Blog

Always held on the Sunday and Monday of Labor Day weekend.

This is one of the richest suburbs on the Chicago north shore.

They do not allow any hotels within the city limits.

I usually stay with Jim Wilbat who lives nearby in Deerfield, but he was off doing the Bloomington art fair.

So I got to stay at a Red Roof Inn in Waukegan. The city has seen better days since when Jack Benny was born there.

OK, back to LF.

I have done this show about six times. The first two times I made really good sales. Since then, I have seen a steady decline every year.  This year was the worst.  Weather played a big role in it.

The weather forecast for this show was not good.  We had high humidity coupled with stifling heat intermixed with a string of rainstorms that poured on us during setup, teardown and most of the day Monday.

It hurt our sales.  Attendance was down, and those who were walking were not buying much.  Mostly Lowend.

On Sunday I never saw one large 2D sale go by til 3:30. I saw two more and that was it.

Monday, a couple of artists got lucky but most made minemal sales.

The Show is held downtown in the heart of the shopping district.

It has about 250 booths with a hefty booth fee.  Frankly, their fee is not worth it.

I could do better selling hotdogs in a vacant lot than what I do at this show.

I did not even do $500 in sales.

All booths are on concrete, no staking in the ground.

Fire Marshal came around checking booths for fire extinguishers.

Seriously folks, in 45 years of doing shows, I have yet to see anything on fire in a booth.

Most people had some room on one side to hang art.  Most had rear storage.

The people who attend are smartly dressed while walking their pedigree dogs.

They socialize more than they buy. You get tons of complements with little dinero.

I am adding more new insights.

Ironically, while most of us had meager sales, one particular photographer, excelled—it was his best show anywhere in Chicago.

I have been following his posts on Art Fair Reviews all summer.

He has mainly done Amy Amdur shows and, failed miserably at all of them.

Lo and behold he comes to Lake Forest. First day he did about $250.  On rainy Sunday two customers walk into his booth and spend almost $4000 on photos on metal.  He made out like a bandit.  I do not know any others, but, God bless.

Also, over Sunday night the rain was severe. Several ramps off the main highway 41 were impassable, think three to four foot deep.

No wonder nobody came and bought.

Looking for a profitable and stress-free weekend show? Apply to ArtFest Fort Myers - Southwest Florida's premier fine art festival and largest weekend event. Creating an artwork-selling festival for artists is the focus of our year-round professional staff with 19 years of consistent management.

 

HOW DO WE PROMOTE FOR YOU?

$175,000 Marketing Campaign  targeted to art buyers from Marco Island to Sarasota to West Palm Beach.  We are getting the word out about your fabulous art work via TV, radio, daily newspapers and weekly publications, digital billboards, magazine articles, our mobile friendly website, our online Artist Gallery, regional theatre and symphony programs plus social media outreach and e-vites to our special patrons.

 

HOW DO WE SET THE CONDITIONS FOR ARTIST SUCCESS?

You  need  an appropriate environment to showcase your artwork  and create vigorous sales. ArtFest Fort Myers creates that environment along a wide boulevard with ease-for-patron flow of artist booths flanked by a beautiful riverfront park and yacht basin.  You  need  a supportive, income-appropriate audience in a broad age range  to produce excellent sales. At ArtFest Fort Myers, you will find:

• a very loyal base of VIP's, patrons and sponsors who wait all year to purchase art at our festival

• upscale dining areas, including shaded table seating & ample food/beverage options, encouraging buyers to stay longer and shop more.

• on-site arts related activities to keep the patrons engaged while they decide on more art purchases (high school art competition, children's art yard, high school sidewalk chalk competition and more)

HOW DO WE TAKE CARE OF ARTISTS?

• Oversized booth spaces - 3 feet between booths & behind-booth storage area

• Easy Friday Set-up with scheduled staggered drive-up access
• Breakfast Saturday and Sunday plus water all day & indoor bathrooms
• Booth Sitters and dedicated Artist Ambassadors
• Discounted hotel rates & reserved artist parking with complimentary trolley transportation
• 24 hour security
• $5,500 in Artist Awards

Apply Now: https://www.zapplication.org/event-info.php?ID=6680

Questions:  Jeanne.Seehaver@ArtFestFortMyers.com
Jeanne Seehaver, Associate Director

I participated in my first mountain festival Aug 11, 2018.

I feel it was a success, sold quite a few pieces (mostly stickers and economical prints, a few giclee’s).

Lessons learned:

In setting up my booth I decided to professionally frame my 16x20’s and original sized artwork to grab the customers attention. It worked, but a lot of people did not want to purchase those they wanted the smaller size and I found myself constantly showing what that size looked like. I am curious to learn how other artists handle this. Do you display various sizes of your prints?

Another potentially critical issue was condensation on the inside of my framed art on the wall that had sun. This could have been disastrous and ruined my prints. I quickly pulled the frames off the wall and wiped the inside off. I was able to display them shortly after now that the glass was accilimated to the temp. Whew!

Make sure the air can flow through your tent. At one point my tent wanted to take flight. I thought with the heavy walls hanging from the railing would help (and it did) until the wind turned head on into my tent. Shortly after I added a bucket of water to the front of my tent on ea. side which took care of the wind issue.

I use Shopify for my website and POS. The only issue I had is I needed WiFi for the swipe reader to work, which was not available. I was able to manually type the card in but I felt like I spent a lot of time looking at my phone vs the customer. Does anyone have a suggestion to improve this issue for my next event?

Your constructive feedback and comments are requested and welcomed :)

(sponsored post)

US Weight launched into the canopy weight business with artist Jim Eaton's canopy weight - the Eaton. Since then, the company has transformed the Eaton with knowledge and solutions from Jim to expand its line of canopy weights to the Tailgater and the Ingot weights.

The Tailgater's unique design allows artists to customize the amount of weight per leg required for their canopy. With no-pinch interlocking grooves on every weight, stack the tailgaters until they reach a desired amount of weight.

The Ingot, known as the Swiss army knife of canopy weights, takes versatility to the next level. Hang these 15 lb. weights with our C-hooks or secure the weights to the canopy poles using the interlocking design and included Velcro straps.

Windblown canopies are the number 1 cause of property loss and injury at outdoor events where canopies are widely used. US Weight is here to help! Protect your customers and art at the next festival with these professionally designed weights.

This is an answer to Connie’s question “Just wondering if any of you are having any luck trying Air BnB?”  I decided to start a new thread on this, since I think it is a substantive issue.

I have used Airbnb a few times, with positive experiences up until last month, when a host canceled my reservation.  The host, who is listed as a Superhost with all good reviews, canceled my fully-paid-for reservation “because a family member needs to use it”.  I was refunded my payment by Airbnb, but am not happy that my reservation could be canceled on a whim with no repercussions or remedies offered.  I concluded that Airbnb is the reverse of the normal hotel room reservation system:  with a hotel room, the guest can often cancel right up to the date reserved without penalty, while the hotel cannot.  With Airbnb, the guest cannot cancel, but the host can without any penalty.  This does not make it a very valuable service for business people, including artists, who need reliable accommodations.  I for one do not intend to use Airbnb in the future unless there are no other alternatives.

You may be as surprised as I was that a host can cancel your reservation with no repercussions.  On the Airbnb web site https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/990/i-m-a-host--what-penalties-apply-if-i-need-to-cancel-a-reservation they state that a host who cancels a reservation will lose their Superhost status and that there will be an automated review posted on the host’s listed “that can’t be removed” indicating that a reservation had been canceled by that host.  But almost one month after my reservation was canceled, the host is still listed as a Superhost, and there is no automatic review posted.  Airbnb will not allow me to post a review, because I never had the chance to rent the condo. 

Also, note the language “that can’t be removed”.  That implies that hosts can remove any customer written reviews that they do not like.  Looking around the internet, there is a general consensus that Airbnb hosts remove reviews that are not to their liking.  So you cannot trust the reservation system, cannot trust the penalty system, cannot trust what they say Superhost means (“0 cancelations” – see https://www.airbnb.com/superhost ), and cannot trust the reviews.

After my bad experience I looked around the internet and discovered lots of Airbnb horror stories.  One person even described Airbnb as “a paradise for fraudsters” (which introduces a whole other set of risk factors).  Caveat Emptor!

This show was on the first weekend of August.

It is run by the local art museum group and is held in a beautiful treed park

on the south side of the town.

This is a very quaint small town located just south of I-94 about ten miles west of Michigan City Indiana.

All booths are on grass and the booth fee is $220.

This is not a Zapp Show.

Just Google “Chesterton Art Center” and the show info, application, will show up.

Actually, Connie lists this show on her venue of shows.

OK, let us get down to brass tacks.

This is a filler show. If you gross $2K plus, you are doing good.

Only about 95 booths.

Plenty of storage space.  

Before day setup, a very mellow teardown.

A very responsive committee with great volunteers.

They give you ample bottles of water daily.

Booth sitters galore.

They have a food truck that sells legendary hamburgers there.

Also local restaurants are there with reasonable priced foods.

Breakfest both days.

The patrons are very well dressed in spite of 90 plus temps both dYs.

The town has many monied neighborhoods.  This is not blue collar-Ville.

So here is the rub.

They come, they look, but they do not buy much art, maybe a little more craft.

Definitely, a Lowend Show.

I barely sold $1300.

Plenty others were in my range.

It was very hot. But it is always hot there, after all, it is August.

This Show has been going there for years.  I remember old timers like Denny who did it for years.

In old times, some artists could do $3K plus, but those days are gone.

Most years, I do Uptown, Minneapolis, on this weekend. A better grossing show.

I make home to Saugatuck in less than a hour and a half.

I find hotels in the $70 range and great local restaurants to eat and imbibe at.

Lucrezias in downtown serves fantastic eats at a deal. They are not to be missed.

Like I said,this is a filler show.

This weekend I will be in Lexington, Kentucky.

Later, gators.

This was the first time experience for this artist in Frisco, did an HA event in Redstone, UT years ago billed as Park City, UT a bait and switch?

All spaces were marked for the early (5AM) load in time. Load in was remarkably not chaotic as was load out, everyone behaved themselves. Minimal presence of staff with fewer instructions at the time of load-in, most instructions were given via their website or online way ahead of the show.

It has been years since I've done a mountain art show and maybe this experience is a reminder to me why I gave up on them. IMHO this was not a "destination" art fair. In other words, it was not an exclusive event like a Cherry Creek, etc. Most people were there as weekend or longer term vacationers or people who live in the area. The event was noted on multiple posters around town and a big banner at one end of the main street. People attending the event were "pedestrians" out for a stroll, didn't look like a crowd eager to buy but rather there to enjoy the day and whatever was going on. Energy was low for buying. HA's promotional material says that he brings out the buying public, or something like that, I don't know how that applies to his other shows but I would say for this show the "crowd" was not there exclusively for the show mostly just the local ambiance. Did not see a whole lot of big items moving through the crowd. Some photography bin pieces were seen though. Didn't "make" any money, lost a lot though! Artists near me felt as if their sales were down from the previous year.

Too many Photographers ( 20%) and Jewelers for a show of this size (125 artists). The weather was perfect. Parking for vehicles and campers was provided at either end of the show, no artist amenities (a granola bar at 6 AM), no booth sitters, porta potties were in the middle of a 4 block long show but were available at the visitor center or local restaurants.

Frisco, CO is a wonderful little town that hasn't entirely fallen to the glitz that typifies some of the Colorado mountain ski towns, it still maintains some of its charm and dignity. It isn't however inexpensive to stay here, even with Airbnb, and food can be a little pricey though there are a few select spots that are still affordable. I guess I could have driven the 75 miles back home each day but traffic on I-70 and going up and down the mountains can be a horrendous experience. Oh and, if yer not used to the elevation (9000+ feet) you WILL feel it. I spend plenty of time in the mountains and still had a hard time with sleep and the exertion of setup.

Artists from 8 southeast Michigan counties have the chance to strut their stuff as the MI Great Artist online art competition kicks into gear. Cash and prizes total more than $16,000. Sponsored by Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson.

Enter now right here: MIGreatArtist.com

August 17 & 18   

From the Chamber of Commerce:

• two days
• beautiful time of year for weather & tourism
• spacious booth spaces:  12x12

  

MONDAY - AUGUST 6, 6 PM ET - An Art Fair Story

Ready for a great story? Then you'll love this podcast.Details: The St. James Court Art Show (Oct. 5-7, 2018) began five decades ago as a small open air art show taking up only a small corner of Old Louisville's St. James Court. It has since become the second largest event held in Louisville each year (second to the Kentucky Derby Festival). It hosts 700 artists in 4 neighborhoods in this historic part of the city. 

On September 3, 2018, the Kentucky Historical Society will dedicate a Kentucky Historical Marker to Malcolm Bird, and his friends, not only for founding the Art Show, but also for starting the renovations and revitalization of St. James Court in the 1950s. The work by these urban pioneers, led to the designation of the area as an Historic Preservation District in 1974 .... Old Louisville was born .... or maybe reborn.

 Our guests who will walk through the history with me are:

• Mark Bird, who, with Sonny Whittle, created the first St. James Court Art Show poster, and is Malcolm's nephew and subsequently with Sonny produced if for the following 6 years, 1981-1987
• new executive director of the St. James Court Art Show, Howard Rosenberg
• long time participant in the show photographer and now music entrepreneur Hippie Jack Stoddart
• Printmaker Mary Lou Hess, who has participated in the show since the beginning

If you love art fairs, and particularly this one, this will be a fact-filled and fun listen as we learn what makes an art festival a success.

Fun fact: this show is so popular in Louisville that they even close the schools on the Friday of the show so everyone can enjoy it.

Have you ever done this show? If so, you've contributed to this historical neighborhood and helped preserve it. 

Click here to listen

Well, I have not blogged in a while.  So here goes.

I gave up on the Ann Arbor Show after 30 years, it just was not worth it anymore.

So, two years ago, I tried the Cadillac show as a replacement.

Not that I expected to gross as much as AA. But the show is an hour plus from my Saugatuck casa.  It is small, less than 100 exhibitors. It is held in a mellow downtown park right on the lake and it is easy-pezy to setup and teardown.

So last year I managed to pull $1500 out of it which was almost 10x the booth fee.

So I decided to do it again this year.

It was no way close to last year. 

First, a little background on Cadillac.

It is about an hour north of Grand Rapids.

It is the gateway community to the Michigan north woods.  Think, lakes, rivers, trails, fishing golfing amongst lots of big trees.

Cadillac has all this.  But it is an old lumber town and it is mostly a blue collar community.

Crafts sell better here rather than 2-d art. And, they do not want to pay a lot for it.

A very enthusiastic committee  treats the artists like they are really special people.  It is quite refreshing.

It is a Friday and Saturday show and you can setup the afternoon before.

All spots are on grass with plenty of  rear storage and room to display on the sides.

They have good food both mornings and they have small prize money.

What they lack is many enthusiastic patrons to sell to.

The first year I made a big sale to visiting women from Ann Arbor.  This year I did meet any good shoes people from afar.

Seriously, I did meet many people, period.

On Friday I made $410 in sales. I know many others who barely sold $200.

The weather forecast for Saturday was not looking good, supposed to rain all day.

I took all the artwork out of my booth at Friday close.  Dry in the van was my plan.

If things changed Saturday morn then the art would be rehung.

Saturday dawned, barely.  Dark, gloomy, no sun, very foreboding.

I tore down the booth and left before 8am.

A jeweler friend who I highly respect did the show and gave a report on Facebook about Saturday.

I did not miss a thing.

So here is my advice to those of you who are thinking of doing it.

First, a crafter has a better chance at a reasonable return. 2-D artists stay away, there is a very slim market there for sales.

If you live close by it is worth a one-time risk.  Do not travel great miles to do it unless you plan on treating this like a vacation.

I really like the people who run the show, they are the cat’s meow.  Unfortunately the Cadillac community does not support the arts enough for us to earn a paycheck there.

So, my replacement for AA is still a mystery.

Hey, I can always play more golf since I am now semi-retired.

Later, gators.  I have several other posts to write.

October 12, 13 & 14

The Summit Art Festival is a 3-day, outdoor, high-quality, juried fine art event in the historic downtown district of Lee's Summit, Missouri.  We support the arts and artists by providing exhibition opportunities, professional development and mentoring within Lee's Summit and the surrounding communities. The festival is managed and operated by the experienced and professional volunteer efforts of Summit Art members, artists and other community volunteers.

Located in the "heart of the city", downtown Lee's Summit is a creative community offering many locally-owned specialty shops and boutiques, a bed and breakfast inn, and an eclectic variety of casual and fine-dining restaurants and taverns. It is also home to many businesses offering a wide range of services. Downtown Lee's Summit surrounds the historic depot and Amtrak train station, and the Historical Society of Lee's Summit Museum.

With a population nearing 100,000, Lee's Summit is the 6th largest city in both the state of Missouri and in the Kansas City metropolitan area. Our growing city was recently named the 5th BEST CITY to live in according to 24/7 Wall St. USA TODAY, which determined that residents reap the benefits of some of the best economic circumstances and quality of life of any US city. Cultural Arts initiatives continue to be a priority to city planners and developers.

Artists Amenities:

• Booth sitters; Artist lounge area with snacks and beverages
• Free, nearby parking for artists
• 24-hour security; Electricity (included in booth fee)
• Indoor restroom facilities for artists' use
• Festival promotion, marketing and advertising
• Complimentary lunch delivered to booth
• Large volunteer base to assist artists
• 11 years of festival management experience

2018 AWARDS:

 

BEST IN SHOW - $1000 plus named as 2019 festival Featured Artist, 2019 jury fee and booth fee

2nd Best In Show - $750 plus 2019 festival jury and booth fee

3rd Best In Show - $500 plus 2019 festival jury fee

Mayors Award - $200 plus 2019 festival jury fee

Directors Award - $150 plus 2019 festival jury fee

1st Place Jurors Merit Award - $100 plus 2019 festival jury fee

2nd Place Jurors Merit Award - $100 plus 2019 festival jury fee

3rd Place Jurors Merit Award - $100 plus 2019 festival jury fee

APPLY: https://www.zapplication.org/event-info.php?ID=6517

More Information: www.summitartfest.org
Contact: Jody Fristoe, info@summitartfest.org, (816) 805-0114

I got into the Black Swamp Art Festival http://www.blackswampfest.org in September and will need a room. Does anyone have suggestions for inexpensive hotels/motels close to downtown Bowling Green, Ohio? Also, anyone here done this show and have sage advice?

Thanks!