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Highwood Starving Artists Show, Highwood, IL 
Dates: 9/29-30/2018
Time: 10AM - 5PM
Weather, Saturday, 50-60 degrees, cloudy
Sunday: 50 degrees, rain off and on all day
Load In: Friday night 6-7pm. no early check in since they have to close off the street. Saturday morning 6-9:30am.
Load Out: Sunday, 5pm. Everything has to be broke down and at the curb before you can get a sticker in order to bring your car in to load up. 
Booth Fee: $230.00
My Media: Oil Paintings
Promoter: Amdur Productions.
Price range: $10-$350
majority of work to be $100 or less OR highly discounted.
I did not make my booth fee.
Very slow show. Crowds weren't there and the weather didn't help. The woman next to me sold ice dyed scarfs, shirts, etc and did well. My friend who sells jewelry made $170 over booth fee. Others I talked to said sales were slow. 
Second year I did this show. Last year it was 100 degrees and I made my booth fee, however the booth fee was only $115 because they cut it in half. 

Hello;

I live in South Florida and want to plan half a dozen art shows between now and next Summer in Florida. I was thinking of (if accepted!) limiting it to the Howard Allen Art Shows as they seem to be well organized. (I say this as I have not been in any of them yet.) Do any fellow artist have past experiences with these shows, and can direct me to the better ones? (In terms of crowd and POSSIBLE sales...) Thanks.

Well, I was halfway thru this blog and it disappeared into the eternal ether.

So here we go again.

The things I do for you guys.

Be nice to me and read this review and then, actually comment about it.

It is my birthday in two more weeks so be kind and read and respond.

This is a great little show in a very historic neighborhood. And, it is a moneymaker for most.

SF is held in the Shaw district slightly south and west of downtown.

Henry Shaw founded the Missouri Historic Botanical Gardens here.  And the show is held right beside it on two blocks of tree lined Flora Street. The gardens are considered the top ones in all of America.  So old Henry had his shit together and figured out a way for people to remember him forever.  Pretty crafty.  I would have loved to drink Manhattens with Henry and cull his mind.  He was a true visionary.

OK, back to the show.

As I said before it got lost in the ether, this show has a lot of parallels to St. James Court.

In fact the woman who founded SF forty years ago was originally from Louisville.

When she moved to St. Louis, she wanted to mimic the SJ show and make the Shaw just like it.

Both are held in old historic neighborhoods.  Both are run by associations who use the money produced from the show to make neighborhood improvements.

The Shaw is a far better show to do.

Here is why.

One. It is two days rather than three days to do.  Yet, I made just as much money in two and had a great time.  Later I will tell you about The Rooster, Thurman’s and Sasha’s.

Two.  It is cheaper to do.

Three.  It is a smaller show, only about 140 exhibitors.

Contrast that with SJ which has almost a thousand booths between their five shows and associated scab shows.  The one big problem with SJ is too many exhibitors for too few customers.  Fine artists have a tough time making a living here.

Four.  It is a far mellower setup and teardown than SJ.

OK, to balance it out.  Here is the only downside to the Shaw.

Weather can ruin it, especially rain.

This year, around 2pm a storm hit us out of the blue.

No soft beginning with floating drops hitting the canopy.

This storm rained down two inches of windy, hard-driven rain in less than twenty minutes.

After that, the crowd disappeared.  I made about $100 in sales til close of show at 5pm.

A photographer near me said, do not worry this is a Sunday show.

Guess what?  He was right, thank God.

OK Nels, enough with the yada yada.  Gives us some meat, facts.

Thought you would never ask.

How I did, and made money at the Shaw Art Fair.

First off, I forgot this.

The SF can put artists up in the neighborhood homes for free.  No hotel bill, what a concept.

I took advantage of it.  Arrived Thursday nite after a six hour drive from Saugatuck listening to Tom Petty on Sirius while going 80 mph.  “She went down swinging.”

Arrived at this 125 year old house with my room at the top three stories high.

I tried to time it so I showed up when they got home from work, about 7pm.

Being anal, I got there at 4pm, damn you Tom Petty.

So I consulted Google maps and found two cool bars and restaurants to hang out at.

OK, now we are into a Kill Bill moment, but no bloodshed, just lots of shots.

How I found Thurman’s and blundered into Sasha’s.

Thurmans was three blocks from the house I was staying at.

Luckily, they just opened at four.

This is a full on bar. Liquor, wine and craft beer.  They also do California food truck kind of food.  Think chicken, pork or fish tacos— for $3.50 each.

I had a well earned Eligha Craig Manhatten, chilled up in a martini glass.  Followed up with a shrimp taco and then a chicken one.  I bought a bottle of Spanish Temponillo wine for half price, which I was taking to my host’s home.  They were doing vegan chilling.  They loved the wine.

OK. How I found Sasha’s.

I realized while I was having fun at Thurman’s I still had an hour to kill before I showed up at my guest’s house.

My neighbor at the bar, JD was his name, said I should try Sasha’s.  It was five blocks down Thurman Avenue from Thurman’s, the bar.

Hope I did not lose you there.

Thurmuns, the bar, was also on Thurman Avenue.  Sashas was just down from Thurmuns about four or five blocks a way,

Heck, after a good Manhatten and a few tacos, what’s another block.

Sashas was very chic. Marble bar tops, music loud, a young tattooed crowd. Everybody drinking and talking at the top of their lungs.

My kind of place—sometimes.

They had a great wine list, I had one, wine, not the whole list.

They had lots of tapas dishes, think cheese trays,olives, cured meats and pizza.

Eventually, I ended up eating here every night.

OK, I got home safely, ate vegan chilli qand drank some wine.

I slept very well that nite.

Geez, Nels, when are we going to hear about this show.

Thought you would never ask.

So Friday, we could check in at 1pm and setup, take The whole day if you wanted to.

I ate breakfest at the Rooster, on Grand Blvd, just blocks from the show. They were awesome, think omelets, crepes, tomato jam and sriracha.

So It was about 10am and I was  ansty.

 So I went to the show and spocked out my site, booth 45.

Hell, I parked right there, we setup on grass.  Position A.  I pulled out my chair and sat under a shady tree.  Figured I could do a few hours of Candy Crush til registration time.

Then I noticed the next block down, a guy was unloading and setting up.

It was  Bill Lemke, who I know well.

He said, it is a mellow committee, you can setup, no problem.

So I did.

Was done by 2pm.  It was hot, high eighties,  But we had big shade trees.

Also, there were tons of room behind the booth.  Also had room on both sides to hang.

Friday nite, I ate at Sasha’s, the pesto pizza, was awesome.  Made it to Thurmuns and listened to great live jazz.

Saturday. Show started at 9am, ended at 5pm.

The Show has plenty of heavyweight exhibitors there.  Saw Darron Olsen, Ronnie Phillips, Sara and Marc Aune, Miki and Reicko, even saw Nels Johnson.

Crowd was slow coming. Never got busy til about noon.

Most people were walking with their dogs, not really looking at the art.

I mostly sold precious little pieces of paper.

Around 2pm the storm hit us fast.

The crowd never really returned.

I was not very happy, so I went to Sasha’s.

They put on a free artist dinner at a nearby restaurant. So I spent one hour at Sashas

and ambled over to the dinner.

They had great tapas chased down with free wine and beer.

Everybody was happy.

Sunday dawned with heavy fog. Went to Roosters, got a NY Times at Starbucks and got my van into Position A, ready for teardown.

 Crowd  never showed up til about noon.  Now I noticed more people carrying art in bags, a big difference from Saturday.

By 2pm, I was still sitting with a very low sales figure.

Then things started popping.  Bam, bam, thank you mam, I doubled my total sales in one hour. An hour later, I doubled it.

My neighbors were raking it in too.

Half hour from closing, a woman, who had been in three times before, walked in and bought my biggest one of a kind piece.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

Trust me this is a great show to do—if the weather does not get you.

Well, I think I have said a mouthful.

Aloha, Nels.

March 29, 30, 31
Indian Wells, California
Presented By: Indian Wells Arts Festival
200 Artists
Deadline: October 22

The Peoria Art Fair took place in a riverfront park in Peoria September 28-30. I had the pleasure of being the featured artist for this show, including the use of my images on posters, billboards, programs and a delightful mural-sized mosaic depiction of one of my paintings created by patrons of the art fair. In return for the show using my images, I was given a free booth in a great location. Great perk! I guess you should realize that my "featured" status gave me a BIG advantage over other exhibitors. I had a terrific show selling 81 pieces of art to 57 customers. My gross for the show was twice what I grossed at the same show a couple of years ago. I must admit that my success had a lot to do with my balloon images being on 10 billboards all over town and on the posters and ads being run by the committee.

So... great show for me, but a random poll of other artists gave me the impression that most other artists did pretty well too. I think this is due to the great work the two directors brought to this long running show. Shannon Cox and Kim Sanders did a great job, as did all the members of the committee. Advertising was widespread for weeks prior to the show and really worked to bring people out.

Setup was all day Friday and was a luxury for us artists who take a long time to set up. It was cool on Friday, making set up comfortable. The committee sponsored a pizza party for the artists from 5-6pm on Friday and the show opened to the public at 6pm. The cool temperatures continued into the evening and us artists froze our buns for the rest of the night. There was a great band that played classic rock most of the evening. We were a distance away from the band and enjoyed the music, but exhibitors close to the band complained. The band's contract called for performing until 10pm, so the art fair stayed open until 10pm... a mistake. Could be that more customers would be around late into the night if the weather was better, but traffic was pretty light after about 8:30.

I did pretty well Friday night in spite of the cold weather, selling a large canvas that the billboards were based on as well as a few other pieces. At least half of the booths did not make it to 10pm, and closed early because of the light traffic and cold weather. This is the first year Peoria opened on Friday, and they will probably reconsider that decision next year. Since us artists have all day to set up on Friday, we might as well open for a few hours in the evening to get in some extra sales. But maybe close around 8pm instead of 10.

Saturday's hours were 10-5. Weather was still cold, but not as cold as the night before. In spite of the cold, attendance was good and it seemed like every other group was carrying packages. Our sales were also good. Lunch for artists was brought to the booths, but not to artist assistants. Lunch was nothing to brag about... a sandwich. Saturday evening the committee sponsored finger food, beer and wine for the artists at the Peoria Art Museum. Food was very good and a blessedly brief awards ceremony gave a best of show ($3000 I think) and three additional awards. We were out of the gathering by about 7:30 and went out to dinner.

Sunday hours were 10-3pm. What a great idea to close at 3 giving us plenty of time to tear down and pack up while still light out. Weather was great on Sunday, warm and sunny. Again, lots of traffic and lots of packages going by. Seems like the people of Peoria really came out to support this art fair.

Here's one idea this art fair has been doing every year. They take an image by the featured artist and break it down in a grid into 280-plus 6-inch squares. Then, they ask patrons to reproduce each 6-inch square with paint on a piece of fome core. They have a big horseshoe shaped table set up with paint and brushes and visitors paint a reproduction of the art piece by piece. The result is surprisingly effective. And visitors to the art fair participate in creating this big mural.

This has always been a good show for me. Never a great show, but a pleasant one, easy to do with a lot of support from an artist-friendly committee. This year it as a great show for me; my best show of the year. Hopefully next year will be just as great. Hey Peoria! You need another featured artist next year? I'll volunteer... 

From my inbox:

The Polasek Museum hosts the Winter Park Paint Out (April 21-27, 2019), a week-long plein air festival, every April and we would like to invite your members and affiliated artists in your group to apply. The application is free and we welcome new and out-of-state participation, as we have a wonderful housing program to offer. If possible, please consider adding our 2019 event to your website's calendar page and pass along our "Call for Artists" press release to your members. The Deadline is Nov. 1st, 2018.  We would love for as many of your members to apply and paint with us at our beautiful sculpture gardens at the Polasek Museum, throughout the City of Winter Park, and Orlando areas. 

The application can be found on our Paint Out website along with information about our event: 

 http://polasek.org/wppo/2019-artist-application/

Please let us know if you have any questions, our artists liaison and curator Rachel Frisby will be happy to answer your questions.  

Warm thanks,

Julia Thomas | Marketing Intern

Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens

633 Osceola Avenue

Winter Park, Florida 32789

407-960-4719

Download the Press Release here: Press%20Release%20WPPO%20Call%20for%20Artists%200618.docx

Free?? How can it be free? Your chance to improve your chances of getting into that show. A great opportunity to learn what you need to do:

Colorado Artist Image Review Workshop presented by Cherry Creek Arts Festival
Denver, Colorado
OPEN DATE: 10/1/2018
DEADLINE: 10/19/2018
Fee (You must click "Check Out Free Item" button in order to submit images for this workshop): $0.00
Event Dates: 11/7/2018 - 11/7/2018
Event Website

Colorado Artist Image Review Workshop

Don't miss out on this FREE consulting opportunity to improve how your artwork is presented for online art show applications. APPLICATIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY THE DEADLINE OF FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19th.

When: Wednesday, November 7th at 9:30 a.m. 

Where: CherryArts Offices (CCAF) 2 Steele Street, Suite B100, Denver, Colorado. (Parking is recommended on surrounding streets or paid parking at the Cherry Creek Shopping Center -- as bank parking is strictly permitted except for bank customers.)

What: Colorado Artist Image Review Workshop presented by the Cherry Creek Arts Festival & ZAPPlication

Why: Have you ever wondered what does a professional artist jury look like, and what do those jurors in the projected jury room see? Or asked how do my images look enlarged and displayed when projected?

Join us at CherryArts on November 7, 2018 to see your images projected in a true jury setting. The projected jury method, uses the Zapplication JuryBuddy™ technology with projection equipment to showcase artists’ applications simultaneously and receive feedback from professional former Cherry Creek Arts Festival jurors. The goal of this FREE workshop is to help best present your work to art show juries and increase the number of shows that accept your work for exhibition.   

Ferndale is a north suburb of Detroit.

It is a three day show that was held last weekend.

Integrity Shows, which is Mark Loeb, produces it.  You can find it on Zapp.

FF is a multi diverse community.  The downtown has come a long way in last ten years.

Back then the Main Street had lots of closed stores and only a handful of restaurant bars to choose from.

Now, the street is packed with lots of commerce and bars.  There are four barbershops to choose from.

There are at least five coffee shops and about 25 bars and restaurants.

In other words the joint is jumping. Lots of smartly dressed young people, many sporting tinted hairstyles with bodies tattooed-adorned.

Almost everybody wears a hat of some sorts.

The Show is packed with lots of people with all kinds of breeds of dogs.

There is money here but they spend it sparingly and mostly Lowend for art.

I have done this show at least five times over the last decade.  Never have I been able to crack $2K at it.

Others do, just not me.

You setup on the street on Friday, early.  The show is 3-7 on Friday.

It is mostly a waste of time, most do not even sell $200 that day.

Trouble is, the City says if you setup on any day then the show has to start that day.

This year, Friday was a real challenge weather wise.

The forecast called for strong thunderstorms with winds in the 30-40 mph range.  Not good.

I arrived from Saugatuck around 11 am and setup.  Twice we were warned of immenint storms about to hit us, with fierce winds.

Luckily the storms went north of us but we had to deal with bad wind most of the day.

This Show attracts a lot of newbies with cheap pop up canopies.  You know how that goes with bad winds.  Not pretty.

All day you could here the sounds of crashing shelves with stock hitting the pavement. Being on concrete, it was hard to anchor down the booth to keep it walking in the wind.

I had no trouble.  I use a Lightdome and anchor it on all four sides with John Deere tractor weights, about 45 pounds each.

I also used four of Ellen’s round tube weights.  My booth was steady.

Loeb, like many promoters, let’s in a certain number of commercial booths to help pay the bills.

Unfortunately for me, he let in booth next to me which sold vacation packages on cruise ships.

They had a cheapie pop up with a spinning wheel to lure the suckers in with.  They had a very aggressive crew of three to four salesmen.  These guys would pitch very loudly to the passing crowd and actually walk out in the middle aisle and get in people’s faces to lure them in.  It is called a hard sell.

As we know, art is a soft sell.  These guys were the wrong fit for the show.

I approached the main man and politely explained to him that he could not interrupt the flow of the crowd

like he was doing.

He did not take kindly to my approach.

He explained that this was how they did biz.  I countered that it might work at a county fair or a food event but it does not work at an art show.  You have to let the prospect come to you without “hawking.”

He basically told me to stuff it and that they would be doing this all weekend.  I said, “Not!”

I called Loeb and told him what was going on.  He said he would look into it. And, he did.

A half hour later he came over and apologized for his behavior.  The rest of the show we all got along just peachy.

It was refreshing to see a show director actually show some backbone to a commercial exhibitor.

So, I ended up selling $70 on Friday.

Saturday, we had cloudy, chilly weather all day.  Never rained, but being in the shadows of the building behind me, it kept me severely chilled all day.  I had four layers of clothing on.

The Show started at ten but we never saw much of a crowd til about noon.

Then it got crowded.  Lots of hats walking their dogs.  Trouble was, most were just out walking with very few going in to see the artwork.

This is a small show with about 125 booths.  Most of the booths had very eclectic work, especially in mixed media.

I saw more new and refreshing work then I have seen in a larger show like Columbus.

My neighbor made women’s purses.  They were fashioned out of vintage 1950s fabric and adorned with screen printed images of famous movie stars.  His price points were mainly in the $35-$85 range and he sold steadily all weekend.

I saw lots of small framed pieces go by me all weekend.  But did not see any big ones.

For me, I mostly made sales out of my print bins, most sales were $50 and under.

I like the energy of the town and the show.  But it is not my venue.  I am afraid I will not be returning.

For some of you this could be a good show to try, especially if you have Lowend pricepoints.

Next, I will be showing for the first time at the ShawArt Festival in St. Louis.

I will have full report afterwards.

Then, it is time to pack up and leave Saugatuck and head to our new home in New Smyrna Beach.

Both of us are excited.

Aloha, Nels.

Palm Beach Fine Craft Show • Feb 15-17, 2019

Application Deadline Approaching • OCT 15, 2018 View this email in your browser Click Here to Apply for the Palm Beach Fine Craft Show Copyright © 2018 Palm Beach Show Group, All rights reserved.

Here's your chance to help run of the nation's best known art fairs. I know you've got the important experience of knowing a lot about art events. Do you meet these qualifications? Or if you know of anyone who might be artist-aware, detail-oriented, full of boundless energy, and willing to work full-time the few weeks leading up to Art Fair read on for the job description:

February 23
Kalamazoo, Michigan
Kalamazoo Expo Center and Fairgrounds
Presented by Road Wife Productions LLC 
(Bonnie Blandford & Michael Kifer)

9:00am-4:00pm
145+ artists depending on the number of double booths
Deadline: October 1

Application Fee:  $20

Booth Fees: start at $175: 10'x10'; $262: 15'x10': $350: 20x10

Why go to Kalamazoo in February?

 

It's 7 hours of as much fun as we can make it and the focus is all on helping you sell your work. This is the show to sell your leftovers, seconds, the last one left and those pieces that only you love at a discount.  

Hello;

I took a few photos of costumed people in a pubic parade, and made big posters of them. Is it with my right to sell these? I can't find (or even know by sight) the persons who were dressed in those costumes...

Hello. Where can I find my old Fl. tax number, or apply for a new one? I want to try a few art fairs again.

I just did two great shows in the midwest that I had not heard of before this year.  One was Edward's Place Fine Art Fair in Springfield, IL, September 15th and 16th and the other was Edwardsville Art Fair, in Edwardsville, IL September 21-23rd in Edwardsville, IL outside of St. Louis.  

Edward's Place Fine Art Fair has been going on for 30 years and I think I just never looked for shows that weekend before because of previous commitments.  But it turns out this show fits a lot of the criteria of what makes for a really great show for me- small show, run by an art center or art group, and in a community that doesn't have too many other art buying opportunities (I call this an "art starved community").

The setting for this show was on the lawn of a historic building turned into art center. Set up for me was super easy because I was the first booth- just pulled right up and unloaded.  Other booths had to haul in.  They had great crowds the entire time including Sunday morning.  I did a bunch of sales before it even opened at 10:00 on Sunday!  The weather was hot and humid but I still had nonstop traffic. 

I also loved their new concept on the "kid tent" they called it "Kidz Picks" and encouraged artists to set aside some work for under $8 for kids to purchase in their booth rather than send it off to a separate location.  This was a great way to do a little studio clearance and get kids into buying art.  I thought it worked great and didn't impact sales in any negative way- if anything it was a big positive to bring young families into my booth.  I actually think this concept will help encourage more families which is a what we all need to build this business into the future.  I didn't hear from many other artists as to how sales were because I was so busy- my neighbor with jewelry was happy though.  One other artist that I saw the next weekend said they had a slow Sunday. 

The next weekend I was heading down to the area once again but about an hour further south for the Edwardsville Art Fair.  This show is only in it's 5th year but they really know what they are doing.  Another artist recommended it last year and I will now recommend it to every artist I know.  I talked to the director and she said they want to grow the show but hopefully she will take my advice to keep it under 120 booths.  At this point there are 90.  The quality is mixed so I am sure they will continue to build in that area.  My sales at this show were once again constant and ranging from $5 to $425.  The hours are long on Saturday but shoppers were out the whole time with maybe a little lull around 3:00 or 4:00.  The close time at 3:00pm on Sunday was really nice for those of us needing to get some miles on after the show.  There were still customers at that time but at least I felt like I could start to tear down as needed. 

I haven't even touched on the amazing hospitality- meals served at our booth everyday!!  And good food too! On Saturday afternoon they gave me the best chocolate chip cookie I've ever had!  The judging was also really fair.  They had a new take- the judges had sticker that they could place near a favorite piece of art so they were able to spread their "Love" all over the whole show.  This helped sales too!  Plus they have enough sponsors to give out some serious cash! 

While chatting with the director she told me one thing they did with their advertising was to place ads in the programs of other art fairs in the area.  Once she told me that I realized that I had definitely seen those results- a lot of patrons asked me about other shows I would be in and said they go to all the shows.  And several customers called themselves "collectors".  Talking to other artists it sounds like they saw the benefits too! 

The other thing that really stood out to me at this show was how gracious everyone was.  I was thanked over and over again for coming there by the volunteers, board members AND many many customers!  I've never in all my 25 years of shows felt so overwhelmingly appreciated! 

If you are looking to do a couple of shows next September just remember to check out the "Edwards" shows in Illinois- both were amazing for me so hopefully they will be for you too!

Back in 2008 and 2009 when the economy was hit by the "great recession" many events closed up shop for economic reasons. But its' been awhile since I've heard of any more. Then today I read that a 26 year old art fair in St. Joseph, MO, Trails West!, held annually since 1993 had been suspended.

The organizers cited increased costs of producing the festival, not a surprising reason considering the inflation since 1993 and the security costs incurred since 9/11. But the second reason was one we talk about among ourselves (e.g., art fairs aren't like they used to be) the changing  of consumer behavior.

Learn more: http://www.kbia.org/post/st-joseph-group-suspends-its-annual-art-festival#stream/0

How are you dealing with how people do/don't buy art?