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Just asked about one show in Florida and this the other one I thought about trying out in the Jacksonville area. It's also a Howard Alan Event and I've not yet done one of his shows, don't even know if I can get in. Again I didn't find any comments about the show and if anyone has any like to hear about it. I do have friends in Jax so I wouldn't have hotel expenses which is a plus. Thanks Mike

I was looking at this art festival to fill in my November schedule, didn't have much luck last year with christmas shows in the Atlanta area thought I'd try a couple in Florida. Didn't see any reviews or post about the show has any of you tryed this one, any comments or thoughts. Thanks  Mike Brown

After 6 years of applying we were finally accepted. YES!!!  We had heard great things about this festival and were excited to finally be participating.

Edmonds is a suburb about 10 miles north of downtown Seattle with some very affluent neighborhoods that we pass on our way to the park.  The festival is sponsored by the Edmonds Art Foundation and is always held Father’s Day weekend.  Edmonds is located on the Puget Sound and the Field has a nice view of the Sound and the Olympic Mountains.  The festival has 2 sections for artists booth, the Field with about 200 booths and the Plaza with another 40 or so booths. The Plaza is more traditional arts and crafts including soap, food products, beaded jewelers, etc.  The Field is intended to be more Fine Art.  There were a few booths on the Plaza that had me wondering why they weren’t on the Field and vice versa, not sure it’s really clear to most of the attendees either.  The show is run with mostly volunteer support and they do a great job with communication before and during the show.  Overall quality of art at the show was very good, I didn’t see anything that was obvious buy / sell and got the chance to talk with artists around us who travel more extensively for some of the bigger national shows.  The show seemed well balanced and I judge that by the fact that not once all weekend did I hear the comment “oh, another jewelry booth”. 

Artist amenities include breakfast and coffee each morning, artist dinner on Saturday evening, booth sitters and free RV parking a couple of blocks from the festival.  Warning, steep uphill from the artist parking to the festival, not fun to be pushing anything heavy from your vehicle.  Load in was fairly simple, structured in 4 different time slots throughout the day on Thursday.  Load out, well, it was organized, if people would follow directions and be courteous, but it’s a tight fit to get the vehicles in and it’s a long wait to get your vehicle in.  You had the option to dolly out, but parking around the Field was scarce and the field was damp enough that the soil was very soft so plan on a good workout if you want to dolly out.  The show ended at 6 PM on Sunday and by the time we got the truck onto the Field, loaded and packed, we were pulling out of the Field at 8:30 PM, about twice our normal load out time.  So, be patient and bring a book (or in our case our Kindles).  Artist check out (this is a commission show) wasn’t as well organized as other shows we’ve participated in, signage and directions on which line to be in if you were paying with cash, check or charge was not clear, so that also slowed down the load out process.  Booth fees were $150, plus $100 for a corner and more for a 10x15 or 10x20, plus a 15% commission on all sales.

Show hours are fairly long, 10-8 on Friday and Saturday, 10-6 on Sunday, so by the end of the weekend, we were sleep deprived. As jewelers, we take our products home each night and have to put them all out again in the morning so we’re usually some of the first artists to arrive and the last to leave.   We had elected to drive back and forth, about 70-75 minutes each way and by the end of the weekend were wishing we had just brought our RV up and parked in the free parking lot.  Lesson learned, next time we’ll know.

Friday the weather was warm, sunny and beautiful.  The booths had a bit of a “sauna effect” going on, especially the inline booths that had neighbors on all 3 sides.  The sun baking the roof, the moisture from the ground coming up and the insides of the booths were a little warm.  For a Friday, the crowd was larger than usual.  We started our day off by making our booth fee at 10:15 with our first customer, great way to start. Sales were strong until about 1 PM, then a lull, then picked up again in the late afternoon as we had the first wave of people coming in after they got off work.  Sales on Friday, for a Friday were strong for us, we left there pleased.   

Saturday, the day started out overcast and the sun never really broke through, although we did have some sun spots and a small amount of blue sky a couple of times, we also had some showers off and on but it didn’t seem to affect the crowd.  After all, this is June on “wet side” of the Cascades, we expect rain showers for most of June .  The crowd was large, but not enormous.  On Friday we kept hearing that we should expect wall to wall people on Saturday, all the folks on Friday said they came on Friday to avoid the crowds.  Well, we didn’t see that the crowd was much larger on Saturday than Friday.  Our sales were a bit higher, but not as much as I had expected based on everything I’ve heard about this show.  Quantity of sales on Friday for us were relatively small, but most were for higher dollar items, on Saturday the lower price points were selling well, but not the higher end. 

Sunday was noticeably cooler than the previous days, very cloudy, but the rain managed to hold off until after the show ended.  Sales on Sunday were good and with a last minute customer and our largest sale of the entire weekend at 5:50 PM,  we ended up with our best sales day of the show.   Just one more reason my husband keeps reminding me, “it’s not over until the fat lady sings”.  Well, with that last sale, I could have sung all the way home if I weren’t quite so exhausted!

Sales results for most of the artists I spoke to were good, some were up over previous years, others down. No one I talked to reported having a horrible show, some had mediocre results while others were very happy with their results.  Overall, we were happy with our results, a bit higher than our average, maybe not as high as our expectations given everything we’ve heard about this show, but it is one we definitely would like to do again.

The picture below was taken about 2:30 Friday afternoon.  The food court was behind me when I took the picture, up the hill just a bit, so those sitting down for a snack or beverage enjoyed a wonderful view of the Olympics and Puget Sound.  Pretty good crowd for a Friday afternoon.

DO NOT ever exhibit at Custer's Last Stand.  You probably already know this.  In case you took one fellow artist's word for it like I did, you were probably as disappointed as the rest of us last weekend.  It's just a drunken street fair flea market.  My fault!  I should have researched it more.  (You warned me, Claudia!)

It inspired me to write about trying to stay positive at a bad show in my blog.  I'm sure some of you can relate to the stories I share about this particular craptastic experience.

http://pencilenvy.blogspot.com/2012/06/be-positive-sarah-jessica.html

Hope you had a MUCH MUCH better situation last weekend and that next weekend will be wonderful for all of us.

Crossing my fingers for us!

Wendy

www.pencilportraitcards.com

June 16 & 17 
South Bend, Indiana
45th Annual Leeper Park Art Fair
Sponsored by the St. Joe Valley Watercolor Society
120 spaces

Art fair fever grabbed me and made me head to South Bend on Saturday morning to get my fix. It was a lovely morning although it really heated up in the afternoon. The booths are set in a circle in a shaded park. There are no auxiliary activities and only a small food court. The show is visible from the main street. If you're driving through town on the Dixie Highway you can't miss it.

The parking lot was filling when I arrived at 10 am and at the first booth I saw a sale being made. This is an old-fashioned show that is about only one thing - selling art and I can't fault it except for one thing, although booth #'s were prominently displayed there were no names. I had to really hunt for any name signs. Luckily there was a program but it was in alpha order, not numerical and I did a bit of hunting. Friends, please if a show doesn't give you a sign with your name on it, please have one of your own.

There were plenty of people in the park and some booths were full like this pottery booth with work by Jeremy Keller and Mary Ennis.

I'm always on the lookout for creative booth displays. This is the booth of Skeeter Aschinger. I had a heck of a time getting a good shot because of the people who were interested in the work, miniature face sculptures with hand beaded accents. She told me a prior career had been designing displays and it was obvious by her attractive booth that clearly complements her work.

I'm not only looking for good displays, there is always the thrill of seeing artwork that stops you in your tracks. Best of show in my mind should go to Martha Nahrwold whose one of a kind paintings and collage are carefully controlled marbling on paper, floating acrylic paints to create dreamy landscapes. It was the art that drew me in and then I took a look at her booth (isn't that the way it should be?).

This was a great story. Martha started participating in art fairs about 15 years ago and her husband was busy doing his own activities so she devised a set up she could handle herself. The panels are construction styrofoam covered with ultrasuede slipcovers, suspended from handmade hangers. She says she can stack them up and be gone in no time. Plus, let me assure you, it was the work that first drew me to the booth. The display was simple and clearly showcased the work. Isn't that we are all looking for?

It was great seeing old friends and meeting AFI-ers that I've only met online. I loved Robert Wallis' photos with their sensitive use of light and shadow.

Vinnie Sutherland has no peers in her media, she takes a very old technique and presents it in a fresh contemporary way. She works with tin and uses repousse techniques to create the relief in the pieces.

My old friend Johnny Lung with his masterful Chinese paintings - this is not a good shot, visit his website.

Frequent contributor to AFI, John Leben, had a big writeup in the South Bend Tribune. Hope it paid off for you John.

More good old friends from Florida summering in the North, Loretta Fehling

and watercolor painter Michael Weber caught in the act again of making a sale.

My apologies to Joan Tweedell who I also spoke with, I was so pleased to see her that I forgot to take her photo. Love your new etchings, Joan, and it's great to see people moving into a new medium. Congratulations.

A lot of us girls watching the clothes going by - here is my vote for best dressed at the fair.

I hope everyone had a good show this weekend!

Love. Make. Think. "Gobsmacked"

Hi everyone, Does anybody know who to contact to try and get juried into the Ann Arbor Art Fairs at the last minute?

Pro:

Anyone can read it without being approved or pay a fee

Con:

Any post has the potential of silencing others from expressing their opinion

Pro:

If everyone can read what is posted even non-members can learn information and can take action from the ideas shared on the forum

Con:

Sometimes you don't want the "outsiders" to know what you are talking about, or is this a "Pro"?

Pro:

It can be a melting pot from a wide variety of opinions

Con:

You can't speak your mind without possibly getting in trouble with some vested interest

The first popular online open forum in our business was the NAIA forum which was a very dynamic forum until a few obstreperous people continually derailed the discussions and the group voted to make it members only. This really slowed down the discussion and participation dwindled.

In the beginning of AFI all different kinds of people joined and I was pretty clueless about managing it. It was pretty interesting to watch my friends and many strangers show up and debate the questions of the day. People could post anonymously and there were (to my mind) some fists flying. People joined and resigned and rejoined. Many sent  me emails wondering why I was letting such uncivilized behavior occur. At one point there was a mass defection. We changed the rules about anonymous posting, set up a vetting process to allow members into the site, and rewrote our Code of Conduct. Early on some show directors joined and they were attacked and they left, silencing their voices here.

Some of these early voices determined who was on the site and who was not and set the tone.

One thing I have learned is that every comment has the possibility of encouraging someone else to speak and someone else to be silenced. I've heard "well, if they can't interact on an Internet forum how can they expect to prosper at the fairs?" You've got to know the purpose of this site is not to toughen people up.

I don't pay attention to the statistics of the readership or the "hits" and am often surprised when I'm at a show to have someone I know say they read the site regularly and their name isn't even on the membership list. It makes me wonder who is reading the site besides the people who post and comment and what function AFI has for them. My hope is that open discussions can influence people's behavior at the shows and in running the shows.

I can edit everything on the site. I have banned people from the site who came into the forum only to attack others and who never had a constructive point to add and who were just plain mean and rude. I have removed a few that were deliberately attacking another person in a personal way, but probably not often enough.

Many comments and posts have disappeared from the site (including a very recent discussion) because when a person resigns from the site all of their content (comments, discussions, blog posts) disappears with them. I have no control over that.

I've allowed others to stay because sometimes they are very good and sometimes they are very bad and I like to believe the good they contribute outweighs the other. Mostly its a pleasure to get up in the morning to see what is going to happen here today, as there is a solid amount of useful content and I am surprised by the generosity of many of you, but let me tell you folks sometimes it keeps me up at night.

Looking for your input ... is this a fair place to post your views? Got any suggestions on making this a better place for all?

Has anyone done this show in the last few years? Show date is in late Oct. I am considering doing it this year. I am a painter and live in Atlanta. Thanks!

September 14-16
Ferndale, Michigan

9 Mile Road at Woodward

120 artists

Deadline: July 3

"Twice as funky as the average fine art show."

The Ferndale fair focuses on work that skews a little younger, a little hipper. While traditional artwork does sell here, this show focuses on less pastoral work. As many as 40,000 art shoppers attend over the weekend.

Ferndale's vibrant downtown attracts people in their 20's, 30's and 40's. It is a lively community with varied shopping and exciting clubs and restaurants. These people have the means to purchase items that appeal to them.

The show is looking for work that challenges the mind, or simply sparks the imagination. Artwork that does not sit quietly, but invites a reaction. Overall however, keep in mink, this is a high quality juried fine art show.

The art fair is organized by Mark Loeb of Integrity Shows, a veteran organizer of metro Detroit events. Like all of Integrity Shows events, artists are assured of three year's of participation when accepted. Why shouldn't you be able to plan your year?

Booth rent has been held at $275 for five years, with a small up charge for corners or electrical.

Loeb's shows are widely praised for the effort placed toward supporting participating artists. He understands that your success is essential and does what it takes to meet your needs.

Apply on line at: www.zapplication.org

or visit: www.MichiganArtShows.comfor more information

I fully appreciate that a lot of artists are not happy with the extraneous 'entertainment' that is occurring far too often at what used to be strictly art festivals.  I still think there is room for food, music and vendor booths if it is done correctly.

LFOA understands this.  Admission has risen steadily over the years but you can get discounted tickets through a variety of venues that allow you to pay about half the $15 gate.  There is parking with a shuttle bus for $5 but we parked at the Children's museum parking lot for $10 and had a 2 minute walk to the gate.  As you enter you are given a wristband and PNC handed out cloth tote bags.  Then, if you wanted to, you could walk through a sculpture garden featuring works of various artists along with some beautiful plantings by one of the vendors.  All the vendor tents were in  one place also, as you walked in.  You could ignore them or check them out.  There was noone yelling about wonderful deals.  The children's area was also along the same path as the vendor booths.

Most of  the participating artists are located inside one multi-block long gigantic tent.  (There are about 20 artists inside the museum)  It is easy to navigate around the show as the tent is extremely wide.  There is storage for the artists behind their tents but there is no space between them.  Everyone is on cement (it is a street in front of the museum) but you don't have to worry about staking your tent because the 'big tent' is capable of withstanding even hurricane strength winds.  The only thing not art related  in the tent is a souvenir booth for the festival and it is on an uneven section of grass, unsuitable for an artist's booth.

Between the big tent and the museum is artist check-in, volunteer check-in, the silent auction booth, another  souvenir booth, a couple of vendors, the music stage and the food booths.  In the middle of all this are tables for the patrons to sit down and eat.  While we were there, the music was never so loud as to be intrusive inside the tent.  While eating fairly decent food, you can watch sailboats  and enjoy the lake breeze.  When you are ready you can go back in the tent and again be totally immersed in art.

And the quality of the art is wonderful.  This is an above average festival.  I didn't see any buy/sell or anything that hinted of b/s.  I don't know how sales are going.  I know that one jeweler had sold 8 various pieces in the first 90 minutes and a ceramic artist sold a 4 figure piece.  Jim Parker is there with his wonderful photography and he will be able to tell more about sales.  

Two side notes--  I always look at the jewelry that people are wearing at art festivals.  This festival had some of the best jewelry worn by patrons I have ever seen.  Hopefully they bought more, they had plenty of chances.

Birget of the "copied jewelry" fiasco was at the show.  I mentioned to her that I could see why someone would copy her work, it is lovely  and also that I was glad all her equipment made it to Chicago on time, saying that facebook lets a person learn all kinds of things.  I never told her who I was and only mentioned I had read about the copier on AFI.  She then asked me if I could watch her booth since she didn't want to wait for a boothsitter.    I love that artists believe in the best of people.  Taking checks, letting people take something home to see if it is 'right' for their house and letting a complete stranger sit in your booth while you are gone for ten minutes.  

Community Art Fair next to 57^th St. Art Fair, Chicago, IL

I need to think hard about this show. This was one of my first art fairs that ever did. I remember dolling in from 51^th St down to the show. I did not have any idea what I was doing. I think about all those things and black and white work (mostly people). Just happy to make some money of my work and the booth fee was 120. So even with three bad shows in a row I may still do the show again next year.

The show does not make any promotion. They gonna start a Facebook page this year. All promotions are done by the 57^th St people. So we depend on them. There no clear cut where one show start or end if you visit the show for the first time. The show is set up on small park on 57^th and Kenwood which is the next street from 57^th Art Fair. The hours are 10 to 6 Saturday and Sunday. Once you are in you are in. The demand for spot is very high. The people that run the show are very nice and they do what they can but we all getting old.

The set up is very simple you need to early and dolly into the park. Do not go by the time they tell you get there early. The early the better, in my case 6 am. There no electric, bathroom are the same as 57^th Art Fair (school in the middle of the fest), no breakfast, no, no, no and the booth fee now is 325.00.

The weather had been nice in Chicago for the past month but people did not show up at the show for the third year in a row. The crowds are way down. This crowd are just looking and do not buy art period. It could that this show lost his luster. We use to get people from Indiana and near states. You get some ex students of the University of Chicago coming in for the reunion but very few buy art. At this point we only getting local people that just tired of us. Most items are way under 100.00 and very few big sales. The big buyers are very few for all us. Some people blame Amy Amdur for the show the goes against this one in downtown Chicago. Other people blame the economy. Not what rason the only thing that matter is how much you take in. A lot of artist told me that is was just very bad. Even the staff of the show was talking how bad the show was this year for most the artists. Same you can said about the 57^th Art Fair.

My advice if you are not local or do not have a strong emai or mailing list dont do this show for a while. The area has been affect very strongly the economy but the University is developing a lot and is neighborhood of our current President (Mr. Obama).

I would like to know from your experience, if I can sell my handbag designs by taking orders during Art Show? My business model is made to order. Can anyone tell me the best show for my product.

Thank you so very much!

I am a newbie to the art fair business and am in need of a photographer in the Houston Tx. area who is familiar with the Zapp process.

Wells Street Art Festival or better know as Wells Street Drink Festival.

This had always been a very hard to set up and hard to deal. I never saw what happen this weekend. Regardless of the drink you can count in this show to bring money or good connections.

Lets start you need to paid for electric. That means add 150 to your booth fee. Parking can cost you another 100. You want to be closer to Schiller that any other spot. Use to be closer to North your better you will be but you also need deal with drunks all day long. In simple terms you want to avoid to be close to any bars. You need to be on line by the time they schedule to set up. Please follow the instructions because is one way. There is not to much organization by the promoter and they are there to make money for the organization not for you. You need hope for a good captain in the area for things run well. If you are selected to donate a piece as I did you are in for next year but you still paid for the booth fee. Make sure to put a explain what is minimum you will take since half of the sales is yours.

I got there at 545 am but I could get in until 615 and Food vendor was blocking your way to the booth. It was just freaking nightmare to set up. There one thing you need to know you only get 10X10 space. Booth are back to back and side to side. I will recommend to get corner or a double space.

The show started at 10 the good buyers come in morning and the party start at 2pm Saturday. I only did one sale for 70 all Saturday. Did I mention that the show start 10am and does end until 8pm but you can pull your car from parking lot provide to artist until 10pm. And yes you paid for that parking space. Around 25 to 50 artist took off Saturday because it was just out of hand.

Sunday crowd was better less drunks and more buyers. I did some sale and recover all my expenses but to me was more important the three connections that I did . One is in progress and the other two I hope that they happen. One the one I am waiting will be very good for me. I plan to follow up in this connection. The artist next to me make a killing and I was very happy since she had great work and price to buy.

I think that you need to do the show again and again but you need to use your mailing and email list. You wont get that much help from the promoters. I trying not express how really feel about this show but if you are not from town avoid this show. My 70 old mother came with me to the show and she mention to me people are here to drink and woman are dress to go the beach or pick up man for the night. 

Spring Cottonwood Art Fair

I wanted to have pictures of the trip but did not happen.

Cottonwood is held in Richardson, Texas. This a town just north if Dallas. The hours for the show are 10 to 8 Saturday and Sunday 10 to 6. Out town artist can set up any time Friday and local artist can set up Thursday night. The Break Down goes Sunday after closing. The show is held in a park. Free parking for artist and very good dinner for the artist Friday night.

I am from Chicago so start my trip Wednesday morning (5am). It takes 16 hours to drive down to Richardson, Texas. After talking to several artist I was planing to divide the drive into days but I end doing the trip in one day. Each way I took off at 5am and make to the hotel or home by 8:30am. No speeding just a smooth ride. My advice is very simple you need to drive only with daylight. I can tell you I do want to cover the route during the night. If you running low in gas fill up the tank as soon as you see the gas station. The gap between station are big. Gap between town is big. If you see bad whether you want pull into a town and wait for it to pass. I took I 55 to I44 to I 65 that become I75. I could have the roads numbers wrong but you get the idea. All this will let to believe you need to have two days regardless if you can the trip in one day.

The set up and break down is just to died for it. You may get help but do not count for it. You need to get there Friday early in the morning and get on line. You pull over in the middle of the park and dolly your work into your booth space. That could 10 feet or 120 feet. The east side of the park does not have any trees and the west side does have tree. I think you better in the west side of the park. On thing you need to do is get electric. Just paid for it regardless where you are. You will need fans. All spaces will allow you to use one side wall to display as well as your back.

Most people told me sales where down for the show. There was a show piece sold by a potter for $65,000. So money is not an issue in the area. You need to bring your best work to the show. Bring big stuff. This is a show where you need to do several times because people will follow you. There are no bad place in the show since people walk the show several times before they buy. Link your website the show website. Since most people visit the website first and then come and buy from you. People are very smart and buy what they want. Just be polite and happy. I plan to go back during the fall show as well next year.

Many thanks to the members who make this website work so well for so many. The members have voted and the following people have been chosen as the most generous and friendly and appreciated for their constructive contributions:

• Annette Piper - member since 3/11, our only international member who greets all newcomers with cheer and joins in the discussions and keeps them rolling along. A member like this is a treasure! (over 400 sharings)
• Ruth Finkenbiner - member since 3/11, brings all the West Coast news to our site and has great stories to share with everyone. Also, I suspect she has been a great recruiter for AFI in her neighborhoods, participating and initiating over 300 posts
• Dave Hinde - member since 4/09, almost one of the original members here who has continued to share his information with the East Coast with generosity and graciousness; participating in nearly 300 discussions
• Steve Appel - member since 6/09, and still sharing information and keeping the discussions going in the West

These  members can be identified by the Red AFI symbols on their photos.

Thanks to them from all of us. We appreciate all your contributions.