Can you believe that headline? Who knew anyone was noticing? This article from the Naples Daily News is not 
about the street art fairs we know, love, hate, aspire to and desire, it is about the biggie International events that feature art dealers and galleries with BIG price tag items, an art show with up to $1 billion in inventory, as will be present at the Naples Art Antique & Jewelry Show. It debuted in Naples last year and this year it has a competitor, the Naples Art, Antique & Jewelry Show.
PHOTO BY LEXEY SWALL at the Naples International Art & Antiques Fair
What are they selling? The show will offer an array of art for visitors to peruse, including Asian and European antiquities, Roman glass, antique Persian rugs, oil and watercolor paintings and English and American silver. There will also be an extensive selection of jewelry from dealers such as London-based Hancocks & Co. and New York-based celebrity favorite Fred Leighton.
So while we focus on the Naples National, Naples Bayfest, Naples Invitational, Bonita January, February, etc., these gallery events bring in high end tents with air conditioning, valet parking, LED lighting, and the sales of "big rocks."
David Lester, owner and organizer of the Naples International Art & Antique Fair "believes Naples' art-collecting community is still developing, and that the spirit of friendly rivalry that often accompanies collecting hasn't taken hold yet. About 95 percent of the visitors who attended last year's fair were simply there to look and to enjoy what Lester called "cultural entertainment. 'In my opinion, people in Naples don't spend carelessly. And they don't tend to be frivolous.'"
Here we go again -- not only a near saturation point of juried art fairs but also two billion dollar exhibitions in the same month. Is the world coming to Naples?
Read the article: http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2012/feb/06/the-art-of-blancing-art-shows-can-naples-support/
Great comments from the locals too!
Comments
Come on- lets face it, the whole southwest Florida is way over-saturated. and southeast as well... Imagine there were fewer shows, artists would do much better. It's not just Naples, and it's not just 2 shows in one month.. more than that. You have Bonita Springs, a show every month J-M, Fort Myers, Coconut Point, two shows, Cape Coral, . Marco - and I have not listed them all -I have done 3 shows this winter in the area, and many many patrons - come in and say, I saw you here or there, just a couple weeks ago. They want to know if you will be here or there, so they wont have to make up their mind to buy from you now. Yes, people come and go, but many are down for the season, and have nothing else to do but walk the art shows. It certainly dilutes the market... Last weekend, there were three shows on the same weekend, from Naples to Bonita to Coconut Point. I don't hear any artists jumping for joy! There are only so many buyers. I'm going to rethink next year, and I've been doing fine, for the past three years down here, but it is getting rather annoying considering how the rest of the country operates.. This is not Chicago!
Naples sounds like Amdurworld (the Chicagoland area) where a promoter can never have too many shows but the artists can. And this is with a fairly static audience (unless a lot of the residents are at their summer homes in Wisconsin and Michigan).
I believe that there are pros and cons to this "oversaturation". I have been doing shows in Naples for about five years. I have seen the shows multiply during that time. The Naples Art Association has significantly increased their shows. The Bonita Springs Art League has increased their shows, Richard is doing more shows. There are more shows on Marco Island. Plus, we also have shows are also put on by local "artist" groups, and many of them are good quality shows. Then we also have regular farmer's markets that are being more and more used by artists as cost effective ways of selling their art. In other words, we have a lot of art and craft shows.
Almost all of the shows are good quality shows. Naples has a huge art colony. There are many excellent artists in the area.
Some of the art organization shows are becoming extremely expensive and are not that different from the "promoters" shows in the purpose of "making money". In fact, Richard's shows are more cost effective than many of the art league shows.
There are more and more "window shoppers" at the shows. They go from show to show each weekend for entertainment. For example, yesterday it was was cold. They couldn't go to the beach. I did a small -- but really nice -- show on Marco Island. Last month most of us had really good sales. This month they were just passing time because it was so cold.
It is a really weird situation. I do not think the international shows are part of the oversaturation. Naples is a totally different world than most other parts of the US. We are not a large community; but we have the super-rich who have one of their several mansions in Naples and then we have the snow-birds, who own condos in Naples, and then we have the tourists. Our population doubles during season.
As I sit here far away from Naples I sit here with wonder and see all the events taking place in a small area and think "oversaturation." How can this work? You make some good points, Charlotte as did Richard. These really fancy shows draw people, there is spill over and maybe part of the culture of this area is that you can't go to Naples without attending at least one art fair, which is good for everyone no matter the quality of the show. Think so?
As a local Naples artist who primarily does shows in the Naples area, I do not see these two shows as competition to our local shows.
I believe that these shows attract a different type of crowd than the other art shows. I could be terribly wrong. But I do feel that they may help to bring more people to the other shows.
This past weekend there was a locally operated Naples Artcrafters show (a group of 100 juried local artists that hold monthly one-day shows) about five blocks from one of the international shows. One block from our show was an auto show sponsored by the local Ferrari Club (that's right, Ferrari) A few miles away in Bonita Springs was their National Show (which accepted local artists this year because it is a new show). Our show was packed! There were a lot of lookers and some buyers. I didn't do great, but I did okay.
This area of Florida is saturated with shows. Every weekend several shows are going on within a 50 mile radius. The first weekend in March there will be three art shows within a 10 mile radius of one another here in Naples alone. This has nothing to do with the shows this article is about.
Do we have enough "art buyers" to support all this activity? I do not know. As Connie said, people come and go. Every show I do, I ask people where they are from. They are from all over -- the US, Canada, Europe, Latin America. It is an exciting -- but very competitive place to be doing shows.
That is what has always been the good thing about Florida events in the winter. People come and go and it isn't a stable population that is attending the shows.
The rest of your information is news to me. I think I'm getting the picture here, Richard. Did you read the rest of the article? It was an interesting look and a reflection of some of what goes on at "our" art fairs. While you're enjoying the caviar would you please find a "rock" for me?
Naples is a unique place. It has a lot of turnover. Not just turnover with visitors but many of the seasonal residents rotate in and out. It has a very convenient airport for those who travel in by jet. The Naples Winter Wine Festival brings in close to 12 million a year raised for local charities and during that week the air traffic to the local airport is non-stop.
I went by the the art and antique location and I will likely go by the other location too. This is some serious art. The events are likely to be very similar, probably 90% of the participants will be at both events. The caviar is pretty darn good too.