It's snowing here which leads to thinking time. Here's a situation I see and wonder if it is a valid observation. West coast shows still pretty good with not a lot of buy/sell reported. Mountain sates except for Las Vegas and some AZ shows, ok to very good shows with little or no buy sell. Mid continent and east Coast, few good shows and lots of buy sell. The latter two have the greatest concentration of artist and population, but promoters claim they can't fill their shows with artists. Mountain states have less population but no shortage of quality artists and buying public. Is it that there are too many shows in the mid continent and east coast? Is a factor that town managements in the Mountain states see that fewer prime events are better than lots on mundane ones? I would like to see what others observe, think, etc. Can you tell I have two 44 waist belts on my bench to stamp. Oh how I pine for the days of 28-30 inch waist sizes LOL.
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For sure there are too many shows in Florida and b/s is found frequently. Most every weekend has several shows in any one area. The number of applications received at top shows is mind boggling. B/s has even made it into top shows. Why? Some b/s vendors have misrepresented themselves as artists. But lesser shows may have trouble turning down the b/s because they need to fill the booth spaces. The unfortunate part is that the buying public is unaware that such merchandise (I can't call it art) is mass produced and maybe even imported. Could it be the jury is also unaware???
Thanks Pat, I think that at the 100-150 booth shows here in CO ,there is little or no buy sell because the management knows most of the artists. For big name shows elsewhere,I have stated before that they could afford to hire undergrad art student interns to screen web sites to red flag the production shops and B/S.
I can't comment specifically since I'm not in the US, but I too have noticed some areas, particularly more in coastal (well within 100km of the coast) and high population strips here in Australia have a much higher incidence of buy/sell. At many events its like playing 'let's find the handmade/artist' as there is so little of it! The further west I go (far less people out there), however, the better it is (but the less number of people to sell to as well). The quality is higher and the buy/sell drops off dramatically.
Here's a theory... could it just be a population thing... eg. a % of the population is going to see the profitability in buy/sell and so they start doing it... this leads to far more applications from them at events and more of them being accepted? Whereas there are less of them in areas of less dense population?
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For sure there are too many shows in Florida and b/s is found frequently. Most every weekend has several shows in any one area. The number of applications received at top shows is mind boggling. B/s has even made it into top shows. Why? Some b/s vendors have misrepresented themselves as artists. But lesser shows may have trouble turning down the b/s because they need to fill the booth spaces. The unfortunate part is that the buying public is unaware that such merchandise (I can't call it art) is mass produced and maybe even imported. Could it be the jury is also unaware???
I can't comment specifically since I'm not in the US, but I too have noticed some areas, particularly more in coastal (well within 100km of the coast) and high population strips here in Australia have a much higher incidence of buy/sell. At many events its like playing 'let's find the handmade/artist' as there is so little of it! The further west I go (far less people out there), however, the better it is (but the less number of people to sell to as well). The quality is higher and the buy/sell drops off dramatically.
Here's a theory... could it just be a population thing... eg. a % of the population is going to see the profitability in buy/sell and so they start doing it... this leads to far more applications from them at events and more of them being accepted? Whereas there are less of them in areas of less dense population?