Hello All,
My wife & I joined here recently and are very eager to pick your brains & expertise on the matter of participating in lots & lots of art shows...We have read numerous posts on doing 30-40 shows a year and following the 'art show circuit'. My question first off;
'How do you get accepted to so many shows?
Is it a percentage game? Apply to 100 hope to get 25? Also, once you are lucky enough to have a 10x10' at a bigger show, does that enable you free passage to other big shows the following year.. Like admission to Cherry Creek on your C.V. equals membership to an elite club of regulars for the Fall or following year, maybe..maybe not?
We registered our little art biz this year and have taken part in 2 shows, a local show in Fort Worth in Mansfield, 2011 and against all odds as the 'Emerging Artist' category in Main St Festival Fort Worth 2012. Both shows were well received & a real eye opener, we enjoyed the experience greatly. Unfortunately we didn't strike while the iron was hot and found ourselves with a very quiet Summer. We hope next year is a different story!
If these questions have been asked so many times it's etched into your brains, I apologize..
Any advice is well appreciated to us wet behind the ear types.
Lee - SaxonLynn Arts
Replies
I'm a photographer and when I started part time and doing about 10 shows a year then. I have been doing it full time for 8 years and now do about 30 per year. You'll figure out the right amount of shows to do from trial and error. Too many shows and you can't restock fast enough, create new inventory and simply burn yourself out. If you do too few, you can't pay your bills.
Once you jury into one show it has no bearing on getting into others. I'll get accepted to one of the most competitive art shows in the country one weekend and can't get into "a sure thing show" the following weekend. So really, there is no sure thing. Every juror has different taste, there is no telling. But certainly the more shows you apply to, the greater your chances of having a fuller schedule. I'll apply to about 100 shows per year, get into about 35 and do about 30 of those. Ideally I'd like to drop my schedule down to about 25 a year, but I can't swing it at this point.
Enjoy the experience, it really is a journey!
Cheers John,
Thanks for the advice, our greatest fear is not getting enough shows to support ourselves but also spreading ourselves too thin. so thanks. All the responses we've had are very promising and make us feel a lot more positive about making our art a viable business in the very near future & hopefully able to jack in the regular 9-5...
My wife have been full time artists for 30 years. We've both had different bodies of work along the way and sold through various means, the last 10 years have been almost exclusively art shows for both of us. Between the two of us we do about 20 shows per year (very rarely the same shows). We've raised two great kids, have a have a wonderful life, and are thankful and lucky. The most recent formula I've observed for success is people who identify a passion for what they do/make; produce the best possible work they can; pursue this passion relentlessly. A large component in art is rejection and being told you can't do that. Keep going and DO IT ANYWAY! You have to believe in yourself and your work (the same thing really). Good luck and keep swinging for Main Street. I've done virtually all the big shows and this year MSFW moved well into the lead for best show ever. Good luck - Jay
Thanks for your views. It's especially good to know there are couples out there producing art together and also raising families, as well as making it happen as a profitable business for such a long time!
We're painters too. Luckily we have various inventive ways of reproducing our art as well as ltd Edition prints etc. In the event that we get accepted to right amount of shows for the remainder of this and next year, and if we're also fortunate enough to make a decent profit, we'll be considering jacking in the full time daily grind type job and do art full time, which would be a dream come true..
Another thing, is that we have several different styles of painting. Is this a bad thing? Should we just concentrate on one style? For example when we apply to shows they usually ask for 4 pictures of our work & a booth pic. Our work often incorporates abstract paintings with butterflies / realist wave paintings and also to confuse matters more, stylized surrealist wave paintings on canvas and skateboards.
Here's some examples of what we mean..
Although off topic we appreciate your feedback.
our styles.jpg
The amount of shows you do depends on two factors. It's about how original your artwork is and how good your jury images are.
Any other factors don't play into what shows you can get into.
You mentioned getting into Ft Worth as an emerging artist. Did you attend the open jury to see what your competition is? Not in the emerging artist category, but in the actual category you'll be applying in next year.
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100
Thanks Larry,
No we didn't attend the jury and I suppose it being our first real shot at
it we (or I was) apprehensive and didn't expect much in the first place...We sent the wrong size images, not that well cropped, under saturated, high res & small size, instead of the opposite; 1920pix 72dpi, which is a school boy error for me as I'm a dab hand using Photoshop. That said we got lucky, maybe as we're local or maybe because not so many local emerging artists applied this year? who knows.
What we did notice when we were there at Main St, was the complete, professionally packaged regularly applied for booth space artists.
'Non hatching emergers'; immaculate uncluttered booths that showed a handful of color coordinated pieces, all related, all beautifully lit & often expensively framed. We realize to compete in the 'regular' entry requirements, we'd have to up our game a lot.. But at least now we know, right. We had a good time & learned a lot about pricing our stuff and more importantly for us, the relevance of ltd edition prints!
Not to take anything away from the other emerging artists who attended Main St, they all looked great, purely a self observation..
DSCN3485.JPG
Check out the following thread. It might help you in regards to the number of shows.
http://www.artfairinsiders.com/forum/topics/shows-and-acceptance
Thanks Cassius, That link kinda answered it for me..
My wife and I do ceramics and the limiting factor is production. We've been doing shows for 25 years and have found that if the shows you do are good enough($7000-$8000 gross) you'd be hard pressed to do more than 10 a year. We usually overbook and consider ourselves lucky if we get to cancel one or two.
The number of shows you do in a year depends on whether you have another full time job. I do, and two years ago I did too many shows and got burned out by December. Right now I try not to have back to back show weekends, although that seems to be the way it falls! I've got at least two back to back in October. I just do small to medium sized shows in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area, but there's enough to fill the calendar quickly.
My advice would be to gradually "ramp up" the number of shows you do. Try a few back to back to see if it's too much to handle before you apply to a string of shows.
Your vehicle and booth may also be a limiting factor. I drive a pickup and when I'm doing a lot of shows, the display racks and tent stays in the back. Only my artwork gets unloaded. If it rains, then I have to take the tent out to dry.
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