Belleville, Ill Art Show 2010
A review
I have been reading with interest the current posts on Belleville this year. Don Eaton’s puzzle me. I have a some questions for him….did he do or has he ever done Belleville as a participating artist? And in fairness to Belleville, has he applied to the show and not been accepted? Or perhaps he is the organizer of a show that is not ranked as high as Belleville? His post has a bit of sour grapes taste to it. If one is going to be this negative about a show and town, one needs to fill their readers in on “the rest of the story.”
And in the interest of fair disclosure let preface my remarks with, I did participate in Belleville this year as a jewelry artist. It was my first time there. I drove from Oregon. It took 4 days and a snow storm to get there. I am also the director of a show in Oregon, that is not ranked as high as Belleville, and I was delighted to be there to experience how Belleville gets it done.
Mr. Eaton’s description of the surrounding area is accurate, it is a small town set into farmland. St Louis is nearby. But there is where I differ with Mr. Eaton. I find his cutesy appraisal of the local residents glib and insulting. And much of what he writes falls
into this category. But enough of D Eaton, on to my review.
Belleville, was a surprise even with all my advance knowledge of the show (ie it’s the #1
show in the country). I had a hard believing such a small show, run by volunteers could pull off this level of show. Boy was I wrong. This show is a gem.
advertising the show. Newspaper articles are many and glowing with reports. The
town of Belleville loves this show and gets out to support it both in volunteers (500!) and with money. As noted in Leo Charette’s review (http://www.artfairinsiders.com/profiles/blogs/art-on-the-square-belleville) the folks at Belleville sold $87,000 in advance in Art Cash that had to be used during this show. Frankly this brilliant idea saved the show on Saturday when the rains came. Buyers were there spending their art cash, their real cash,
using their credit cards. I sold all across my price points. This was not a low-end show. I had one of my best shows ever!
Artist hospitality was wonderful with food aplenty and indoor bathrooms, the venue is lovely, music is kept to the fringes, food good, quality-knowledge-eagerness of buyers excellent! Two separate excellent meals were fed the artists, Saturday eve and Sunday brunch. We were even delivered a great salad for all the artists and helpers as we set up on Friday. Load in and out a breeze. The town and the volunteers treat artists like visiting royalty. We had people coming up to us in restaurants thanking us for being there, hoping we were doing well, asking us to return. I felt like a rock star at times.
It did rain-buckets, on Saturday. I had my sad face on until the crowds kept coming and buying. There were wonderful awards with money and I was fortunate to win one. I personally did not hear any artists grumbling about lack of sales.
One down side was the weather and as good as she is, even director Patty Gregory can’t control that. Though she was on the radio telling people to “come on down and bring your umbrellas, it was a great show, not to be missed because of a little rain.” My only other concern was that I think the range of art quality was a big broad. This show should only have the best of the best and I did question a few booths inclusion into the show. But don’t we always have a few questions. I was delighted as a jeweler that this show didn’t load up that category but presented balanced categoriesacross the board.
We took great notes on how Belleville did it and think their #1 rating is justly deserved. Congrats to them. Other shows should look to them for inspiration.
CMFox
Replies