I was at the Cain Park arts festival this weekend. I am a newbie, just starting out. I was at the Shaker Heights Art Festival in June(Ohio Designer Craftsmen show) and Cain Park was my second show. At Shaker Heights the booth fee was $300, and I made $430. I was happy with that, because I was happy to sell anything at all, just starting out. At Cain Park the booth fee was $400, and I sold $1170. Just thrilled. Although I raised  my prices a bit from Shaker to Cain Park, I realize I still have to raise them more, to start to cover expenses. I'm a photographer, specializing in nature and travel photography. I have images from three trips to Asia: Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand), India, and China, and I was surprised how many of them I sold. I also sold work from the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, and images of Cleveland, as Cleveland is my home.

I was so impressed by the organization of the Cain Park show, and the help from staff. I had help both setting up and breaking down, parking was right by my booth, helpers checked almost every hour throughout the three-day show if we needed anything: it was amazing. The people couldn't have been nicer. And my neighbors were also very nice--same as in Shaker. Wondering if anyone from ArtFairInsiders was at Cain Park?

The weather was warm Friday night, but Saturday was great with some overcast skies. On Sunday we had a torrential downpour for about an hour, and I had two women get stuck in my tent who wound up buying two framed pieces! When life gives you lemons...!

Thanks again so much to everyone on this forum--I have learned a lot from reading everybody's posts, and look forward to getting more experience being an art fair participant.

Does anybody know anything about Paragon shows? Particularly the Dallas show. I believe it might be an inaugural show.Thanks, very helpful websight,

Every year Ann Arbor's award winning street art fairs attract over 500,000 attendees from all over the country. 
 
The beautiful surroundings that make walking through the Ann Arbor Street Art Fairs a unique experience, also making parking difficult. Over the years, many fairgoers have given up on trying to find a parking space downtown and have started parking miles away, where they are at the mercy of a shuttle bus to bring them into and out of Ann Arbor.
 
This year a local startup company, Park n Party, has teamed up with Republic Parking and the Ann Arbor Downtown Develop- ment Authority to provide fairgoers the ability to make Parking Reservations!
 
Avoid the hassles of driving around searching for a spot by reserving a spot in a lot of your choice.   For less than $20, you can reserve a parking space for an entire day in any of the downtown Republic Parking structures. Making the reservation is a snap. Just visit the Park n Party website, choose your preferred lot and select the "Reserve a Spot" button.
 
Once a reservation has been made, a receipt will be emailed to the customer. This receipt must be printed and presented to the lot attendant on the specified day of parking.  Questions can also be emailed to Park n Party at info@parknparty.com or you can contact the company by phone at 888-926-7275.

I am. Here's how.

Armor

Today I'm packing up my car to head to an art fair. I've done just about everything I can think of to prepare for this amazing event. Really all that's left are tying up some loose ends and getting myself into a healthy frame of mind for the work ahead. I have created a strong body or work that represents what I stand for on a variety of levels. I've done the best I can.When we do this we are ready. We are as safe as one can be within this knowledge.

Mikey (the hubby) has been incredibly supportive and helpful and is right now heading out to find me a cartopper to put some stuff on top of my little suv. Safely. I was ready to tie garbage bags filled with stuff up there - but he didn't approve. So he's gonna fix me up. He's like that. I'm lucky. Support comes from many different directions - accept it, acknowledge it, be gratefulfor it.

Our Steeds

Your steed probably looks different than mine, maybe it's a computer, a presentation, a manuscript, a lesson plan - or maybe you're also packing up your own vehicle full of your own intentions and dreams.

A tip of the sun hat to all you good folks out there who take on the world with your own brand of optimismistic pursuits. To us all I say "CHARGE!".

I am a knight from the kingdom of hope.
My foe is colorless apathy.
The battle is perseverance.
My weapons are excellence, optimism and imagination.

The original drawing looks like this:

 

August 18 & 19
Atlanta, Georgia
Piedmont Park
200 artists
Deadline: July 21

Winner of two prestigious Kaleidoscope Awards from the Southeast Festivals & Events Association, the Piedmont Park Summer Arts & Crafts returns to Atlanta’s historic central gathering place. Two hundred painters, photographers, sculptors, glass blowers, jewelry-makers and crafters will line the winding paths of the Midtown park, along with the city’s popular food trucks, live music and a children’s play area.

Piedmont Park is synonymous with arts & crafts and an enthusiastic community has welcomed this event back to the neighborhood. Sponsored by the Atlanta Foundation for Public Spaces.

Learn more & apply: www.piedmontparkartsfestival.com

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

Looking for more shows for your 2012 season? Visit www.CallsforArtists.com.

Well, here we go.  My first show review.  Hopefully I'll be able to provide some good information.  This was my first year participating at this show.  There are actually 2 shows going on at the same time.  The Art Fair on the Square consists of approximately 450 artists.  About one block away the Art Fair off the Square is held with approximately 250 Wisconsin artists, which I did last year.

Friday

Load in/setup was scheduled to start at approximately 6:00 PM.  According to the show information, "artists are allowed 15 minutes to unload their vehicle."  The vehicle was then to be moved before setup.  It was also recommended to show up after 8:00 PM if you had a trailer.  Well, this is where I committed my first rookie mistake...I followed the rules.  I showed up at 8 since I have a trailer.  Unfortunately, the 15 minute rule was not being followed (at least not in the section that I was setting up).  Because it is Friday evening, there is no parking available around the area.  At around 9:00 PM I was able to get close enough to my spot (still outside of the square) and start carrying items to my spot.  It was approximately 9:30 PM when I was able to move my car close enough to my assigned space and really start the setting up process.  I had most of my setup in place by 11:30.  The plus to this is that I am local.  I only live 10 miles south of Madison.  So that made a huge difference being able to go home and hit my bed.

I learned my lesson...get there as early as possible.  I could have just arrived mid-afternoon and taken 2 meter parking spots close to my booth area (about 40 meters) and just cart everything at 6:00 PM.

Saturday

On Saturday mornings the local farmer's markets is held around the square from 6:30 AM until 2:00 PM.  People around here are used to heading out early on Saturdays to shop or just walk around the square.  Knowing this I made sure I had my tent ready for business at 6:00 AM (the show officially starts at 9 on Saturday).  I figured that people would start looking around early and possibly buying (that is what I have done in previous years).  I left the trailer at home and just parked my car in one of the parking garages.  Because is the weekend, parking was only $5 for the entire day.  Before I parked, I was able to drive up to my tent and off-load a few more items that I brought with me.

Having my tent ready paid off.  By 9 I had already sold $430.  There were some nice clouds and breeze in the area that kept the temperature nice throughout the morning (between 89 and 91, low humidity).  People were out...and they were shopping.  From the moment I opened until around 3 PM I was able to take one break.  Sales did slow down considerably late afternoon as the temperature rose.  Even the number of people just looking was lower.  I only made four sales between 3 and 6 PM.  My total sales for the day were just over $8,700.

Sunday
I was not going to make the same mistake that I made Friday evening.  So I went into town at 5:30 AM and got the first corner parking spaces closest to my booth.  I made sure there wasn't a parking space behind me so I could load my trailer with no problems.  I even had my car facing away from the square...my escape route was well planned.  Since the show doesn't officially open on 10, I went to the Starbucks on the square to relax and watch a movie on my iPad.  So I was able to kill a couple of hours.  At around 8:30 I noticed some people walking around, so I decided to open up.  The temperature and humidity were supposed to be higher.  So I figured that there would be some early shoppers.  People did walk in.  But sales were much slower, as expected.  It felt considerably hotter than Saturday.  I had 2 fans running, one behind the tent for me and another one inside the tent mainly for customers.  Between 10 and 5 PM I made $2,000 in sales.

Load out seemed to go smoother.  I was able to cart all my art to my trailer.  By the time I had taken down my tent, there was space for me to drive my car/trailer right in front of my booth space.  I was home shortly after 7 PM.

Other Stuff

- I only recall seeing booth sitters just once on Saturday.  However, this could have been because I was very busy throughout the day.  On Sunday I did see them approximately 5 times.

- Breakfast (juice, coffee, pastries, bananas) were provided Sunday morning.  I am not sure if they were provided on Saturday.

- The booth setup here requires that 8' of the tent are in the street and the last 2' up on the curb.  Once I knew my tent location I stopped by one morning and measured the height of the curb.  I then had a friend help me build a ramp.  This allowed me to use the entire both for display and avoided having customers tripping over the curb.

I will definitely be applying to this show again next year.

Our third year at this well supported community event.  It’s one of our favorite locations and favorite 2 day shows.  What’s not to like about island life??  The views from this location are fantastic with Mount Baker and the Cascades to the east, the Olympic Mountains to the west and of course, the Puget Sound that surrounds the island.  It’s a small, community festival that attracts tourists who are vacationing in the area or Seattle area residents who have weekend homes on the island.  The locals support this festival and they have great volunteer support.  Whidbey Island is very supportive of the arts, Langley is listed in John Villani’s “The 100 best Art Towns in America”.  The Island also has a large population of retirees who are very supportive of the art shows in the area.   This is a show that is primarily about the art, you don’t see clowns, stilt walkers and other sideshow freaks.  There is a music stage, the music on Saturday was definitely better than Sunday and if you were close to the stage the volume was a little too loud.  The music late Sunday afternoon was absolutely too loud and dreadful music to listen to, it made me wish I had ear plugs!

It’s one of the few shows we do in the summer that Saturday night ends at 6 PM instead of 8 or 9 PM so we actually get a little more time to hang out with friends in the evening.  We once again brought our grill and had a great visit with other artists where we were camped.   The show does offer shuttle service for the patrons from the ferry dock to the show and I talked to several people who took advantage of that service and were pleased that it was available.  Artist parking is away from the show, a mostly uphill climb from the down town area, however they do provide a shuttle that would be convenient if you weren’t bringing all your product in and out each morning/evening. 

Load in went very smoothly for us this year, the volunteer committee running the show communicated much better regarding the start of the load in time and knowing that they are always running behind we arrived a little later than our stated time and barely had time to change out of sandals into our tennis shoes before they were telling us to get back in the truck to the staging area.  This year, at least for us, seemed to be the smoothest, easiest load in we’ve had at this show.  We again had help from a volunteer unloading and were able to quickly get our truck out of the way. There was also an artist reception but it was during the same time as load in so I didn’t hear any reports of artists taking advantage of free nibbles and beverages.

This year the show added 20 booths, 10 of them jewelry and I was a bit concerned going into the show.  In the end, sales were the best we’ve had here in 3 years and we went home happy. Unfortunately not all the artists were quite as happy, but overall most seemed okay with the show.  I didn’t hear of anyone making a killing at the show, but neither did I hear anyone really complaining about not making expenses except for one oil painter who sells only one of a kind paintings and no prints.  Some of the jewelers reported lower sales than last year, the fiber artist who makes beautiful sweaters was having a slower than usual show but we also know some wood artist and a ceramics artist who were having great shows.   There were several artists that I see at various shows that I hadn’t seen here before, many of them had done this show in the past and added it back to their schedule this year.  3 of the artists who came back for the first time in a few years were pleased with their sales.

Weather was perfect, sunny and in the low 70s, the “heat refugees” from the horrible high temperatures in the Midwest who were on vacation were absolutely delighted to be here instead of at home.  Almost 100% of our sales on Saturday were to tourists, most of those non-Washington residents, almost all our sales on Sunday were to local residents.  Our booth was in the second quad from the shuttle stop, so we heard a lot of “I’ll be back” comments, this was definitely a show where the “be backs” actually came back, about 1/3 of our sales were from “be backs”.  Sales on Saturday were fairly steady until about 5 PM and died the last hour.  A street dance is part of the festival on Saturday night, most of the artists are closed and gone before that event begins.  Sunday started slow, we had a good “flurry” in the middle of the day and after 3 PM it was dead.   Our sales dollars were fairly evenly divided between the 2 days, but the number of sales on Sunday was far less than Saturday.

One of the most difficult parts of doing this show is just getting to the island, you never know how long the ferry wait is going to be.  Coming in on Friday, a 3 hour wait was posted, we were on the ferry within an hour of getting in line, Sunday night however, we had a 90 minute wait and then the drive home seemed longer than usual due to heavy traffic going through downtown Seattle.

July 18-21
Ann Arbor, Michigan
The Ann Arbor Art Fairs
  Wed. -  Friday, 10 am to 9 pm; Saturday - 10 am to 5 pm
    never on  Sunday

This enticing extravaganza of art is officially divided into four  events. In addition to this, every square foot of outdoor  space in this area has been sold to people who did not jury into these  four events.    

If there is something you have been hankering for, you can find it in  Ann Arbor in July. People come from around the country and some shop  all four days. Customers here for the first time are awed by the  quantity, the quality and the creativity and vow to return next year.  Come to add to your art collection, come to see the best in contemporary  art, come to start your collection, you will not be disappointed.  

1.   Ann Arbor Street Art Fair - the original!
      200 artists around the Burton Memorial Tower and Ingalls
      Mall on the central campus
This is the art fair that started the whole event.  Established in 1959, it is highly juried - over 1000 applicants apply  for the 190 spaces. The most avant garde work will be exhibited here, as  well as many artists who rarely exhibit their work outdoors.
For more info: www.artfair.org 

Shop at your leisure at the "original" show on the UM campus

2.  South University Art Fair        
     175 Artists in the South  University shopping district
Held in the area where the Street Fair  was originally, this event organized by the local merchants has very  high standards and some outstanding artwork.       

3.  State Street Area Art Fair
     320 Artists
This fair,  coordinated by the State Street Area merchants, has been around since  l963. It is located on Liberty, Thompson and surrounding areas. Often  you will find newcomers to the world of art fairs exhibiting here...the  stars of tomorrow!      

4.  Summer Art Fair
     Two locations:
         200 Artists on Main Street and Liberty
         175 Artists on State Street across from the Diag

Organized by the The Guild, an artists organization, this show has  the widest range of price levels of any of the Ann Arbor events. Uneven  quality, it has some of the best in the show and some of the worst. It  is easy to shop on Main Street with nearby parking and a plethora of  restaurants.
For more info:  www.theguild.org 

Read more of the story from the Detroit Free Press.

Pricing art...the hardest thing for me. I can price other artists art, no problem. But when it comes to mine, yikes! Am I too low? Too high? Ok, I finally decided on my price...but then...The "bargainer" comes.

OK, I'm easy to convince and yes, sometimes I go down a little in some paintings, if it is a harder to sell, or getting close to the end of season, end of day, etc etc. But how low can I go? 

Guy: OK, this painting is 180.00?

Me: Yes Sir, 180.00

Guy:What about 120.00?

Me: Mmmm...I can't go that low. That painting is very popular and it took me hours to make.

Guy: Ok, how much and I will give you cash right now?

Me: OK...160.00

Guy...NOPE! 130.00 or nothing

Me: I'm sorry Sir, I can't

Guy: OK, no deal. (walked away)

Me: Thinking...Ok, No deal...Whatever! Don't try to take advantage of my me and my work.

I didn't care but at the same time the lower they want to go I just want to say: Hey dude...Seriously?? Go and call a plumber, an electrician, they will charge you that just to go and take a look at your toilet (nothing against plumbers or electricians, just an example)...who do you think I am?? World Vision??? Unicef? Angelina Jolie?? No working for charity dude, but how low is too low? Or what kind of deals do you offer if they are interested in more than one of your pieces?

I will give a full blog, chock full of good meat on Monday.  Today by noon, I had made more than I did in three days at Boston Mills.  By 3pm when sales tapered off, I had made more than I did in

Columbus which was my best show so far this summer.  I was not alone.  Coming out of Shue's Restaurant across from my booth, where I made good use of their bathrooms with my by products of my heart condition,I saw people coming out with five and six packages of art.  How 

refreshing-- a real art show.  Tell ya more on Monday.  Nels.

Art fairs are a lot of hard work. They’re also expensive to participate in and attend. They’re stressful and full of physical challenges. Below are some tips I’ve created to help me not just get through the next show, but have fun doing so without taxing my system unduly. Each of these tips has been hard won through many years of experience. Take the ones you like, invent and share other tips that help you. Please. I’m ever open to hearing how you, my fellow art fair artists, sail through your shows!

1. Believe the show is awesome – NO MATTER WHAT. Some of my most amazing shows have seemed slow – only to blossom weeks later with an offer or an order I never would have garnered otherwise.
2. Pack wonderful tasty snacks to get you hydrated and fed – body and soul – throughout the day. Treat yourself, make it high quality everything. Include soul food. Soul Food = chocolate et al – stuff you love. In moderation.
3. Don’t complain. Not no way. Not no how. Not during the event. That vibe is sticky and will cling to all your good intentions in your work. If you have suggestions for improvements – thoughtfully provide those to the appropriate audience after the show.
4. A slow show does not mean your work isn’t worthy. Never forget that.
5. An awesome show doesn’t necessarily mean you’re an awesome artist either – see #6.
6. What defines you as an artist is YOU. Not your sales. I have had amazingly profitable shows, and crazily horrible shows. The work is the work. These externals might distract you from your Vision. Stay mindful of that.

Celebrate Every Show You’re In!

7. That said – note trends in your sales and adjustwhat you sell accordingly! That’s not prostituting your Vision – that’s sharing it in ways The Public is ready to accept at the moment.
8. Never forget that you are creatively educating people in all of this amazing effort of yours.
9. Give yourself a present after every show. You deserve it. It doesn’t have to be extravagant but it should be a pat on your own back for a job well done.

10. You are an amazing example for others!
11. Go YOU! You are Brave, Hard-working, Persevering,  Dedicated, Patient, a Visionary par excellence! Not many people can stake a claim in this many wonderful traits.

Lucky? Hardly!

Do you hear people say “I wish I was as lucky as you, getting to do what you love?”. I do, too. A ton. I usually chuckle and state “Luck has nothing to do with it!”. I work hard at making this dream come true. You do too. Those folks could too – we have made this a choice we’re willing to work – and work hard – for.

We deserve every good opportunity that comes our way from putting our work out there for all the world to see and react to right in front of us! We can minimize whatever negative challenges that come our way by alway, always treating ourselves as a treasured employee – because we most certainly are! Without us this business would literally disappear over night!

One of the hardest things for me being a full time artist is pricing work.  I try and look around and get an idea what everyone else is charging.  I listen to prospective clients to see how many are agreeable and how many put down my price sheet and walk away.  It's hard to know sometimes what the right price is.

I wrote my blog entry this week about a client who had an old price sheet.  Do you honor old prices or stick to the new?  I think it depends on the client.

http://www.pencilenvy.blogspot.com/2012/07/coming-to-america.html

Happy selling!!

Wendy

I've met a lot of crabby people lately which hasn't done a lot for my mood, so when I went looking for an artist to feature this month no one was quite what I was looking for, then voila! Marti McGinnis's fanciful colored "happy art" danced into view!

A lifetime of exploring, living the expected life and finally choosing the unexpected and expressing it exuberantly in an outpouring of color, Marti's current body of work focuses on the ancient art of fabric felting with a decidedly modern twist. Her self-styled "happy art" reflects her love of texture, coloration, friendly animals, cartoons, writing, designing -- this girl does it all! A Renaissance woman?

Marti is not only a visual artist, having explored wood, canvas, paint, pencil, aluminum she is also a blogger, website designer, social media leader and still she finds time to create one of a kind fanciful creatures and wearable art that pop your eyes out. I'm guessing the richness of her creativity informs it all. Now I'm happy and I think you will be also.

Her current body of work is felting, an ancient art, wherein a non-woven cloth is produced by matting, condensing and pressing woolen fibers. She is pleased to say she has met many of the animals whose fiber she uses to create clothing, pillows and many happy figurative animal shapes.

She does only a few art fairs so don't miss this opportunity to see her work and meet her this month at the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, booth #A015. I'll be there, how about you?

Learn more about Marti:
     www.artfaircalendar.com/art_fair/featured-artist.html

Ann Arbor, the combined art shows, have just updated their iPhone/iPad app listing all the artists by medium with links to their location on a map of the combined shows.

Now if they would also give us contact information for each artists. But I'm not complaining that much. Cherry Creek never updated their app from last year that didn't run at all.

My article from last year:
http://www.bermangraphics.com/artshows/art-show-iphone-apps.htm

Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100

My very favorite "kids" activity at an art fair happened yesterday in State College, PA, at the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, the Children and Youth Sidewalk Sale. At the CPFA 150 young people, from 8 to 18, compete, jury in and sell their own artwork, just like the big kids festival that runs the next four days.

I've heard executive director Rick Bryant's presentation on the event at a conference and it is such a model of involving children and a sense of "buying in" of the community to embrace the festival that it astounds me that more art fairs have not borrowed the concept.

Kirstin Floria who is now an exhibiting artist in the event had this to say of her seven year experience participating in the kids show: “I loved it,” she said. “Arts Fest is so important to my family. Instead of taking vacations, we would just go to Arts Fest every year. It was always a whole celebration for us.”

Here's the story from the Centre Daily Times: http://www.centredaily.com/2012/07/11/3257577/arts-festival-begins-today-with.html

Does anyone know of any other stellar programs to get kids and families involved in the arts at other festivals?

This Howard Alan show is held in Pioneer Court right in the middle of downtown, great visibility from both the street and the surrounding highrises. NBC studios is located on the property and they usually do a live report from the show.

This show has it's challenges, it's a dolly show but you can park fairly close on the surrounding streets without having to play Frogger, right Steve. I always rent a tent for this show from the company that travels with Howard, it makes life much easier. The layout is mostly single file with a few booths being btb, but all have very good back storage. Wind can be an issue, so bring plenty of weight as you're not allowed to stake down. Parking in surrounding garages is pentiful (but expensive), Howard has arranged fairly close parking for oversized vehicles and motorhomes for the entire weekend for I believe $65.

Last year the Gold Coast show was the same weekend which affected sales for most of us and while we didn't have that problem this year we did have 100+ degree temps to contend with on Friday which cut attendance by 50%. I was worried because for me this is a Friday show as I have built a good following from the ladies that work in the surrounding office buildings, but they just didn't want to brave the heat. Saturday morning early a front came in and dropped the heat into a more comfortable upper 70's which brought out all the people and I had my normal sales day. I went into to Sunday still being significantly down in sales due to losing Friday but the crowds started early and the show was packed all day, I ended up recouping the lost sales and with the after show orders my total was higher than last year.

Breakdown is tightly controlled by Debbie, Howard and Terry, you must be completly broken down and then you can get your car to load out. Debbie and Terry were working my street they kept people moving and co-ordinated parking for load out. My space is on the opposite end of the court from the street and I have an elaborate setup, but even having to dolly I was out in 45 minutes.

My medium is jewelry so it's an easy carry, but if you have larger items be prepared to ship as a lot of the people are tourists. As usual sales were across the board, my neighbors were Chicago themed photographers and they both did well, painter next to me with large high priced items sold a couple of originals, glass artist behind me with unusual wall pieces wasn't pleased with his sales but saw the potential with this show and said he will do it again.

This is one of my favorite shows to do, I drive from Tampa just for it.