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I'm having a bit of a quandary that I could use some help with.  Like a lot of art fair artisans, I have an Etsy shop that I like to sell my work in online.  And I have slowly (VERY slowly) been accumulating the necessary tools and accessories to start participating in fairs and festivals.  I bought a good solid tent, I have some display mechanisms for inside it, and I even bought an iPad so I could get Square cheaply, and thus be independent and swipe my credit cards on my own.

Over the years (yes, it's now been years I've been preparing for this endeavor) I've created my body of work and accumulated stock.  I've also slowly whittled away at that same collection as I sold pieces on Etsy, so it's been an interesting challenge to create new items and make them available for sale and at the same time accumulate enough work to be a viable vendor at a street fair experience.  I don't think I'll ever have enough, quite frankly.

But my quandary comes with how I categorize my work when I'm considering applying to different art fairs and festivals.  My work is already difficult to define as it's what I consider "wearable art", not a category that most traditional art festivals consider a viable or legitimate mode of expression.  At least in the sense that they're looking for art that is hangable on a wall or displayable on a stand--paintings, photography, sculpture, ceramics, and mixed media.  It's when an art festival starts cracking that hard shell and starts "allowing" wearable art in the door that things suddenly seem to start to get "crafty" and less "arty".  Suddenly you have vendors with mass produced items from China saying, "Our stuff is wearable art, too!" and things degenerate rapidly...

Now, I understand that this is wrapped up in the debate around the definitions of Art and Craft, and that we won't solve that here.  But it seems to me that most traditional art festivals that require an online application process don't really want wearable art in their festivals.  I can understand why--it's a lot easier to define "Fine Art" and recognize it when it's following a set of traditional parameters that have always been used before.  Clothing and jewelry are very utilitarian, an aspect that muddies the waters when it comes to determining whether it's "art" or not. How does one determine whether a piece of clothing is artistic or not?  Is it in the execution or process?  The end result?  Its uniqueness?  Its materials?

I've struggled with this for a long while.  I consider my pieces wearable art, but others would look at them as simple costume pieces, not necessarily worthy of consideration in a more upscale art festival or fair that requires jurying.  Even though each piece is individually hand made and one-of-a-kind with no duplications, they might consider my pieces too "crafty" in comparison to the paintings and photography that is the vast majority of what is submitted.  I have boldly trudged forward, refusing to acknowledge a philosophical difference and stubbornly insisting that my work is not craft as much as it is art of a wearable nature.  But just because I believe it's so doesn't make it so in the eyes of festival organizers, nor jurors considering applications.

As a consequence, I've considered making my work more "sculptural" in nature by supplying display mechanisms for the home that (in essence) help ground my pieces more  as small sculptures for looking at rather than actually wearing.  This puts them more into a soft sculpture category (like stuffed fabric birds, for example), and still provides an option for the purchaser to actually wear the piece if they desire.

So my question is (finally, after all this setup and rambling) is there really a "stratification" in the art festival world that doesn't allow wearable art or jewelry?  I've attended my local ArtWalk here in San Diego, and they don't accept wearable art entries.  And conversely I've been to the Carlsbad Village Street Faire (claiming to be the largest single-day street fair in the nation and making the statement that they are not an Arts and Crafts fair), and they pretty much accept anyone.  I don't think my items can sell at a come-one-and-all street fair--my pieces are too "high end".

Are there differences between the terms "Art Festival" and "Street Fair" even though so many events seem to blur the line?  For example, my local neighborhood event, The North Park Festival of the Arts, requires a jury application, but there's little difference in the event's end result than that of the Carlsbad Street Faire except scale. 

How on earth do I find the right kinds of festivals and fairs for my work?  Should I be looking for applications that specifically say "Craft Fair"?  "Fiber Art"?  "Wearable Art"?  Should I expand my personal artistic expression into garments that are even more artistic and less utilitarian in order to be considered more traditional?  Essentially creating paintings that happen to be on clothing?

Or is it just plain jitters on my part or a lack of hubris that compels me to think that my stuff is somehow an exception to the rules, and I must realize that my work is simply more appropriate to niche fairs and festivals that don't necessarily require online applications?  That the higher end fairs are simply not for my kind of work, and I must make due with selling over-priced pieces (in comparison to everyone else) at venues that aren't focused on the kind of work I do?  

Bit of an identity crisis here.  I'd love some advice from those that have been around for a while in this industry.  Ultimately, I don't want to embarrass myself by setting my work up in a venue that isn't appropriate.

I know many of you here use Priceline to get hotel rooms.  Have any of you used the Price chop on Priceline?  A few days ago I booked a room in Nashville, TN.  I spent a lot of time checking room reviews and I saw that many of the hotels were completely booked.  After a good hour of trying the name your own price and failing to get a room, I did the Price chop. 

After driving for 9 hours, and through several hard down pours, we finally pulled up to our hotel in Nashville.  It was after midnight and we were so tired.  The receptionist said she hadn't received any reservation in our name and they were booked solid!  I was very unhappy!!!  I produced the paper work that I printed off the computer showing her I did indeed have reservations.  She told me that they had run out of rooms a day before we even placed that reservation.   We were left to try to figure out what to do to get another room during a time when so many events were taking place and the hotels were full to capacity. 

The receptionist started calling around for us (which I appreciated) and we had to take a room at a Best Western (I would call it a "tired" Western).  For many years we were living under a super tight budget and we had to take crappy rooms because they were cheaper and we needed to save money.  I have reached my limit for doing that and try to get a nice room that I don't have to worry how old and filthy the carpet is, or think about how long ago the bedspread was washed. 

Has this happened to any of you?  I thought Priceline guaranteed their rooms.  This has now happened to us 2 times in Nashville.  I might think it was the hotel's fault except I have experienced this with 2 different hotels in the same city.  Have any of you contacted Priceline with a problem before?  I will be calling them tomorrow and through the magic of the internet (Facebook, google+, Twitter, AFI) people will know about it if I am not compensated in some way.  The social media is a great way to spread bad PR for companies if they fail to do what they advertise.   It can also be used to show appreciation for good companies, as well.  

I found this at the bottom of their opening page  -  With our Best Price Guarantee, you can be sure you're getting the lowest rate at top-notch hotels - even at the last minute.

What do you guys think?

September 15 & 16
Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota
Historic rivertown on the St. Croix River
10am-5pm
175 artists and craftspeople
Deadline: April 15 or till full

Award winning, well established show with quality art and craft.

• Beautiful setting outdoors
• easy set-up, no pets
• Fall leaf looking ten minutes north of Stillwater, 40 min. from Minneapolis
• All profits go to our Public Safety Department.  
• Extensive advertising of the art fair is planned this year.   

       
This is an outdoor event that has the reputation of being an outstanding  art fair.  It is always held the 3rd weekend of September, the peak of  our fall colors tourist season.
Marine on St. Croix is located in Northern Washington County, eleven miles north of Stillwater and seventeen miles south of Taylors Falls on Highway 95 at County Road 4.

For more info: www.marineonstcroix.org/artfairdetails.shtm
(651)433-3636
Email: marineartfair@midconetwork.com

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

Find more art fairs for your 2012 season:  www.CallsforArtists.com

You may think that I have it out for Madison “On the Square.”  I don’t, and it may only look that way.  I have always loved that show. However, they keep making these decisions that are questionable at best and are at worst are illegal.

Now, the latest decision is they have made is to charge an additional fee on top of the booth fee if an accepted artist wants to pay by credit card.  The fee is $20 for a double booth and $10 for a single booth.  I am not a lawyer but I am somewhat familiar with credit card fees.  As I understand this, it may not be illegal to charge the fee, but all the major credit card companies have clauses in their contracts that do not allow for this fee to be charged.  They have that fee so that people will use credit cards instead of paying cash or using personal checks.   This sounds to be like an illegal practice.  And that is only my opinion.  In addition, they could get away with it, if they told artists that they would give them a $10 or $20 discount is they paid in cash, but the Madison “Art Fair on the Square” is making it a penalty to pay by credit card.

I hope that artists will question this practice and put a stop to this.

I am going to forward this to Annik Dupaty, the Madison, AFOS, Director of Events and see what her response is.

I do come up with the same conclusion that I did for the jury blog I posted earlier in the week.  JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN DOESN’T MEAN THAT YOU SHOULD. And I’m not even sure that it applies if it is an illegal fee.  And again it appears as if Annik is more concerned with the bottom line than the ethical running of an organization.

To add to what David and David have already said about the spring Bayou City show, here are a couple of videos I shot during the festival.

Business cards were a hot item here. For many, it seemed as if the free handouts were all they could afford. I gave away many, many cards. I have them in two locations, one on my desk in the front of the booth, as shown in this video, and at the back, near the guest register. We must have given away at least 250 cards over the weekend. They have my QR code on them, as well as the standard URL. I haven't pulled stats from the last week yet, but it might be interesting to see how many hits the QR welcome page got after the show compared to the main home page.

There was performance art. In our section of the show, "Tree Guy" was very popular. A stilt walker in a very well made tree suit, he would wander around slowly and talk to the crowd. Some kids loved him, some kids were scared to death. He told jokes, bad jokes. In general, he stole the show whenever he was around.

There is lots to like about this show. Setup is easy, especially if you come on Wednesday, or early on Thursday. But the park path is narrow, and you have a limited amount of places to park. Big rig? Get there early, as I did. I was able to unload and get my truck and trailer parked in the back forty early on Wednesday. 

We lucked out on the weather. Tuesday it poured all day. Houston and the surrounding area got nearly 6 inches of rain. But it cleared out Wednesday morning, and by noon, skies were sunny and the weather was cool. It was a gorgeous weekend for Houstonites. Normally, if the heat doesn't kill you, the humidity will. But this weekend, there was neither. Highs in the low 80's and lots of shade in our section made for a comfortable show.

Layout is average. Some spots had good park area behind them, while others had none. The whole show site is fenced in to control the gate. They charge $12 admission for adults and teenagers, kids are free. So they have to fence it. It has a big perimeter, too. Since the rains soaked the park, and many trees died in last year's drought, the park itself was in sad shape. Lots of lakes, puddles and swamps. This was one show that definitely required mosquito repellent. Some folks had a slough across from the booth, or behind it. My friend Randy Kuntz and some of his neighbors went to Home Depot and bought 4x8' sheets of CDX plywood to cover the mud holes. It worked, but it wasn't pretty. As David Forster commented, there was a stub near the food tents with about 12-14 artists on it. Bad idea, sorry. Both David and his neighbor, Brian Miller, complained about the slow traffic there.

But, despite the crowds, sales were slow for many people. The crowds were mainly there for entertainment. I saw a lot of 2-D prints walking by, but mostly smaller in size. Friday was quite slow for me, with only a couple of small sales. Saturday was a bit better, but way down in comparison to the fall show downtown. Expecting Sunday to be better, I was disappointed in the quality of the crowd. Many more walkers and folks grabbing business cards without really looking at the work, or engaging at all. Talking to this crowd usually scared them off. I did have several good nibbles on the larger pieces, but the bee-backs did not come back. It's just too hard to get into the park.

One detriment to buying anything larger at this show was the logistics of getting it home. With only two gates into the park, and very little on-site parking, patrons either had to lug their art on a shuttle bus or ask the artist to deliver it. The show does offer shuttle service to a nearby mall, but there really is no place for the patrons to park here within a reasonable distance of the show. VIPs were able to park near the entrance, but that's about it.

Nha Vuu and her three-year old daughter, in Nha's sunny new double booth.

Bright points:

• Box lunch, at a reasonable price ($5), delivered to your booth. Pre-ordered, it's a real convenience, especially if you are on your own. 
• Lots of volunteers to watch your booth, if you needed a bathroom break. 
• And real flush toilets in a couple areas of the park. Rudimentary, but running water. Shower curtains instead of doors made for an interesting experience when reading the morning news.
• Lots of bottled water, snacks and really hideous canned tea, also handed out by the volunteers
• Great hot breakfast each morning near the food booths. A wonderful quiche on Friday, breakfast burritos on Saturday, and quiche again on Sunday. Weak coffee, juice, fruit, sweet rolls.
• Free parking on the back loop. But you had to get there before 8 AM each day to get through the main gate. The show opens at 10. So there's plenty of time to eat breakfast, stroll the mile-long perimeter and chat witcher friends, hit the head, open the booth. Very relaxed.

Needs improvement:

• The park is in sad shape. If this park were in Detroit, I'd be scared to death that crack dealers were lurking in the johns. Hence the shower curtains, I guess. Many trees were lost in last year's drought, and many more look poised to go. But the park itself doesn't look like it gets much maintenance. Piles of debris, many holes where trees once stood, vines twirling up the trunks of trees. Lovely cement picnic benches, but overgrown with moss. 
• The VIP party is on Sunday afternoon, in contrast to the Fall show, where it is on Saturday evening. While donating a piece gets you in, in practice, it's pretty tough to leave the booth to attend from 2-4. The food supposedly was terrific, but we never got up to the tent to see. 
• Crowds were there, but they didn't buy larger work. There's no patron pickup program, since it's impossible to get a golf cart around when the show is busy. Certainly the artists don't have the time to walk half a mile to Gate Two to drop off a piece. Delivery to the patrons home is the only real option at this show. And I'm sure it hurts sales for some artists, including me.
• Music on the main stage was too loud, and sometimes inappropriate for talking about art. While certainly cultural in nature, having modern dance performances, mariachi bands and the marching band detracts from the focus on art. I have the same complaint with our local show, "Art and Apples".

All in all, it's a nice show, and well-run. But sales weren't there for many people. Would I go back? It's a long, long drive to Houston, almost as long as the drive to the east coast of Florida. I'll have to think about it.

Postscript:

I took a couple of days off before heading home, and drove west into the Texas Hill Country. The bluebonnets were in full bloom, and I wanted to experience them first hand. I would have stayed longer if the weather would have cooperated, but a storm front was moving in. I had one good day. This shot is from the area north of Frederickburg known as the "Bluebonnet Trail".

"Field of Dreams" -- the ball field at the Crabapple Community Center.

Here is another photo which shows the show site well.

Also I left out some important points. Kathleen Hughes, the Event Director, established an Artist Advisory Board for the show 9 years ago and their suggestions have greatly helped improve the show as Kat and the Staff listen and actually incorporate many of these ideas in the progressive success of the show.  The entire staff is a pleasure to work with and bring a positive outlook with great vision to everything they do. During the show TV

cameras were seen several times shooting footage to be aired on major channels so that the Tourist population

who might not be reading papers knew about the show. Signage was large and prevalent in the area for the show as well. Hope this helps to clarify some things.

Best, Don McCoy

Should show organizers be allowed to show at juried shows? It seems way too easy to stack the cards in the process whether they are on the jury or help in jury selection of the jurors.  Have any show organizers ever been rejected from a show?

This 30 year old festival has gone through many positive changes in the last 9 years. It moved from a donated ( very windswept space) to the current location approximately 8 years ago. It is a magnificent location in the Civic Center Park of La Quinta, Ca. .This park has incredible water elements with a lake and beautifully landscaped grounds with shade trees and Palms interspersed through the grassy manicured space inhabited by a  small local population of Ducks, Turtles and Koi.

The show is a commission show and the 20% scares off many Artists who feel this is too expensive.  Yes and No - How many shows cost a huge amount of up front money to participate in and then leave you with dismal sales which were actually a far higher cost? Here the staff truly does what it takes to bring in the QUALIFIED, ENTHUSIASTIC, EDUCATED ART BUYERS. Publicity precedes the event for several weeks including a major insert in the newspaper the preceding Sunday chock full of Photographs of a diverse group of incredibly interesting work which be at the show.The current weekend ( March 8 -11, 2012) which the show occurs on is the first weekend of the Major Tennis Tournament just down the road from the show with a shuttle running from the Tennis Tournament to the show so do both without the difficulty of having to repark which  can be difficult at the Tennis Tournament. This weekend also has historically the best weather in March as a bonus. Most of the residents here are very affluent as evidenced by the housing you see in the area and many are Snowbirds with  second homes here for the winter. This combination of factors results in event sales of approximately 2.6 million dollars to date for the 230 artists at the festival. This is an average of $11,304 per artist. Now as in any show there are people who for some reason or another do not sell well. Usually a small percentage who either don't interact well with the public, don't change their work with new interesting pieces, don't realize the importance of positive energy as a magnet for buyers, are new and don't have a booth display that is on a par with more experienced professional artists, don't take advantage of advertizing opportunities or any combination of the above. The people I talked with ranged between $10K and $48K with that occurring in both higher end and lower priced work. Please understand this is a sophisticated audience and even with lower priced work it must be  extremely creative and excellently executed. Denise Robertson ( a featured artist for the show) is a perfect example of this combination ( She had a great show). She is a mixed media/jewelry artist from New Mexico who designed the "GOT ART" pin used to create the embroidery model for a version of the Festival T Shirts.   I actually haven"t included the Sales for the Glass Featured Artist because it would signifgantly skew the results. 

This is a professional show designed for full time professional artist to sell exceptional work to an enthusiastic audience. There are no children's activities at this show. That is not its purpose. This is not a show for beginners or people new to Art Fairs. They just don't have the booth display and presence to compete here. One new artist to the show, a young sculptor who I helped mentor after meeting him during setup, found it challenging with this being his second show and even with beautiful stone carvings, his display and people skills for closing needed work. Unfortunately he sold nothing at the show, however He did have a great positive attitude and instead of racing home (easy to do), He went down down to El Paseo Drive( Gallery Row for the Desert) and went Gallery to Gallery and ended up with a prestigious Gallery taking his work for a successful trip. (He has primarily been a gallery artist to this point.)

SetUp is very easy as it occurs over 2 days with cargo golf carts staffed by volunteers available to move your work to your space. You can also contract available labor on a 1/2 hour or hourly basis to assist you for a fee.On Tuesday there were signigant winds so the show did everything possible to help secure work and opened earlier on Wednesday set up 7AM and allowed artists to stay as late as necessary on Wednesday and come in earlier Thursday (opening day) to allow ample set up time. To protect everyone Booth Canopies must be secured by 36" rebar driven into the ground approx. 30" and clamped to the poles securely as a precaution. They remove it at the end of the show for you.

Lunch is on a preorder basis ( Bristol Farms - upscale food store provides them) and delivered to each artist every day for free as well as waters and snacks and coffee in the AM.  The food at the show is not your typical show food - Ruth's Chris Steakhouse was making excellent steak sandwiches and The Fisherman's Grill ( another  excellent restaurant) was there with quality food as well. There were several rest areas for patrons serving quality wine, beers, water, ice creams etc. There is an Artist Awards Party Thursday evening with beer, wine and an incredible array of food from numerous Area High Quality restaurants and everyone seemed to leave very satisfied.

Admission for patrons is $12 and literally I don't think anyone could realistically see it all in one day. They sell a multi day pass for $15 however all you had to do was ask to upgrade on the way way and they would do that for the $3 so you could visit as often as you want. Online the multi day passes were $12. Valet parking is available and many people chose this option. They do charge for self parking, $7, I believe. Attendance was 25,000 which is total tickets sold with many of this 25,000 coming all 4 days(multi day pass). On Thursday opening there was a blocks long line waiting to get in and buy and this was even longer and more populated on Saturday as these are the 2 busiest days although as we saw it every day was exceptionally busy with patrons.

All sales are done on their sales forms with either a speedy  check out (you provide credit card for commission up front) or you go to accounting upon close of show and pay by check, cash or credit card then. Most artists seemed happy with sales.

Awards for the show are Best of Category and Awards of Merit with A Best of Show which went to Mona and Alex Szabados for their beautiful Enamelled High Karat Gold Jewelry. The jurors for these awards engage the artist and very enthusiastic and enjoyable compared to many shows. This is a highly competitive juried art show with applications on Zapp. There are 5 different qualified jurors for entry for each category. Usually this is 3 Artists and 2 others ( Gallery Owners, Educators or Museum directors or other consummate Professionals) for each category. This show is for Working Artists who personally produce the work for sale, not production studios or factory operations. The artists on the jury help to keep this show a level playing field of working professional artists with incredibly diverse , highly skilled execution and beautiful presentation. The photos of your work need to be very high quality, cohesive body of work as it doesn't matter how great you think your work is , it is HOW IT COMPARES TO THE OTHER HIGHLY PROFESSIONAL ENTRIES. Most Important, I cannot overly stress how important your booth shot is. It needs to be as much a replication of a gallery experience as possible. Extra attention on this will result in better sales everywhere. A white canopy with tables is not going to cut it. You are in competition with everyone else's booth display and many are quite extraordinarily beautiful. The Flea market look isn't cutting it. ?? Would you like to be next to this booth is a question asked of jurors??

More Photos of the site are coming later.

This is a great show for most exhibitors--lots of moola can be made.

So far, nary a peep.

Patricia Heckler via Facebook told me it was off for her this year compared to other years.

Jim Parker did it--so far are ya keeping it all to yourself Jim?

Just would love to hear some feedback from an important show.

We know things are tough in Florida (too many shows, too many in same location, sluggish economy, etc.), but is that trend not only unique to Florida?

Summers are always a time for big shows with big paydays.  This year we got high gas prices staring at us, we got a national election, which yes, Geoff Coe, does impact our sales.

So, a report from Texas would be welcome--come on out into the light my fellow lurkers--illuminate us.  

I will say thanks, in advance for any helpful info.  Nels.

Hi

 My first show this year is at Richardson, Texas.  I feel like can make the trip in one day but I wondering if this just stupid in my part. I am driving from Chicago, IL to down there.

How do you prepare for a long trip like? I already check everything in my car and seems to be okay after $$ spending on it.

I just spent 1.5 hours trying to be compliant with the tax situation from Bayou City.  Be sure you are well medicated before attempting to deal with these people. They have a mandatory system where if you fail to report any sales on a 1/4ly basis, you will be fined $52!  One and a half hours getting set up only to have the built in calculator not work. Wow. My guess is that a lot of artists get the number, and cancel the account and Texas doesn't get their taxes?  

Wow, kick ass show.  Again!

This is the first year we opened for Friday night, and that was well worth it.   People were walking thru the show well before the 3pm opening, and they were not just tire kickers.

Saturday was strong as well, and Sunday sealed it up tight!

The patrons are well traveled, educated art buyers, and they are interested in your work and the process.

Thank you Boulderbrook Productions, Richard Sullivan, Boca Grande Resort, the wine tasting volunteers, the tiki bar, the restaurants and musicians for making this happen.  See you next year! 

August 31-September 3 

Happy buyers at Arts, Beats & Eats

Royal Oak, Michigan
Downtown Streets
155 Artists
Deadline: April 10

We invite you  to apply to the 15th annual Arts, Beats & Eats. This festival is the "go-to" event  that heralds the end of summer in metro Detroit, hosting more than  300,000 visitors who come to enjoy the amazing diversity of art, music  and food in a cool urban setting.

This event is held in Oakland County, which is the  third-wealthiest county in the nation (including cities such as  Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills and Rochester).

The 155  artists chosen to participate come from across the country to join our  celebration. Being an art fair artist is a demanding business. A  professional staff awaits your arrival and we look forward to welcoming  you with perks such as vigorous volunteers, easy set up and take down, good cash awards, free food and beverage tickets and personal attention  to particular needs.

New this year:

• A lower number of artists than in 2011
• reduced exhibit space prices
• an enhanced layout with varied price  structures
• easier load in and load out
• improved parking access, and  much more!

This year we  will miss Connie Mettler, who has left to pursue

People love this festival

full time her commitment to artists through her various websites. Good Luck to you Connie!

We are pleased to add Donna Beaubien who has joined us as our new Associate Art Director to our Art Team. Donna comes to us from a long history as an artist and a director of art fairs, such as the Art  Fair Chair for the Guild; Art Fair Birmingham, Meadowbrook, Greektown, and the Village of Rochester Hills Art Shows. Welcome Donna!

We know you  are aware of the challenging economic times throughout the nation and in  Michigan, but we want to reassure you that we are committed to meeting  your needs and bringing you the audience you deserve. Ford Arts, Beats & Eats has been one of the few festivals that has been able to sustain a fine arts component over 14 years, and the event's recent move to Royal Oak and limited number of booth spaces, positions it as one of the top potential sales spots for artists anywhere.

Our  promotion is considered among the best of art festivals

nationwide. You  cannot be in the metropolitan Detroit area on Labor Day weekend without seeing specials about the arts activities on television, hearing artists' interviews on the radio stations and reading comprehensive feature articles in the press, directed solely to the juried fine arts show.

Buyers of all ages

**********************

Looking for more art fairs for your 2012 season?

Visit www.CallsforArtists.com

From Kristina Jones, Manager of Events for the Suburban Collection:

Hi Connie,

I have about 10 booths left and we are accepting any category EXCEPT jewelry.  We are super excited this year, as we are trying out a Living Social deal for customers, plus we have upped our advertising budget, so we hope that turnout is better than ever.  Plus, we have a first warm weather out of our way!

Lined up for the Great Lakes Art Fair opening

April 13-15
Novi, Michigan

Spring Great Lakes Art Fair

Suburban Collection Showplace

150 Artists

 
Show: Fri. 1pm-8pm; Sat. 10am-6pm; Sun. 11am-5pm 
Artist Reception: Saturday 6pm

Please  join us for the Great Lakes Art Fair, a unique fusion of lush  landscapes, tempting food, and an optimal indoor venue create spring and  fall events that are rapidly becoming established as the Midwest's  premiere indoor art fairs!  

Consistently lauded as one of the most artist-friendly art fairs, accepted artists are given postcards and free tickets for their customers, free electricity, a roving snack cart with complimentary snacks and drinks during the show, complimentary morning coffee and muffins, plus more! 
 

What to expect:

• elegant entrance gallery showcasing your art
• delectable cuisine and relaxing entertainment
• community partnerships and other fresh components, to create a regional marketplace for artists and their patrons.  

The Great Lakes Art Fair believes effective promotion is as crucial to overall success as the selection of artists.  Our mission is to deliver a high quality experience for patrons and artists that will assure qualified buyers, return visits and exponential event growth.  A multi-level marketing and publicity campaign to promote the event throughout the region, including media partnerships in print, radio, television, direct mail and building awareness of this new regional event.

Participating artists are provided with custom GLAF discount coupons, e-mail blast content and other collateral materials to distribute to their patrons.  Drive up to your booth to unload and load.  Artist hospitality area and reception.     

For more info: www.GreatLakesArtFair.com

Apply:  http://greatlakesartfair.com/artistapply.html

Seriously. I was robbed. As a result, my art show season ended with some big surprises last fall in Albuquerque, NM.

And really, I’m okay with that.

Now.

I was in town doing The Rio Grande Arts and Crafts Festival, which runs the same time as the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta. The fiesta is one of the largest international balloon events in the world. 

On day three of the two weekend event I returned to the hotel found a big surprise: my trailer had been stolen.

The police were called in and the papers filed. I was told at that time “good luck” getting it back and that it was probably long gone in Mexico.

In the hope of getting some relief, I talked to the front desk at the Days Inn and asked to talk to a manager.  The manager was not in but I was assured there was surveillance video of the parking lot. The next day I returned to talk to the desk because I still had not heard from the manager.  I was told she had been ill and would call me later. Did I mention it was the Days Inn in Albuquerque on Menaul Blvd?

I heart those boots.

My good friends, David and Judy who were also at the art show, let the show directors know of my plight.  The show directors called a local news station and I made the evening news.

This was good because it brought people to my booth that might not otherwise have stopped.

My second surprise came when I realized the Days Inn in Albuquerque on Menaul Blvd doesn’t give a care about me or my trailer.  I never heard from the manager. I never received a phone call. They even refused to hand over the surveillance tape to the police.  I even went so far as to call the chain to see if I could file a complaint and never heard back from them either.

We  stayed at that Days Inn in Albuquerque on Menaul Blvd ELEVEN days and nothing EVER happened.

Then my third surprise came!

I got a call on the Friday of the second week of the show and the police had spotted my trailer in downtown Albuquerque. According to the police I was one of the lucky 1 in 20 to get theirs back!

Great news, I was ecstatic!

During this time I was thankful I had insurance to cover my trailer. I was lucky that most of my art and booth were at the show. I lost three bins full of prints, display items, packaging materials, lighting equipment and a small original.

However, when I tallied up the number on exactly what it was that I lost it was still at around $2,000. I thought this was still worth putting in a claim.  This is where surprise number four came in.

After putting in my claim I was told it was not going to go through. They said it was because my art business is, “only covered up to 500 feet of my office.”

MY office?

What office?

I am a fine art painter!  My agent knew the nature of my business when I signed up for the policy.  I stated that I need the insurance because I travel and do outdoor juried art shows.  I needed protection from weather, theft and car accidents. I needed to have the trailer and its contents insured!

According to the agent, after the fact, none of this was covered.  The reality stung.

I felt as if I had been robbed. Again. Twice.

Once by a couple of yahoos in a hotel parking lot and a second time by a licensed insurance professional.

Then I began to thank my lucky stars.

You see, I had been in an outdoor show last spring where a small twister took out 10 booths in a different part of the show.   Had I been one of those artists, I would have lost everything.  So I am in pursuit of a new agent and insurance because April 6, 7 & 8 I’ll be at the Deep Ellum Arts Show outside of Dallas in Deep Ellum, Texas to kick off my art show season (I’m in Booth 20!)

Lesson learned ……I will make sure all my bases are covered properly. After all, this is a business and not a hobby.

Just to be clear – did I mention it was Days Inn in Albuquerque on Menaul Blvd?

Boca Grande Masters Art & Wine Festival

What a wonderful show Boulderbrook Productions presented on Friday, Saturday and Sunday this weekend! Most artists set up on Friday and took advantage of the extra hours that Richard Sullivan provided for the participants and public. The weather was perfect and the sales were brisk. It is a pleasure to do a show when you've ample space, convenient parking, perfect weather, talented artisans and interested buyers! Since we do a show most weekends, it is fabulous to say that this show was our best show ever anywhere! Many thanks to Richard Sullivan, Victor, the Boca Grande Resort and the patrons for a great show!

I had suspected for a couple years that Madison On the Square was not doing a conventional "on site" jury.  I just saw an e-mail they sent out on March 16th informing applicants that the jurors will be given 8 days to review the applicants.  To me this smelled of "off site" jurors being given the code to get into ZAPP ADMINISTATION for jurying at their own leisure. 

I think that this is the absolute wrong way to go for a jury process.  So why would they want to do this?  Saving costs would be tops on the list of reasons to do this.  They charge $35 per artist jury fee.  Let's assume that they get 1200 applications.  This is a top 50 show.  Maybe they will get even more.  Sure I know that there are between 62 and 87 re-invited artists that don’t have to pay a jury fee.  However, that's still about $42,000 just in jury fees not counting late jury fees.  Even if they paid 4 paid jurors for 2 days covering all the expenses for airfare if necessary, hotel and food, additional support employees, ZAPP projectors, or computer rental, etc, I would think that quite a tidy profit could still be derived from this profit center of the show.  Or perhaps the director doesn't want to be bothered with the tremendous effort involved in producing an "on site" jury.  I understand this as I've done it but....well, I guess, that's part of the job.  Maybe the director doesn't think that they are any qualified jurors within a 1000 miles.  No, that couldn't be.  I know that looking at 1200 applications, 4800 images, is a chore.  If done over 2 days, 600 artists are very manageable.  Sure it can be visually and mentally exhausting.  But I don’t think that’s the problem.  Ok, so I'm perplexed.

If the jurors are looking at the images ‘off site’ then the images are not looked at simultaneously as it says in the prospectus. They are not looked at simultaneously by the jurors as is done in a ZAPP projected jury.  And in addition, when off site they are not projected; they are looked at on a monitor when viewed off site.  When viewed on the on-line ZAPPLICATION process, the images are looked at individually with only a very small thumbnails being seen as a grouping at the end and on the scoring page; these small hard to see thumbnails are the only simultaneous viewing of the images.  This seems very deceptive to me.  By the way, I have been suggesting for 3 or 4 years to ZAPP that they enlarge these grouped images.  I finally hear that they may do just that.

Now let's look at it from the artist’s viewpoint as to why this is a problem for them.  Jurors would perhaps be dispersed across a large area in different time zones.  (Ok so the 2 jurors that they’ve announced are from the Madison area). Maybe they would be looking at the images during the directors working hours and maybe not?  What if they had multiple questions with no one to answer them?  What will their pre-jury instruction be?  Who will enforce the rules?  I've been to enough live juries to know that there are a lot of questions.  Will the jurors be looking at the images on quality monitors, or even similar monitors?  Will different judges be seeing the same thing from an image or not?  Perhaps juror 'A' has an old CRT monitor that's 10 years old and is totally not able to be controlled for color and brightness.  Perhaps juror 'B' has a monitor that cost $50 at some box store and the contrast is so bad that there is no shadow detail seen or the highlights are completely non-existent.  Laptops are notorious for their poor quality of images.  The point is that the jurors may not be seeing the same thing.  As a professional photographer I know how important "calibrated" monitors are.  Calibration standardizes what is seen on a monitor as long as it’s capable of control.  Ok, let’s proceed.  What if juror 'C' has a young child that is home and needing attention while they are jurying images during this 8 day process?  The jurors could be very distracted from doing their due diligence for any number of reasons:  diaper change, ice cream time, homework, domestic dispute, etc.  What if juror 'D' worked really hard all day but waited till the last moment to jury the images.  Perhaps they fall asleep at their screen and are half conscious giving a score and click on the wrong button.  Will that juror be doing justice to the jury system by being totally exhausted at the end of their work day?  Not likely.  Jurors “off site” can look at images for different lengths of time.  Is this fair?  They can even research web sites and explore other images done by artists.  Is that fair?  What if the juror decides to consult with what friends think of an artists’ work.  The images could be copied and pasted to be seen anywhere.  This alone has been a major concern for many artists.

The bottom line for me and I hope many artists is that they are not, let me repeat that, are not being judged equitably.  For $35, or $5 or $75 for that matter, they deserve a fair shake.  Having jurors not "on site" is not a fair and equitable way for shows to be jurying.  There are way too many variables for the jury process to proceed along this path to give the artist what they are paying for and deserve.  For years this show was run successfully by intern directors:  graduate students, in the arts program at UW Madison, who would be the director for 2 to 3 years.  Now a paid director has taken over and it seems that what is now important is the bottom line.  It is no longer the well being of the artists and what is in their best interest.

Is it a stretch to assume that all of this has something to do with the chaos that has been going on in Madison and Wisconsin?  Is it a stretch to say that this has something to do with the current administration in Wisconsin defunding the Wisconsin Arts Board?  Ok, I certainly will not go there as it is off point.

The control, the standardization, of the jury process and of the jurors as a group is gone with this newest move by Madison On the Square.  It is no longer a "level playing field" for artists.  The shared experience is eliminated.  This smacks of a director giving up and giving in.  So I decided to email Annik Dupaty, the Director of Events, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.  She is the director of the show.  I simply asked if it is true that jurying takes place off site and her reasoning for this.  She responds first by saying that jurying off site is the “standard of the industry.”  I don’t know where she gets her facts on this.  ZAPP does not even know what the percentage of shows jurying off site is.  She also claims that the system was set up that way when she took over as director.  I know one of the previous directors and this system for jurying was not in place while he was director.  There was a director between his term and Anniks taking over.  The graduate student director before Annik took over quit the post as director and did not graduate.  She states that,  “in these hectic ‘modern’ lives we lead it is hard to get full-time, busy working people to (1) align schedules, and (2) commit to being here for 1-2 full days straight”  Well, we have always been in these hectic ‘modern’ times.  Every generation lives through their own modern period.  Jurors were brought together for 50 years before this and other shows started to ask jurors to view images off site.  Jurors were in one location long before the shows were making the amounts of money they make now.  If jurors were paid a decent amount, I don’t think finding jurors to participate would be an issue. Many would relish having been a juror for the show and adding it on their resume or curriculum vitae.  She further states, “…and it isn’t necessary with the technology available to us.”  Well, that brings it full circle and to the conclusion that I reach and that is:  JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN DOESN’T MEAN THAT THAT YOU SHOULD.  The world is full of misguided decisions made with the idea that just because something can be done means that it should be done.

Since the costs for jurying have been so dramatically cut, have the jury fees or booth fees been reduced?  Would Annik be willing to send out a fair Survey Monkey to see what the applying artists feel about “off site” jurying?  I’d love to hear that the applying artists think it’s a good idea and that I’m wrong about all of this.

I think artists deserve an explanation so they can decide whether this is a show that they want to participate in.  They ARE the show.

Hope everyone had a terrific St Patrick's Day!  Since it was the 50th anniversary of the Denver Parade, we went all out.  Bellco Credit Union sponsors us in the parade.  Thank you Bellco!  Our four Giant Parade Puppets were festooned with shamrocks and green trim.  I rode my new stilt bike, featuring a red headed Leprechaun made by Cory Gilstrap. http://www.facebook.com/cory.gilstrap I mounted him on the handle bars with a pot o gold just out of reach of the grasping Leprechaun !  Photos and stilt bike riding practice video here:  http://stiltwalker.com/states/colorado/denver/50th-saint-patricks-day-parade-denver/

I didn't give Cory a huge budget, but he was very gracious to work with my budget and deliver on time.  I was/am very happy with the yet unnamed Leprechaun. (any ideas?)   Both the free hand, and the out stretched leg as well as the head are all pose-able.  Cory also provided the Pot o Gold.  After the parade I did sew on some more gold coins.  The thrift store fishing pole, which I provided, I also shortened in preparation for next year's parade.

Youtube has some video of the parade with our Giant Parade Puppets, one video even catches me on my stilt bike gliding by.

http://youtu.be/DCHMxZhiR_o

http://youtu.be/2fN7NEMI2es

Every year the Denver Post prints in the paper and online a photo of one of our Giant Puppets .  this year I couldn't find us online, but the daily had a photo of one of our puppets on the Friday before the parade, and the YourHub weekly insert had a terrific photo of all four Parade Puppets!  Best photo ever published!  Yea!

I'm enjoying reading all of the festival reviews, hope you enjoy this somewhat off topic post.

Cheers!

Bill "Stretch" Coleman