For the past couple years, I've used a tall Armstrong desk and a tall director's chair in my booth. Recently, it seems that these two things are taking up too much room - and are more formal than I want.
So I am thinking of doing away with the art show stuff and adding a small folding table and two folding chairs. I think this might be inviting, and might encourage shoppers to sit a spell and look closer at my paintings.
What do you all think about this idea? I would have to figure out something to do with all the crap I stash in the desk, though frankly, I pretty much stash the stuff there because I have the space.
I'm sure there are some of you who use a set-up like the one I'm considering? Does it work for you? Do you have any advice for me?
Thanks!
Replies
image.jpg
I have seen at a few shows that some artists have extra seating but then they always have the one person that wonders in, makes themselves at home & doesn't even care about the artwork. I have on several occasions seen them put the chairs up after having a hard time getting the person to leave. I saw at another show a lady come over & sit down just to eat the food she had just purchased, and she never even looked around the booth.
I would probably buy another directors chair & set up a separate section through the back where you could invite a customer to come sit but it would only be available by your invitation & not to whatever person just wonders into your booth.
Unfortunately it seems there are always a few that ruin it for everybody.
Chairs in the booth will also attract people that will sit down just to take a rest. As Larry said, you want to sit at eye level. Sitting in a folding chair and talking to someone standing up is very awkward.
"Chairs in the booth will also attract people that will sit down just to take a rest."
I did a Chicago show a few years back that had little room behind the booth with the booths back to back down the middle of the street, so many of us moved our chairs out to the curb and sat there. I was sitting next to another artist in the shade. Some customers came in the booth and I spent some time talking with them in the booth. I get back out to my chair and some older white haired guy was sitting in my chair talking to the other artist. Being polite, I stood beside the chair for about ten minutes waiting for the old guy to get up and leave. He was settled in for the day from the looks of the things, so I explained to him I needed the chair back. The old fart had the gumption to ask me if I had my name on it. I smiled, said yes, and pointed out my name on it :-) He was crusty and not benign. He sort of harumphed, got up, and left in a huff. I asked the artist if that was a friend of his, and he said he thought it was a friend of mine ;-) After that anytime I have a chair away from the booth, I leave something on it if I walk away from it.
It was a hot July day and an elderly woman came into my booth, She looked like the heat was taking its toll, so I asked her if she would like to sit in my tall chair. She gladly accepted and proceeded to tell me about how she baby sat Grandma Moses's grandchildren. She explained how Mrs Moses hadn't yet been "discovered" so as a farmer's wife she didn't have much money. So she paid in Masonite backed paintings. She claimed to have a number of them, and when Mrs Moses died she was "the only woman allowed to drive in her funeral".
She said those paintings will pay for her great grandchildren's college when she dies.
That has happened to me as well although most sit in it for a couple minutes and then leave without me having to ask.
I like the idea but it looks like it will take up more room than your current setup unless you can keep it outside of the booth somehow.
If you're going to have a visitor area, do it in the back of the booth, under an umbrella. Invite potential buyers to the back to sit and discuss a specific piece. Ask them which they like, and then "go private".
All Larry's comments apply, as well. I never sit in the booth. It's crowded as it is, and it sometimes invades patron's space.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next