Location
Arlington, MA
About
Your Medium
oil
Years in the Art Fair Business
2
First show ever
Arlington Open Studios (actually an indoor fair) but first fair EVER was as a college student - Newport RI outdoor Art Fair
What are the best things about art fairs
Networking with a lot of other artists Booth is your own little focused gallery Great way to research pricing versus experience and genre - and market Great way to start building buzz - if the traffic's there (but I've gotten staunch fans from slow fairs)
Best show ever and why
Beacon Hill Art Walk. Why? Sold a few pieces plus a few informative "almost sales", gave away a ton of business cards and promotional post cards - and saw at least 10% of them hit my website through Google Analytics Chatted with some "repeat fans" who found me after seeing my work at a different (slow) show. Great location, in a Beacon Hill hidden garden. great weather, great shade (I burn!) And ... one of the organizers gave me half a North End Sfogliatelli. Nothing like whipped pastry cream on one's eyeglasses to help close a sale.
Worst show ever and why
Melrose Indoor Fine Arts and Crafts Festival. Why? Claims to be tightly juried, but there were "illegal" items present - strings of beads and hobby-level articles. Had to give up a Friday to schlep over there for a preview party (entry fee for guests) High booth cost for a local fair, and though the booths looked nice, the hanging system was poorly engineered - time consuming, bloodied fingers, poorly secured art and a few ruined frames Lots of rules and hoops to jump through, with a compete disconnect between the price points of what artists were allowed to sell versus what people were willing to buy No guidance on what are the best bets to bring - prices, sizes, genres?? Most of the new artists were stuck in a noisy balcony area, where nobody could find them. They asked for donated pieces so they could hold a raffle (and compete with our sales)!!! Had to comfort several other artists after nasty people visited their booths
Who referred you to ArtFairInsiders.com? Please be specific.
google searching for information and reviews of art shows and fairs.
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Welcome to ArtFairInsiders.com, Regina. I'm pleased to see you here and look forward to having you as part of our community.
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Best wishes,
Connie Mettler
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