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Welcome to our newest member, Mark Burris, GM of MD Enterprises, manufacturers of Pro Panels. Pro Panels has officially moved their Trading Post to ArtFairInsiders.com. You can now buy, sell or trade your Pro Panel equipment right here on ArtFairInsiders.com in our discussion area.

Here is that link: http://www.artfairinsiders.com/forum/categories/buy-sell-or-trade-pro-panels/listForCategory

Help Getting Accepted into Art Shows - Part 3

Once upon a time there was an artist who sold his paintings every weekend at art shows. He took a few pictures of his paintings, and for the few shows that required it, hung his paintings on the fence next to his house and took a “display” picture. The film was dropped off at the corner drug store where he picked up the slides three days later. He filled out a paper application, included two checks, a few 35mm slides and a self-addressed stamped envelope. The envelope containing everything was dropped in the mail box. When the jury results came from the show, he could usually tell if he got in because the envelope didn’t include the slides, just a sheet of paper telling of the acceptance and that more information would be coming in the months ahead. Applying to art shows was easy and life was good.

My next article is detailed information on how to take and edit your jury images including camera settings and then managing images on your computer.

http://www.artfairinsiders.com/forum/topics/care-and-feeding-of-your-jury-images

To see the examples of my art photography or improved jury images. Also I do free image evaluations and can also make suggestions on streamlining your artist statement.

http://bermangraphics.com/digital-jury-resources/jury-slide-photography.htm
http://bermangraphics.com/digital-jury-resources/fixing-jury-images.htm

At any time, artists can call me with questions 412-401-8100

Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100

This is a mid size and very selective one day show in downtown Lafayette arranged around the courthouse. I've yet to see the fountain, but haven't gone looking for it. This year was a bit more problematic due to construction, and the booths were in different locations. For some that was a blessing as a bunch of spots required hauling stuff up a long set of steps. Those spots were eliminated this year.

I was located around the corner from last year's location. Two streets were able to be set up on Friday night after 6:00 PM, and two streets weren't closed until Saturday morning. I sent an email asking permission to set up on Friday night but the committee never answered. As it turned out, that wouldn't have worked as the booths were in the street and not on the sidewalk as they were the previous year. One artist I know had major heart surgery early this year and was assigned the Saturday morning set up, start at 6:00 AM and the show starts at 9:00. A little fast considering he has a Trimline and a lot of work to hang. He sent an email saying he would have to cancel if he couldn't set up on Friday evening. Somehow they found him a new spot on Thursday.

I'm dealing with some health issues where I get tired quickly and have little energy. I was able to get my daughter's family to come in and help me set up. I used an EZ-Up, instead of a Trimline, and didn't use the propanel extensions keeping the set up minimalist. We got there at 6:00 and were open and ready by 9:00.

This was going to be an interesting experiment for me with some new work and somewhat different media. I applied in two media, photography and graphics. The graphics work is mostly B&W and all have poetry or text in a diptych format. So I get rejected in photo and accepted in graphics. Since the jury booth shot had both styles in it, I felt that that displaying the new work prominently and some of the regular photo work was legit. Nothing was said.

So the booth has new work in it, and maybe a third or fourth of what is hanging are larger pieces of my regular work. I had to be very selective and there wasn't nearly as much room as I usually have. So what sold? One lousy stinking 8.5x11 flip bin piece of the new work. Lots of good comments about the poetry pieces, but what sold was my regular work and every bit of it came out of the flip bin with one exception. Sales figures were down by $20 from last year, but last year included several framed pieces and canvas prints where the expenses were much higher, so the profit was several hundred higher.

I commented about the high number of flip bin pieces selling to one of the organizers and they said that was a recurring theme they had heard from the other artists, as well as comments I heard directly from some other artists.

The crowd was much different this year from the last. Last year I thought I was back in grad school with the way I was getting questions about the meaning of my work, what the influences were, and questions about aesthetics. I had a fair number of Purdue faculty coming through last year and the questioning I had reflected that. I didn't see those folks this year. There were a lot of younger people this year. I did get a nice sale to a young lady, probably in her very early twenties. She really enjoyed some older work I had up, a series of GI Joe and Barbie B&W photos I did back in 1991 that is political and social satire humor with a caption that is just as important as the image. These are letter size pieces in inexpensive plastic frames, same price as the flip bin pieces. She couldn't make her mind up about which ones to get, and she asked if I would discount the entire lot if she got all of them. I gave a 50% discount, and she took all 12 :-)

Tear down started at 4:30, no problem getting vehicles in as common sense prevailed, and with the extra help from my daughter and son-in-law, we were packed up and pulling out by 6:30. I'll apply again next year.

We were excited to be called off the wait list for this show. It is run by the Decatur Arts Alliance with a large dedicated staff of volunteers. Decatur is a city of about 20,000 on the east side of Atlanta within the 285 beltway. The show is situated in the very beautiful downtown on streets surrounding the historic courthouse which is now a history center. There are any number of trendy restaurants, bars and shops in the area. No vacant real estate..always a good sign.

Check in times are assigned based on booth location. We live about 200 miles away which is a relatively short drive for us. We planned to arrive in enough time to pick up some inventory from our supplier nearby, have a leisurely lunch at one of our favorite spots in the area and then check in. Alas, delays encountered along the way caused us to skip the lunch and arrive at our designated time. After check in you are led to your spot and given plenty of time to off load. The sidewalks in our area were very wide with ample room to drop everything off. There was a free parking lot within 4 blocks of the show that accommodated over size vehicles.

We were on West Ponce de Leon St which had a severe downhill slope. We have dealt with sloping streets in the past but nothing this bad. It took us quite a while to re-engineer everything so it would work. We ended up shortening the legs 3 inches on the high side and using 3 inches of shims on the down side and that still was not enough. If you do this show bring plenty of shims. In the middle of set up the lack of food from the skipped lunch became a problem so we got some take out from a great place on the square called Truman's. I had the second best burger I have ever eaten and Sara had a great salad. We ate there three more times during the show.

The show opened at 10:00am on Saturday but we were there by 8:30 to tie up some loose ends and be ready for any early birds. The weather was a little warm but that is to be expected this time of year in the South. We had shade all day with a nice breeze blowing through our tent. The crowd was strong. We had people in our booth all day. The problem was they were not buying much from us. Our sales on Saturday were dismal. We saw art walking by but it was not ours.

The show closed at 6pm. We headed down to a funky area of Atlanta called Little Five Points and had Mexican on an outdoor patio on a beautiful evening and hoped for a better day on Sunday. It stormed overnight. A couple of tents went down but we did not have any damage. As we were having breakfast at a diner down the street from our booth called the Thumbs Up, the weather cleared at it was a beautiful Sunday. By the way, the Thumbs Up is a great place for breakfast with excellent coffee. The place looks like it is right out of the 60s, including their cash only policy.

Sunday sales were worse than Saturday for us. Again we had people all day long. If even a third of the people who "just loved" one of our prints had actually bought one we would have had a good day. My conclusion is that our subject matter did not appeal to the crowd. We saw people who had been in our booth walk by with purchases from elsewhere. As it turned out we just missed breaking even. We though we were going to have a pretty good sale at the end of the show when a guy with a thread bare shirt walked in identifying himself as a psychoanalyst looking for office art. He carefully looked through all of our images commenting on his patient's expected reactions to each one, some were quite funny actually. He finally settled on one that he liked which we had as a matted print and as a face mounted acrylic. At that point he said " you know I cannot spend ANY money without my wife's approval and she is not here". He made an about face and walked out leaving me to wonder who really needed the help...the doctor or the patient. At that point all hope vanished and we were resolved that we were not going to pull it out at the end.

So, while we did not have good sales others did. Three painters we know including our next door neighbor were happy. A jeweler across the aisle from us did well but I am sure as with all shows there were winners and losers. The glass artist next to us was not happy despite the fact that I had to have this vase I looked at all weekend. I have got to quit doing that.

Load out was easy. I could tell getting our trailer in there was going to be hard so we zipped up, went to Truman's, drowned our sorrows with martinis, had some dinner and then started to break down. By that time a lot of people had cleared out. The show closed at 5pm and even with a dinner break we were on the road by 8pm.

We are really disappointed that our sales were not better because we really enjoyed everything else about this show. The volunteers were wonderful. They were there to help during load in and load out and brought ice cold water by a couple of times a day. They were genuinely concerned that the artists had a good experience including good sales. The area is very nice and is a great place to spend sometime on a holiday weekend. Communication before the event was excellent. If you read the material you knew where to be, when to be there, and the whole thing ran like clockwork from our perspective as first timers.

I doubt that we will try this one again unless our body of work changes. For others I would recommend you give it a shot. It is a very well run show, pulling in a big crowd, in a nice area. If your work appeals to the crowd you could have a great weekend.

I can't say enough good things about this terrific art fair! It takes place in a small town in southern Illinois only a few miles from St. Louis. I have no idea how they do it, but they bring people out to the show in droves, and they all seem to have money in their pockets to spend on art. But first a couple of qualifications. Not every artist did well at this show. Our neighbor, a very talented painter, was very disappointed. I am a digital artist selling limited edition prints. Could be that the lower price tags of my work attracted more buyers. And a second qualification: My sales this year were down 50% from last year. But, even so, my sales this year were more than double the sales of my average art fair (last year sales were triple the average!).

Here's some of the things I like. Set up was leisurely and easy. We drove to Belleville from Saugatuck, Michigan (a 7 hour drive) on Thursday. The weather forecast was gloomy with 80-100% prediction of rain and storms on Friday and Saturday. We decided to get the tent set up on Thursday evening when it was predicted to be dry. We registered and drove our van into the Square (the show is set up around a fountain and the streets radiating out from the square). We were able to leave our van right next to the booth for the entire setup. I like that, not to have to unload everything and move the van. Although tired after that long drive, we got the tent and propanels up, but decided to wait until Friday to hang the art because of the prediction of storms.

It did storm Thursday night taking out some tents, but ours was unharmed. On Friday the show was scheduled to open at five and run until 10pm, so we had all day to hang the art. And somehow, we used the whole day. Not sure why that is, but the setup always eats up all the time that there is. If there is a 2 hour window to setup, it takes two hours. If there is a 6 hour window, it takes 6 hours. Go figure.

The rain conveniently stopped on Friday morning and held off for the duration. People came out on Friday and our sales were brisk. On Saturday night, it stormed again, but Saturday, while the show was open, it stayed dry. Saturday night, more rain, but Sunday was dry and pleasantly cool. I don't know how Patty and here committee did it, but they had the weatherman on their side. They turned a bleak forecast into good weather, scheduling the rain only during the off hours. 

Saturday sales were good again, and so was Sunday. And to top it off, I won an award for best of category (digital), a generous $1500. I won the same award last year. As I understand it, the large award pool is an annual donation by a local anonymous patron; one of the reasons Belleville attracts such good artists.

Here's another thing they do right in Belleville. They sell advance "art bucks" to locals, and that total, before the show even opened, was a whopping $115,000. And here's yet another thing they do that I like. They give grants of $1500 each to four local elementary schools to buy art at the art fair for their schools. The art is chosen by students from the schools. My work appeals to a wide range of people, including kids, so I sold work to two schools this year. Last year I sold work to three schools. Its a terrific program.

And yet another thing I like. I gained three pounds at this art fair. They constantly feed you. Lunches every day are brought to your booth for both me and Marcia. And in the artist hospitality area, there is also a generous buffet of stuff to eat and drink. And, did I mention the champagne breakfast on Sunday? Yep... champagne. And a great buffet too. 

Finally, at the end of the show break down was easy and uneventful. We were able to bring our van in and load up at our leisure. The show wisely lets the artists negotiate among themselves about fitting the vehicles into the spaces closest to their booths. We packed up and had a nice celebratory dinner on Sunday evening, toasting this incredible art fair and a community that truly supports the arts. We had a special toast to Patty, the force behind the Belleville Art on the Square.

This is a tough show to get in to and I feel fortunate to have been invited two years in a row. Unlike most shows, award winners are not automatically invited the next year, so, I'm going to keep my fingers crossed and hope for an invitation next year as well. 

I entered the Art Fair Pledge Drive a little late, never thinking I would win anything. Somehow my mind always works in the "early bird gets the worm" channel. But I donated and entered anyway, and when to my surprise my name was selected quite far down the list I figured I didn't have much of a chance for the prize I really wanted since I was number 20 on the list. But I had nothing to lose, either, so I listed the mesh panels from Flourish as the number one choice out of 4 possibilities.

Five years ago I splurged on a 10' x 10' Trimline canopy from Flourish, and because I'm a big fan of outdoor canopy stability I also splurged on the StaBar set to keep things from shifting around unnecessarily (had a bad experience with a flimsier canopy which shall remain nameless). The only downside was that I had no money left over for the finishing touch--the mesh panels that would make the display of my paintings neat as a pin. 

So-o-o-o...imagine my surprise when I saw that I had actually won those very panels! I wasn't sure at first that I had won--it seemed such a remote possibility--and I thought maybe it was just a list of everybody's first choices. After a reassuring email back from Connie I permitted myself to rejoice!

Flourish makes such a great product that I knew even five years later that the panels would still be the perfect ones for my canopy. I got contact information for them today, emailed them, and they have already scheduled shipping and I shall have my treasure soon. Their customer service is just as outstanding as their products and I will be forever grateful that they decided to support the pledge drive in such a generous way!

Rent Your Display
I added the option to list display equipment for rent in the For Sale and Trade forum. If you have display equipment sitting around that you only use a few times a year, why not have it generate some extra money for you. I rent my Pro Panels out a few times a year and they have paid for themselves a few times over.

http://www.artfairinsiders.com/forum/categories/for-sale-trade-or-rent/listForCategory

You can also post if you're looking to rent a display.

Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100

Help Getting Accepted into Art Shows - Part 2

My next article is detailed information on how to take good jewelry photographs describing the camera and lighting equipment and some tips on how to use it.

The most difficult type of artwork to photograph is jewelry. That’s because of it’s small size and that it can have many reflective surfaces. And because of it’s small size, it’s very difficult to keep the entire piece in focus. Also the jewelry medium is the most competitive. Most art shows receive more jewelry applications than any other medium. That’s why it’s important to have excellent images of jewelry that make the pieces pop when viewed by the jury.

This article has been posted in the Jurying for Art Fairs forum

To see the examples of my art photography or improved jury images. Also I do free image evaluations and can also make suggestions on streamlining your artist statement.

At any time, artists can call me with questions 412-401-8100

Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100

Last weekend we were in Florence, Alabama for Arts Alive. It was a positive experience for us and our sales exceeded our expectations going in. Florence is a city of about 40,000 in the northwest corner of the state. It is located on the Tennessee River and is adjacent to Muscle Shoals. There is a rich musical heritage here. This show was recommended to us by a couple of artists friends familiar with our work. We were somewhat skeptical since it is a relatively small city and we tend to do better in larger venues. But, it was close to home and expenses were low ( booth was $170.00) so we decided to give it a try.

The site is Wilson Park which is located in the center of the downtown area surrounded by large stately homes. The arts center runs the show and overall did a good job. The arts center is located adjacent to the park in three large former homes. Load in started at 9am on Friday. There was no set schedule, just show up whenever. Two of the streets adjacent to the park were blocked off and the other two had street parking. We were able to pull up with our trailer and park about 50 feet from our booth. We stayed there for the four hours it took us to set up. Some were able to drive into the park on the sidewalks but most had to dolly. It was hot and humid during set up but luckily we had shade all day. Nevertheless, we were both spent by the end of the day.

The show opened at 9am but it is a free event so we got there at 8am to tie up some loose ends and be ready for any early birds. This is the big art event of the year so while the crowd was not overwhelming it seemed OK. Others who have done the show in the past said the crowd was down perhaps due to the weather. We had a pretty good morning with print bin sales. Then a former customer from another show came by and bought a piece off the wall and ordered some prints. It was shaping up to be a really good day....then the rain hit. It was about 2pm when the clouds cut loose. The show shut down early and everyone zipped up for the night.

There is a very nice reception for the artists on Saturday night. All the tables and chairs were set up in the backyard of the arts center. The rain ended the outdoor plans and everything was moved inside. There was a beer and wine bar in the art gallery. The drinks were accompanied by a jazz trio who were very good by the way. Next door was a buffet set up with BBQ. Awards were announced while we were eating dinner and we missed that we won third place. Despite the weather we had a good time.

By Sunday morning the weather had partially cleared and although rain was forecast for later in the day, it looked like we would get the entire day in. The morning was slow but picked up in the afternoon. Our sales were not very good until one customer came in and bought two large pieces. We sold a few other things and by 5pm when the show ended we were feeling pretty good about the weekend. Load out was OK and again we were able to park close to our booth. Unfortunately with about 30 minutes left before we were completely loaded it started raining again. For the second show in a row we were soaked.

We did not understand this when we applied but there are two shows. The first is the Gallery Show (separate application on Zapp). If accepted, you can submit up to three works for gallery display before and after the show. We checked out the gallery submissions during the reception and many of them had sold. The outdoor show is the Park Show. You can do both as long as you submit two applications.

The only negative about this show was security. In previous years there was on site security. This year security was limited to drive bys by on duty police. Four booths were broken into. It appeared that the thieves cased the booths during the show and determined what they wanted. Items stolen were parts of a set or related to each other in some way. In other words, it was not some random theft. There were substantial losses for those victimized.

While we were very pleased with our sales, we did not check around with others for their experiences. Security needs to be improved. None of us can afford to lose inventory to thieves. We will apply to this show next year as it worked out well for us and is close to home. The downtown is nice with several new restaurants and accommodations are reasonable. Despite our GPS taking us on an unwanted tour of backwoods Alabama in the rain after the show it was a good weekend. I am not sure we would have felt the same way if the thieves and hit us.

Asheville Fine Art Show, Hot Works

Asheville, NC -- May 20-21, 2017

I just returned from the Asheville Fine Art Show in Asheville, NC. This was an indoor event at the U.S. Cellular Center downtown. Asheville is a fun, funky town with a big art scene and a lot of food choices, and LOTS of beer breweries downtown. What's not to love?

This show had some amazing potential. There was a boatload of advertising for the show, the weather outside was supposed to be storms and rain and this was indoors, it was a central location, and only about a six hour drive from home. It was an expensive (to me) show, though -- booth fee was $625, add $85 if you wanted electric. I chose to bring my battery setup and skip the extra cost -- make that rig pay for itself, right? Patty (Hot Works) was wonderful in keeping good contact with everyone, sending links to the advertising, news articles, TV spots, and more.

Set up and load in was flawless. You could actually drive into the venue and unload very close to your booth, the day before the show. In my case, about two feet from my booth. It is a relatively small show of about 85 spaces, on two levels -- the Arena floor and the concourse (entry) level. The entry level had about 9 booths, walk down a ramp to the arena floor for the rest of the artists. You could purchase parking about six blocks away for the duration of the show for $20, which I did. It was quite the hike from the parking lot, turns out. There's not a level stretch of road in this town!

There was such a wonderful variety of artists, across all mediums and price points. Looking at the other artists involved made me think "Man, I'm lucky to have been accepted to this show!" A few familiar faces and quite a few new ones, since this was my first NC show and first visit to Asheville. We all had high hopes for the show!

A few photos are at the Photobucket link below, more on my Instagram @joellockridge, then the review continues below.

Asheville photos

The problem with the show is that very few people came. There was a "Gallery Walk" going on that weekend in the famous art district, as well as two other outdoor shows I had no idea were going on. Saturday's two sales totaled $100. Sunday's sales totaled $95. Many artists didn't even get that much, just a few lucky souls made their booth fee back. I don't know of anyone who made a real profit. Even the driving rain on Sunday didn't bring people inside. I've never had such a huge loss for a show before, and after two bad shows in a row, things are getting somewhat desperate around here.

Load out was again, flawless. No shoppers to get in the way of the load-out process.

So what went wrong? No idea. Too much going on? Lack of parking? The locals just didn't show up for this. Any insights?

Help Getting Accepted into Art Shows

I finally got around to listening to the podcast on reasons why you don't get into shows. Listening to the three show directors discuss ways to help your chances of getting into shows made me realize I need to republish some of my articles here on Art Fair Insiders.

The three factors discussed in the podcast are, 1 - your images, 2 - your booth and 3 - the artist statement.

I'll start with my article on how to photograph your booth. It ran in Sunshine Artist, the NAIA newspaper, and is on the ZAPP web site. Look for it in the booth evaluation forum and follow the link back to my web site to see the example booth images.

See the examples of my art photography or improved jury images. Also I do free image evaluations and can also make suggestions on streamlining your artist statement.

At any time, artists can call me with questions 412-401-8100

Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100

October 14 & 15
Las Vegas, Nevada
100 Artists
Deadline: June 1

Application Fee: $25   Booth Fee: $300-$575

Summerlin Festival of Arts is celebrating its 22nd year in 2017 and its second year located on a grassy park-like area in beautiful Downtown Summerlin. Held in the affluent Summerlin area of Las Vegas, this established outdoor art festival also features music, food and entertainment, but the celebration's focus is to support fine artists and artisans. 

August 5  

Application Fee: 0   Booth Fee: $75 single, $130 double 

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the Pledge Drive. It was one of our best.

Christine Berthiaume from the New Orleans Jazz Fest pulled the names of the winners of the prizes today, May 18, for the first 24 winners. Altogether there are 39 prizes. These 24 choose their prizes first. If your name is listed below please visit the prize page and make your choice. Depending on how far down the list your name is you'd better make several choices and send them to me: connie@artfaircalendar.com.

Now here's a little more fun. If your name is not on this list you still have a chance to claim a reward. These 24 must claim their prizes by midnight Sunday. On Monday I'll be listing the prizes unclaimed and it will be a "first come, first served" scramble. Everyone who pledged is eligible to choose and if you haven't pledged yet go ahead and do it now and you can join the fun. Pledge here.

We'll pass out the prizes in numerical order starting with:

1. Susie Brindza - Debbie Stillman's necklace and earrings

2. Carol Knox - $100 gift certificate from Red River Paper

3. Gail Lane

4. Karen Hollister

5. Richard Sherer - $100 Amazon card from ACTinsurance.com

6. Wally and Lu Fuller - Ingot Canopy Weight Set from CanopyWeights.com

7. Carol Brink - Watercolor painting by Michael Weber, Weberwatercolors.com

8. Heather Davis - $100 gift certificate from Red River Paper

9. Heidi Barron - $200 gift certificate from ProPanels.com

10. John Desalme - Black & White Photo from Allan Teger, Bodyscapes.com

11. Tom Feltes

12. Joel Lockridge - Fire Tablet from ArtFairCalendar.com

13. Patty DeMaria - Kindle Paperwhite e-reader from ArtFairCalendar.com

14. Judy Zeddies

15. Layl McDill - $200 gift certificate from ProPanels.com

16. Al Scovern - $200 gift 

certificate from ProPanels.com

17. Pam O'Brien - Wall Street Bourbon Pen from Joel Lockridge, BourbonPens.com

18. Heidi Mandich - $150 for photography from Larry Sanders, juryimage.com

19. Pat Falk - Booth space at Rose Squared Productions in New Jersey in 2017

20. Allison Farkas - Mesh Panel Display Walls, set of three, from Flourish.com

21. Judy Rohrbaugh - Art Fair Report from ArtFairCalendar.com

22. Michelle Stoffan and Bernie Atkins - $200 Imaging or Photography Service from Larry Berman, BermanGraphics.com

23. Suzanne Krongold - Level 3 Membership to FestivalNet.com

24. Kristine Ritter - Booth Space at Holiday Art Show, St. Augustine from Lynn Wettach