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Rural Studio Tour - May 1

Posted by Connie Mettler on April 23, 2010 at 6:22am
Tired of waiting/acceptances/rejections from art fairs? Ready to take even more of your fate into your rural+studio+tour+artfarm+blingo+necklace.jpgown hands? It is always exciting to see groups of artists get together to make it happen for themselves. More and more artists are having open studio tours, starting indie events, taking part in pop-up galleries. Here's a new one in my neighborhood, in a rural area north of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Here's the story: Visit 5 area artists at their studios during a casual self-guided tour on Saturday, May 1 from 10am to 6pm.

found object jewelry by Lisa Vetter & Paul Seifert

"The idea for the tour started when artists Lisa Vetter & Kristy Jo Beber joked at an art fair last summer about having a "Trolley Tour" like event in our neck of the woods (Leo-Spencerville). With all the Amish out here, we envisioned having the Amish transport the attendees in their buggies, in place of the nice trollies & buses that Trolly Tour uses. The joke turned into a lunch meeting of brainstorming...and the Rural Studio Tour was born, sans the Amish drivers. Each studio will be open 10am-6pm on Saturday, May 1. It will be casual & self-guided...meaning people can visit as many studios & in any order as they wish & on their own time."

What is particularly interesting is that these artists (photographers, mixed media, potters, fiber) do live in a rural area and they are including stops at a buffalo ranch, a backroads greenhouse, a coffee roastery, as well as their studios. I mean, this is the sticks! Is that stopping them? I think this is going to be a very sweet event, hope it goes annual.

For even more info visit their Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/ArtStudioTour

What about you? Are you part of any grass roots art event?


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Call for Artists: Bayou City Art Festival Downtown

Posted by Connie Mettler on April 23, 2010 at 5:58am
October 9 & 10
Houston, Texas
presented by the Art Colony Association
300 Artists
Deadline: April 30

Fall in Houston, the weather cools and Houstonians come out to celebrate at the Bayou City Art Festival Downtown.

The Festival, set against the dramatic skyline of the nation's fourth largest city, was ranked:

• the #3 art festival in the country in AmericanStyle Magazine's
"TOP 10 Festivals"
• in February 2009, named "Best Gallery in Houston"
• in March of 2009 by readers of Click2Houston.com, named "Best
Festival in Houston"
• in the 2008 Houston Press as best festival in "Best of Houston"
magazine
• consistently ranked in Sunshine Artists Top 50

"It's rated one of the top shows in the country and the Texas economy is far stronger than the rest of the country. I'm giddy about the sales, I'm giddy about the attention and I'm giddy about the weather because I'm from Minnesota!" - Kimber Fiebiger, First Place, Bayou City Art Festival Downtown 2008, Minneapolis, MN

"I love coming to Houston - there's no doubt. I love the city. I love to come to Houston because Houstonians interact so well with the artist. They really appreciate the artists. They love art here in Houston and I love the Bayou City Art Festival!" - Stephen Potts, Best in Show, Bayou City Art Festival Downtown 2008, Palmetto, GA

bayoucity.jpg


• Bayou City Art Festival Downtown has a demonstrated history in strong sales for artists
• National studies show Houstonians consistently have twice the discretionary income that
workers in similar industries have around the country
• With a median household income of over $50,000 and an income growth since 2000 of 13.1%
as reported in 
Kiplingers.com
• Houston has been ranked the # 1 city in the U.S. in which to live, work and play in July 2008

2009 Award winners:
• Michael Madzo - Best in Show - Mixed Media 2D
• Chris Bruno - Second Place - Mixed Media 2D
• Melle Finelli - Third Place - Jewelry
• Best Booth - Patrick Dragon - Clay
• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Ceramics Award - Marvin Blackmore - Clay

For more info: www.bayoucityartfestival.com or contact Kelly Kindred, Festival Coordinator, at
kelly@bayoucityartfestival.com

Applications: www.zapplication.org

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Copy KATS. Artist beware!

Posted by Heather Jordan on April 21, 2010 at 4:01pm
Hey Everyone.

Wanted to share a little situation that has happen to me and boy it has just blown the wind out of my blond hair doo. Skip can validate via the show in Myrtle Beach.

My crabs are being copied and repainted in a classroom for profit studio!

I found a web site that has done a fantastic job of clipping YOUR artwork. They teach it in classes and they are located in Mt. Pleasant SC. The take on the studio is that you pay them $30-$40 dollars and you get a canvas, frame and a bottle of brewski or wine for a couple of hours. Great concept a buzz and a painting.

When I went through a search saw one of my crab paintings that I had not painted. I searched it to a studio not far from me in the Charleston area. These rats are using so many paintings from online artist to teach in classes. My crab painting had been painted over 150 times. After I contacted them last night they quickly fixed the web site. But hey Mrs. blonde HTML is snazzy. I have contacted over 7 artist to let them know about these money mongers and saved the web page on my hard drive. I Also purchased the other part of their domain name, which when done will go to the top of the search for their term. Blond, a computer geek and a painter. Look out baby this could get a little scary. I have been slinging paint and snot all morning, brewing a good batch of steaming mean girl face stew. My husband said I need to go and dig a hole in the field.

What do I do?

The owner of the original red crab painting that I painted and wanted to know if I was a "Student" Painter! This has sent me to a place. Imagine all my hair standing on end only fried, with my meany girl face. This is really a bad deal here. Watch out for your images you never know where they will turn up.

They place is called Bottles n Brushes. Do the search to see if your work is not being copied in the "Gallery" area were the students hold up the finished work they have just painted. The happy owner collects around $400-$500 every night and smiles all the way to the bank.

Happy hair day! (Ok I did let go of the mean girl face, but the hair is still on end!)
Heather

(Hope this wasn't to negative just wanted to warn the artist.)

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Atlanta Dogwood 2010

Posted by Bill Sargent on April 20, 2010 at 5:00pm














The parking for this show seems to get trickier every year. Our official parking spot was a mile and a half away from the park entrance and the charge would have been $15.00 a day. They were able to arrange for a shuttle to the show. The only catch was the shuttle made one run at eight in the morning and one more at six. This year they banned artist parking near the Park Street entrance (our usual spot) but the nice policeman made a suggestion that worked out very well for us. Artists who are able to find a good parking spot usually keep the information to themselves for this show and we have chosen to respect this honored tradition.


You have the option of setting up Wednesday, Thursday, or early Friday for the three day show, which begins Friday at noon. Wednesday is far easier and one avoids the crowds, so for us the extra night at the motel was worth it.

One of our favorite places to eat is "Six Feet Under" located right across the street from a great cemetery where you can have a nice stroll while reading interesting tombstones.

We did have a small problem once we were all set up. After hours of hard work we were approached by the assistant director for the show who apologetically informed us we would have to move because the small distance in front of our tent was a safety problem and would possibly create a trip and fall hazard. Fortunately they provided several helpers and the job was done in two hours. As it turned out this was a show-saver for us. The spots near our original space had poor sales.

When we showed up on the first morning of the show, however, we found a huge diesel generator five feet behind our booth. As it turned out, it was fairly quiet and we could hardly smell the biodiesel exhaust. We had virtually no complaints from people visiting our tent.

We had a stray kitten (a resident of the park) adopt our booth for a shelter. It greeted us warmly when we opened up and a helpful staff member fell in love with the critter and brought us a sack of cat food which kept him close during the show. He was starving and very thirsty, so life in the park had probably been a bit on the rough side. Unfortunately, many of the artists were sharing in his experience during the weekend.

He got so much attention that we're quite certain he boosted our sales by at least a thousand bucks (we have lots of cat pictures). There were at least eight people who kept returning to our booth to visit our furball friend in hopes of adopting him when the show closed. Our neighbor, however, had first dibs and took him home to Washington State in their new cat carrier.

Traffic was light, as expected, on Friday. Few people were bowled over by their sales. A photographer not far from us did zero on Friday. On Saturday and Sunday the traffic in our area was so heavy that the crowd went into zombie mode. Many artists along our street complained that the crowd just flowed by without entering their booths. We were fortunate to have the first corner and we did get good booth traffic. We did notice that most artists in our section chose to zip up as soon as the 7 PM closing option was available, although the show was open until 9.

We were happy with our sales, which were better than last year, although not as good as our first year at this show.

Teardown was OK if you were one of the first people ready to go. Shortly after the show closed, however, the traffic got a bit thick. It took Ann an hour to get our van to our booth. Even then we had to wait for couple of artists to finish loading their vehicles before we could get close enough to our booth for packing. We did not get out of the park until about ten and since the restaurants were closed we went back to the room and shared split the last half of a seafood Subway.

In another area the street was so narrow that two fifth wheelers, which were the first vehicles allowed in, blocked traffic while their owners leisurely loaded them up. Although it was seriously against the rules, several vehicles went up on the grass to get around them. The Piedmont Park officials are very protective of their turf and if they saw this happening the show may be permanently moved to the Lenox Square Mall location where it was located two years ago due to concerns about the effect the show may have had on the grass.

If you entered the South entrance at Piedmont you had to get past "Hate Boy" on the right and "Hell Boy" on the left. These guys were street preachers who made themselves hard to ignore.

Although some people did well, many artists were disappointed with the sales, especially considering the huge crowds.

As with many other shows, this one should come back nicely when the economy returns. We will do this show any time they let us in and we look forward to the times when sales will be back to what they were four years ago.

If you were an allergy sufferer, you might have had reason to notice that the pollen level in Atlanta made the national news and set records. Normally the pollen count is about 150; last weekend it was 5000, or so we heard. Rumors to the effect that aircraft were diverted around Atlanta due to the pollen hazard could not be confirmed.




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Woodlands Waterway (TX) review

Posted by S. Travis Lindenbaum on April 20, 2010 at 9:21am
The festival is held along a man-made waterway in a wealthy, planned suburb of Houston. Booths are mostly along one side of a walkway and face the water. Some are in a slightly confusing lay-out in a grassy park.

The sponsors are a delight to work with. Well organized and helpful. Load-in and load-out are tricky. If one can arrive Thursday for set-up and wait until Monday to tear-down, it becomes easy. The show provides golf carts so that one can haul stuff to a nearby parking lot for loading Sunday night. We did this and were out in our usual time + 15 minutes.

There is a grand hotel (Marriott) at the show site, with rates for the artists. A very enjoyable preview party is held there on Friday night. Show hours are 10AM to 6PM Saturday and Sunday. There are terrific restaurants within walking distance, plus a lot of shopping (every chain known to man) and two movie theaters. Arriving early has its rewards.

As for sales: the usual, some terrific and some not so terrific. The $10 gate separated the lookers from the buyers. The actress Sharon Stone made a large sculpture purchase, I am told. She looked splendid.
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Call for Artists: Custer's Last Stand Festival of Arts

Posted by Connie Mettler on April 19, 2010 at 9:00pm
Art Fair Calendar.com
June 19th & 20th
Evanston, Illinois
downtown Evanston
370 Exhibitors
Deadline: May 1st

The Custer's Last Stand is now accepting arts and crafts exhibitor and food vendor applications for its 38th Annual 2010 Festival of the Arts. The fair runs June 19 and 20 from 10 a.m. until 9 p.m. daily.

Custer's Last Stand, or as the locals call it, the Custer Fair, features 370 nationally acclaimed artists, craftspeople and antique dealers. It serves up food from thirty restaurateurs, showcases entertainment on three different stages, and supports a local business sidewalk sale.

The Custer Fair attracts over 70,000 attendees. It has been called, "The North Shore social event of the year." This year features the second annual "Green Fair" section for not for profit groups and Green businesses. The Custer Fair has been voted the best art fair twice by North Shore Magazine and it is an inaugural inductee into the Illinois Art Fair Calendar.comFestival Hall of Fame.

The Chicago Sun-Times says, "This 38 year-old fest of chompin', stompin', and shoppin' isn't just any old street fair."

The Custer Fair is located in the Evanston Main Street Station Shopping District.
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Spring Festival at Canterbury Park, Shakopee MN

Posted by Kerri Norman on April 19, 2010 at 12:30pm
HI All,

Just finished this show yesterday at the Canterbury Park Raceway in MN, just outside the Twin Cities.

It's part of the Huffman Productions group of touring shows - 8 shows in 4 cities, spring & fall events in each city. I knew it was big and thought I'd give it a go and see what happened.

To sum up - the show is very craft oriented and there was a lot of well done work within this category. I am a jewelry metal smith and it was not my market.

If you do beading or crystals or anything along these lines and can keep your prices below $40-50 you could do well. People who sold teddy bears etc. did well - they made lovely bears and were able to charge more, tapping into the collector's market.

The show was well organized and publicized though much more signage on the roads was needed (I drove past it twice - missing the entrance not knowing where the Festival was within the raceway) and when they say you need lights, you really need lots of lights!

My booth neighbors - kid's handmade wooden puzzles; antler miscellany; folk art paintings, mostly reported that sales were VERY decreased from previous years. They said that the fall events are usually much more lucrative but given the sales drop this spring I don't know if that will be true for this fall.

They also said that attendance looked to be way down, saying that in previous years the aisles were packed. Well, we had the the bowling alley effect for a lot of the time!

I recommend getting the vendor list from this year, finding someone in your field and emailing them directly for more information if you're considering this show or the Huffman series.

Good luck! :-)
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Call for Artists: Shaker Heights Art & Music Festival

Posted by Connie Mettler on April 16, 2010 at 9:30pm
Art Fair Calendar.comJune 19 - 20
Shaker Heights, Ohio
Sat. 10 am - 8 pm
Sun. 11 am - 5 pm
150 artists
Deadline: April 18

Exciting News! The 25th annual CraftFair at Hathaway Brown is moving and improving!

The CraftFair at Hathaway Brown is now the Shaker Heights Arts and Music Festival! Ohio Designer Craftsmen, a non-profit organization dedicated to serving artists for over 45 years, has joined forces with the City of Shaker Heights and the Shaker Heights Arts Council to create a vibrant new outdoor community event in the heart of this affluent suburb of Cleveland. The event combines Ohio Designer Craftsmen's craft fair with the 7 year-old Shaker Summer Solstice Music Festival and is endorsed by the city.

Location:
  • New location between the Van Aken Shopping Center and Shaker Heights Country Club, just one mile from Hathaway Brown School
  • High-visibility paved surface in a busy shopping, dining and residential area with ample, free parking, ATMs, restaurants and a gourmet grocery.
Event Features:
  • Free Admission
  • Live music
  • Variety of food and drink vendors
  • Children's activities and entertainment
  • Artist demonstrations
Artist Amenities:
  • Reduced rates at nearby hotel6a00e54fba8a73883300e5535d44778833-200pi
  • Sunday Breakfast Party
  • Complimentary beverage
  • Proximity to shops and services
  • Booth sitters
  • Courteous, professional staff
  • Show limited to 150 artists, selling to an elite clientele, including the loyal Hathaway Brown audience, the Shaker Arts Council's music festival audience, and hundreds of area shoppers.
This year only, the booth fee is just $299!

Apply today! Go to ohiocraft.org to apply online or to download a paper application. For further information or assistance, call 614.486.7119.

FYI - this reinvention of a popular Cleveland area event should be a winner - I love this new location and the pairing with the music and the partnership with the local Arts Council. A cool new opportunity for you.
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Art/Craft Show Scam in Michigan

Posted by Connie Mettler on April 16, 2010 at 6:01pm
In Michigan George Walker publishes the definitive book with hundreds of events be they fine art, fine craft, art and craft show of all types, so he really has his ear to the ground. A member of AFI forwarded this to me:

Alleged Fraud of Crafters at Summer Fest Craft Show Bay Valley Resort
April 10, 2010

Bay City, Michigan - I received an e-mail yesterday from a new crafter. Here is a copy of that e-mail.

George,

I am sending you this e-mail to inform you that the Summer Fest series of crafts shows in Bay City, Saginaw, and West Branch put on by Robert Edwards are a Scam. I arrived this weekend at the Bay Valley Resort to find out that Robert Edwards is no where to be found. Two ladies from Poor Man's promotions who where used as references were here to explain the situation to the crafters as they arrived, they were in no way involved with this, they were victims like the rest of us. The Bay Valley Resort was kind enough to comp our rooms for us.

This series of crafts shows is listed on your website under the updated section and should be removed. The State Police are involved in trying to help us retrieve our booth costs.

Best Regards

Jim Taylor
L.T. Crafts & Home Decor
231-286-9788

What George found out and his reply to Jim:

"Allegedly, Robert Edwards, representing himself as Summer Fest Craft Shows was taking applications and money for a craft show at the Bay Valley Resort near Bay City, Michigan. It was promoted as being held on April 10-11.

When the crafters arrived to set up yesterday, he was nowhere to be found.

He had told crafters that he was affiliated with Poor Man's Promotions. That was totally false. Marlene Tibbits and Karen Gaul had planned on doing the show yesterday, but were not associated with him in any other way. I've known Marlene and Karen for sixteen years. They are as reputable as they come.

When Karen and Marlene found out from the hotel that Robert Edwards was a no show, they met the crafters at the door to tell them the bad news.

As it stands right now, if you sent Robert Edwards a check to do this show, make a copy of the check and contact The Michigan State Police Fraud Division.

The contact name is Liz Hunt. Her phone number is (989) 684-2234. The fraud divsion takes calls between 9am and 11am.

Also, if you know Robert Edwards and happen to know his whereabouts, The Michigan State Police want to talk to him. You can contact them at the same number above to give her any leads on where he could be.

If you have any questions about what happened yesterday, you can call Marlene Tibbits at (989) 874-4774, Karen Gaul at (810) 639-5388 or Jim Taylor at (231) 286-9788. They will try to answer any questions you may have.

This isn't the best news to give you, but it is my responsibility to spread the word as soon as possible so you are aware of it."

George Walker
George Walker Publishing

----------------
Thanks to Deb LaPratt for sending me this information.
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Spammers out to get us!

Posted by Connie Mettler on April 15, 2010 at 9:29pm
Hi Nels and everyone else who has asked:

Here is what was happening. I had the settings on this site so anyone could add a blog post and no one would review it. It would be immediately viewable to everyone. That was just fine, we're all adults here and it was fun to discover what everyone had to say.

However, earlier this week spammers started hitting the site and did blog postings about drugs, aceteminophen, darvocet, etc., every day at least five or six blog postings -- then those blog postings would go out onto the AFI Facebook page, giving them double exposure, and also in the newslettters that were going out every morning with the synopsis of the previous day's activity on AFI -- triple exposure. People were cancelling their memberships, writing me lots of emails asking me to stop it, etc. After three days I put the hold on all the blog posts so I could catch them before they went out over the network and into everyone's email boxes, etc. They come in periodically throughout the day. I was out today and came home to find fifteen waiting in the list of blog postings!! What this means is that blog postings will not be immediately added to the site. Luckily, most of the time I am here. It is the best way I can think of to stop all this infection!

I have been to the site Help desk and basically this is what all the other site organizers on this network are doing.

Here are a few sample blog post - headlines -- the whole message was much more lengthy:
You have a new blog post "Buying Pills Smok-OX. Tablets Purchase Smok-OX" to approve on Art Fair Insiders
You have a new blog post "Generic Buying Acai. Buying Without Prescription Acai" to approve on Art Fair Insiders
You have a new blog post "Buy Floxin Free Delivery. Purchase Floxin Free Delivery" to approve on Art Fair Insider
You have a new blog post "Buying Methotrexate no Prescription. Cheapest Buying Methotrexate" to approve on Art Fair Insiders

You have a new blog post "Tablets Purchase Pravachol. Buy Without a Prescription Pravachol" to approve on Art Fair Insiders
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Proving you actually did make it . . .

Posted by Walt Bennett on April 15, 2010 at 1:19pm
It hasn't been all that difficult for me to convince people who visit our booth that I actually did make what I'm selling (I'm a woodturner), but it's entirely different for my wife (a milliner). Over the years I've found it best to include a couple of extra sheets of paper with photos of us each making things with our show applications so it'd be clear that we're not reselling things from somewhere else. I've decided to take things a bit further this year though and am having a couple small banners made (3 x 4) to hang on the sides of our booth. One has photos of her making a hat and the finished product, the other another photo of her making one with smaller photos around it showing her equipment, ribbon rack and various hats in different stages of work. I'm hoping this will at least cut the "Did you really make this?" comments. Anyone have any other ideas?

New Banners.doc
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40 Question Blog Series – First 15 Question Review

Posted by Michelle Sholund on April 15, 2010 at 9:09am

40 Question Blog Series – First 15 Question Review


It has been about 2-3 months now and I've covered 15 Questions on our way toa total of 40 Questions Craft Artists Commonly Ask. If you missedany of the answers to the following questions or just tuned in, nowis the time to catch up especially with Spring shows fully underway.You may find, if you are willing to adopt some of these tips inexchange for leaving some habits that aren't working behind, myFREE advice very well will help you save money as well as earn more money whiledoing shows. If you have used any of these tips (posted on my blog site as well as here on ArtFairInsiders.com), please share yourthoughts in how it worked for you or if it inspired other tips youwould like to share with others.


Question 1 - Picture yourself with a limitless amount of funds to spendhowever you want. Using that money describe how your ideal boothwould look like. Think about color, texture, fixtures, and usingwhat you have seen at shows.


Question 2 - Because money is an issue, are there still ways you can make yourdream booth become a reality?


Question 3 - What is booth theme and where can “I” find the right displayfurniture to emulate my theme best suited for the medium I work in?


Question 4 - What is merchandising and what are some effective merchandisingtechniques?


Question 5 - What lighting, flooring and canopies should I use?


Question 6 - How can I attract customers into my booth?


Question 7 - How do you find your niche?


Question 8 - How can I prevent creativity burn out?


Question 9 - What are some current and new art forms are hot sellers in themarket place?


Question 10 - How do I price my work?


Question 11 - How can I add value to my art/craft?


Question 12 - What are some signs that what I am making should be phased out?


Question 13 – What is Customer Service


Question 14 – What kind of service do customers want and expect?


Question 15 - How have Gen X and Y's affect how people shop at art fairs?(How can we capture their attention too?)


To find more info on these questions please check outwww.quickcraftartisttips.blogspot.com(or past blog posts here on this blog on Art Fair Insiders) and scroll through the past blog posts (they are all in order) overthe past 2-3 months. The next 15 will cover topics such asdeciphering customer language, creative marketing strategies, how tofind shows right for you and your art, handling problematic weather,top 10 money saving techniques artists need to know, and how tobattle negativing when it enters your booth. Have a question youwould like answered, use the comment button and I will answer it in afuture 40 Question Blog post! Thanks so much for joining me on thisadventure to help others be a better art/craft business person,please remain buckled in there's more adventure in store! - Michelle,www.quickcraftartisttips.blogspot.com(please visit my business site to see some of these tips in action,www.bythebaybotanicals.com).

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A Dream realized

Posted by Terri Drake on April 14, 2010 at 11:42pm

On April 21st, I will see a dream come to fruition. I have, with contributions obtained from 3 honor societies at the college I'm attending and the Drake's Nest Studio, obtained a bronze plaque for the Center courtyard gardens. The plaque reads, "Dedicated to the Memory of, and in Honor of, those ACC Students who dared to Dream." The gardens were my late step son's favorite spot and one that apparently not many on campus were aware of. Bart was killed in a senseless auto accident 2 weeks after he graduated and 3 months before his dad and I were married. I made a promise to him that the gardens would be dedicated to ALL students, past, present and future who had a dream and came to ACC to help get it fulfilled. The plaque will remind and thank them for a Job well done and that NO dream is impossible to achieve.

ACC helped this "old girl" obtain her Associates Degree last year and I am not going for my Bachelor's so I can honestly say you're never too old to go back to school or get that degree.

My heart soars on wings of Eagles tonight to know that the honoring of the memories of those students, and my son, will live on in the gardens. I have walked my talk.

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Revisiting Conspicuous Consumption --

Posted by Connie Mettler on April 14, 2010 at 9:30pm
Here is a recent blog post from Seth Godin, the bestselling author, entrepreneur and agent of change, that should be of interest to the ArtFairInsiders.com audience:

The reason you have a front lawn? It's a tradition. Lawns were invented as a way for the landed gentry to demonstrate that they could afford to waste land. By taking the land away from the grazing sheep, they were sending a message to their neighbors. We're rich, we can happily waste the opportunity to make a few bucks from our front lawn.

Conspicuous consumption has a long history. Wasting millions of dollars on a shark in a tank, or on $50,000 platinum stereo cables that sound an awful lot like $2000 stereo cables (which sound a lot like $200 stereo cables). And on and on.

In fact, the origins of the luxury goods industry lie in this desire to waste, in public. 350 years ago in France, Jean-Baptiste Colbert dreamed up the idea of bespoke, rare goods as a way of improving France's balance of trade. LVMH and other huge corporations collect brands that telegraph scarcity above all else. Not that they're better at performing the task at hand, merely that they are expensive and rare.

(Interesting note: it's estimated that 20% of all the women in Japan in their 20s own a Louis Vuitton bag... scarce?)

In every city there are expensive hotels that are noisy, with $56 breakfasts, no parking, blinds that don't make the room dark and rooms that don't have enough closets. But the very waste of paying extra to stay there ensures that you'll be surrounded by others just as wealthy and just as interested in proving it.

Rich people will always indulge the desire to stand out, but I wonder if there's a new version:

Spending on and investing in time, not stuff.

And it's not so wasteful, this focus on craftsmen.

The new trend in spending money is to buy things that are painstakingly hand built instead of efficiently mass produced. It might not be a better price than what you could buy at Target, but the very fact that you can pay for an artisan to create it, an artist to design it, a talented worker to bring it to life--that act makes a powerful statement about what you can afford and what's important to you. Instead of a bigger house, it's a house that's built from scratch by craftsmen. Instead of a bigger steak, it's a handmade dish of local poached vegetables...

All marketers tell a story. The "this is the best price and value" story is just one of those available, and in fact, it's rarely the most effective for the audience you may be trying to reach.

Doesn't this sound just like what you are creating? Art fairs have been built of this new kind of consumption -- sure you can buy that jewelry cheaper at Macy's or that table at Art Van, but is it one-of-a-kind, something that only one person can have.

My thanks to Scott Fox who forwarded this post to me.
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Call for Artists: Atlanta Arts Festival

Posted by Connie Mettler on April 14, 2010 at 8:30pm
Atlanta Arts FestivalSeptember 18 & 19
4th Annual Atlanta Arts Festival
Atlanta, Georgia
Piedmont Park
200 Artists
Deadline: April 26

You are invited to apply to become one of 200 jury selected participants for this beloved autumn festival.

Produced by a highly qualified staff and a strong pool of committed volunteers, both sharing multiple years of event production and promotion in the City of Atlanta, the festival is dedicated to showcasing talented artists from throughout the country for its enthusiastic art buying crowd.

Items of Interest:
  • $7,200 in award money
  • Artists retain all proceeds from their sales
  • Commemorative poster image will be selected from a show participant
Artist Amenities:
  • Artist Awards Dinner
  • Artist hospitality providing continental breakfast & refreshments
  • Booth sitting
  • Load-in / load-out at booth space
  • Near or on-site parking
  • 24 hour security patrols
  • Discounted rates at participating hotels
Julie Tepp and her staff understand the dynamics of bringingArt Fair Calendar.com the "right" people to the event. Last year they turned down sponsors that would have brought large crowds to the park because it was not the audience they were seeking. It is not their goal to bring record numbers to the festival, but to bring buyers. This in turn is not exactly good for the Festival's bottom line, but it is smart strategy for a longer term view of building a quality event.

2009 Festival Poster by Richard Jacobus

Visit the application (www.zapplication.org)information on how to participate!

To learn more about the festival visit: AtlantaArtsFestival.com
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CraftBoston, April 9-11, 2010

Posted by Martha Giberson on April 14, 2010 at 7:16pm

This show is sponsored by the Society of Arts and Crafts (SAC) in Boston, MA. SAC is the oldest non-profit crafts organization in the U.S. SAC also sponsors CraftBoston Holiday show to fill the gap left when Crafts in the Castle ended a couple of years ago. This is a craft only show located in the Seaport World Trade Center on Boston Harbor, there were about 200 exhibitors. The quality of the show is very good and has some non-traditional exhibitors. There are non-profit booths which cannot sell anything but are for inforamation/education purposes only. These booths are heavily discounted. Some of these booths are Fuller Craft Museum, North Bennett Street School, Metalwerx studio. There is usually an international component to this show. This year there were about ten Israel Artists. Their work tended to have a more commercial look as these artists are very tuned to current fashion and interior design trends. They brought a new demographic to the show who were there specifically to visit the Israel artists but then shopped the rest of the show. As usual there were some exhibitors who felt they did not sell as well as they anticipated but most were happy. Feedback from exhibitors was very good, a few said that it was their best show ever. Sales seemed to be up significantly over the last two years, attendance was also up from the past two years. There were more exhibitors from the West Coast than in the past few years which I take to be a good sign.

http://craftboston.org/springindex.asp

martha

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March's Art Stars

Posted by Connie Mettler on April 14, 2010 at 6:00pm
Many thanks to these members who your votes chose as the most helpful
and generous members at Art Fair Insiders this month. These three, plus all the rest of you who contribute to this web site, are bringing
transparency to our business. Your willingness to share the "good, the
bad, and the ugly" at the art fairs on the streets of America is making
Art Fair Insiders THE place to be online.

Many thanks to:

Munks - I guess especially (for me) for the laughs. This member continues to stick pins in the pompous and view the art fair business with a cynical, yet reasoned, eye. Thanks for keeping the dialogue rolling along and asking the right questions. (Member since 9/09)

Chris Hoyt - for his always "think about that another way" when discussions get off track and for not believing the promoter is out to get you! His business like manner teaches us all that this really is a business. (Member since 7/09)

Dave Hinde - for his always helpful answers to newbie questions and bringing new events to our attention. If you have a question you can always count on Dave to help you find the answer. (Member since 4/09)

Many thanks to all of you who take the time to help one another whether it is a tip for credit card processing, a way to look at a jury score, a place to buy supplies or share expertise. Oh no, I was just about to say "it takes a village!"

This site is really growing beyond my imagination -- soon we will have 2500 members. I'm trying to plan some grand celebration. At the very least - leave a comment below about how the site has been helpful to you. The best comment will receive a copy of my e-books on the Business of Art Fairs.

The art fair season is bearing down on us -- be sure to share this site with your friends and ask them to join us here.


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Santa Fe College Spring Arts Festival, Gainesville Fl

Posted by Bert Herrera on April 14, 2010 at 10:34am
Since I don't see anyone has posted on this (John where are you?), here goes...

Show is held in downtown area of Gainesville, up and down approximately 7 city blocks, somewhere in the neighborhood of 225 artists ( I think), sponsored by Santa Fe College. The staff is always friendly, helpful, and provide breakfast on Sat and a nice dinner on Sat night. Quality is pretty good, and once was the top art event in G'ville. Notice I said 'once', more on that later.

Set up is Friday after 5:30PM, streets are fairly narrow, so one has to be patient if someone's in front of you and you need to get there, have that hand truck ready, especially for tear down. Lots of parking on side streets and lots, so your vehicle is usually fairly close. Weather this weekend was perfect. Bright, sunny skies, comfortable, not muggy or hot, a rarity this spring.

On to sales, I am local, and I barely broke even. I spoke with several artists, and their experiences covered the whole gamut of zero sales, to good show, many said it was 'slow'. Take what you will from that. I have done this show for many years, and there once was a time that there was a solid wall of people marching down the streets from about noon to 3PM. Those crowds have not been around for a while now. I can't tell you why, but it's a fact. Yes, there was the Gator spring football game on Sat, but in years past, there was always something going on around this time, and the folks still came out in droves.

My 2 cents worth. Let's hear other's experiences.
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Belleville, IL: Merchants cannot sell "rejected" art in their stores

Posted by Connie Mettler on April 14, 2010 at 9:40am
Those folks at the Art in the Square in Belleville, IL, really take the integrity of their show seriously. Even the mayor has asked local merchants not to sell the work of "rejected" artists from their spaces during the event, and certainly the merchants can't have sidewalk sales. Ann Arbor please take notice!

"Mayor Mark Eckert on Tuesday gathered about 30 downtown merchants at the city's new firehouse to politely ask them not to engage in that practice. He discussed that among other items to prepare the business owners for the ninth annual art show, which is May 14-16 on Main Street, west and east of the Public Square."

The article is interesting -- also be sure to read the comments below it to see how the "locals" feel about it. As artists from out of town we mostly see the people who enjoy the art fair, but the comments show a whole other side of the community.
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