Blog

Wednesday, May 22, 5 pm ET

Participating in the nation's art fairs is not for the faint-heared or the penniless. So much overhead! We won't go into all of those costs, but a serious contender for the diversity of options and costs is lodging on the road. Some artists opt to stay near home so they can sleep in their own beds, thus limiting many opportunities, and at the other extreme some go for the full-fledged "its a write off" and stay in quality lodgings.

How about you? What do you do when planning a trip to an art fair? Sleep in your van? Air BnB? VRBO?  tent camp? RV? frequent flyer points at specific chain hotels? Show lodging? stay with friends? We talk about all these options and more, To get it started our panel will include Fletcher Dean, a photographer from Michigan who prefers Air BnB and Don Hart, mixed media from Connecticut who travels with a camping trailer.

I know almost all of you have solved this problem in one way or another. Would you like to be part of the panel? If so,

1. email me asap: info@artfaircalendar.com
2. or would you just like to call in during the show? We'd love to hear from you. Here's the #(805) 243-1338
3. or leave a comment below for us to share, a photo would work too.

And for the rest of you listen live: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/artfairs, or use that same link to download later.

Review of the podcast - speaking with entrepreneurs on how they support artists and develop products for artists for their careers.

Although this podcast was a little off the track of our usual nuts and bolts discussions on surviving/thriving in the business, I was curious about some of the businesses surrounding the festivals and where they came from.

• Jeff Abele, GrandStandApps.com, a software developer focused on the art fair business who has developed a state-of-the-art app to enable artists and art fairs to connect with their audiences. The purpose of the app is to increase the experiences of the attending public and to enrich their engagement with the event through the year and it will enable art fairs to understand who their customers are.
  
  
• Marissa Wagley of US Weight, a company that works with artist/inventor Jim Eaton to market the weights he designed for his art fair booth. US Weight is a manufacturer that works in a niche business that is blow molding using a high quality plastic instead of a cast iron or steel making it a lighter weight filling plastic shells with concrete, making it easier and cheaper for the end user. An artist, James Eaton, invented a canopy weight for artists which was then picked up by US Weight.

We also talk about Larry Berman, Greg Lawler of Art Fair Sourcebook, Bruce Baker and Luke Block of FlourishDisplays.com. 

You might like this podcast. Listen to it here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/artfairs/2019/05/16/how-i-built-a-new-business-out-of-my-art-fair-career

THURSDAY - MAY 16, 6 PM ET

There are thousands of artists in the U.S. who participate in art fairs for years and years. There are many who drop out after a few years (it's a lot of work!). Then there are those who take their art fair experience to build their own business, leaving the street behind.

A fair number have become show organizers, including: Jim Delutes in Colorado, Bonnie Blandford and Donna Beaubien in Michigan, Bill Kinney in the East and Carla Fox in Oregon.

We'll be hearing from these entrepreneurs:

Carolyn Edlund of ArtsyShark.com, Drew Hendrix of Red River Paper, Luke Block of Flourish Displays, Jeff Abele of GrandstaffApps.com and Marissa Wagley of US Weight, talking about the canopy weights artist James Eaton developed.

Learn more about this podcast: artfairradio.com/how-I-build-a-new- business

We'll also take your phone calls if you'd like to call in: (805) 243-1338. 

(You do not have to call in to hear the podcast. Please call only if you'd like to be part of the podcast.)

and what you can learn.

Retailing is what we are doing, right? You are creating and we're all involved in selling. This info recently came into my inbox and made me very curious. The most interesting part to me was the growth of sales on the Internet ... what do you think of this info:

It won’t come as a shock that Amazon.com Inc. is gaining ground in ecommerce, but there are many online competitors growing faster than Amazon.

Link for the report: https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/product/top-500/

Chesterton, Indiana

This is the 61st year for the Chesterton Art Fair, which draws art lovers from all over the Midwest, always the first full weekend in August. The fair will be held in beautiful Dogwood Park, close to Interstates I-80 (Indiana Toll Road) and I-94. This makes it an easy drive for our many Chicago and Illinois suburbs visitors, as well as those from across Indiana and Michigan. 

• Dogwood Park is accessible to all. Plentiful disability parking is at the front gates, and all parking is close. 
• Artists may stay in RV's at the location of the fair. Many hotel choices nearby.
• Flat ground, shade trees, a huge covered shelter, and a new permanent restroom building are some of the park amenities. 
• Within a few miles of the magnificent Indiana Dunes and Lake Michigan beaches. 
• Lovely downtown area, unique dining and shopping and also the well known fast food options near the expressways. 
• Complimentary continental breakfast for the artists Saturday and Sunday morning.

This is a very well-attended fair. The fact that we are in our 61st year speaks to the caliber the of the art, the management of the fair, and the number of artists who return every year. We treat you as our honored guests, and go out of our way to make you comfortable and happy. We know that being on the road is tiresome and hard work. We have many volunteers who love working with our artists, as well as helping our guests who attend the fair. This is a much-loved event in our community, and the community comes out to help!

 

What else: We will be inviting new food vendors as well as the much-loved regulars, and will offer some new activities for children. We also feature local musicians throughout the day in a specific area of the park. The music is gentle, strolling background music, conducive to perusing, shopping, and talking with the artists.

 

Marketing: 

We market far and wide using social media, print media, direct mail, radio, and web based advertising.

 

Testimonials:

"It has become a yearly tradition!"-Karen

"An excellent Art Fair to attend. Our first year there and we'll be back."-Randy

"So much amazing art work to see. We enjoyed ourselves immensely. The artists  are fun to talk to also. Very impressive!" -Zandra

Jurors are selected for their experience and expertise in a specific media and understanding of that media. A diversity of backgrounds and skills is sought, including artists and educators. 

Proceeds from the fair support the Chesterton Art Center, a not-for-profit arts organization. We host 12 + gallery shows throughout the year, and art classes for all age groups. Members can display and sell their work from our Member's Gallery. We also have an Artisan Gift shop featuring handmade creations in a variety of mediums.

 

APPLY: http://www.chestertonart.com/art-fair/

Contact: Wendy Marciniak   gallery@chestertonart.com   (219) 926-4711

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Find more art fairs looking for artists: www.CallsforArtists.com

The posh outlook of the art sector has been showing a staggering expansion as the eastern art world is now penetrating the European and American market.

For long, European and American art were the major crowd pullers at the global level. The reason was the perpetual suppression of Eastern art styles and conventions.

However, things have changed tremendously in the last few decades or so. Eastern art community isn’t just growing but also showing a remarkable upsurge in terms of creativity and innovation.

The entrance of Christie’s exhibition in India in 2013 has declared the arrival of Eastern art at the global level.

And to make things better, the Christie’s first auction in India sold paintings worth $15 million, which was way beyond what was expected. 98% of the total stuff was sold!

Untitled painting of V.S.Gaitonde was sold at a staggering price of $4.1 million. Now that was something that didn’t happen commonly for Indian artists.

There isn’t a single piece of doubt that Indian art is on an unerring climb. Let’s take a deeper view in the same by checking out the stats and keeping a notch on what drives this hike.

What do numbers say?

The year 2018 proved to a prolific one for Indian art.

With a 21.6% rise in the sale, Indian art is all dressed up for the party ahead.

There were 1559 artworks put up on sale in the year 2018, out of which 1469 got sold generating around INR 685 crore.

One reason for deterring in the sales of 2017 was the implementation of demonetization policy by the Indian regime.

Amongst Indian artists, the iconic S.H.Raza leads 2018 by fetching a towering sale of INR 98 crore for 67 pieces he sold.

His most expensive sale recorded a whopping INR 29 crore for his exquisite work, Tapovan, at Christie’s auction.

This proves that Indian art is on a shining path that leads to more record-breaking sales.

But what are the aspects that drive this excellent escalade?

Driving Factors – What pushes the growth?

There are a dozen reasons that are responsible for pulling Indian art from the sink and putting it at an apex level in the market.

However, there are a few factors that influenced the ascent of Indian art more than others.

Coining Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group

Pre-independence, the creativity of Indian artists was surrounded with pre-set themes and a definite objective. Patriotism, socialism, and nationalism used to drive the artists to pick up the brush.

However, post-1947, Indian artists weren’t bounded by anything. This is what inspired them to make a separate identity of Indian art, where thoughts, imaginations, and creativity didn’t experience any sort of friction.

With this in mind, the emergence of Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group became possible. The group was formed in 1948 and got dissolved in 1956 but the impression and impact it had on artists in India can still be seen in contemporary works.

Understand that the founding members of this group are known names of Indian art. All of these lads were young then, mostly in their early career stage, but held an impeccable vision.

These illustrious artists were S.H.Raza, K.H.Ara, H.A. Gade, M.F.Husain, F.N.Souza, Soon the likes of Ram Kumar, V.S.Gaitonde, Tyeb Mehta, etc joined the movement.

This was a breakthrough in shaping a new face for modern Indian art.

The Global Sweep

The centuries-old thirst of Indian art to win global recognition is now quenched, eventually.

As said, Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group played a pivotal role in gaining ground for Indian art. But the group got scrapped in just 8 years – what then?

A lot of Indian artists in this group were determined to showcase their talent on the global platforms post-independence.  

The first one was Souza, who left India and went to France in the year 1949. His paintings were already exhibited in London Burlington House a year before.

Soon after, artists like Husain, Gaitonde, Mehta, and Raza began to sweep European and American nations with their extraordinary talent.

A few of these artists toured and came back while others stayed there.

In a nutshell, Indian artists beginning to participate and impress the western art collectors and zealots turned the eye of major art dealers towards the untapped market of India.

The online burst

The unbelievable emergence and rise of the online world have impacted a number of sectors quite heavily – art is no exception.

If you want to look in terms of numbers, let me tell you that the record sales of 2018 what we were discussing above was because of the online platforms.

Surprisingly, the contribution of online sales (339 crores) is more than what offline deals yielded (318 crores).

The Paramountcy and popularity of the online platforms can be seen by the fact that out of 716 works put for sale online in 2018, 657 got their buyers.

These three are the major drivers for the phenomenal rise of Indian art in the world.

Thanks!

Mainsail was last weekend in St. Petersburg, FL. So was Easter Sunday.  That is a killjoy for any art show.

Attendence sags and so do sales.

Even the attendence In Saturday was off from the usual Numbers we see.

St. Pete is my hometown, I was born in the 1940’s there and so I have seen it come a long way.

I have done the show more than 20 times and it has always been good.

Not this year.  It was down 50 percent.  That is a big down.

After Ft. Worth, it was pretty anticlimactic.

The Show is held in a big semi-tree-Ed Park on the bay in downtown SP (St. Pete).

Most spaces used to be on grass.  Not anymore.  Mostly hardpacked dirt with blowing oak leaves crawling thru everybody’s booths.

Just Lovely.  Makes you think of the Great Depression Dustbowl Days.

The SP Recreation Dept. runs the show. Probably about 200 artists. Most are setup in the blazing sun,

Hey, if you are making money who cares.

A lot of artists in all fields do very well at this show.  It is not an easy one to get into.

They have serious prize money so it attracts the big hitters who mine their gold in the ribbons of Florida art shows.  Almost no other state has prize money as big as the Florida shows.

So, I will give you a little play by play as how this year’s show went for me.

As if you really care.

Well, some of you care and that is good enough for me.

I got home from Ft. Worth on Tuesday and was able to have one fuckoff day on Wednesday.

On Thursday, the day before setup, I headed over to SP from NSB.

Acronyms up your ying-yangs.

I got to stay with my best bud Richard who I have known since Little League day’s of 1955.

He lives in a great sixfloor condo one block from the show.

He has 800 great bottles of wine in his coolers. I bring a couple of mine and we both imbibe thru the weekend.

Well the forecast for Setup day Friday called for strong storms and big winds during the afternoon hours.

God Bless, the Mainsail committee sent out E-mails as early as Wednesday saying they would monitor the weather closely and perhaps move up the check in time earlier then their standard one PM.

So on Thursday they mailed us that we could check in at 11am.

People were lined up by 9 am ready to go.

At 11am on the dot they opened.

We zoomed to our spots.

Mind you, even with no rain yet, the winds were 20-30 mph.  

Good luck getting your roof on your canopy.

Some people did.  Mostly those with pop up canopies,

I got the metal frame of my LighDome up. It took another 30 minutes to get the roof on.

I then knew if I tried to raise the canopy to display height it would take a lot of stress and possible damage.

So, I took the roof off.

Closed up the van and retreated to Richard’s to wait for the storm to pass.

I caught a few zees and woke up around 3 pm.  Storm had passed and winds were acceptable to deal with.

A bunch of us got our booths up, I would say over 50 percent.

We artists are troopers, we persist thru the worst of times, usually wise-cracking and smiling at our nabs.

Had some great wine that nite—and yummy seafood.

Slept great and woke up to perfect artshow weather on Saturday.

Temp was in mid-seventies with 15-20mph winds.  No humidity.

People were out early and buying.  Just did not see the usual swarming crowds that you see at Mainsail.

Exhibitors were making quality sales with patrons.  Their numbers were less, but they were buying big.  People with high ticket prices prospered.  People, like me, who need quantity, to go along with quality, were lacking.

I had a good day but it was off by 40 percent over last year.

Oh, I forgot something very important that softened my lackluster day.

At breakfest I opened up my EMails.

Shazam!  I got accepted to the Saint Louis Art Fair in September. That is a biggie for me. I had not been in for six years.

Drank more great wine with Richard that nite and celebrated getting into Saint Louis.

Sunday morn.  Another great weather day, no winds at all.

Mainsail always does a very nice awards breakfest on Sunday.  This year it was spot on.

Being Easter, the crowd was very thin.  Barely saw any numbers until about 1pm.

I made a $150 sale at 10 am and never had another sale until 3pm.  I did a whopping $300 in sales.

It sucked.  No buying energy.

Shows cannot schedule on Easter.  It does not work.

Teardown was mellow, for Mainsail.

Got home to NSB on Monday, and had a great fuckoff day.

I have one more Florida show in two weeks.  The Fernandina  Shrimp and Art Fest.

We head north to Saugatuck on May17, for five months.

Will keep you posted as always.

A little Postscrip.

Ellen always asks me why I continue to do What I do.

My reply is this.

I love the concept of setting up for an art show, then selling, then leaving.

I call it Take the Money and Run.

It goes back to my days in Hawaii while in the Army.

Every nite I would come down from the Army base to my oceanfront home on Banzai Pipeline and I would see all these Hippies hanging out under a banyan tree.

They were selling candles and incense .  They were also sipping wine and beer and smoking delicious doobies.  Believe me, I know, I stopped enough times.

I said to myself, “Would it not be wonderful if could setup outside and sell my photos.  And have some fun, drink a little wine...and, whatever!”

Guess what? I am living that dream.

I am one lucky guy, 47 years later.