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**A Month Full of Art Fairs
News from photographer Evan Reinheimer -- After so many cancelations over the past year, it's exciting to see that I have a full month of art festivals planned for February!

It all starts this weekend (Feb. 6 & 7) in Fort Myers, FL at Art Fest Ft. Myers. The festival is open 9am-5pm on Saturday and then again on Sunday from 9am-4pm. It takes place in downtown Ft. Myers, right along the river. You can find me and my artwork in booth 329, near the Look Out Pier on Hendry St. The GPS address for the festival is 1375 Monroe Street; Fort Myers, FL. 

Learn more: EvanReinheimer.docx

**Clyde Butcher. Do any art fair artists ever "make it big?" Well yes, Virginia, quite a few do. It doesn't happen over night, but because entrepreneurial and creative people are drawn to the art fair opportunity, many of them keep scrambling and trying new things to see what works. 

One of them is Clyde Butcher. We first met Clyde in the early 80's. We did shows together for years and visited one another between shows. He'd recently moved from California to Florida and was trying to turn his photography into a way to support his family. He would show up with color photos, black and white photos, kept trying to see what would click with the buyers.

His love was landscape photography and he fell in love with the Everglades. His lucky break was being able to buy a piece of land deep in the Everglades, rarely available, where he and his wife Niki (also a photographer) built The Big Cypress Gallery. The rest is history ... gallery exhibitions, collectors, honors and awards.

More: https://www.aarp.org/work/working-at-50-plus/info-2020/

**GULFPORT, FL — First Friday Art Walk returns to downtown Gulfport this Friday, Feb. 5 with nearly 20 of the region's most innovative emerging and professional artists showing and selling their creations along the stores, restaurants and galleries on scenic Beach Boulevard. The event runs from 5 to 9 p.m. and is hosted by the Gulfport Merchants Chamber.

**From Sunday Minnich at the Morgan Hill Mushroom Mardi Gras in Morgan Hill, CA:

With the uncertainty of holding large events due and evolving developments with COVID-19, and taking into consideration the scope of work, size, attendance and the upfront costs of the Festival, it is with a heavy heart that the Board of Directors of the Morgan Hill Mushroom Mardi Gras, Inc. have made the decision to cancel the 2021 festival and are optimistically planning it’s return May 28-29, 2022. www.mhmmg.org

**Real vs Virtual Art Sales, how's it going? How buying art went digital and why it won't go back

Mike Steib, CEO of Artsy says, "I think two things have happened during the pandemic. The first is that more people have become interested in bringing art into their lives, and second, Artsy has made it possible for those people to come into the art world, to discover what they would love to buy.

"The percentage of revenue that galleries are generating online has tripled in the last six months," Steib said. "I've never seen an industry go back once it's becoming digitized. This [was] the year that the art world [became] digital." 

Interested in what he has observed? https://businessinsider.com/MikeSteib

Do you have any news you'd like to share? Send it to us: info@artfaircalendar.com

NEEDS ASAP..WILL TRAVEL TO GET THEM IN FLORIDA (depends on mileage but Im in Ft Lauderdale and will be at Bonita in 1 1/2 weeks)

This was a new Howard Alan Show in downtown Naples.

Usually, I stay away from new events, but, I trust Howard to advertise and bring in the monied, and he did.

We got to set up after 6pm on Friday which beats doing it early in the morn like at 4AM.

The Show was one block off Highway 41 and just a short block off from South 5th Avenue where all the restaurants and retail are located.

It had great visibility, cars driving 41 could see the two rows of tents parallel to it. The show then made a turn north along 10th street for at least three blocks.

There were a little more then 130 exhibitors, many were longtime vets like me and they had savvy, affordable art to sell, and they did.

Howard arranged for plentiful parking for both exhibitors and patrons just off 41.

Also, he did the smart thing, Bonita take notice, and had 6 foot spacing between all booths. Most of us had ample storage behind booths.

Also, all of us were masked and armed with sanitizer. Thankfully, nearly 99 % of the patrons were masked.

Ok, let’s talk Naples demographics.

I have done shows in Naples for over 40 years while watching the town prosper and grow.

Lots of money here.  Everybody drives high end autos.  Most patrons are dressed in very expensive, hip outfits.  This is not a Walmart crowd.

That said, Naples is not the Horn of Plenty for all exhibitors.

The patrons are largely from the Midwest with an also growing Hispanic population.

They tend to be older and conservative in their art tastes. So my neighbor had paintings geared to younger people. She died, barely made expenses. My other neighbor had fanciful, painted sstarfish in cute settings.  He killed them.

Thankfully for me, my new handcolored work flew off the walls.

I had one of my best shows in Naples for the last 10 years.

Abstract painters do well here with large pieces, bigger then 48 inches across.

Of course painters who do the B’s always kill here.(that stands for birds and beaches).

Crafters with traditional work will sell here.

They love big statement sculpture pieces that they can stage in entryways and lawns.

Blown glass is tricky, not too adventuresome is better.

Jewelers always kill here, cause Girls love shiny.

Howard came by my show later Saturday afternoon and admitted he was initially sweating bullets.  Crowds were not storming the barricades.  But momentum slowly built. He was a happy man.

I mostly sold framed photographs and high end out of the bin.  I only sold one 8x10 matted photo.

Sunday started off warmer and slower than Saturday, but the sales still happened.

Both days we had steady crowds ambling along.  Most stopped in to see the art.  They were not just walking there dogs.

At teardown, I was in and out hour and half after show ended.

Elaine, the show director does a fab job. She is tough on those who do not follow the rules, but she is fair, she does not play favorites.

I would do this show again in a heartbeat.

Two weekends away I will be in the Fort Myers Artfest, hopefully  as successful as this.

Here is a mini Tequila Report.

For the uninitiated, this is where I talk about bars and restaurants at the show, one of my favorite topics.

One disappointment about the Naples scene.

People seem to be oblivious about the dangers of Covid.

I stayed at the Red Roof Inn close to the show.

A few blocks away is the Bonefish Grille which I love.  They always have yummy seafood. Fresh!

Trouble is they are all sitting shoulder to shoulder, no spacing.  Also no spacing between booths or tables.  Very troubling.Most did not mask as they came in.

Luckily, I found a place at the end of the bar.  There was a big column that separated the rest of the bar.  There where Two chairs. I put my backpack one one and sat on the other, I had my spacing.  Also some yummy strawberry grouper. This was Friday nite.  On Saturday I went back there later, after 7pm, the bar was empty.  Got my corner and enjoyed more yummy seafood.

When I went in on Sunday I had the place to myself, got there just in time to see Tom Brady drive a wooden stake into the hear of the Packers,The meal was awesome.

BTW. Covidwise, I sanitized my hands after handling any credit cards, I kept my distance,masked, when talking to patrons.  It worked well.  We can do shows safely, and make money.

From my mailbox:

The 62nd Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival

New Dates:

Virtual Festival: March 15- March 31, 2021

Live Festival: May 14, 15, 16, 2021

     Hi Connie,

      In hopes of being at a better place with the COVID-19
     virus, we have moved our live festival out a few months, it will be held May 14-16,
     2021. We are still having a virtual festival in March, it will run from March 15-31.

     The accepted artists will be part of the virtual festival along with our schools exhibit,
     creative children’s activities with area Museums, on-line and more. We will be using
     the Eventeny platform. Can you update this in your calendar of events, especially
     the live event dates.

     Thank you,
     Alice

Here is the Press Release with all the details: WPSAF2021PressRelease.docx

Here is an art festival working hard to bring in the buyers to their festival and enabling them to shop online, ArtFest Fort Myers. Double the work, double the money? Here's hoping! Here is their recent email to their fans:

     Sharon McAllister
Learn more: https://artfestfortmyers.com

Larry Berman's Zoom Meeting

Monday January 25th at 2 PM Eastern Time

Join the Zoom Meeting

https://zoom.us/j/4338895789?pwd=NXFRME9JRFdMK3VDUEJhdHJ5T2daQT09

Meeting ID: 433 889 5789

Passcode: art-show

Any art show (or selling art) related topics can be discussed.

Check http://bermangraphics.com/zoom/ for audio files from previous meetings.
You can check the page within 24 hours after the meeting ends.

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

I've had a few people use this site to send me spam like, "I have important details to share with you." Please don't. Chances are I'm not interested and it just clogs up my email. Also, if your grammar is incorrect, I can tell it's a spammer. Don't waste my time or yours. Thank you.

Well, it has been a while.

Now I have a show report, and it is all positive.

This year marks my 46th year in the business. And it has all been good.

I approached going to the show with lots of apprehension.

Did not want to come down with Covid and come home and give it to my wife.

I was worried how many people show up to buy, would they be masked, would they be eager to buy.

Between booth fee, hotels, gas and food I had about a $1000 nut to break even.

A good friend of mine had done the downtown Naples show the weekend before and he barely made any profit. Not reassuring news to hear.

On the other hand I was eager to find out how my new body of work would sell.  I had the confidence that it would sell, but until it is in your bank account, it is just speculation.

During the Covid summer of 2020, I worked everyday making new handcolored black and white photos.

I ended up in October with 120 new images. And I felt that some of them would be strong sellers.

Also, in December, I crossed over to the Dark Side.  I had my first images printed on metal by Bayphoto out of San Francisco.  I did two at 20”x30”, and two at 30”x40”. All told, this was a $1000 gamble.

Two weeks ago, I set my booth up for the first time in nine months.  Took me over two hours and I was exhausted.

With the new metal work, I had to reconfigure my walls to accommodate the bigger sizes.

Glad I did it.

So last Friday I took off for Bonita Springs, which is just north of Naples.

Made it in four hours, traffic was way lighter on I-75 then in the past.

I masked up and checked in at 1pm.

Had my usual site with van able to be parked behind during the show, a big plus.

The only disappointment I experienced at the show was how they marked our booths.

They left no real room between booths, we were packed in tight side to side.

Naples had 10 foot spacing between booths. Bonita did not.

I had it all set up under four hours, I was exhausted but very happy.

I brought food along and ate dinner in my hotel room that night.  

Boring, but safe.

Show opened with clear blue skies and cold winds.

We started off in 58 degree weather but it nudged up to a high of 64 that day.

That was good. Kept them off the water and golf courses.

People came in promptly at 10am, and they were all masked.

I made my fist sale in nine months fifteen minutes later, for $300.

After that, it was off to the races.

The crowds were steady, and they were buying.

These people have disposable income. They were looking for statement pieces.

And, not a one tried to get me down on my price.

I had finally raised my prices on all sizes, for the first time in five years.  Nobody objected.

Gee, why did I not do this five years ago!

People cane along steadily for most of the day.This Show always slows down around 3pm.

I made four high end sales including one of my 20”x30” metal images.

It was a strong first day.

My neighbors had steady sales and looked happy.

I went out to dinner that night at a great seafood restaurant.  I sat at the bar and nobody was there besides me.  Tables were spaced safely and the place was barely half full.

Sunday morning ended up being chillier by ten degrees, had to layer up.

I walked the show early and questioned artists I know about how they did.

Most were happy just to be at an art show.  Most were happy with sales.

Sunday crowd was smaller and not so apt to buy. This happens a lot at this show.

It is two different crowds.

I ended up having my best show there in the last 15 years.  I made more money then all the unemployment money I got for the last nine months.

It was nice to see all the new work sell.

I stayed over Sunday night and got home safely Monday morn.

On Tuesday I went and got tested for Covid.  Results were negative.  I felt great.

Two weeks from now I will be in the Howard Alan Naples Show.

Hopefully it will be a success.  Will keep you posted.

BTW, I sanitized my hands after each customer that I dealt with.

And I stayed masked at the show.

Mark Loeb of Integrity Events in Detroit runs multiple events in that area and has also been involved in the art fair business for many years. Since Covid he has had to cancel all of his events, but he keeps trying other ways to provide income to artists and engage buyers. Late summer and fall he tried hosting small invitational events in hotel suites in the area, also a holiday event at a popular event site at the fairgrounds nearby and for the holidays he hosted what he called a "live online" event. Here is his analysis of that event:

Dec. 9, 2020
We just completed our first fair on Eventeny. Actually it is ongoing throughout the month since there are no extra charges to leaving the site active.  It was put together with only two weeks of preparation after my last event of the year was cancelled.  The show included our general mix of fine arts, with a few more crafty items to reflect the season.

Eventeny was great to work with.  They were very responsive to me but less so to the artists with questions.  Some artists reported waiting 24 hours for responses.

We had about 12,000 unique visitors, but the average visitor shopped fewer than 3 pages.  To me that indicated that the page was not enticing the way I had it laid out.  You can view the page at MiArtFair.com - however be aware that I have made some changes since the "live" fair is over.

The video feed at the top featured short demonstrations and interviews with artists.  I have changed it to a rapidly repeating view of artists work from the show which I feel will be better for engagement.

Some Site Features-

The top of the site can be static- with one large and four small photos, or a video feed and four small photos.  We felt that the sire was not completely intuitive so we used some of out small photo spots for informational slides- How to find things, how to pay.

The schedule is the next optional feature.  We scheduled some demonstrations and Santa visits.  During the six days the schedule was only used fewer than twenty times.  Perhaps if we had more dynamic content?  For the ongoing site we have removed the schedule.

The next section is the Features section. We started off with listing all of the event features and the slowly removed them to the point where none remain.  One insight- if you have an odd number of features the first one is two columns wide.  Otherwise all are one column.  This gives the first feature extra prominence.

Booths are listed in three columns and separated by medium or application type.  It may be possible to get other divisions.  Note- when editing the application- the added questions feature is the only one on the site that requires saving after each new entry.  I found this out when the added questions were completely missing on one app.  We have one application for those that needed jurying and a different one (hidden unless artists had the URL) for invited artists. Medium separation works even if on multiple applications. Glass artists were together regardless of application.

You can create additional booths to host additional features, though only one booth per user id.  We had two- one for Santa and related items and one for DIY Craft projects.

 

I started with the assumption that this was not an online version of a live show.  I needed to capture as many live advantages as I could while also including features that are not practical at a live show. 

• We marketed this event as a "live online" event.  (Personally I don't like the term virtual)

• Everyday we did a 30 minute Facebook Live broadcast featuring three or four artists plus food items, musicians and a craft project.   Attendance to this was low.  We prerecorded it live for broadcast to allow for repeats at other times.  (This was done using Streamyard and iMovie).

• We put up two hours of artists interviews and demonstrations for people to watch if they would like.  this changed daily to cover all artists.   We started out with this in the "schedule" but then migrated to the top of the page.  Why did I move it?  First, if you are listening to anything on the site it continues to play sound, so it's easy to have two or three sound tracks going. Secondly, even with instructions at the top of the page and in the "features" people were not figuring it out.  Third, when you click a link in Eventeny you open a new page.  The way to return to your original page is by closing the new one.  Many people reported trouble figuring out how to get back to the previous page.

We did online interviews with more than half of the artists that were then included on these pages.  Interviews were done with StreamYard and the edited in iMovie.   Artists appreciated the effort though I cannot tell how much effect it had.

• We had Santa live by zoom for two hours a day.  He and Mrs. Claus also recorded stories that could be played at anytime.  Very few visitors.  The stories were hosted in our Santa shop which also had the opportunity to get a letter from Santa and invited people to Email Santa@IntegrityShows.com. 

• We had a DIY shop with four free activities.  Each included a YouTube video and a supply list.

• Each day a Santa Bear hid in a different artists shop.  Patrons were invited to find the bear and report his location to Santa@Integrityshows.com.  Each day there was a drawing and one patron won the bear.  Not much response to this.

Some quirks-

• I forwarded my MiArtShow.com site to the Eventeny page.  Next time I would do this differently for two reasons. First, if people go to my page and then click on to Eventeny I get an even better accounting of who attended.  Secondly, some patrons received the dreaded "unsafe" message that browsers give when you go to a site that does not appear secure.  My site, URL and Eventeny are all secure but that did not always translate.   (My domain is through GoDaddy, site through Wix.)   I spoke with all of the parties and no one was able to completely solve the issue.  We still had some folks being discouraged through the entire event.

• As some others have said, the shipping fees are inadequate.  One artist with a large 35 pound sculpture trusted the system to set her shipping and ended up getting $8 to send it across the state.  Not even enough for her packaging.  I have addresses this with Eventeny as have others, but they remain confident that the site estimates are accurate.

• Many artists were initially unable to figure out how to place items in their shop and / or how to set up zoom calls.  I prepared a quick email template to explain it to them.  Connecting to Stripe for payouts was also confusing and the system will not let a shop sell anything until Stripe is properly connected.  Artists were initially unhappy with having to use Stripe but compliant.

• In the booth search it finds words within the artists text in addition to selected keywords.  So if an artist wrote "great for hanging jewelry" their booth would appear with the jewelers in a search.  Great feature for finding every possible connection but often returns twice as many booths as desired.

Mark never stops, you know how it is: "will this work?" or "maybe this will work." At present he is working on a Valentine's Day themed event.

What have your experiences been? What have you tried and what about Mark's experiences above. Are they similar to yours?

Hi- I am writing to share with you about what I have been up to with my art business since most of my shows were canceled. I started an etsy shop for the first time and one of the reason I like it is that it is very user friendly and you do not have to put any funds out to start. Also I have a friend who makes beautiful watercolor paintings and crafts but does not like all the computer stuff so I am selling some of her stuff in my store as well. Now instead of sitting in the back of her closet it is listed and people have bought several of her items.

My first sale was a $500.00 painting but by the time the fees, taxes, etc... I made about 400.00. So you really need to consider that with your pricing, plus I like to run specials and send coupons to help customers and hopefully they will become regular clients. I still have a lot to learn and I also would not depend solely on one way to present and sell your art- I plan to do shows when they start again and try to connect with others who like art and make art. Community and personalization are very important especially now with so many people having to social distance.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about my shop- but I am in no way an expert on etsy. My training is more focused on creating fine art, designs and crafts. My shop is www.etsy.com/shop/FineArtsforU. I would love to get your feed back. Thank you.

Happy holidays:

I am artist, doing search to find best web site builders, looking like Weebly. Wix, can any one please advise, which will be good website. Thank you. You can also email

sayeedsyed24@gmail.com 

Is anyone out there interested in Mat cutting? I have the complete mat cutter flat files and circle cutter.

Call 260-214-4212