Make sure to put the State & City clearly visiable at the top of the application!
How many" Art on the Green" or "Festival of Arts" are there??
Answer: A bunch!
Toni Macri-Reiner
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Put a notification of acceptance / rejection date on the application and actually hit that date.
Tell me when setup is on the application.
If I were creating an Art Fair application, I would...
- pick a weekend in June, because there are hardly any really good shows in June
- come up with a bunch of ambiguous show descriptions and catch phrases to snag applicants
- email the hell out of artists that I know like to do art shows
- set the deadline for anywhere from 9 to 11 months prior to the show date
- set a $45 non-refundable jury fee, raise it $5-$10 each year
- avoid any mention of corporate booths, hawkers, and charities sprinkled in amongst the vendors - especially humane society booths
- After the first year, I would figure out where the worst booth location were and then put all new applicants there for the following years - but I would never mention the policy in the application. I would never mention the splinter locations either.
- try to have everyone send their booth fee in with their application and jury fee and make sure I have a very clear "no refunds under any circumstances" policy in very small print in the most obscure part of the application
- if it is impossible to harvest the application fee with the jury fee, I would set a deadline of as soon as possible for accepted artists to pay their "no refunds under any circumstances" booth fee in order to, uh, capture those funds
- make sure the booth fee is at least $400 for a 9' 11 7/8" x 9' 11 7/8" booth - but I would call it close enough to 10x10 for government work and say there is plenty of storage space behind each booth - on show day I will claim the "volunteers" made a mistake and encourage the vendors to be positive and make lemons out of lemonade or something like that.
- charge an extra $100 for a scenic corner booth - which only I will know will include booths set up next to empty spaces, bicycle racks, newspaper racks, etc.
- reassure everyone that overnight security will be vigilant throughout the night and then hire two or three vagrants and pay them with some Thunderbird
- not mention that I will blacklist any troublemakers and make sure I gossip about them whenever I can
- not mention that I will send out really cutesy rejection letters that begin with crap like "The hardest part of my job is . . ."
- ask if the artists will work for free by "demonstrating" in their booth; then charge a $10 "demonstration fee"
- ask if the artists will accept being on a wait-list if not accepted
- charge an extra "wait-list fee" if the artist is willing to be on a waitlist
- have a list of "special invitees", but make sure it is buried somewhere on the website or application - charge them less or at least not as much and have them be the artist on the street that just loves the show year after year
- assure all applicants that there will be a free lunch, plenty of volunteers, plenty of attendees (200,00 is a good number), plenty of buyers and make sure I assure all applicants there will be no non art-related activities like talent shows, music festivals, food fairs and then claim no knowledge of what went wrong on show day
- promise an easy to read show map and with an accurate depiction of the booth location, but deliver something far less
- promise that all buy/sell policies will be enforced
- promise to be available by telephone or text "anytime" on show days
- put a picture of some other show's huge crowds on the application material
- make sure I have something written by the lawyers saying I'm not responsible for anything in any way, shape, or form
- promise lots of advertising and then put a free blurb in the local alternative paper that no one with an income reads
- promise several avenues of advertising and then put a post in Craigslist on show day
- promise great weather, but if a storm comes up - move a booth or two and see if the news will cover how great we are for being so helpful
- warn against inclimate weather, but have no one at the show be responsible for monitoring the weather for so many people, let's say, 200,000 - that will be at the show
- discreetly ask for all jury fees, booth fees, and related fees to be directed to a specific email address that will funnel to an untraceable Swiss bank account
- charge a subtle cart fee from each applicant so I can ride around in a really cool golf cart
- be sure to mention "easy load in and load out" whether it is or not
- under no circumstances would I mention any feedback or any kind of communication regarding the jury score or comments be provided in any manner whatsoever
I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of for now.
Ron Mellott said:
What should be the recourse then when a show doesn't refund your money? We cancelled a show with Palm Springs Arts Festival (taking place this weekend) back in December and all we have received is one excuse after another and NO money! Now that the show has taken place we don't get any responses at all. We have never done the show before and definitely would never consider it again.
Stephen and Bonnie - go to Google, type in the street name and cross street for the Palm Springs show, then magnify to the street level - that little orange wiggly guy. What you'll see is a very busy commuter street, with a large number of shrubby palo verde trees in front of a five ft. metal fence blocking the sight of the parking lot behind it. Behind that fence was where the show was. On a parking lot with dead trees in the median, a six ft. sign facing mostly the east bound traffic flow, but too small to read unless you turned off onto the side street to read it.
Oh, and the show isn't in Palm Springs, but in neighboring Cathedral City, home to mostly the work force that cleans, maintains, repairs and feeds Palm Springs. The Palm Springs paper said that 7,000 people attended the Jan. show. And the artists interviewed said sales were very slow.
Count your blessings! I also didn't do it, but wrote the booth fee off to poor advance research on my part.
As to what I want to see on an application - yes, the name of the city and the state where the show is being held. Also, when I click on the logo of the show, I want more than a link back to ZAPP or a link to some chamber of commerce site that tells me nothing about the show itself. And why can't these shows have lists of the previous year's artists? That helps me determine the professionalism - or amateurism - of the show.
1) How long is too long for a paper application to be?
2) What is the smallest size type you would be comfortable reading?
3) Does everyone here actually read the entire prospectus/application before filling it out?
In a way, a good promoter is similar to a good parent. If I do a show with too many unruly "children", I have to blame the promoter too for letting things get to that point at their event. There are shows that I do where everyone knows not to even think of stepping out of line if they ever want their applications to be considered in the future. I tend to prefer those shows ... especially when the person in charge manages to command that level of respect while still treating the artists decently. I'd like to see more of that out there 'cause there are too many people who take the proverbial mile when given an inch.
Ron Mellott said:
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