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As a gourmet food person, I would love to hear from anyone who did Chicago...I was on the wait list.  Was it worth it, would you do it again?

Just did the OOAK Show in Chicago, this is a very well run event. For those who are not familiar with it I will run through the basics. Included in your booth fee is a 10 x 10 approx space with walls, carpet, lights (6) electricity and trash can. The walls come in white and you can request and pay for colors. The way I have found is to bring rolls of colored paper and staple or tack it up yourself to save the painting fees. Any way, you show up at the loading dock and the union labor carts all your work and display up to the show floor to your booth. After setup you tag your emtpy containers and they fetch and store them until end of show. You get the services of an electrician to aim your lights for you. Over stock can be stored with access on the floor below the show to replenish your booth. You can bring your own wall panels if you desire. Hanging your work involves driving nails or screws into walls which by the way you must remove at breakdown ( they patch and repaint) Almost anything to do with displays can be had for a fee if you don't want to cart in your own stuff. They do also have a central cashier system which you can use. Artists are given access to materials for promotion throughout the year including passes for admittance to give to your clients. At shows end your empty containers appear at your booth, you break down and they cart it all back down to the loading docks for you. Crowds are large and enthusiastic. Smaller gift items sell well although high end work does too! Now for this years news.....

We were asked to attend an artist breakfast on Friday morning prior to opening. A big announcement was to be made. Well, the announcement was that they were going to re merchandise the show by placing all the jewelry booths on one side of the show with the fashion booths. In addition, jewelers would have to re jury with a jury fee, and returning artists would not be guarranteed booth placement requests with early sign up, one of the past perks for re signing. Needless to say these items were not well received by those in attandance. When the meeting opened up for Q & A I was the secong hand up to comment and after a good twenty minutes of not getting selected to speak I needed to find a way to get noticed. Hence the "man on the chair was born" I ended up gaining some height and was chosen to say my piece. Basically I commented that in my opinion most of us benefitted from a mix of booths via impulse sales from those patrons seeking for example their favorite jeweler and passing a booth with great pottery, bingo pottery sale! Or conversly heading for that painter they love and passing a great pair of earings at a jewelry booth and presto jewelry sale! This would cease to happen as often with grouping of the fashion and jewelry. Many of the patrons would not walk the show as they do now, simply heading to the one section they had in mind and beaming on out afterwards. It is a very large show and takes time and dedication to pass through all the ailes. Human nature is such that when asked, patrons would of course say they like the grouping idea to make certain shopping easier but why the do grocery stores put things like the milk all tha way in the back? So you will pass many other items on the way and bring a few out with you of course. After much comment, almost all of which seemed against the idea of change, the meeting was ended with promise of new thought to the whole idea. Loh and behold the plan was scrapped, booth placement was put back in for early sign up with the exception of jewelers who must re jury for next year. Returning jewelers no jury fee and new applicants have a jury fee. I felt that the people (artists) had spoken and the powers that be listened. I would like to add that the staff as a whole is excellent to work with and does a wonderful job of getting us all in and out for this show. My claim to fame now lies in being the "man on the chair" as I got visits the rest of the show to shake my hand etc for "standing up".

In considering whether or not to apply to an art fair, every seasoned exhibitor will tell you to check out the details.  Look for the red flags of warning.  Interestingly, this one came to my inbox this morning, and they helpfully even already had it in red text.  How convenient.

ARTIST APPLICATION DEADLINE

EXTENDED TO DECEMBER 19, 2011!

I've seen more than a few artfairs in my time, and experience tells me that when a show "extends"  the application deadline--there's something wrong.

Possibly an exception: a recent facebook "posting error"  of deadline time (supposedly) was the reason given for the recent Cherry Creek extension.  The difference?  They opened it up for three hours to give the mislead ones a small window of opportunity to mend their ways. 

But the above included note in red--it's a mall show--in February, no less.  And they're extending the deadline out another week?

You may read into it what you want, but I've already done my reading. I'd say buyer beware.

Have a lovely day!

Later, Cooper

Merrill (Sonny) Dalton died, 78, on December 10 at Rose Arbor Hospice in Kalamazoo, MI, from complications of pneumonia. Sonny was a fixture in the art fair business for 41 years and only stopped participating in art fairs when his deteriorating lung condition, caused by a lifetime of welding, made it too hard for him.

Sonny was one of those people who made people want to attend art fairs. His ingenious outsider constructions of firetrucks, reindeer, people, trains, etc., made people smile. Men would stop in their tracks to examine their intricacy and then they would meet the man behind the sculptures, a funny, humble person who loved what he did and loved being at the shows meeting everyone. He and his wife, Roxie, probably were friends with more people in this business than anyone.

My husband, Norm Darwish, would go to his booth at the shows just to hang out because there was so much entertainment going on. We lived near him and traveled to many shows together. I

remember when we visited him in the hospital outside of Baltimore because he had got e. coli at the Timonium fairgrounds; I remember driving in tandem to Denver and him singing "Rocky Mountain High" over the CB; I remember him nearly selling out at Columbus Winterfair; I remember all the artists singing happy birthday to him when he turned 70 in Indianapolis before the show opened. I remember the throngs around his booth at many shows as people clamored for his pieces. He did his last show in December 2009 at the Great Lakes Art Fair and people were thrilled to see him. He was a celebrity. 

His work is in many museums, including the Barber Motorsports Museum in Birmingham, Alabama, that exhibits his largest piece the "Rat Bike" -- a motorcycle tricked out like none you have ever seen that was commissioned for the museum.

Here's a little piece he made for me for my 60th birthday: "Connie directing an art fair"

Sonny, we will really miss you.

He is survived by his wife Roxie and their three daughters Jenny, Amy and Julie and seven grandchildren. Please email me for Roxie's address, or send messages through the Adams Funeral Home, 502 W. Michigan Ave., Paw Paw, MI  49079. Viewing will be at the Adams Funeral Home in Paw Paw, 12/14 from 5-7 pm. Graveside services will be at the Riverside Cemetery on December 15 at 1 pm.

Don't know Sonny? Visit this link, lots of good stories: http://www.artfairinsiders.com/main/search/search?q=Sonny+Dalton

I know many of you knew Sonny. Please share your stories in the comments below.

Jacki Bilsborrow (my friendly admin on this site) and I headed to Chicago on December 2 specifically to visit the One of a Kind Show. 600 artists, who could resist this lure? What we found there:

• 126 jewelers and 148 wearables (clothing and accessories), some of these were double and even triple booths. All price points included, even a young woman who was making dainty crocheted earrings and pendants and selling them for $25. I did ask her how many she had to make before she would even break even! It had to be months of work.
• Gourmet Gallery a row of artisanal foods, delicious stuff, where you could hardly get through the crowds
• booth fees ranging from $1800, repeat exhibitor with a 10 x 10, to newbies with corners that were around $3000
• once you have participated you don't have to reapply but are reinvited, although they are changing the rules for 2012 as they only had six openings in the jewelry category this year so jewelers will all have to reapply
• "This is my very best show every year," Hand Jive and Dinah Morrison
• "This is a complete ripoff for the artists," a photographer I've known for some time
• Tickets are $12 but artists had email codes where you could download a free ticket
• curbside carryout service for buyers as well as a packaging and shipping service
• sports lounge where football fans could take refuge, comfortable seating, TV and bar service
• fashion shows, artist talks
• There were a lot of artists from the East and especially the West Coast who had flown in, took advantage of the walls and electricity that the MMart provided and did a great job of dressing up the plain white box to make their booths inviting, sort of in a cool minimalist way
• a mix of work from the frankly commercial to true one of a kind made by independent artists and everything in between, cottage industries, small wholesale designer businesses. I'd like to criticize, but it makes for very interesting shopping.

I traveled to Chicago for the Ooaksthis past weekend.   I had never been to one of those shows before.  I was very excited to go to a show held in the Merchandise Mart.  We arrived on Saturday just about the time it opened.  I don't think they could get any more people in that place.  It was packed!  It was so tight that we could only take tiny baby steps as we moved around the show.

The wearable art seemed to be doing very well.  The booths were packed with ladies feverishly examining each item.  Not only were they looking, they were buying, too.  Some shoppers told us they come every year and I think they were all coming on the same day, too.  Shoppers could be seen carrying multiple bags as we inched our way down the rows.  There were gorgeous silk scarves, winter coats, designer dresses, and lots of fancy scarves made from really cool yarns.  Plus, we saw lots and lots of fancy hats.  The hats made me wonder why I don't ever see anybody wearing one.  Maybe hats are token purchases that vanish into thin air once they hit the closet shelf.  :-)

There was lots and lots of jewelry!  I think one artist told us there were 160 jewelers there.  Twenty six percent of the booths were jewelry and that does seem high to me.  I don't think the jewelers were very happy about that.  As we walked along it does seem like everywhere you looked there was a jeweler. 

I did see something I hadn't seen before.  There was an Etsey area.  Exhibitors that had Etsey stores were all together in one area.  It did seem like there was a good number of them there.  The work in that area did seem a bit different to me.   It wasn't quite like the art work I am used to seeing at Art Shows. 

As we got to the other side of the building we could see what I would call traditional art.   I am referring to the painters, photographers, sculptors, and others.  There were shoppers in those booths but not like the shoppers in the clothing booths.  There were some very good artists and if money wasn't an object I would have made several purchases.  I did talk to some of those artists and they said they were doing well but not quite as good as they did last year. 

Of course, there were a few booths that made you wonder how they got into the show.  For the most part their work looked nice but it just wasn't really art. 

We did go back Sunday and it was much easier to get around because the crowds weren't so thick.  I suppose the artists would rather have the crowds though.  I took a few photos.  Bare in mind I used a tiny little Nikon Coolpics camera.  I noticed they are a little fuzzy but you will get the idea I am sure.  The photos that have less people in them were taken on Sunday. 

I am already planning my trip for next year.  Hopefully, I will see you there, too.

This artist sold all kinds of fancy things for the bedroom.  Her display looked very attractive.

Anne is an AFI member that I stumbled upon.

The art on the far right was really cool bells.

The Fashion district, too bad I am not a clothes horse.  I would have gone nuts.

Sorry, I know this one is blurry. 

Suddenly, I can't add any more photos so I guess that is my hint to end this. 

Jacki B

I was thrilled to do Amdur Productions, "The Inside Show" this past weekend. Only forty artists were chosen, ten of whom were jewelers. The air was rareified, let me tell you. But that is not what this post is about.
On Monday, I received an email from a lady (who shall remain nameless) telling me that anyone from "The Real Thing" show OR the "Inside Show" were being asked to join a limited engagement Co-Op of some artists at an abandoned Borders store across from the Woodfield Mall(very very exclusive high-end shopping mall). Thirty artists had climbed on board and they would love to have me with them.
They wanted $300 up front and 20% of every item sold. No contract. They had never run a Co-Op before but as she wrote:" it doesn't take a rocket scientist to do it."
No security...but you don't have to be there.(?)
She keeps repeating that they sold a vase for $4000.
I called two artists on the list of six she gave me. They haven't returned my calls.
Question: Am I being naive again and missing out on a great opportunity?
Or are my feet stuck to the floor for some other reason?
Help!

Artists have an especially hard time on the Internet because many (most?) artists fight the battle between art and commercialism daily.

It's especially hard to decide where to draw the line when selling art online.

You want your website to be as beautiful as your art.  You design a site that reflects your aesthetic but then you are disappointed with lackluster website sales.

Many artists build websites but get NO sales at all online.

Unfortunately they blame the Internet when it's often more a matter of website design.

If your website is attracting visitors but few sales, ExpertWebsiteReviews.com can help.
 

Expert Website Redesign Advice Videos - Cheap

Generic web design theory won't help you as much as personalized website advice that you can see.

Here are 2 examples of recent custom website review videos from ExpertWebsiteReviews.com.  They are full of valuable tips for how you could improve your website sales, too.
 

Video Review of BNelsonDesign.com

[click here if you can't see the video website review]

ExpertWebsiteReviews.com is run by my son, Scott Fox, the best-selling author of Internet Riches and e-Riches 2.0 and a long-time dot-com success story. (He's also a frequent participant here at ArtFairInsiders.)

Holiday Special - only $99!

Currently the custom web site review videos offered by redesign recommendations video consultant
ExpertWebsiteReviews.com are only $99 each.  The price is jumping in January to $129 or even $149, however. 

If your website could use a "tune-up", I'd suggest ordering a review yourself today. It's an inexpensive way to increase the return on your website investment.
 

Here's another example video:

Video Review of Biwer-Stewart.Artspan.com

[click here if you can't see the video website review above]

Winter is the right time for you to look at your website again.

If your website could use an upgrade, Scott would be happy to help, and he knows our art fair business.

Visit http://www.ExpertWebsiteReviews.com to order a personalized video review of your website.

What did  you think of Scott's redesign suggestions for these websites?

Anything  you disagree with? 

Would you  like to see more artist website redesign videos?

 p.s.  The custom video reviews from ExpertWebsiteReviews.com are only $99 for a limited time.  Reserve one now because the price is going up after Christmas!

Gfit idea: Order one for your favorite artist as a gift!

So my 2011 show season just came to a close. I'll be posting a festival re-cap in the next few days but while it's still fresh in my mind I wanted to go over the comparative costs of flying to art festivals vs driving to them. I'm writing this as I fly back home in the relative comfort of coach seating on a US Airways jet.

My good friend and fellow artist Lee Waterous of Head'n Home Hats has badgered me for years to include flying to and from art fairs as a way to reduce costs and travel time spent on the road. The reduced time I understood but how could this form of travel actually save me money? Lee's set up, unlike mine, compacts nicely into airline friendly cases which he air freights to the closest airport near the show he will be doing. He gets off the plane, rents a uHaul type truck right there at the airport, drives to where the freight terminal is located and loads up. Simple. Oh yeah, hats don't weigh much.

I on there other hand, I travel with a 500 lbs. Trimeline STEEL framed canopy, a dozen ProPanels, 3 large print bins, 2 folding tables a directors chair, a knock down ProPanel desk misc. support material and all of this is before I load one piece of my art. Even though I do rather well sales wise at most shows, this additional frieght bill would eat too much into my profits to make it work.

That's why I didn't even consider it until fate had my schedule packed so tight I bit the bullet and tried it out just in order to be able to make it from Santa Cruz, CA. back home to Sandpoint, ID and then to Las Cruces, NM all in one week. The drive by itself couldn't even happen let alone breaking down one show and setting up at the other 2000 miles away.

Here is what I did and why I'm a newly converted "flying traveling artist" and you should be too. 

The deal breaker for me traveling this way was always how to ship my heavy, bulky display setup. What I found out was that I could become a "hybrid" flying artist. What do I mean by that? Well, on that particular trip I just talked about I needed to drive my 2010 Ford extended van down to the first leg of this show trip which was in Half Moon Bay, CA. I did that show as well as another one in northern California the next weekend and instead of diving the 1100 miles back home to "re-load" my art and then head out to New Mexico, I left my van at my brothers house in Santa Cruz, flew back home, printed and framed the art I would needed in New Mexico, UPSed this art back to California, flew back there the following week to pick up my van and the art I shipped and then drove to Las Cruces.

How did this cost compare? The round trip air fair (which was high because I booked late) ran $275.00. The UPS bill to get the art back to Cali was just under a hundred bucks. Because my son drove me to San Jose International airport I didn't need to cab it which saved about $50.00. So my grand total to this round tripper including freight was $375.00.

If I was to have driven this same trip I would have put 2200 miles on my rig just to get me back to where I left from in Cali and at 15 miles to the gallon and with gas costing over $4.00 (at least in California anyway) I would have spent over $550.00 in gas plus 4 nights in cheap hotels, $200.00 so my net savings was $370.00 plus (and here's the bigge) 4 freaking less days driving on the road. Lest we not forget things like van maintenance etc too.

With the success I had on this trip, I managed to recreate my savings both time and money on 3 other round trips this year.

Another tip Lee gave me was to book "Park n Fly hotels close to my departing airport for my trips back home. Why? Because even though these run twice the rate I usually pay in places like Motel 6 and Super 8's, these Park n Flys allow you to leave your rig in their parking lot for free while you fly home. Plus, they offer free shuttle service to and from the airport. One of my trips back in November I was going to stay at a Motel 6 in Phoenix, then park at the long term lot at Sky Harbor which would have cost me close to $200.00 for the room and parking. By paying $95.00 at the Best Western in Tempe, not only did I save half the money I would have spent but stayed in a way nicer room with door to door shuttle service. Sweet!

Because my season has come to and end and my last show for the year was in Tempe, AZ I decided to rent a secure storage space with closed circuit cameras and coded entry gates close to the show at a local uHaul center for $55.00 a month. This facility is next door to the Best Western I mentioned so I was able to use their shuttle van to get to the airport for my flight home. This is where my van will live until I fly back down to pick it up prior to my first show of the 2012 season which will be in Fountain Hills, AZ next February.

If I am able to take advantage on say half of the shows I do in 2012 by being a "hybrid flying artist" not only will I save money but I'll be keeping my butt out of the drivers seat a lot and that's a very good thing.

I have noticed a proliferation of shows on Zapp scheduled for 2012 in Atlanta. If you are thinking of doing any of these please beware. There are only a handful of shows that worth your travel expenses. Dogwood, Decatur, VI-HI and Inman Park are top of mind. As for the rest, please send me your application fee and booth fees and I will save you the time, trouble and expense of coming to the ATL.

There was a guy running for President representing "The Rent is Too High" party, I am going to run in 2012 under the banner of "There are Too Many Shows....in Atlanta Party."  (Some will argue for the Atlanta Arts however, its results are spotty)

Wayne Gretzky is quoted as saying "I skate where the puck is going to be, not where it has been". For artists who are passionate about their art, who love interacting with patrons, and assisting them in acquiring that perfect piece, whether for themselves or as a gift, we all have second thoughts about continuing on our present plan of applying to a bunch of art fairs, selecting the perfect images of our work, getting the perfect booth slide, the perfect artist statement, etc and dealing with the rejections, the weather, and the capriciousness of patrons.

We spend a lot of time trying to figure out where the puck is going. When we first started doing art fairs, maybe only ten years ago, I shot our own slides of our work, set up on a table in our back yard with only a window shade unrolled behind the piece for a backdrop. We got into the ACC show in Charlotte, and were really excited. As digital imaging came along, we lobbied for shows to go digital. Indeed, we declined to apply to some shows because they had not gone digital. Be careful what you wish for, right?

The advent of digital jurying has completely changed the art fair landscape. Now a top show will get 1500 - 2000 applications for at the most 200-300 spaces. I am frankly surprised and pleased at the restraint shows have shown in not raising the jury fees higher. It would seem tempting to raise both booth and jury fees until applications were reduced to about two times the number of available spaces. We as artists would hate it, and hope they will not be so inclined.

The question for all of us then, is where is this all going? Connie's post about Art Miami tells us one area that is prospering. Check out Art.sy for another new direction. How soon will it be possible for us to get our work juried into a venue such as that? Several contributors here have talked about their successes with studio shows, truck shows, pop up galleries and other non traditional ways to connect with patrons and collectors.

Three weeks ago,  an artist neighbor proudly stated that she did not own a computer or smart phone, did not see any sense in web sites, facebook pages, google+, or twitter. It makes one wonder if she had indoor plumbing!

It will be very interesting to look around five years from now, and see who has figured out where the puck will be.

Hi Everyone!  I'm hoping someone out there can give my a heads up.  I'm doing my first Huff Promotions show this weekend at Tuttle Mall in Dublin, OH. It's the first year for this show and I've never worked with Huff before.  Does anyone have any experience with them?  Good, bad or indifferent?  The mall at Christmas.... I'm just a WEE bit nervous! :-\  

Thanks!!!! 

Good grief.  Look what just hit our inboxes.

Plus Two NEW Festivals in Milwaukee, WI and New Buffalo, MI

Wouldn't you expect that a national level art fair director would know by now that there are too many art fairs?  That patrons are really becoming ambivalent about whether they attend or not, because it'll be  crazy easy to find one to go to next weekend instead?

How many artists have lamented the problematic nature of this fact (too many art fairs) right here on the pages of artfairinsider?  And that hour before the fair starts up again on Sunday morning, all summer long--what do artists talk about?  Too many art fairs.

But of course, the art fair director's money rolls in whether the patrons show or not.  If you plan on being the artist at all 17 of this director's shows, start prepping your checkbook--$465 in jury fees, $8220 in exhibitor fees.  Add another $425 if you're late.

I think artists by nature, are optimistic folks.  We KNOW, just absolutely KNOW, that if we get into those shows, the patrons will flock to our booth, we will sell tons of paintings/sculpture/photos/whatever, and it will never rain/hail/or hit us with a tornado during the entire show weekend.  Oh, and the police wont shut the show down early even IF the Cubs are playing in town that Saturday.

I don't want to tramp on your optimism.  But I do want to encourage you to sandwich your optimism with wisdom.

A phrase from my Nebraska-growing-up-days:  tight fisted.  I encourage you to use that approach with your jury dollars and exhibitor fees during 2012.   Less is more.  And that might just be an answer to the problem.

Thanks for reading.

KC

I have many in-law family members that live in Grand Rapids who are not very art enlightened. Luckily they have friends who are and they are involved with Art Prize. I love talking to them about how the city and the committee feel about this event. I was just sent a FB message about some of the changes they are doing.  I must say this is a very interesting town for such an event. Just thought I would share for anyone else interested. Here is the link.

http://blog.artprize.org/2011/12/06/artprize-announces-100000-juried-grand-prize/

As promised ages ago here are some definitions and interpretations of some of the most commonly recurring dreams in South Dakota.

Thank you for good words and my acceptance as part of your community forum, I am very grateful to Success in your work, I will try to be useful in the forum and greet all members. apologize forthe language I speak best, respects the ridvan aliti

Let's hope this show becomes another holiday tradition!

Here are some thoughts :

1)     The Elegant and Central location of the Highland Park Country Club was a superb selection.  The Club itself is beyond lovely and on high traffic roads.  I feel the site and hostess details will be keys to drawing our friends back again and again. On Friday night, there were spotlights circling the inky darkness and trying to draw the Friday Shopper’s attention.  On Saturday and Sunday evening, there was a pianist playing at a baby grand in the entrance way, which set a scene of chic charm as clients made their way into the warmth of free hot chocolate and the laughter of easy conversation. There was an open bar for patrons. But the massive fieldstone fire place, natural wood floors, glitter and gleam of huge chandeliers, entire walls of windows, the circular bricked entrance driveway, heavy linen and silver…..well, they define elegance. It may have been this Art Fairs first year but it will not be the last!  

2)     The crowd was nicely knowledgeable, compellingly friendly, warmly witty and low-keyed affluent. More traffic was needed. I think that comes with time and word-of-mouth…..tradition….etc.

3)     We had free access to electricity and it is my own fault that I did not bring more strobes. Live and learn!

4)     The set up was wonderful. Across from each row of booths were a number of linen clad round tables with a center Christmas decoration where you could take the customer and sit down with them. People could just rest there also.

5)     Amy, as always, treats her artists well: we had a Continental breakfast and hot lunch available with gallons of coffee/soda/water available at all times.

6)     Check In/Out was clean and fast, as usual, at Amdur.                                                         

7)     It was loverly. I hope to see you next year.

8)     We took in over four times our entrance fee, did not have to pay for breakfast or lunch and danced a jig when we got rooms at a 5 star Marriott Suites on Groupon for $49 a night.

9)     It was heatening to hear how many of my clients expect to see me this summer. Wow!

I had fun!

We participated in the 31^st annual Gig Harbor TideFest event on December 3-4. Gig Harbor is a small town in northwest Washington, just across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and is an affluent community.   Having participated in this event for the past 2 years and the Gig Harbor Summer ArtFest for 5 years, we’ve built up a following and several repeat buyers in this community so we went into this show with reasonable expectations.  The event is  the main funding raising event for the Gig Harbor High School and is very well supported by the students, faculty and the parents.    This was the first year with a new director in charge, Brad has worked as the assistant director for a number of years and while the previous director said she was going to retire, she was still very visible and continued to provide her expertise to the festival this year.

One of the highlights of the show was getting to meet Joe Clifton in person.  On Sunday morning he spent several minutes reviewing our list of California shows we were interested in for 2012 and giving me his honest and frank feedback.  Many thanks Joe!!

When all was said and done, we breathed a huge sigh of relief, our last show of the year was over and for the first time since July we were up from last year’s sales on a show that was a repeat show for us.  While several of our spring shows were up from 2010, summer and fall shows were all down with the exception of our show in late July, so it was a nice way to end the year.  That being said, this isn’t a huge show for us and I don’t think it’s one where many artists had huge sales.  Sales were okay, this was our 3^rd year doing this show and our sales were slightly above our first year, way above last year, but overall not as good as I expect for a show in this community with a  $220 booth fee. 

The student support at this show is awesome.  I don’t think our truck has ever been unloaded so quickly, we happened to arrive when there were 20 kids standing around waiting for work and the assistant director sent them all over to our truck.   My husband just kept handing things out of the truck, I went into the gym with the first load and never came back out for a second load, everything just appeared right in the booth space so quickly it was amazing.   Load out we also had a lot of help, the students were more than willing to help break down, pack, etc.  There were plenty of volunteers available for booth sitting, food was available and the students were willing to deliver it right to the booth for lunches. An artist breakfast was provided on Sunday morning that was great, real food, not just coffee and donuts!  During the show they had carts with snacks, beverages, coffee, etc that were coming around constantly, if we had partaken in all that was offered they would have been rolling us out the door at the end of the show!  Beware – this is a show where it’s really easy to overload on caffeine and Christmas cookies!

Some of the noticeable changes for 2011 included less booths for the show, which might have helped our sales since there seemed to be less jewelry than past years. The aisles were wider, booths did not extend all the way into the corners of the gym and the smaller, wrestling gym which probably had 10-12 artists in prior years was closed off this year.  There were also several empty booths due to “no shows” so I’m guessing there were at least 30 less booths than last year. Communication to the artists was not very efficient, it was all done via the website, this year they had more issues than normal with the website, it was up and down several times and down for most of November until the Monday before the show.   There was not a list of participating artists  or booth assignments on the site this year like there had been in the past. No emails are sent to notify artists of acceptance or booth fee deadlines, we actually missed the deadline by a couple of days but that turned out to be a non-issue. 

I don’t have the attendance numbers to validate this but the show seems to steadily be decreasing in attendance.  Artists who have participated in this show for 10 years or more all commented on the same trend at the artist breakfast.   Instead of advertising it in the paper, they sent out brochures to the local community.  I did see at least one reader board with info right off the highway, but issues with the website and reduced marketing seemed to have impacted attendance.  There was  never a very large crowd and the buying energy that we saw during our first TideFest event never materialized. 

Overall, it’s a very easy show for us to do, 20 miles from home and more help from the students than we could utilize.  Hoping that for next year they rethink some of their marketing and start getting the attendance numbers back up.  If it truly is going to remain the largest fund raiser of the year for the school, they need to focus on making sure enough people attend to keep the artists coming back.

Okay, now that I've gotten some sleep I can think more clearly. Just finished the 3rd time around in Tempe. The first time I did this show was probably over 25 years ago, I was parked on the side of 6th Ave where hardly anyone showed up to see my work. I remember the streets being so crowded you could hardly move around. As it was the first time I had done a big show I was fairly starry eyed and on overwhelm. Last year was the second time I did the show and had moved up the street to 3rd Ave which was better visited but still crowded but only because the street was narrower. This year I was on 5th avenue, much wider, better lighting, the sun actually hit the street, and room to wiggle around when you got restless. The crowds didn't seem as overwhelming to me, maybe that is a function of time, memory or there just weren't as many people out as the first time I did this show? 

The show is very well run logistically speaking, you check in on Thursday down the street from the fair but you've already gotten so many communications from the staff in advance that they hardly have anything more to add to your knowledge of what to do, maybe last minute details, and then you can purchase off site parking for $25 for the three days (much less then the city lots which are $10-12 per day and large vehicles can't get into the high rise lots anyway). As for load-in...you wait till after 9 p.m. there are three load-in time segments, the further away you are from the entry the earlier you get in. I had to wait till after 10 and then, because I didn't scout out the numbers like I usually do, I drove past my booth area and had to drive all the way out and around just to come back in again and start all over again. All said I still was able to  park not too far from my booth space along the curb for set up. A lot of vendors waited till the next morning to come in, maybe a better strategy but I needed the extra time for my set-up as did my neighbor.

Show amenities? There is an artist hospitality booth with drinks and treats throughout the three days and they run around on a golf cart in the morning with coffee and the afternoon with water. Very thoughtful!

We arrived in Tempe a little later than anticipated. Winds were high through eastern AZ and driving into Flagstaff on I-40 we ran into the storm that had flattened much of southern CA with high Santa Ana winds. It was snowing hard and southbound, as-well-as north bound I-17 were at a standstill with ice and snow covered roads. A little patience and slow driving were required. Those that were driving a little too fast found out how icy it was! After they had shoveled the tipped over vehicles off the road and pulled people out of the medians who were going too fast for driving conditions we were once again on our way. I was anticipating 70 degrees at lower elevations! Oh, what fools we mortals be. What I heard from a visitor to the show is weather in Tempe always seems to conspire against the show though last year it was mild (trying to lull me into a false sense of euphoria!) this year the storm that blew in from CA turned the thermostat down considerably and threatened rain on Fri and Sat. Sunday the sun was out all day but it never got to 60. (It's snowing at the 3000 ft. level as I write!)

Despite the cloudy and cold weather the crowds did show up. Maybe, because it was still part of the work week, Friday seemed like everyone was asleep trudging along the rows of artists with no sales for me and most others around us but my neighbor whose creative woodwork was very compelling sold a few pieces. Saturday was the coldest with nary a sign of the sun but the people came out, sales turned up a bit. Sunday the sun was out all day and the crowds seemed more enthusiastic and engaging but sales were still dismal. Meanwhile my neighbor had a steady stream of sales, though he reported being off about 50% from last year. Other artists he talked with reported few or no sales as well.As a reflection of the level of buying at this show there was a lot of popcorn and yard art things that you poke in the ground walking around (not that there is anything wrong with popcorn!)

People were very appreciative of my work and I earned the show prize for photography, the acknowledgment, plus the cash prize, helped salve the disappointing sales from this show. Parenthetically, the awards were hand-made by a fiber artist and very impressive, not the usual trophy store variety! I've heard harsh reviews from other artists about this show and I noticed it was quite a mixed bag in terms of quality. There seemed to be a good mix and balance of media of the fine art type, whereas in some shows there may have been too many of one type vs other types. Many artists that I've seen at other shows with high end art were there mixed in with more crafty novelty type items (walking puppets on sticks and dog hats).

All-in-all, the show is well run, the crowds were there despite the weather and the sales were disappointing. What else is new lately? We move on down the road...

• The prestige factor
• Dollars are easier to measure than beauty
• The thrill of the hunt
• New money skews the market

December 1-4 Miami Beach hosts Art Basel, the US's largest contemporary art fair, where the art sells in the $1,000,000 range and the elite meet to hang out and "out-status" one another. At the nation's fine art street fairs we often debate prices with one another and I laughed out loud when I read this (heard often at the shows):  “If I can’t sell something, I just double the price.” That’s what Ernst Beyeler, the great Swiss dealer who helped found Art Basel, reportedly said. Some people actually prefer to pay more than makes sense.

Learn more about this high flying festival, a review of the event by Blake Gopnik in the Daily Beast:  http://www.thedailybeast.com//content/newsweek/2011/12/04/why-is-art-so-damned-expensive.html

Wow! There was even a squatter show that brought out the police to shut it down:  http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/12/02/2529410/south-beach-art-fair-shut-down.html

Interested in more gossip-y commentary on this "Art Bacchannal", "Guests dipped giant communion wafers into fountains of white and dark chocolate that streamed from the penises of two gleaming silver putti in Angel Otero’s sculpture “Pissing Contest.”

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-05/a-rod-cages-owen-wilson-amid-ugly-art-hookers-at-miami-basel.html

I'd love to hear your comments on this theme.