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We had a beautiful but HOT weekend for the Barrington show on 5/29-5/30. It was the first year for this show and the community seemed to be very invested and supportive. Amy Amdur puts on a first class show and I was very impressed with the turn out. The crowd was steady and the location was good. My setup flight was at 8:00 pm on Friday night and it was the first time I tried to set up in the dark. Street lights didn't provide much help.

For me and many other artists I talked to, it was a great show. I had several commissions and sold lots of prints. Sunday was the better day for me and several of my neighbors, despite the fact that it was the hotter day. I would definitely do this show next year and I'm looking forward to the other Amdur shows I'll be doing this summer.

I've participated in the Sturgeon Bay Fine Art Festival for the past four years and I certainly hope to be accepted again next year. My medium is photography. Show hours for both Saturday and Sunday are 10am to 4pm. There were 96 artists evenly distributed among the mediums. Application and artwork samples are submitted by mail. There is no jury fee and the show fee is $125. Sturgeon Bay is the "entrance" to Wisconsin's Door County - an area of the Wisconsin "thumb" that is jammed packed with vacationers from all over.

The layout - Located on the water in lovely Sunset Park, booths are laid out for a comfortable patron flow. Each artist has 3 to 5 ft of space on both sides of the booth. Sure is great having this space not only for storage, but it nicely allows walk around room for those wishing to hang artwork on the outside walls.

The weather - Could not have been more perfect! Clear blue skies, max 5mph winds and low humidity. I recall in past years having to tie my tent to the van the winds off the lake were so strong and cold. Not this year!

The crowd - Likely due to the weather, attendance was quite a bit lower than the last three years. I don't have the statistics yet, but in my opinion attendance was about half what I've experienced in the past. This show typically has not only local Door County residents, but in the past (and this year as well), 50% of my sales come from Illinois residents, most with second homes in "the Door" or those that arrive on their sailboats.

The $$$$ - I was a tad worried on Saturday. My sales were way down from previous years. However, three other artists that have attended those prior years with me were doing great. Barb, a fantastic jeweler, always has a booth across from me and she did on Saturday what she did all weekend last year. She has a great following and I was beginning to wonder where "my people" were. Sunday cleared that up for me. Barb's Sunday was not so great but mine ended up quite well and my total weekend sales were a couple hundred higher than last year. Pretty good considering the lower attendance. This vacation area on the Great Lakes however is certainly my market - I should always do well here as most patrons either live on or close to the water, are sailors/boaters and make their living in a town that has one of the largest ship building facilities in the world. My peeps!

The Other Side - While the four of us artists who have done this event for many years seemed to have a successful show, I spoke with four or five that had dismal results. For three, it was their first time at this event and they mentioned they would not return. I wish the attendance would have been higher as their artwork is stunning and they should have had better sales. As several of us have had many repeat customers over the years, perhaps this is one of those small vacation town events that seems to have a distinct following. Looking at my sales four years ago, they were not that great in comparison.

The Organization - I have always appreciated the hard work Kristi and her team of volunteers put into this event. Each artist is given a "goodie" bag upon arrival with area literature, water, chapstick, a muffin, dried cherries and other fun stuff. For some reason (slow sales for some) Kristi had to deal with alot of artists complaining about other artists this year. Grumblers snitching on other artists, accusing each other of buy/sell, narking on "original/non original..... I was amazed at the outright pettiness of some artists and I certainly would have not expected that at this little event. While Kristi had to address each issue brought up by each artist, it couldn't have been easy. One of the features many of us have looked forward to over the years are the roving musicans and one clown she has walking throughout the booth. One musician plays the violin, one plays a "squeezebox" (one of those hand accordians) and the clown sometimes acts as a babysitter by involving the kids with various things while the parents get a chance to enter the booths. They are absolutely wonderful and quite appropriate for this venue. Geez.... one artist approached Kristi right in front of my booth and demanded that the violin player stopped. Talk about bitchy artists!

The cheerful volunteers were plentiful and checked in frequently to offer breaks if needed.

Food - Each morning coffee and donuts are available for the artists. A special artist reception is always offered after closing from 4pm to 6pm on Saturday. A nice selection of cheese/sausage/fruits and other yummies along with various beverages and wine are always offered under a tent as the artists mingle and awards are handed out. The food court and the kettle korn guy are across the tennis courts from the artists (thank God). Several local organizations run the food court area (Jaycees etc) and they have run of the mill burgers/dogs/brats as well as salads, beverages and potato curls - I always tend to bring my own food.

Art Raffle - an art raffle tent is in the center of the booths and for the first time I checked it out at the end of the day on Sunday. Got a kick out of the many who came back to see if they "won" their coveted artwork. Plenty of cheers and groans from all.

This is not a huge event by any means. However, in my opinion it is top quality art and the organizers pay attention to the details to provide a pleasant experience for all. I'll post my YouTube Video in the next couple of days or so.

40 Question Blog Series – Question 21 What can I do to relate to mycustomers better?

Everyone buys something for different reasons. Whether it is a car, a cellphone or even art, everyone is not the same. Recognize this becauseall of your customers are not the same. You know your work insideand out, but do you know your customers? Can you relate to them? Ifyou are a “middle class” artist, can you relate to an audiencethat is upper class with your art? Here's some tips on how to get inthe head of your customers...

Question 21 What can I do to relate to my customers better?

To understand your customers you have to know who they are. Generallyeveryone has a typical customer/marketing audience for their art orcraft. The key is to learn what their beliefs are, their passions,favorite shows and books, and so on. While most folks may questionthe logic of learning a customers favorite t.v. show, this info canhelp in breaking the ice when it comes to selling to customers.Here's some examples.

1. Finding a common ground can help ease both parties when talking about yourart. It isn't enough to just have your work on a wall or shelf at ashow, you have to sell it and each person responds differently towhy they buy. Tell interested customers whether a particular pieceis inspired by a piece of artwork on a popular t.v. show or the bowlis just like one that Paula Dean uses on The Food Network. Theseexamples allow customers to personally identify with a piece,which will make them more likely to buy it. Those from a higherincome bracket might want to know if your work was featured in arecent art exhibit or if it a popular seller at a local gallery.Knowing where these people shop, watch on t.v. and so on are allways to get customers to relate to your work and help them becomeattached to your art.

2. People with different economic backgrounds display art in different waysand this can affect how your work sells. Those with money often buylarger format work because, with having bigger homes, their wallsare bigger and are less interested in small 11x14 photographs, butgravitate towards large format work. At the same time those withsome spending money, but live in apartments or smaller homes,gravitate towards smaller pieces, this is why having a largeselection of art work sizes (for example) opens yourself up to alarger buying audience.

3. Don't be too specific with your work. While the economy prevents peopleto spend money easily, the more specific a buying audience you havethe more likely you will not have great sales. My personal storywith this deals with my new line of candles. Granted everyone sellscandles these days it seems, the key is to offer something others donot offer yet anyone would be interested in. I developed a line ofpalm wax candles called Destination Scentsations which ties intravel and scents to those who love candles. I can't think ofanyone who doesn't freely talk about their recent vacations andmix that with those obsessed with making things smell nice became myinspiration with my new line. Combining the two opens my product tonot only people who have money to travel but teens who dream oflounging on a tropical beach to those planning a destination weddingand so on. Doing this opens the door to people who wouldn'tnormally buy candles, yet love to travel and at the same time givecandle lovers an even better reason to buy my candles over others.

Look at your work and ask yourself what else can I do to make my work moreappealing to others. Get to know your audience because if you can'trelate to them, how do you expect to sell to them. The more youappear genuine and honest to your customers, the more they will buyfrom you – economic recession or not. Next question will covernaming your business – soo many people are doing it wrong, learnhow to do it right!!! - Michelle Sholund,www.bythebaybotanicals.comand www.quickcraftartisttips.blogspot.com

I paint pictures.....acrylic....portraits, sports art and scenery and everything in between. I sell prints of my orginals.

I was very disappointed in the low attendance at this show on May 29 and 30, 2010.

And it was the consensus of several artist who have attended this show before that attendance was down.

Now there were 100 booth of great artists.....but this made no difference..at times the place was quite empty.....even on 1:30 on Saturday.

Weather was hot for Sturgeon Bay.....but dont think this is a good excuse.

The food was quite poor. Poor quality hamburgers.....nice entertainment for the kids.

The promoter was quite upset that I did not bring any originals, just prints.....she said it was stated in the rules that there a painter needs to bring some originals. Some? I again checked the rules and there was no reference to the requirement to bring originals. The only thing the application says is: "Reproductions: Only original work and signed and numbered prints may be exhibited."

( Gee if I was a photographer it would be so easy.....and I would not get hasseled ....lol)

Will not do this show again.

We traveled to Purdue country, the home of the Boilermakers and the setting for the Round The Fountain Art Fair. It was the 37th year for this 1 day event and my second year participating.

The event is held in the center of Lafayette around a grand old courthouse (pictured here). Most of the artist's booths (75%) line the sidewalks that circle the perimeter of the courthouse and the remaining artists setup on the courtyard inside perimeter walls (yes, there is a fountain on one of the corners of the courtyard...not humongous.). Setup is the Friday evening before but only after 6PM. There is little coordination; mostly artists are left to their own good manners. From a sales perspective, this setup works fairly well; there is a small enough number of artists that everyone is visited. However, as an artist it is much easier setting up on the street since you must dolly everything into the courtyard from only a few entry points (a wall circles the courtyard).

Nearly 100 artists participated and the quality of the art work was good. The selection jury did a good job screening. The show offers few amenities: no security, no booth sitters, no water, there were coupons for a free cup of coffee at a nearby cafe. Parking is limited to a garage so trucks and trailers are on their own. They did have artist awards (several) and they did produce a nice brochure that is freely distributed to patrons by a team of volunteers. The amenities are not a big deal for me, keep the focus on marketing. That said, I think Friday night security is kinda basic and not all that costly. As artists, we all hung our wares and hoped for the best. I didn't hear of any thievery.

OK, the bottom line, How was the show? This is a solid little show and sales were good though maybe a little down for some (this is based on my very scientific survey of "So how ya doing?"). The weather was hot, high 80's, and most of the crowd came out to buy in the morning. By 1PM I could hear the crowd crying "We're melting, we're melting." and sure enough they did. Those few hours in the morning were great for sales! Sales at this show were interesting for me ... I sold a few of my most expensive framed items and many, many of my smallest items. Very few sales in the middle. Sales were either high or low. As the show was finishing, I had matched the exact number of items sold and total gross dollar amount to nearly the dollar from last year. But then ...in the last 5 minutes of the show, I made a custom sale of my largest piece... whoo-hoo, a great way to end the day.

Places for improvement: If there's an area that the show needs improvement on, it's communication with artists. The phone number was removed from the web site and was not published in any information package. Everyone was required to communicate via email. This would be fine if there was a response to emails... only cyber-silence. Many artist expressed frustration about this. Here's the show number for future reference: 765-491-6298

The jurying seems to work. Five images of your work and a booth image is required. They use a homegrown system and image size is limited to 400 pixels. That's rather small for viewing details. The jury image is about as large as the image I posted above.

Overall, this is a good show and I do recommend it. The community supports it, booth fee is low, layout is good, but you just need to know that there are not a lot of amenities.

Cheers,

Bongo Java is what a coffee house should be like, Battered and Fried has the best sushi rolls, Art and Invention Gallery has the most amazing collection of artists and art and the Antique store at the end of the street has the sweetest ladies behind the desk and great unique finds… more on these fantastic places later….

It was also so refreshing and fun to be surrounding by some of the most amazingly talented artists on the planet. I have no complaints on the quality of art and artists at this show, everyone there was over the top talented, and I was glad to be in their company. I believe this fabulous group of artists was assembled primarily through word of mouth through a couple of other awesome artists trying to pull together a good show and it worked. I would like to work with this group of people every weekend.

Now the not so positives….First I would like to preface, that I, like most of us here, make my living doing this. I don’t have another day job, this is it. My busiest year was over 40+ art shows, I now average 2-3 a month, all over the country. This isn’t my first dog and pony show. In over 10 years of doing this I have only run into a few promoters or show directors who have been rude or condescending, most treat us like the professionals we are.
Not this time.

The first red flag - We and some other artists I spoke to emailed the promoter for a ‘heads up’ on the Nashville weather/ flood situation. As most of the country was aware, Nashville had experienced a natural disaster and was under water 2 weeks before the show, and we were a bit concerned about whether the show would go on, or what to expect after traveling 750 miles across country. The promoter did not respond. I figured they might be overwhelmed with the crisis and decided to network with everyone we knew in the Nashville area. With the weather looking bright and sunny we decided to chance it and headed out. The only email we received from the promoter was a rules list with a ‘map’ attached…. More about the ‘map’ later.

We cased out the location on Friday night when we arrived. A mild panic set in when we found no signage, no indication of an art show. We stopped in the Kustom Thrills Tattoo shop, and they had no idea if there was an art show in town. We wandered around for a bit and saw a couple of traffic barriers on the curb and thought that might be an indication of a show. When we got to the barriers, we saw the telltale painted numbers and booth corner marks on the asphalt and assumed we found the spot. We noticed also at this point that booths were half on and half off the curb. Doable, but a heads up would have been nice.

Constructive Criticism #1 – Communicate with your artists. Let them know what is going on with as much info as possible. Send them an email assuring them that the community is recovering from the recent natural disaster and looking forward to seeing them, accompanied by a map with booth numbers on it, and most definitely any and all information pertaining to their booth or location setup that they might want to be prepared for, i.e. half on half off the curb. You really can’t over communicate.

Setup was to begin at 8a Saturday, show opened at 11. We arrived just after 7a to setup, just to avoid the mad rush of an 8a lineup. We showed up with a fellow artist that we were traveling with. We pulled into an empty parking lot midway between the just one block long show. A couple of other artists were also there early setting up. We walked over to the promoter and her two companions and tried to introduce ourselves.
‘Do you have your map?’ we were asked. ‘No, we didn’t see the reason to print it’, we responded. We were curtly handed a map, which for the record was not much more than a rectangle on a piece of paper and told drive to the top of the hill, and she would meet us up there in a few minutes. As I began to ask her for our booth numbers as we were already parked, she just turned her back on us and walked away. With a raised eyebrow, I got back in the car and we both drove to the top of the hill and waited for her to check us in. Artist friend checked in first, with my partner standing behind her. In the most condescending tone possible, the promoter told my partner that she would be walking our artist friend to her booth and then she would be back to talk to
him. Let’s keep in mind that there are approximately 55 booths here, divided equally up and down the street. It wasn’t brain surgery. Five minutes later she returns and walks us to our booth, which was exactly where we had originally parked. We watched her do this for the next hour until the backup of artists was too much.

As we had figured out the night before, we were half on half off the curb. With a bus stop in our spot. We started to assemble our tent, an Archtop Canopy for the record. Our tent does not ‘pop up’. After four needless interruptions, assuring her we understood how to set up our booth, finally we were ready to move our assembled tent into position. But now we were thwarted by the previously mentioned bus stop. We snugged up to it as tightly as humanly possible, but we were still about a foot over the mark of where the fire department wanted everyone backed up to. The promoter came down again and told us we had to back up. I said that
was not possible, as we were as snugged up and tight to the bus stop as possible and she said, ‘oh, I thought you would go over it’. Aghast I just looked at her and said that that would not be happening. And just to assure you dear reader that this one spot with a bus stop in it was not a fluke, the spot two down from me had a telephone pole support wire going through the center of it, and a few other booths on the street also had some
anomalies. This after an earlier snarky comment from her about walking the show and marking off booths, These anomalies could not help but be noticed and avoided.

Time to grab a quick coffee, before the show starts, at the aforementioned fantastic little coffee shop at the corner of the show, Bongo Java. Standing in line we started chatting with a few people around us, as they all wanted to know what was going on. We told them that there was an art show on the street with artists from all over the country here to display and sell their work. Again no one in there knew anything about an art show.

Ok – setup complete! Open the gates we’re ready to go!

Each and every person that walked into our tent that morning was a local that accidentally stumbled upon us and hadn’t had any information about what was going on. One of the other artists that participated in the show that was a local did mention that they had seen a write up about it in a local independent paper. But not one person we talked to during the first day had shown up to this show as a destination. They hadn’t heard a word of it and all lived in the neighborhood. Needing a break, and their being only one porta potty working (and I don’t think that was really part of the show, could be wrong though) I went across to the gallery next to me, Art and Invention Gallery. A wonderful gallery full of awesome original art work. Chatted up the gallery owners, who coincidentally are on the local arts council, who informed us that only two days before had the promoter stopped by to let them know what was going on and give them a poster. Up the street to the antique store, same story. Most of the merchants in the area we spoke to were vocal about being annoyed at an outsider coming in and not communicating with them or involving them. Their words.

Constructive Criticism #2: Promote your show please. Involve the community, make them feel a part of it, get buy in. A poster delivered 2 days before the show is not promotion. Let’s see a banner please. This is particularly important if you are expecting them to provide the bathrooms, food and refreshments. Also if you are not going to provide trash cans, and expect the patrons and artists to dispose of their garbage in the local merchant’s trash receptacles, you should tell the merchants that. They were not happy.

Saturday we spent the day telling all our customers to go home and tell their friends, hoping for a busier Sunday. Sales based on the fact finding we had done should probably be considered fabulous, but we were definitely disappointed. Sunday’s traffic was a bit better, and we did hear that there were people that were there as a destination spot because their friends had called them the day before. Sunday’s weather was sunny but HOT HOT HOT. Our glass atrium phone booth wing didn’t help matters, allowing for almost no ventilation.

Ok time for the wrap up I guess…

Fabulous location, great artist participation, arrogant show director who didn’t communicate with the community or the artists, sales were barely adequate. I have seen a few blogs and FB posts from artists who said they had a good show. When I read them, I hear the excitement for the East Nashville locale,
and I concur. I think East Nashville is a fantastic place for an art show, and would love to see this festival develop, but I am very disappointed in this promoter.

I get this was a first time show. I understand that it takes work to build a show and get a following. I love that
fellow artists jumped on board to try to build this brand. I would have like to have been treated with more professionalism, and since this promoter professes to have a lot of experience running shows, I would not have expected so many amateur mistakes (obstructed booth assignments, lack of facilities, no trash receptacles, no
communication).

Well, I finally have the website up and running. Now just need to get lots of "stuff" to put on it both for sale and for looking at and hopefuly, it will generate business. The website is drakesneststudios.com. I'm still learning the ins and outs of it so be patient. Any and all suggestions will be welcomed. I do know that I have to go in and remove the pictures, make them smaller and figure out out to do thumnails, which I think would even be nicer so that you can see a lot and enlarge when you wish.

Did my bit, such as it is, to help celebrate the birthday of our wonderful site by becoming a contributor. With all the talent, the show listings, the help, the mentors, the teachers and the fun, I can't think of a more worth-while cause.

Be back later with more "stuff" as I get it together. Spent all day Monday painting my studio to the point that on Tuesday, I could barely more . Hopefully, I'll be getting paneling to put up on the wall so I can get the wood flooring and carpeting down and then the cabinets up and then I'll be ready to move everything in! Wheeeeeeeeeee!!!! Will post pictures when have the debree neatened up a little. ~2~

This is a different type of art, performing arts, but thought I'd mention it. I am doing a stage production at Alpena Civic Theatre in Alpena, Michigan that is being put on like an old radio show. It is a tribute, of sorts, to the wonderful days of radio mystery theatre. There will be acts with Ellery Queen and Periot, just to name a few. Should be fun - no make up, no costumes, no lines to memorize, just sound effects, reading in character and lots and lots of fun!

More later - Terri at the Drake's Nest in beautiful Ossineke, Michigan