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CAC Boardwalk: Some Good, Bad, and Ugly

Posted by Ron Mellott on June 23, 2009 at 1:06pm in Art Show Information and Discussions
In the aftermath now of the Contemporary Art Center (CAC) Boardwalk Art Show, a few observations. First, the weather was at best - varied. At worst - brutal. Thursday night the area was treated to huge thunderstorms (at a predicted 30% chance that morning - nice forecasting!) struck Virginia Beach. Giant waterspouts close off the coast, tornadoes to the west, strong winds, torrential rains, street floodings. Kudos to the artists, of which probably 85% had "professional" tents (e.g., Craft Huts, Light Domes, Flourish, etc.) while everyone seemed to come prepared to anchor to the railings and with weights of all sizes and kinds. I was told two tents collapsed, I saw some tent zippers that gave out, but all-in-all, artists did a magnificent job of protecting their booth, their work, and their neighbors' booths and works. And kudos to the show management for booting a couple/few buy-sell vendors and reps they found out about. Bravo! That is your job, your role, and you did that well. Thank you for any and all artists that "assisted" in that process. You guys are the best! As an artist, I thank you for enforcing those rules and those artists that brought the violations to the attention of the show. Load-in seemed to go well, although much dollying from parking lots and streets, sometimes long distances with setups in the strong winds coming off the ocean. Sadly, while the CAC allows you to drive onto the boardwalk for setup, they do not allow you, at any time, to drive on for load-out. Nonsensical. Must be a HORRIBLE inconvenience for people on the boardwalk to have to walk beside parked vehicles. Even later in breakdown, the width of a van or car or truck is less than that of a tent, and would facilitate getting people away quicker, nope, not an option. Though they will let us artists struggle, in some weird game of Frogger, to try to get our work down and across the bike-path in the gathering dusk, with lots of people in 4-person pedal carts and bikers sometimes thinking they are Lance Armstrong whizzing by, often unwilling to yield to artists with their carts. Makes me think that although we come long distances at considerable expense to bring our artwork to the public at Virginia Beach, we are the low rung on the ladder. Volunteers coming back to help booth sit were sporadic, most welcome and kindly when they showed up, but on some days, just not there. It's one thing to sign up for a break to eat lunch or something of that nature ... but when you need to go take a bathroom break (and toilets were few and far between), or get inventory from your vehicle ..... why, with all the good systems available to be used (e.g., flagging, flags, booth sitter phone numbers on the back of the artist ID cards) ...... go figure. Such a simple artist amenity still eluding them after what .... 53 years? Next year .......................... right! The jurors? Ahhhhhh ... don't get me started. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect case supporting my rants on the idiocy of how onsite jurying is done. One of their "art experts", a professor from Tulane University, in sculpting apparently. He came into my neighbor's booth ... she is a marvelous oil painter in the Flemish style ..... the "art expert" thought she was a watercolorist. So close. I'm certain it did not affect her being fairly juried, right? Of course not. Another artist, mixed-media, was asked by the other juror if his work was polaroid transfers. Tad off the mark on that one. Now, to the rant du jour. On the weekend, volunteers were set up at some of the intersections encouraging people to fill out an "art show survey" in exchange for a "free gift" ... bottle of water, very handy in Saturday's 100+ degree heat index. So being at times an optimist, I gave the CAC initial credit on actually conducting a survey to hear what their patron's were saying about the show! So I asked for a copy of the survey from the volunteers. Quickly, all optimism was squished, squashed, smashed, vanquished. Not a chance. The survey was the "Boardwalk Art Show Direct Spending Survey". A total of 27 questions. Other than the first question asking if they were at the Boardwalk to visit the show? A Yes or No question. To me, all the no's should then be heaved-ho - IFF the remaining questions were designed to evaluate the art show too. Although reading on ..... it was stunningly apparently it really didn't matter. All the questions could have be equally answered and meaningful to the BUSINESS portion of town, as 25 of the remaining questions had NOTHING to do with the art show. Only the last question: "What type of art are you most interested at the art show? (e.g., painting, glass, ....)" ... this was a fill-in-the-blank question. There were plenty of questions about how much money you spent .... at hotels, motels, restaurants, stores, tourist attractions, retail shopping. Strikingly absent were any questions about whether you found art you liked? Did you buy art? What types? How much did you spend with the artisans? What was your average purchase price? Nope. Nothing. Lots of asking about how many were in your group, how far you came, your race, education level, household annual gross income .... nothing about would you come back to the show? What did you think of the quality? The diversity? Did the economy influence your desire to buy? Nothing. Mute. Yes, the show should benefit the merchants in town. But it seems reasonable that if that information is valuable to the Chamber of Commerce and/or other merchant associations, then similar information about the patrons and their buying of art would seem CRITICAL to the CAC to evaluate how the show went. Sadly, the voice of the patrons on the art show itself was never sampled, lost as the survey had nothing to do with assessing their interest in or acceptance of the show, their spending patterns on art. So any ability of the CAC to assess how well the show went, other than artists paid their booth fees and showed up, is pretty vague. Sad. In 53 years, still not figuring that part out. Anyone else care to chime in on these or other issues? Please do.

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  • Pat Finney October 28, 2009 at 2:48pm
    This was our second year to do Boardwalk. I am a glass artist. I've only been doing shows for 6 years and it still amazes me what some veterans do. The booths should have some space between them. The vendor next to me used my extra space and the extra space on the other side to make her booth bigger, so we are wall to wall with her. While setting up she bangs her wall knocking 3 glass sculptures off my shelves. Then she didn't weight down the front of her booth and had a wall, during a strong wind, swing around and crash my booth knocking more art off the shelf. (Total loss was worth over $1000.) She was sorry and I didn't give her a hard time about it but it seems she would know better. Veteran artist should be showing us beginners what we should do as opposed to what we should not be doing.

    The show two years ago was better than last year despite the smoke from the forest fires in North Carolina and the unbearable heat of 2008. I thought the show committee did a good job. I had some booth help so booth sitter was not a problem. I never go into a show thinking about awards but judges comments and choices do sometimes amaze me. I was able to stay in a hotel directly in front of my booth which was very convienient when needing restroom breaks or a snack. I also got to park in the hotel lot and load out and in from there with little problem although the bicyclers were sometimes a problem. Jury is still out on reapplying.
    • Ron Mellott > Pat Finney October 28, 2009 at 3:02pm
      Nice post Pat! First, 6 years on the circuit probably, by most standards, would make YOU a veteran, unless you only do 1 or 2 shows a year. Still, you seem to pay attention to what you do and that is a mark of being a good artist - a becoming a veteran quickly. Obviously .... your neighbor did not. Not to mention she's a both rude (taking up the extra space to be shared by artists), careless (banging her walls into her neighbor's booths and displays) and boorish (nice word Ron!) .... she should have offered to pay for what she damaged, leaving it up to you to be merciful, brutal, or somewhere in between. It was, after all, her fault, unintentional as it was but her's nonetheless. That, to me, is so woeful to hear stories of .... our fellow artists, those we wish to perceive as perhaps more caring and understanding because we share this path ..... that are careless, thoughtless, inattentive, irresponsible ..... and when it leads to damaging someone else's booth or artwork, disassociate themselves from responsibility. Shame on her, on all counts.

      Glad you were close to your booth space .... but did you feel most of your neighbors were equally so fortunate? And out of curiosity, what did you have to pay for the luxury of being so close? I heard the hotels along the river were a bit pricey .....

      Thanks Pat for adding your voice and thoughts.
      • Pat Finney > Ron Mellott October 28, 2009 at 3:56pm
        Thanks Ron. I do 6 or 7 shows a year but not necessarily "circuit" shows. I have been an artist my whole life, over 30 years, but new to the glass biz and never did shows until lately. I was a museum production artist. Had to get out due to an injury.

        We got to Va. Beach on Monday and left on Monday. Kind of a couple of vacation days thrown in. We gave about $1000 for the week but we reserved it as soon as we were accepted. We also stayed there the first year and mentioned it so I think we got some kind of special.
  • Pauline Ross October 28, 2009 at 11:38am
    Hi Ron...If your interested, lol, CAC just email out 2010 show entree.
    • Ron Mellott > Pauline Ross October 28, 2009 at 12:31pm
      Hey Pauline!

      Thanks for the heads up. I don't know. Have you made up your mind yet? Not one of the easier decisions. Yes, a good reputation but ...... now, so few artists seemed to do well. I will have to expend some brain cells deciding if that is worth the drive back there if nothing has changed, nothing will be done differently .... assuming I would be juried in anyway. I don't usually bail on a show after 1 year, but given the issues of setup, ridiculous rules about breakdown, the general apathy of people for art that walked by during 4 long days, the winds, the sand, the storm potential, the too often ineffectiveness of the "standards committee" and there too, often not understanding the mediums they are applying scrutiny too ...... ugh!

      But if I do apply and do get in and you do apply and you do get it ...... let's meet up and tell stories!
      • Pauline Ross > Ron Mellott October 28, 2009 at 7:02pm
        You funny guy! haha! Im not applying for Boardwalk art show until some other organization decides to run one. Too much frustration/work and expense for too little return.
        I'll pass on to you what I learned from a photographer, what the public likes to buy here. Nostalgia in the area. And he is right. He sells big $$$ at many juried shows. So if you decide to come back you might want to include something like that on part of a wall. Me, I stopped painting mermaids,crabs, beach scenes, boats and lighthouses, etc. My brain needs a break this winter. You might want to consider applying for the spring Stockley Gardens Art show in Norfolk. Its tough to get into but worth it.
        • Ron Mellott > Pauline Ross October 28, 2009 at 8:32pm
          Much appreciated Pauline that you share those insights. You're the best!
  • Pauline Ross October 25, 2009 at 7:36pm
    I first moved to Virginia Beach in 1998 , I walked the Boardwalk Art Show and I won a prize over the loud speaker. "Dinner for Two" at a fancy restaurant. The art was interesting and I might of bought a few things. In 1999 I walked the show again and remembered some of the artists work. I investigated how to get in it the next year and felt intimidated by the red tape and jumping through hoops to be accepted. Then the nonsense about getting onto the boardwalk totally turned me off. Oh yeah, no designated parking for artists.
    • Ron Mellott > Pauline Ross October 28, 2009 at 12:27pm
      Probably William! Good call. And to some extent, that is great because if the community can and should benefit from the influx of patrons, and artists, and others, staying in motels, eating in restaurants and food stores, purchasing memorabilia, etc. ..... that makes the show good from the community as a whole.

      However .... (my form of "but" ....) ..... does this also not mean that the business community should reciprocate? That because of that very fact they do make more money on that weekend because of the art show's presence, that they should feed back, kick back, return the favor by supporting the art show? Becoming corporate sponsors of the event? If a couple or few thousand dollars each, several hundred each, providing food, services, advertising dollars, artist amenities (like water, brought to us by so-and-so in the local business community). Heck, businesses could pool together, help each other out, help their fellow business owners out, help the CAC out, help us out ...... working together for a common goal has usually always been a good thing.

      And thanks for the compliments on my juror observations. Yes, I have seen far too many as I'm sure most seasoned artists have, people walking by as jurors that haven't a clue to what they re looking at, that won't even walk into your booth to look at your work, just check off your name as they turn their head briefly in walking by, or walk into your booth only intent on finding your sign to put that little adhesive colored dot to indicate they were physically there ....not to be confused with having juried your work. Arrrrggggggggg !!!!!!
    • Lois Songer > Pauline Ross October 26, 2009 at 10:14pm
      Just a note on surveys. Shows can receive local grant monies from Tourist Development councils, but must quantify how much money is spent by the people who come to town to the show. This survey sounds like it was aimed at that and not the quality/satisfaction with the show. While this may not seem valuable to you, a grant for advertising dollars can help alot with promotion.
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