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This one had to be the show from Hell for me. It started going sour a week before. My van decided to go four paws up with a hole in the exhaust system that burned out the oxygen sensors, and then the power steering went out. A rental van wasn't available fro love or money. My old trusty Ford Escort wagon needed a/c which jumped from $800 to $1300 when a computerized control module waqs found to be bad. That gets fixed and the order is placed for a 4x8 U-Haul trailer to get my stuff to the show. Problem was a trailer hitch for it would be special order and wouldn't get there in time. It was a moot point as the promised trailer didn't arrive either.

So I bite the bullet and pack what I can in the wagon, leaving all the big framed pieces behind. The largest pieces I could take were 18x24 frames and some smaller stuff. The wagon is packed to the ceiling and the front seat has a 12 gal tub, my clothes, a tool box, and a cooler. The scary part was strapping 8 Pro-Panels to the roof using a couple of 1x2x4' furring srips to extend the roof rack bars. A couple of tarps to wrap it up and about a hundred feet of clothes line rope, and seeveral prayers and oaths to hope it all stays on top. It did, although with strange noises coming from the roof and tarps all the way from Indianapolis to Detroit.

Now for the show. It was a strange layout, a gigantic L shape that stretched out over a quarter mile along a service road that went around behind a shopping center and several commercial buildings. I was toward the end behind a stand alone Barnes and Noble and a hospital. Way behind those buildings. The space behind the booth was an earthern berm shielding off a condo complex.  The angle was steep and I wished I had brought shims. The guy next to me had several pieces of 2x4, and that helped a bunch, although I still had to dig into the ground with a hand spade to lower the back of the chair.

It was hotter than hell the entire weekend, and I drank more than a gallon of fluid every day and still only visited the nearby portapots once or twice a day. At least twice I gave my chair to a patron who dizzy and ready to pass out. Traffic was very light and many times you could have sent several bowling balls down the lane and not hit anyone. I saw very few people carrying packages the entire weekend.

The organizer was on top of it, and I'll give that to Patty Narovzny. Her crew was evident the entire time, bringing water and snacks around, maintaining security, checking to see how things were going. The judges were efficient and each came around and introduced themselves, and they had a helper with them keeping track of the time they spent in each booth. The judges asked decent questions, which is more than I can say for most shows. Patty came around with one of the judges, and dropped some tidbits to help out. I was sitting behind the booth with a small table in front of me. She told me I should be in front as that was more inviting. I concurred and spent the rest of the show sitting in the doorway at the back of the booth. People talked more, but the traffic was so low that it still didn't translate into better sales.

A few of the artists who had spouses or help in the booth (I didn't) were able to walk the show. Traffic was higher at the entrance and many people just weren't goimng past the corner. Another point of concern is that there were booths at the other end for home builders, window sales, and so on. That sounds more like a county fair to me rather than a high end art show.

The extremely long layout is a fatal flaw, in my opinion, for a show like this. I saw a lot of older people walking the show and heard more than one family group complaining about the long distance to walk. The front end of the show is close to parking and the mall stores, but the other end is off in Siberia, or that weekend, Hell's Half Acre.  Ample room was given for each booth space and if the end person in the group of 5 booths cooperates, the artists in the midddle can set up with a 6 foot space between the booths. Kudos for that.

Top credits for the organization of the show as far as logistics, low marks for the overly long arrangement of the show, lousy turnout which may or may not have ben the promoters fault. I was the last person clearing out as I had to remember how to pack everything back into the compact station wagon (BTW, I have a line on getting a Ford E350 XLT 11/12 passenger van in the next week or so), and a neighborhood person was walking their dog at dusk. He asked how the show was, and I told him truthfully that it was a lousy turnout. He said he usually goes to it, but it was too beastly hot to be out walking around in the afternoons.

Net result was that I had one sale on Saturday which didn't even cover the hotel expense. I would have to be crazy to go back to this show. It's on concrete, the configuration of the show is bad, and a high socioeconomic neighborhood still didn't translate into sales. A repetitive question was "Are these photos or paintings?" That question has seldom been asked so many times.

This was a show where my wife was able to say "I told you so!". She suggested cancelling when the transportation issue was looking grim. I've cancelled one show in 22 years when a vehicle began misfiring badly and blowing oil out of the crankcase back into the air filter when I was about 50 miles from home. I would have saved myself several hundred dollars had I heeded that suggestion this time. It's a shame when everything was in place except the crowd.

I am seeking advice on this rather nasty subject of trying to get the promoter to refund my booth fees and need help on how to get this done!  I applied to this show in Sept. of 2010, was accepted but had to cancel in early Nov. - cancellation deadline was Nov.27 so i cancelled well in advance of the deadline.  I can't get this promoter to respond to my e-mails or calls to refund my fees!  I've sent numerous e-mails and the one reply I did receive said something to the effect of "we're having some problems, we'll get to you when we can".   Nine months later and no refund!!!  Any advice on how to get this promoter off his butt would be very much appreciated.

Lynda

November 12 & 13

Westfield, New Jersey

Fall Fine Art and Crafts at the Westfield Armory

Set-up: Friday 9am-6pm, Saturday 6am-9am

Show Hours:  Saturday 10am-6pm, Sunday 10am-5pm

130 exhibitors

For artists who are not familiar with Westfield,  it is an affluent town in Central New Jersey, a bedroom community of New York City. The  median family income in Westfield is $147,000. The high end, tightly juried show is in its second year.

The Armory is located near the Garden State Parkway, Routes 22 and 28 and is approximately 35 minutes from New York City.

Each booth is pipe and draped with 8 foot white drapes. The aisles are fully carpeted. Move-in is easy with extra help and dollies available for those that need it.

The publicity campaign includes:

• Direct mailing of complimentary tickets to 28,000 past patrons of Rose Squared Production, Inc. shows.
• Two Advertisements in the Star Ledger, the New York Times, the Staten Island Express, The Courier News, the Home News and 16 local weekly papers.
• Two Billboards on US Highway 22
• Six 2 foot x 4 foot full color billboards placed by us throughout the towns surrounding Westfield
• Posters and publicity postcards placed in stores in Westfield and surrounding towns

More details at the website: www.RoseSquared.com

Also consider joining the many talented fine artists and fine crafters at Rose Squared's oldest venues:

September 17 & 18

Upper Montclair, NJ

Fine Art and Crafts at Anderson Park

and

October 15 & 16

 Bloomfield/Montclair, NJ

 Fall Fine Art and Crafts at Brookdale Park

 rated as a Top 100 show in Sunshine Artist

Just finished the Allied Arts show in Richland, WA. Richland is in SE Washington, one of 3 cities referred to as the "Tri-Cities", Richland, Pasco, Kennewick. It's an area that hasn't been hit real hard with the recession, the Hanford Nuclear Reactor is located here and provides steady jobs/incomes. However, layoffs had just been announced the week before the show and we were wondering how that might impact the show, I don't think it made a bit of difference in the buying habits. For us this was our best show of 2011 thus far, a great way to start our summer road trip with 4 shows in Eastern WA/ Northern ID.

This was our second year here and our sales were up 40% over last year, with many repeat customers from last year. We also had several that said they didn't remember us from last year, but were looking forward to seeing us again next year and we do hope to be back to this show. Most of the artists we know said they were having good to great shows, one painter said he was way down from prior years, a potter said it wasn't that great for him this year, but several other artists were indicating they were doing well, so once again, a bit mixed on sales, but definitely more positive reports from the artists I know than negative reports including a couple of artists who like us, were having their best show of the year so far. We saw a lot of packages being carried and the finance folks mentioned that they thought the overall commissions for the entire show were trending higher than last year when they came around Saturday to collect our tally sheet. Booth fee is $100 with a 16% commission with about 220 booths spread throughout the park.

The show takes place in Howard Amon park, on the Columbia River. It's a Friday/Saturday show with long hours. Friday was 9-9, Saturday 9-7. The show starts early due to the heat, this area of the state is notorious for being about the hottest area of the state in late July. This year we caught a break, like the rest of Washington State, temperatures have been cooler than usual and we did not have a triple digit day this year, YEAH!! I think that made a real difference in our sales on Saturday which were more than double the sales on Saturday for us last year. Temperatures on Friday hit the low 90’s, I think the high on Saturday was 95. The park has a lot of trees and most of the booths are arranged to take advantage of the shade. Each booth spot is 10x15 so for most of us setting up a 10x10 booth allowed plenty of room for storage and airflow between the booths. They layout is quite spreadout and one part of it was a little confusing to navigate. Due to all the trees, many of the booth do have issues with tree roots, so be prepared with shims, etc. Friday afternoon / evening we had a great breeze coming right off the river, we were all wishing for that breeze on Saturday.

Load in is easy, staggered throughout the day on Thursday, you can drive right to your spot and unload, etc. Saturday night is a little more challenging since everyone is getting their cars in at the same time, there's no control, the first truck we saw come in arrived 15 minutes before the show was officially over. No artist amenities other than booth sitters and RV parking available at the Marina in the park for $10/night, about a 10 minute walk to the art show.

Friday morning sales started off fast, we made our booth fee before we were officially open at 9, while we were still getting the jewelry out. By 10 we made all expenses and were well into the black on this show. Sales were great until about 1:00, slow between 1 - 3, non-existent in the hottest part of the day between 3-5. Picked up again about 6 until it got too dark to see our jewelry. This was our first 12 hour day with our new battery / LED light set up, we found out the entire set up will run 11 hours, 15 minutes. Since we have a spot at this show under a huge maple tree we were in shade, but that also meant it was dark when the battery ran out of juice at 8:15. That pretty much ended our Friday sales, no one could see what we were selling.

Saturday sales started a little slower but were relatively consistent throughout the morning / early afternoon. Things died at about 4 when the heat was feeling more intense with no breeze and a little more humidity on Saturday. I don’t think we had any sales after 4 PM, but overall we were very happy with our sales. End of show checkout for commission payment was pretty well organized, long line when my husband arrived, but moved fairly quickly.

Enjoyed a Sunday off with a bike ride along the river, a visit to a winery and then set up our trailer at our campground along the Snake River until it’s time to leave for next weekend’s show in Coeur d’Alene ID.

This is the poster for the Copper Festival in Santa Clara del Cobre, near Lake Patzcuaro, Michoacan. 

Hello all!

I have a couple of questions... I am new to the art show world. I had a small store front studio/gallery (of sorts) up until 2 weeks ago. I converted one of our empty bedrooms in to a nice, convenient studio, which has me very motivated!

I am trying to figure out ways to promote my art and to market myself. I don't want to sound 'over bearing,' cocky, conceited and such.... Anyone have any suggestions? I would greatly appreciate hearing from you!

Thank you all!

~Crystal

I spent the first five years of my full time drawing career exhibiting at craft shows.  I didn't have a display for nicer shows and they were the first ones I found.  I still exhibit at some nearby craft shows (Step by Step Productions craft shows are worthwhile in the Chicago area... they are heavily advertised, well attended).  So I decided to give the Lill Street Craft Fair - a new artist section in conjunction with The Taste of Lincoln Ave.  Most of my images sell best in Chicago, so I'm trying to start venturing downtown more often.  The fest was PACKED with mostly 20-something alcohol swilling partiers.  Not exactly my target market.  There was no sign pointing to our short, shady street of artists and only the more sober or shade-seeking attendees wandered down our way.  Many of my greeting cards seemed to be disappearing on their own, probably during extended conversations with friendly drunks.  If they improve the signage next year, it could be well worth doing.  At $275, the price was low for a Chicago event.  Set up was easy, parking was horrendous - definitely locate the parking garage suggested by the promoters.  I'd suggest paying extra for electricity, there were lots of shoppers after dusk and only those with electricity were being visited.  Tear down was a bit of a mess.  If you waited till after 9 pm, you could drive right up to your booth, but most tired artists carted their stuff away. 

I haven't been very good about posting show reviews, but an incident prompted me to write about this one.  I would like your opinion about displaying on side walls.  At this particular event, we were snuggled up every ten feet like sardines.  I always pray that I'll have some room to display my work on the side walls of my tent.  No such luck this time.  Because of the heat, my very strange, negative jewelry neighbor took her entire tent down.  "Finally," I thought, "some room to hang on the side."  Crabby jewelry neighbor had first taped her signage to my vinyl side wall.  When I took that down, she taped her sign to my mesh display wall.  I told her I was going to hang a picture and that she should move her sign (that she taped to my tent without asking).  She immediately became bristly and said that people would think that the work was hers and it would cause problems for her.  Granted the attendees were imbibing, but would they really be clueless enough to think a jeweler would have a random pencil drawing hanging on the next person's tent?  She was quite nasty about it.  If she had been kind in the slightest, as I had been to her the whole time, I might have skipped hanging it.  But I did anyway and she carefully crafted a sign with bold letters disowning the picture with arrows pointing to it stating, "This is NOT my work, don't ask me about it."  So... is it rude to hang work on your own tent when it faces the display area of your neighbor?  And a lesson... be kind to your artist neighbors.  We're all fighting for crumbs.  I bought work from the WONDERFUL jeweler on the other side of me and bartered with the sweet pottery artists on the other side of Ms Crabby Pants (who were making sympathetic faces at me about said crabster.)  Three surrounding artists were all taken aback by the negativity and nastiness of this jeweler.  Customers all asked me about the sign, and sober and drunk patrons alike asked, "What's with her?"  But regardless of the mood or the personality of my neighbor, was it wrong of my to hang work on my own tent on the outside walls?

After describing my experience with Central PA last week I've gotten some very good input from others on this site and one of the most frequent suggestions was to seek the advice/opinion of others who have done a particular show or may know far more about the show than I.  So, I'm about to test this strange, new theory!

First, my work is with wood and some have referred to it as art but I have a problem with that description and think it would more accurately fall under the category of fine-crafts.  When I do the Bayou Festival in Houston they put me in Functional Art.  I have price points from $38.00 to $200.00 so, there is something there for the person who doesn't want to spend much money and something for the person who doesn't mind shelling out $200 for a wooden container.

I have been accepted into two upcoming shows that are large shows, highly rated and both lean toward the craft side.  One is The Festival of the Little Hills in St. Charles, MO in August and the other is the Frankfort Fall Festival in Frankfort, IL in Sept.

After CPFA, I've become gun-shy and would cancel the above if I thought there was a likelihood of having another one of those.

So, any suggestions, opinions, comments, etc. would be most appreciated.  Finally, there is a third show that I considered applying to and realize I quite possibly wouldn't have a chance of getting into. However, from all I can gather it's an outstanding show.  That, coupled with the challenge of just finding out whether or not I could get in and the fact that I love the State of Virginia causes me to be highly tempted to apply.  It's the Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival in Reston in May.  Of course I could answer the question of whether or not I could get in and all it would cost is the app. fee.  But, if I were accepted, it would be difficult to resist going.

Connie, does this sort of thinking fall within the bounds of your comment regarding simply having the urge to hit the road again? Visit Virginia again etc.?

Thanks to anyone and everyone for any comments on the above.

I'm all set up for this weekend's show at the Chase Center in Wilmington, DE.  I'm space #132 in the lobby and will be demonstrating bead weaving and bead embroidery throughout the weekend.  Stop on out to say Hi if you're in the area.  It's all inside and very coooooool!

Megan

Do you live in Las Vegas?  Here is an opportunity you may not want to pass up.  This could be a "once in a lifetime" opportunity for you if you live in Las Vegas.   Your work could be on display in the Luxor!  Check out the project description below:

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

There are 3 alcoves in Luxor Hotel and Casino that serve as a place to present temporary public art works by Las Vegas artists. The alcoves are located in the main front desk area, which services needs such as check-in, guest relations and bell services. This area is where both thousands of international and domestic guests first encounter the hotel. The Luxor Front desk alcove paintings will be a unique exposé of artwork that embodies the commitment to local arts. Luxor believes there is a great opportunity to create extraordinary art for this space to be appreciated by guests from around the world and valued by the community.

Does this sound like something you might be interested in?  The deadline to apply is September 1, 2011.  You will find all the information you need at the link below:

http://luxor.com/call_for_artists/

The Luxor will be hiring an artist or an artist team to provide temporary artwork for three display areas in the Hotel and Casino.  That artist might as well be you!

 This was the second year for the Blue Water Festival, and my second year. The previous year it was on Quay Street, a smaller and narrower street. It was a great move to move on to Huron Street. Much more Space and it seemed to draw more people who where interested in Art. The Crowd was looking at the Art, which the previous year not so much. It seemed to be more people about than the previous year even though it did get really sparse on Saturday afternoon when the boats had all left.  Connie you are doing a great job of building this event and I know that a lot of the time you get more complaints than Thank You's.  So here is a Thank You and Keep Building this event, its a hard one but I know you can do it. Port Huron has really been hit hard by the economy ( a lot of closed stores on main street) but we have to start somewhere to rebuild.

Thanks Again. Good Luck. and See ya Down the Road.

Lanora Hartway

Lanora Hartway Photography  

Off to Ann Arbor last week in the 100 degree heat, but we're tough, aren't we? We know how to dress and be prepared for all kinds of weather. I visited all of Main Street and Liberty up to State after arriving at 5 pm. Met friends for dinner, got lots of cold water bottles handed to me (many thanks to Nels Johnson, my first rescuer), met many of the members here (hello to Ray Mosteller), passed out Red Dots, gathered "yesses" from artists doing Arts, Beats & Eats on our promotion program.

Jody Depew McLeane with her pastel drawings in the Street Art Fair

Next year I'll bring a little camcorder and do some videos. The show closed and I was still going strong so went out to the Old Town Bar with old friends Jim Reinert, Mike and Karen Baum, Don and Dawn Shurlow and Jerry Davis.

Up early on Thursday and at the show before opening. Passed out postcards for ABE to Nancy Strailey (thanks to Mike Strailey for the cappucino), Jean-Claude Louis, Mary Cody and Xavier Nuez. Did lots of visiting on North University, all around Ingalls Mall in the Street Fair (a pleasure to meet you Michael Wommack) and visit with Patricia McCleery. Then down State Street to see Jim Parker, Jon Hecker, Bonnie Blandford and many others, members on this site. 

So many great visits with old friends including Larry Oliverson, Jim and Kathy Eaton, David Bigelow, Scott Coleman (who we met at our very first art fair in 1978!). Said a very tearful goodbye to Rick Preston and Barbara Bate. Rick is a fine photographer leaving the business after 40 years. They will really be missed in their swing through the Midwest every year. Best wishes to you both.

A friend, who will remain nameless, said that the sales were "pokey." The rules were being enforced in the Street Fair. Mo Riley, Street Art Fair Director, removed a person with reproductions, no repros allowed in that show.

I encountered Mo last Thursday as she was trying to get a bottle of water from the non-profit booth run by the Boy Scouts in her area of the show. They turned her down, having to idea who she was. We had a good laugh over this. It's pretty funny when the show director can't get a bottle of water in her own art fair.

Vintage photo: Ann Arbor on Main Street - 2005

Want some extensive reviews with art fair patrons and artists?This is an excellent link for some videos. Also, listen to an interview Mo Riley. http://americajr.com/entertainment/artfairs/2011/annarborreview0727.html

Ready for a good laugh? I found this online "Art Fair Rage Syndrome." Hey, a  new diagnosis?

http://markmaynard.com/?p=14782

This is a huge event. People love it and they hate it. Artists make big piles of money and they make none. It is crowded and it is sparse. It is overrated and it is underrated (well, not too sure about that one). My take is that it really is too large. All those booths sprawling around the State Street area are really dead zones for artists.  State Street Merchants I beg of you to go back to your original plan: Liberty, North U., Maynard and around the corner on William. Those additional booths on Maynard past William and the booths south of Maynard, plus the Thompson booths are really not fair selling spaces.  I know it will really hurt your pocketbook but it may be the salvation of the whole event.

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October 14-16
Suburban Collection Showplace
Novi, Michigan
200 artists
Deadline: August 2

www.GreatLakesArtFair.com/artistapply.html

We use for our online applications.

Visit the website for more info: www.greatlakesartfair.com

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Come on Barry, Marquette is not that big.  How long are you gonna stroll around the place?  Without bumping into Rona and Patrick.

You said you were going to write a blog about Ann Arbor.  I can't hold my breath much longer.

Getting "lessly breathful."  Pony up, pardna.

Tho I have stepped back from the grind this year, I did want to do at least one show and was fortunate to have been asked to do my favorite (for the scene,vibe, the the money is OK) at Crested Butte.The last few years I have done a blog or two (Inspired in no small way by Nels and the like) to give a real view of the show, it's people, and the experience.

They liked what I did, and asked me to do a photojournalistic thing this year.And they gave me a minion to help, so it's gonna be fun to work the show from both sides of the tent.

We have all been asked questions, interviewed by the local TV, independent film makers, art students and the guy in the flowered shirt, shorts, black socks, flip up shades and the camera around his neck ( Nels incognito?). We know what not to ask (is this Photoshopped? Is this your work? What is your inspiration? Is this Photoshopped? Is this digital?Yadda, Yadda).

So help me out a bit.I need ice breakers and don't want to come off like my friend with the flip up shades.

What questions hit home with you? As a photograher I am purely, instantly emotionally wired in to what I do, as well as how I see others work. No cerebral art school interpretations to make the professor happy. I would love to her a heartfelt story, or simply directions there. If you are at Crested, a chance for immortality!