As the organizer of the show, I want to thank you for all of your feedback. We are working to make major drastic improvements to the show:
1. NO TOLERANCE BUY/SELL CAMPAIGN. An internal no-tolerance for buy/sell at the Manayunk Arts Festival campaign. However, this will always be a difficult task as many artists jury in with a set of photographs of their artwork and then appear at our show with buy/sell work. The no-tolerance campaign, now in its 2nd year works because we first give a warning and ask for the buy sell merchandise to be removed (while we wait) and then if it re-appears the vendor will be asked to leave the show immediately. ask anyone who deceives us by bringing buy/sell work, to leave the show immediately.
2. ARTIST OUTREACH COMMITTEE. We have teamed up with other art connoisseurs to scout artist talent at other shows and recruit them to appear at the Manayunk Arts Festival. This hand-selected group of artists has to meet a certain criteria before they are even approached to exhibit at the Manayunk Arts Festival.
3. ARTIST HOSPITALITY COMMITTEE. This initiative features providing more space between artist booths to helping them unload during the morning of the show, accommodating their booth requests within a block, plus better prizes, an artist lounge with snacks and beverages for artists to enjoy during their break, and much, much more. The larger scope of this committee also works to set ground rules for sponsors, and works to only allow sponsors of the highest caliber and integrity that add value to the show.
4. VISITOR OUTREACH. The Planning committee has been reaching out to interior designers and art collectors and enthusiasts to visit and shop at the Manayunk Arts Festival.
I also feel the need to defend some people’s negative perception of Manayunk. In November of 2010 Manayunk was touted as one of the top 5 places to open a business by Inc. Magazine. We have seen an upswing of strong boutique stores, such as Three Potato Four, Revival Smith, Digs at Patricia Gorman Associates (an interior designer with a design store), The Little Apple Boutique and so many more even in this downturned economy. In addition, we have seen a surge of art galleries, 4 in 2010 and 1 in 2011! Not surprisingly, and this is big news, JANE GOLDEN OF THE MURAL ARTS PROGRAM, is personally collaborating with us to bring Public Art to Manayunk with some projects scheduled to be unveiled during the 2011 Manayunk Arts Festival. This is an exciting time for art in Manayunk and I’m sure the excitement will be reflected in this year’s Arts Festival.
If anyone has any questions about the show, please feel free to reach out to me. Also know that I am open to hearing anyone's suggestions to make the show better.
Linda - I will add to my previous comments (see Manayunk posting a couple of days ago). I am showing pastels now, and showed both pastels and chine colles (etchings) at Manayunk for 2 years before the economic crash. I live 40 minutes away and I will not do it again. I would certainly advise you not to drive from Atlanta.
This is not a serious art buying crowd. There are vodka hawkers, radio station booths and I think I remember cotton candy everywhere (maybe an inaccurate memory) What I do remember is barely making expenses, and I stayed at home! If your painting has a lower price point my advice might not fit, but the crowd seems to be a party crowd.
I would recommend the Rittenhouse Square show a couple of weeks before this one for painting. Rittenhouse in the Fall is even better.
P.S - a painter friend of mine did do well at Manayunk selling prints of his paintings, but he is not there anymore either.
Linda Pirkle > R. Michael WommackFebruary 24, 2011 at 6:30pm
Hi, Thank you so much for the input. I have searched the site for a real review of the show but couldnt find one. Maybe I was looking in the wrong place...
I am looking to find some new shows outside of the Atlanta area for summer and fall... any suggestions are appreciated.
Larry Berman > Linda PirkleFebruary 24, 2011 at 7:08pm
Linda Pirkle > Larry BermanFebruary 24, 2011 at 10:23pm
Larry, Thank you for pointing me in the correct direction. I see this is listed under blogs... I was looking under forum,, art fair discussions... I get lost on the site.. confused between discussion, forum, review.. and now blogs... any suggestions?
There seems to be some overlapping in the categories. For example I was just looking at the blogs and saw many "call to artists" in that category...
This is the third Manayunk discussion in the past few months. I haven't done the show for about five years but if you do a search for Manayunk, you should find one of the older discussions where it's discussed. Lots of people and uneven quality of the jurying.
Replies
Hey Linda, did you ever do this show?
As the organizer of the show, I want to thank you for all of your feedback. We are working to make major drastic improvements to the show:
1. NO TOLERANCE BUY/SELL CAMPAIGN. An internal no-tolerance for buy/sell at the Manayunk Arts Festival campaign. However, this will always be a difficult task as many artists jury in with a set of photographs of their artwork and then appear at our show with buy/sell work. The no-tolerance campaign, now in its 2nd year works because we first give a warning and ask for the buy sell merchandise to be removed (while we wait) and then if it re-appears the vendor will be asked to leave the show immediately. ask anyone who deceives us by bringing buy/sell work, to leave the show immediately.
2. ARTIST OUTREACH COMMITTEE. We have teamed up with other art connoisseurs to scout artist talent at other shows and recruit them to appear at the Manayunk Arts Festival. This hand-selected group of artists has to meet a certain criteria before they are even approached to exhibit at the Manayunk Arts Festival.
3. ARTIST HOSPITALITY COMMITTEE. This initiative features providing more space between artist booths to helping them unload during the morning of the show, accommodating their booth requests within a block, plus better prizes, an artist lounge with snacks and beverages for artists to enjoy during their break, and much, much more. The larger scope of this committee also works to set ground rules for sponsors, and works to only allow sponsors of the highest caliber and integrity that add value to the show.
4. VISITOR OUTREACH. The Planning committee has been reaching out to interior designers and art collectors and enthusiasts to visit and shop at the Manayunk Arts Festival.
I also feel the need to defend some people’s negative perception of Manayunk. In November of 2010 Manayunk was touted as one of the top 5 places to open a business by Inc. Magazine. We have seen an upswing of strong boutique stores, such as Three Potato Four, Revival Smith, Digs at Patricia Gorman Associates (an interior designer with a design store), The Little Apple Boutique and so many more even in this downturned economy. In addition, we have seen a surge of art galleries, 4 in 2010 and 1 in 2011! Not surprisingly, and this is big news, JANE GOLDEN OF THE MURAL ARTS PROGRAM, is personally collaborating with us to bring Public Art to Manayunk with some projects scheduled to be unveiled during the 2011 Manayunk Arts Festival. This is an exciting time for art in Manayunk and I’m sure the excitement will be reflected in this year’s Arts Festival.
If anyone has any questions about the show, please feel free to reach out to me. Also know that I am open to hearing anyone's suggestions to make the show better.
Sincerely,
Martha Y Vidauri
Marketing & Events Coordinator
Manayunk Development Corporation/Manayunk.com
4312 Main Street
Philadelphia, PA 19127
T: (215) 482-9565
D: (267) 270-3077
F: (215) 487-9137
mvidauri@manayunk.org
www.manayunk.com
Apply: www.zapplication.com
You had me with ground rules for sponsors.
Linda - I will add to my previous comments (see Manayunk posting a couple of days ago). I am showing pastels now, and showed both pastels and chine colles (etchings) at Manayunk for 2 years before the economic crash. I live 40 minutes away and I will not do it again. I would certainly advise you not to drive from Atlanta.
This is not a serious art buying crowd. There are vodka hawkers, radio station booths and I think I remember cotton candy everywhere (maybe an inaccurate memory) What I do remember is barely making expenses, and I stayed at home! If your painting has a lower price point my advice might not fit, but the crowd seems to be a party crowd.
I would recommend the Rittenhouse Square show a couple of weeks before this one for painting. Rittenhouse in the Fall is even better.
P.S - a painter friend of mine did do well at Manayunk selling prints of his paintings, but he is not there anymore either.
Hi, Thank you so much for the input. I have searched the site for a real review of the show but couldnt find one. Maybe I was looking in the wrong place...
I am looking to find some new shows outside of the Atlanta area for summer and fall... any suggestions are appreciated.
http://www.artfairinsiders.com/profiles/blogs/manayunk-arts-festival
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100
Larry, Thank you for pointing me in the correct direction. I see this is listed under blogs... I was looking under forum,, art fair discussions... I get lost on the site.. confused between discussion, forum, review.. and now blogs... any suggestions?
There seems to be some overlapping in the categories. For example I was just looking at the blogs and saw many "call to artists" in that category...
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100