind of policy to protect my investment if it is stolen or vandalized? If I contact my auto company will they want me to place my vehicle on a business policy, which would be a bigger expense ? How are you handling this as artists? Also any advice on locks for the hitch, we purchased one to cover the ball, what else would we need?  Thank you, Jackie

January 26
Waukesha, Wisconsin 

10am-4pm   

We all have them...pieces of art that sit in the corner of our studio.  For whatever reason, we no longer take them to art show.  We don't like them, they are damaged, we are tired of looking at them...whatever.  We don't want to throw them out.  What can we do with them?   Now, you can clean out your studios, reduce the price and blow out the inventory in January at the Waukesha Expo, 1000 Northview Rd., Waukesha, WI.

Public Admission is $3 or bring 2 canned food items, get into the show FREE!  All food items and any money collected goes to the Food Pantry of Waukesha, our non-profit partner.  Parking is free.

I can accept up to 100 artists: www.artworkswisconsin.com

The regular deadline is October 1st; however if there is still space available, after Oct. 1, it will be on a first come, first serve basis.  Organized by artist Colin Murray, colin@artworksmadison.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

 FYI -- there is still room in our Fine Art & Fine Craft Show, October 27 show in Waukesha. More info here: http://artworksmadison.com/  

Well, I've had some big news lately, and my blogging absence reflects what is happening in my life...

I worked at the University of San Diego for 10 years before they revised the job description and I left.  For three years I developed my own business, designed around town and worked in various costume shops, and tried to redefine my skills toward something non-theatre.  I am proud of what I've accomplished, and don't intend on giving it up.

Recently, they decided to restore the responsibilities of that position to what they were when I left.  I was asked if I might be interested in applying for it, and returning to being their costume person and designing/coordinating their shows.

A lot has changed at USD since I left.  Some of the players are gone--the ones who made my life particularly stressful and were responsible for shifting the costume position away from something I was interested in keeping.  There was nothing for me when I left.  But now, coming back to what I had before was very attractive.  I loved it there.  It wasn't until the changes happened that things went sour.

I applied for the job, went through a portfolio presentation and interview, and got it.  I am now the Faculty Costume Shop Manager at the University of San Diego, responsible for designing and building 3 shows each year, and teaching three classes.  I have the rank of Adjunct Assistant Professor and am 5/8ths time, with benefits.  Again.  (I actually went up on the world--I had been called an "Adjunct Instructor"...)

Originally, I was not scheduled to do anything this first semester but design and build one of their undergraduate shows.  But some special circumstances happened (their full-time Scenographer isn't back in town from the Ukraine yet), so I assumed teaching responsibilities for two of his classes.  And I also took up responsibility for designing/building a second undergraduate show since there was a time crunch.  That's three extra responsibilities no one had planned on.

So currently, I am teaching his two sections of Fundamentals of Theatrical Design, and designing two shows--Anatomy of Grey and The Beaux' Stratagem, both undergraduate shows for their Bachelor of Arts degree program.  Next semester I will help mentor their Devised Theatre project, design and build their MFA level show (Tartuffe), and teach a third class (probably Theatre and Society, their intro-level class).

It is a unique experience coming back to the costume shop I designed and working in the program where I helped formulate their BA degree.  When I started there 13 years ago, there was no costume shop and no Theatre major.  In the interim, I have seen the program shift through 8 different program chairs, 3 different departments, and gain 4 full-time positions.  I helped design the small costume shop, storage areas, and dressing rooms that exist today.  In my previous time at USD, I ended up designing/building 63 shows, and when I left I had designed half of the MFA shows that had ever been mounted in their graduate degree program's history.

Theatre at USD is unique--there is a generalized BA undergraduate degree, and there is a MFA degree in Acting co-sponsored by the Old Globe Theatre.  Until this year, the programs were separate and distinct, but they will be merging soon, with the head of the graduate program being the overall chair of the department and an associate chair being hired to coordinate the undergrad side of things.  In the past, the two sides of theatre education at USD had to share my resources and time as the sole costume person for both programs.  But now, with the two sides merging, that position's time as the "servant of two masters" just got a LOT easier.  Having one "boss" (ultimately) will be a boon.

So I'm back.  And I'm happy.  Happier than I have been in a very very long time.  I'm doing something I know how to do, enjoying my time designing and planning out the build of different garments, and re-establishing my relationships with old colleagues.  I know my way around that space--I helped make it.

But most of all I'm very excited that I can get back to teaching, which is what I feel I was really meant to do in this world.  I come from a family of teachers--both of my grandmothers were teachers, several of my aunts and uncles taught high school, and my own parents work for the school district where I went to high school in Missouri.  One of my sisters teaches at the University of Missouri, and I have cousins in education as well.  It's in my blood.  I'm really getting the best of both worlds here--I can teach and do art at the same time.

This doesn't mean my business is going away.  By no means.  I was accepted to my first juried Art Festival in mid-October, The La Jolla Art and Wine Festival, and I'm incredibly excited!!  I plan on continuing my own costume endeavors through a more "artistic bent" and demonstrating to my students that it is possible to use the experience earning a theatre degree to do more than theatre.  Since it's 5/8ths time, I plan on being a living demonstration of what it means to use one's education to define one's own artistic merit outside of a traditional theatre structure, which is something some of them might need to do if they want to be able to make a living using their skills.  Costume Designing doesn't pay well, honestly.  Best to be able to expand one's horizons.  There are lots of ways of applying one's theatre education nowadays.  Believe me.  It's not all pre-professional preparation for entering the traditional theatre industry.  It doesn't have to be.

So.  Thought I'd keep you all updated.  Wish me luck!!  I'm already incredibly busy!!  But it's a happy busy.  And a comfortable busy.  And a busy that I'm proud to be wrapped up in.  It's rather like coming home, in a way.   And for me, it's a good thing.

ArtPrize in Grand Rapids is a very unusual event. It's partly a carnival, and partly a fine art exhibition. This will be my third year exhibiting at ArtPrize and I really enjoy the excitement this event generates here in western Michigan.

This year there are 1517 entries being exhibited in 161 different locations within a three square mile section of downtown Grand Rapids Michigan. Artists from all over the world participate in this event. It runs from September 19 through October 7. There is big prize money... $560,000 in all, with $360,000 awarded by popular vote and $200,000 awarded by a professional jury. In the past most of the awards were by popular vote, so the public decides who wins. This year, they have added bigger awards by a professional jury. 

I am exhibiting at the Fountain Street Church at 24 Fountain Street NE. You can review my entry on my website (www.LebenArt.com) or by searching on the ArtPrize website (www.ArtPrize.org), where details of all 1517 entries are posted.

Throngs of art lovers and party-goers cram the streets of Grand Rapids during this incredible event, most armed with smart phones which enable them to place votes for entries that they like. The winners in past years have not always been worthy of the label of "fine art", and often tend to be schlocky. But that's because the people decide who wins. But some of the past winners are "fine art", in spite of the popular vote format.  

I spent only a few hours looking around on Wednesday on the opening night and the mix of art and kitch is the same as previous years. But the art is what's worth seeing. The best exhibits are at the museums, where professional curators choose the artists who would exhibit. But there are gems and surprises everywhere. For example, I was totally blown away by a massive kinetic sculpture featuring a flock of birds on exhibit in the top floor of the UICA (Contemporary art museum) building. There are inspiring pieces like this all over town. If you are anywhere near Grand Rapids in the next few weeks its definitely worth a visit.

May 10-12, 2013
Greenville, South Carolina
West End Historic District
120 Artists  

Greenville is located in  the Blue Ridge Mountains in the northwest corner of South Carolina,  halfway between Atlanta and Charlotte. It is one of those lucky U.S.  cities impacted positively by high tech development where industries  such as BMW, General Electric and Fluor are flourishing.

 What to expect:

• Since 2005 the Purchase Awards Program provided an average of an additional $15,00 in art sales each year
• Artisphere's multi-media advertising campaign markets the Festival throughout the Southeast region in print ads, radio, and television ads.  Artisphere is also marketed through direct mail, festival brochures, social media, the Artisphere website, and billboards
• $12,500 in prize money distributed to 7 award winners
• a well-educated audience who have good jobs
• great time of the year for pleasant Spring days

Now  in its ninth year, the top-ranking Artisphere festival is an   annual  three-day event that gives arts patrons the rare opportunity to meet  exhibiting artists while purchasing original works of art.  
  

A supportive, art-loving community, beautiful setting, and over 600 volunteers make the Artisphere festival an enjoyable experience for exhibiting artists and the public alike.  Renowned artist hospitality includes complimentary food and beverages, convenient set up, parking, security, booth sitters, and reduced hotel rates.  
  

Artisphere is a 501(c)(3) non-profit art organization.  Proceeds are used to produce the annual arts festival and are distributed back to local non-profit arts organizations as part of Artisphere's Volunteer Arts Partnership Program.

On the fence about applying? Visit their website for a good overview: www.Artisphere.us 

See artist review here: http://www.artfairinsiders.com/profiles/blogs/artispherea-little-je...

For more info, contact Liz Rundorff Smith, Program Director/Artisphere, 864-271-9355, or liz@greenvillearts.com.     

Download the application:  www.artisphere.us

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Looking for more art fairs that are looking for you?
Visit www.CallsforArtists.com (new events added almost daily)

 This was our first time participating in this art festival and for us it was a good experience. Mill Valley is just north of San Francisco in Marin County which is an affluent county, everything I had heard about this show from other artists proved to be fairly accurate. There’s a customer base that knows and appreciates art. This is one of the dustiest festivals we’ve ever done and load in/out can be challenging. I thought the festival was well run, great volunteers, good Artist communication before the show and good support during the show. We had elected to pay the extra $100 for a premium spot which gave us the advantage of being able to drive to our spot for load in/out. The premium spots were also supposedly more level, and most seemed to have more light getting through the trees than the booth locations where you had to dolly into. The event is held in a park that is a Redwood Grove, beautiful park, but a very dark location with limited sunlight getting through the redwoods. We were very happy to have our battery and LED lights for the show. Parking during the event was provided at a local school where they allowed artists and volunteers to park. We had elected not to attend the Saturday night artist party but due to the fact that we couldn’t get our truck out of the parking lot, ended up having a glass of wine at the party while we waited for a clear path to leave. The organizers then commented on the fact that more artists attended the party than ever before and apologized for running out of wine and food. I’m guessing there were several other artists who, like us, couldn’t leave so went back to see what goodies were available. Unfortunately there was not much by the time we packed up all our jewelry, loaded it into the truck and then realized we couldn’t leave yet. This is an expensive show to do, $525 booth fee, optional $100 for a premium spot. There is also no overnight, onsite parking for RVs and since this is the Bay Area, the cheapest RV lot we could find close by was expensive. At least the expensive RV lot gave us a chance to catch up on laundry since we’ve now been on the road for more than 3 weeks! Load in started at 3:30 Friday and we were glad we arrived shortly after the official start of load in. Due to the trees, it starts getting pretty dark by about 6 PM. Show hours were 10-5 both Saturday and Sunday and I’m sure some of the artists were still loading out when it got dark Sunday night. The roads around the park are very narrow and we were very glad that we were not towing our travel trailer through this part of town. Our booth was directly across from the info booth so we saw firsthand how hard the volunteer staff was working and dealing with issues like artists unloading in the wrong spot or temperamental artists demanding better spots, etc. Overall I thought the quality of the show was very high, I didn’t see any obvious buy/sell. Since this is our first trip to California for shows, I enjoyed seeing a lot of art work from artists I’ve never seen before. Is this a show we’ll do again? Provided we can combine it with at least 1-2 other shows in the area, this is a show we would like to try again. I’m not sure this is a show I would drive from Seattle to San Francisco for by itself. However, we were wondering on Saturday if we had made the right decision to do this show. Sales both days started really slowly. By noon on Saturday we only had 4 sales for a total of $99. The vast majority of our sales both days were between 1-4 PM and there were times, especially on Saturday where we were glad to have the Square as our back up credit card device, we had a few times where we were both running cards, wrapping up jewelry, and still had people waiting patiently in line. I’m not complaining, it was a good problem to have, just wishing the sales were spread out a little more throughout the day. Overall this was probably the best 2 day show we’ve had this year, Sunday’s sales were about 75% of Saturday’s sales so were satisfied with our sales at the end of the show. Unfortunately not all artists were as satisfied as we were, I don’t know too many of the artists but in general I heard a few comments that sales were down or sales weren’t what they expected based on booth fee or based on AFSB listing this as the 5th best show on the West Coast in their 2011 listing. I saw a lot of bags being carried, several large, wrapped 2D pieces being carried out so I know some artists had good shows. I didn’t really get a chance to talk to many of them near the end of the show as I didn’t feel I could leave the booth for an extended period of time.

We just finished our third year at Jekyll Island Wild Shrimp and Grits festival.  This is their 7^th year and they just keep getting better.  It is evident that the Committee has been working to continue improving the event.  The quality of arts and crafts has come up several notches.  They organize the event so that family oriented venues (pony rides, children areas and such) are in one area, the food and stage is in another area and the arts and quality crafts are along the walkway under the canopy of the stately live oak trees. The Jekyll Team were gracious hosts and checked frequently to make sure everything was going well. 

There are still a couple of things they need to consider.  They should consider streamlining check-in and the selection of music and volume from the radio station “DJ” was not in keeping with such a lovely setting.  We voiced our opinion to the director and team members.    Our comments were readily accepted and we feel they will honestly look at these things.

We would give kudos to the Jekyll Island Authority and staff.  The festival area was  kept immaculately clean.

 We love to come to this event for the absolutely amazing  “Taste of Jekyll” shrimp and grits on Friday evening.   Our favorite is the serving from the Jekyll Island Club. For $3.00 you get a nice size bowl and they are generous with the shrimp.  Set up is on Friday (assigned time slots) and the event runs from 5-9 pm.  Saturday runs from 10 am to 9pm.  If you are going to do this show purchasing electricity is a must for those evening hours.  Sunday the show is from 10 to 4 pm which means we get on the road well before dark.  Our sales this year were slightly down from last year but still worth the time.  As always success among venders varied.  We took “Best In Category” (Photography) for the second year in a row.  We will try for three in a row next year.

First event of the Fall season and we jumped off the mountain into the Yellow Daisy Festival at Stone Mountain, GA.  I’ve never applied to a show this big before.  Yellow Daisy brings in more than 200,000 people.  There are about 400 crafters and artists.  This is billed as a crafts show so I was not sure how well we would do with our photography.  I worried.  Was I was ready for an event this big?  I just kept seeing big numbers and reading that “you better be sure you have enough inventory!”  250,000 potential purchasers.  If even 1% bought one thing….  OK so all summer I worked at building my inventory.  Then we had to figure how to get it all into the Tahoe and Blackie (our trailer).  We took advantage of the early set-up on Tuesday.  Good thing because it took us two days to configure our display area.  The show ran from Thursday through Sunday.  And the people kept coming.  It was a never-ending parade.  Even when it rained on Saturday they kept shopping.  The bottom line is that I have plenty of inventory to carry me through the rest of the season.   And it was our second best show ever when I figured gross profits.  Good on both counts.  After 44 years the Yellow Daisy Festival team definitely know what they are doing.  Everything was well organized.  I was amazed how smoothly 400 crafters and artists checked in, pulled their vehicles and trailers along the single lane path winding through the woods.  Everyone was courteous, friendly and helpful.  I only saw one moment where someone was blocking the path and Yellow Daisy people stepped in and had everyone back on track within minutes.  We decided to truck our things down the hill to our vehicle, but after seeing how smoothly everything went we would have done just as well to drive on in.  And next year if we are not pushing up daisies we will be there again.

Another first for us this year will be the Oktoberfest on the Savannah Riverfront the first weekend in October.  We look forward to sharing our experience with you . Ein Prosit.

This was the first for the Leesburg Fine Arts Festival in Leesburg, VA (Sept 15-16).  It was also my first Paragon art festival.  It was ALSO my first festival out of state, so needless to say, I was a bit nervous about choosing a first year festival as my first overnighter.  My husband had to work last weekend, so my mom very graciously offered to come and help me.

We got there a couple hours early and decided to stroll around the historic town of Leesburg.  What a cute area!  I loved the brick sidewalks and old fashioned buildings.  Yep, the roads were very tiny too, so we had a staggered setup with every third booth getting 45 minutes to drive in, unload, and move to the parking area.  Bill Kinney, the promoter, sent out an email afterwards apologizing for the difficulties with the setup, but I thought it went as smoothly as could be!  Everyone in my section at least followed the rules and I didnt see anyone have a hard time.

The only bad thing about the setup was that you either set up at 6pm, 7pm, or 8pm.  I was in the 7pm group, and by the time we unloaded it was already getting dark.  And it got really dark!  There were street lights, but not many, and the one by our area was flickering ominously like something out of of horror movie.  We were also on a hill and I had never set up my propanels before (I had mesh walls before), and learning to set them up on a hill in the dark was not the way I hoped to learn!  Fortunately my friend Russ Shaffer ran over and helped us idiots out.  After 4 hours of fumbling in the flickering darkness, we headed to the DoubleTree Hotel in Sterling.  If anyone ever needs a hotel in the area, STAY THERE!  It was awesome!  Hot cookies at check out, robes, a real hairdryer... ladies, need I say more?

The next morning, we headed back over and started hanging paintings.  I had got the impression from the show essentials paperwork that maybe the businesses were not really happy with us being there, but that didnt seem to be the case at all.  At least where we were on King Street, the owners kept coming out and offering us drinks and access to their bathrooms (were were supposed to use designated bathrooms that I never saw).  I was amazing how much time they spent getting to know us and making sure we were taken care of.  Once we even got coffee served on a platter!  Talk about royal treatment!

The show started at 10am, and by 11am I was getting worried.  There didnt seem to be much happening.  But then from noon till 3 the floodgates opened and a rush of people came through!  At one point I had a line of people holding paintings with their credit cards in hand while I processed the cards and my mom was wrapping paintings!  I had read about this happening but had never seen it myself!  And I was seeing many people walking by with large paintings or furniture as well.  It really was a sight to behold.  Being a newbie (this is my second year), I had not participated in a festival where so much fine art was moving and I thought "this must be what art festivals used to be like!  This is what they should be like!"  During that 3 hour period I made about $2300!  More than enough to cover all my expenses and still have extra!  I was a happy girl!

After 3pm, it really slowed down, but I still saw plenty of art go by.  There was an artist reception party at 6:30 after the festival closed that evening, but I was still pooped from the long drive and late setup the day before, so we went back to the hotel and vegged out.  Would have loved to have been able to meet and greet with the other artists though.

Sunday was definitely down in traffic from Saturday, but I had a couple be backs and at the end of the day I had a $800 sale and some smaller ones during the day too, which brought my sales to just under $4000 for the weekend! 

I don't have one single complaint about this venue or Paragon.  It was a very well run and well put together show.  Bill was there all weekend with us and came by a couple times to check in, which I appreciated.  I had plenty of people mention the advertising and I saw fliers up all around.  For a first year show, I was blown away.  It has incredible potential and I'm super glad I got in on the ground floor.  And I'm looking forward to the Silver Springs show with Paragon next month now too!!

Chicago September 6-7 the 4th Annual Arts Festival Conference presented by ZAPP and WESTAF was held in downtown Chicago. To correct some assumptions, the conference is not "about" ZAPP, its purpose is to bring artists, art fair organizers and other arts professionals together to share information about culture and arts festivals in the U.S. I've attended a bunch of arts conferences and there is always great energy around them as people in the business meet face to face those they've only known online or reconnect with old friends. 

There was a solid agenda full of information that painted a bigger picture of the arts and broadens ways of thinking about the place of the arts in our society and presented fresh ideas on how arts professionals can expand their events, artists can find new markets and we all can work together.

Highlights for me:

• Presentations by artists Toby Fraley on his art career, Casey Sheppard's use of Kickstarter.com to find money to fund her business and Ali and Dolan Geiman's thorough use of social media to build an audience for Dolan's artwork.

• Learning about art initiatives beyond the art fair business from John Spokes, director of development for United States Artists that invests in artists in society; Sam Bowers' ArtHERE.org that places art in public places; Barbara Goldstein's use of public art in San Jose that benefits arts festivals and artists.

• Spending time with old friends and meeting show directors from Florida to California. Priceless.
  
  Dolan & Ali speaking about marketing art

Keynote: Cole Nussbaumer from Google.com presenting Storytelling with Data

Art fairs do you want to wow your audience and sponsors with the data you've gathered for your event? Cole led us through an exercise that taught how to make the most of your data to influence your audience and get your most important information out. Learn more: StorytellingwithData.com.

Session I

Who? Who? You: Building Your Brand

This was a diverse panel discussion with branding/marketing expert (Mark Rowland), show director (Kelly Kindred of the Bayou City Arts Festival) and wrapped up by Ali and Dolan Geiman, artists who are the quintessential marketing specialists online for Dolan's art. 

Mark Rowland of YourSimpleTruth.com was the lead as he spoke about branding on a universal level that is of use to everyone in the art business with the goal of getting their message across to the appropriate audience.

Kelly Kindred took the information a step further and spoke about how the Bayou City Art Festivals uses branding to increase the reach of her shows, from the website to their media outreach to the way they communicate with their audience, one voice speaks for the organization and the message is carried through in all their communications.

Dolan and Ali Geiman are a husband and wife team. Dolan is the artist and Ali is the media expert. Their presentation was about how an artist can brand him/herself using social media to amplify the message as a way to present dynamic content that is ever changing and relevant. Their marketing newsletters go way beyond their website DolanGeiman.com, as they use them to stay in touch with customers and expand their story beyond what is new. Dolan is an active birdwatcher and he blogs about that topic, using keywords and tags.  His posts get picked up by Google and it brings him new customers. Tired of writing about yourself and your work? Another example they showed was that of a car salesman who uses his Facebook page to write about cars including photos of car shows he attends.

Lunch: Terry Adams, director of the Cherry Creek Arts Festival introduces Kathleen Eaton, new artist representative to the Zapplication board and Leah Charney presents ZAPP 2.0 with many upgrades to the system that will be helpful to both show directors and artists.

Afternoon

There were two presentations simultaneously:

Ingenious Innovation: What Shows do Right - a solid list of strategic information and insider tips on making your art fair "best in class", presented by Ann Ostermann from the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County and photographer Michael Brown. I did not attend this one but later that day as I was speaking with Michell Middleton and Nancy Zinkofsky of the Mount Dora Center for the Arts I asked them what they had learned. They said there were many suggestions they could not implement such as nearby parking for artists and an ocean or lake view but definitely were interested in adding a wine bar to their event.

Art IS my Real Job: Art Business for Artists

I attended this one and the panel was dynamic. The first speaker was potter Neil Estrick who laid out what an artist does to make a living. Besides making pots and selling them at art fairs he has a gallery, teaches pottery classes, repairs kilns and I'm thinking there were other jobs too. No slacker here, Neil is hustling and loving all the disparate parts of his lifestyle.

Adrienne, Teresa and Daniel

Next came Adrienne Outlaw from Nashville, TN, where she is involved in the Nashville Cultural Arts Project, writes, curates, run programs for artists, a lab for artists, Seed Space and participates in high end gallery events such as Scope. In addition she runs Insight? Outta Site a participatory potluck forum whereby artists meet nationally known critic curators.  She confessed to continually reinventing herself and looking everywhere to find the next exciting opportunity. 

You may have met Teresa Merriman at an art fair as she is one of the long distance haulers, a road warrior and loving it. From her home in Colorado she travels to 30 shows a year selling her handcrafted leather journals, Using traditional methods, she binds handmade papers and leather together to create personal journals. The most impressive thing about Teresa was her open and friendly manner and her obvious love of meeting people at the shows and selling her work. She spoke about salesmanship and the use of social networking as her main tools for earning her living.

I was very impressed to meet Daniel Grant an arts writer for the Huffington Post and author of numerous books including The Business of Being an Artist and The Fine Artist's Career Guide. He lives in Massachusetts and leads career workshops at educational institutions. There wasn't enough time to even begin to assimilate all of his good information.

Time for a break with my head spinning. I need to interview each of these people for my podcasts. Neil is the classic guy who keeps his eyes open for opportunities around him, not traveling far. Adrienne is brave and does a lot of work connecting people and expanding her experiences. Teresa, great fun and the perfect personality for the art fair business. Daniel, full of helpful information from a lifetime of experience.

Next session:

Extending the Exhibit: How Public Art Can Benefit Artists and the Arts Festival

Presenters Sam Bower of ArtHERE.org, a website for matching underutilized spaces with art; Barbara Goldstein, from the City of San Jose's Office of Cultural Affairs who has published with Americans for the Arts; Toby Fraley - artist

I loved Toby Fraley's presentation and his story. Short version: lost his job at a photo printing lab; decides to become a potter; is wildly successful creating and selling pots through the wholesale marketplace but he began to feel like a machine; started looking around and thinking, "is this all there is?" Then decided to go for being an installation artist. He was a great storyteller and had solid tips on how to move into the public arts space. See his installation in downtown Pittsburgh: http://pghrobotrepair.com/

Last session of the day:

Tech Trends and New Tools to Benefit You

Connie learns how to Instagram (yes, I took these photos with my iPhone and sent them through Instagram to my Facebook page. As you can see not recommended for great resolution, but a new trick).

Kasey Sheppard tells how she used Kickstarter.com to fund her art fair business

You've got to imagine that there was lots of information about social media and how shows and artists can take advantage of them. Loved this presentation that included Beth Hayden, an expert on Pinterest (think I'm a Luddite, can't figure this one out yet, or its purpose), Jennifer Rapp Peterson's solid interactive presentation on her site www.IndieMade.com. Jennifer is an artist and a technician so has really put together a site that will work for artists. Casey Sheppard's information on using Kickstarter.com to fund her art fair business was an eye opener for me. Check this out here. John Spokes most recent career move is development director with United States Artists, a nonprofit arts organization that works to invest in America's finest artists.

End of day

Reception at Jean Albano Gallery in the River North neighborhood, then dinner at a nearby restaurant with Sara Shambarger, Larry Oliverson, Kerry Murphy, Krista Renfrew, Jennifer Kobe, Connie Mettler, Elizabeth Regner, Karla Prickett and Dionne Wachowiak. Photographer Michael Brown took the photo.

Day Two

ZAPP Symposium: Community, Collaboration and the Creative.
Stephen King (Des Moines Arts Festival) moderated a round table discussion around trends and industry changes and the larger arts and culture landscape. On the panel were Sam Bower, ArtHere.org; Amelia Northrop, TRG Arts; Adrienne Outlaw, Seed Space and John Spokes, United States Artists.

I had to leave early to drive to St. Louis to visit the St. Louis Art Fair but the last part of the day was a Public Portfolio Critique run by Terry Adams with jurors Jerry Gilmore, David Rench and Dionne Wachowiak. Artists brought their images to show the jurors and received direct feedback, plus could see their work in the mix of others work.

The best part of the conference was spending time with old friends and meeting new people. Thanks to Leah Charney, Christina and the Zapp staff for this varied look at the state of the arts from public arts to Pinterest experience.

To everyone who is interested in these conferences, they are always worth your time and money to learn more about the business that is our livelihood and to make connections with other artists and show directors, as well as to learn about new public initiatives in the arts and be inspired by others.

Who was there:

Terry Adams, Cherry Creek Arts Festival

Janet Anderson, Hinsdale Chamber of Commerce

Paul Anderson, Sausalito Art Festival

Deb Bailey, Marion Arts Festival

Bonnie Blandford, Garage Sale Art Fair

Sam Bower, ArtHERE

Susan Bowers, Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts

Michael Brown, artist

Cory Cope, Three Rivers Arts Festival

Angela Cozby, Arts Council of Oklahoma City

Dick Dahlstrom, artist

Perry Douglass, artist

Kathleen Eaton, artist

Shoshana England-Falconer, artist

Neil Estrick, artist

Patrick Flaherty, Broad Ripple Art Fair

Iris Fragoso, artist

Toby Fraley, artist

Katrina Gallegos, Coconut Grove Arts Festival

Stephen King moderates the Symposium

Anne Gary, artist

Ali & Dolan Geiman, artist

Jerry Gillmore, juror

Barbara Goldstein, City of San Jose Office of Cultural Affairs

Daniel Grant, author

Beth Hayden, Social Media & Pinterest Consultant

Jean Keiffer, artist

Michael Kifer, Garage Sale Art Fair

Stephen King, Des Moines Arts Festival

Jennifer Kobe, Milwaukee Art Festival

Linnea Lahlum, artist

Susan Lukas, artist

Ellen McConnell, artist

Ashley McNabney, Omaha Summer Arts Festival

Teresa Merriman, artist

Terri Messing, Art in the Square

Michell Middleton, Mount Dora Center for the Arts

Kerry Murphy, Artisphere

Jeff Nadler, artist

Amelia Northrup, TRG Arts

Cole Nussbaumer, Google

Larry Oliverson, artist

Ann Ostermann, Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County

Adrienne Outlaw, artist

Jennifer Owen, Three Rivers Arts Festival

Joseph Persfull, Special Events Management

Jennifer Peterson, IndieMade.com

Karla Prickett, Smoky Hill River Arts Festival

Jerry Placek, artist

Elizabeth Regner, Lubbock Arts Alliance

David Rench, artist

Krista Renfrew, Milwaukee Art Museum

Heather Ricketts, Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts

Maureen Riley, Ann Arbor Street Art Fair

Georgia Ross, artist

Here you can see the screens set up for the jury critique, all images projected and lots of new things learned by everyone attending on what to look for in jury images and what the jurors are looking for

Mark Rowland, Simple Truth

Teresa Saborsky, NAIA

Derek Scalzott, Three Rivers Arts Festival

Sara Shambarger, Krasl Art Fair

Casey Sheppard, artist

Robin Snyder, Art in the Square

John Spokes, United States Artists

Jennifer Steele, Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County

Linda Strickland, artist

Jeffrey Van der Koon, artist

Dionne Wachowiak, Milwaukee Art Museum

Nancy Zinkofsky, Mount Dora Center for the Arts

Munks won the pass to attend the Zapp Conference and he was unable to attend. Sue Lukas from Wisconsin attended in his place. Great to meet you, Sue, and spend some time together.

One of the great things about being an artist is learning and refining your techinque. So I decided in October I would begin a watercolors class to teach me all about the basics that I sorely need. When I picked up painting, it was after I quit my job at Smith Barney and decided to go back to graduate school. No decision in my life has been as liberating and as important in forming the path of my destiny. Its wonderful to pursue your dreams when your talent is stifled in corporate America. So that being said I'm looking forward to the next stage in life of growth within sales and planning shows.

Selling has spiked this week and I have managed to sell 3 paintings after a stagnation in the last month. Isn't it funny how you can go a period of time without a sale and then everyone buys your product at once. It makes you feel so happy and justified. Anyone can say what they want about an artist's work but when it sells that's the justification one needs to say there! Someone likes my work and is paying me for it! Its based on the work alone and it stands alone especially since the sales are online and the purchase is based on the work. Not if the person likes you, not if you're popular,not on how its displayed but on a photograph of the work itself. That is powerful. So I want to increase the sales volume and I thought about it and the only way to increase sales volume is to have more product available for sale and to promote that product. I'm going to paint more of the best sellers and best seller concepts ie. nudes, abstract, sunsets.

Creation is part of the process, selling and creating best sellers is another part of the process. Lastly I am going to be planning the choice selection of the next show. Its going to be local, tristate or NYC area and I think I"m going to pursue the Micro with local fairs rather then the Macro of large expensive fairs. Mastery should be based on trail and error and I'd rather sell at small shows and master that first before undertaking larger shows where I have to invest more and may not make the money back on the return.

So that's all for now. Painting tonight, going back to BWAC on Weds to swap out a painting that sold and getting married on Saturday. Enough to keep a gal busy for a while.

Daniela

This was a pretty good show for me. After my "Heaven and Hell" show in St. Louis, this one was pretty uneventful. My tent did not get destroyed by a storm and my sales were moderate ($2800). But I enjoyed the show.

Setup was a little awkward on Friday. I was glad we had a lot of time to set up because my tent was showing the adverse effects of its knockdown the previous week. The tent is a heavy duty EZ-Up that is heavily customized with roof beams and custom corner weights. Although it has survived many storms, the wind took it down in St. Louis and "torqued" the whole thing so that it is more like a parallelogram as it sits on the floor instead of a square. We managed to make it work OK, but now I'm seriously considering a Trimline to replace it... preferably an eight footer (let me know if you've got one for sale).  

There were good crowds on Saturday and Sunday and sales were consistent. Deb, the show organizer, used one of my images for the program cover and on banners hanging from light posts all over town. This added exposure generated some additional sales for me, which I really appreciated. We were able to pack up on Sunday in record time because we had our trailer parked in a lot 100 feet from our tent... very convenient. We stayed with friends in nearby West Chicago, and they fed Marcia and I well, so our expenses were minimal. 

Most booths were set up on both sides of the street, with additional booths along a pleasant riverwalk. My booth was on the street.  I think there was more traffic on the street. there seemed to be some dead areas along the riverwalk. Other artists had mixed reviews about the show. Some had poor sales, but most did OK, if not great. With my friends inviting us to stay with them again next year, I'll do the show again if I'm accepted.   

This show was put on by Paragon art event, in the historic town of Leesburg VA. We were happy to have as perfect a weather as one can ask for on both days. 

Load In: Load in was very organised, for a moment i thought the show was being held in front of the white house, some numbers were called and we all line up behind Bill and was led to our booth spots almost like a funeral procession, we had 45 mins to unload and park our cars, the garage was a short drive from the show and it was free parking.

Load out: Was pretty much as easy as it can get, once broken down we are allowed to bring in our car and pull up beside our booth. I was out in 1hr.

Saturday: Started slow for me no sale up till 12pm and I started questioning my decision to give this first time show a try. And then the crowd really started to come in and sales gradually grew, for ones in the past couple of shows my nurit never went to sleep (its a credit card machine and some of us still have it) sales was steady all day and i did see a lot of bigger items pass by my booth. Most of the other artist I spoke with seem to be doing well and I for sure was very happy with my sales.

Sunday: Was not as strong as Saturday but I will take this Sunday over the past two show Saturdays past. Sales was not as strong but again my nurit was working all day, I sold mostly smaller priced items ($75) and about 4 bigger items, I also noticed items being carried out a suggestion that others are selling bigger items. I finished the day very happy and broke down with a huge smile on my face.

The crowd was very friendly and I actually enjoyed talking to most people knowing that at anytime you might actually be talking to someone that will buy your work and not a thank you and walk away.

I am very happy with this show and the way it was put together, The restuarant in front of me was surprised as to how many people showed up on Sunday as they were not used to seeing this much crowd in the area, I guess some serious ads were sent out. Will I do it again? CAPITAL YES, if accepted, I had used this as a filler show, next year it will be my number one choice. Hope others had similar experience for me it was a success. 

It's a great idea to have a little demo area in a booth.  But we have to deal with other issues in our booth - the first is that Jay uses a wheelchair - it takes 5 ft for him to make a turn.  So we have to set up a booth based on the wheelchair,.  We don't want to block aisles and intrude on neighbors.  We have had to get a booth and a half when the booths are  8 x 10 or smaller -- to accommodate the wheelchair.  We've asked for ADA accommodations - LOL -- that isn't going to happen.  And before we can consider doing a show, I am emailing to find out if the venue is accessible.  You'd be surprised how many times I have received answers of 'no - this would not be a good venue for you.'  Scary in 2012 but our reality.  The other thing is that I've had my hip replaced.  I'm not supposed to be shlepping, lifting, moving, pulling, carrying anything over 10 pounds.  OK - stop laughing.  We know that's not a reality when doing shows.  And I have all the 'itis's' -- bursitis, tendenitis, arthritis -- who happily let me know that they are all having a fine time partying in my body when doing shows.  I have to be sitting some of the time - because of this.  So we try to figure out the best in/out - lifting/shlepping that we can so that I don't do any damage to myself.  If it's too far for us to get in/ouit; if there are steps or obstacles -- then we have to negate that show -- because we physically cannot deal with those kinds of parameters. 

It's pretty incredible that we are able to set up the way we do.  It can get squishy ... and every inch counts when knocking off 5 fee to start.