Posted by Ginny Herzog on April 11, 2009 at 12:23pm
When planning this season, I felt that TX would be a better risk than economy battered FL, which I had done for over 20 straight years. I did the Houston Bayou show two weeks ago in Memorial Park, for the first time. I also applied to Main St. Ft. Worth and Art City Austin (formerly Austin Fine Arts Festival and Laguna Gloria). Wanting to avoid a long trip home to Mpls and back a few days later, I added a new show - La Villita, in San Antonio. My thinking was that it would be a filler show that might generate a few nice sales.http://lavillita.com/index.php/Events/La-Villita-Spring-Arts-Festival-2009.htmlI won't go into the details of the location, as you may get that info from the link posted. But, suffice to say, it is a very charming area but nearly all attendees who came to the show, stumbled upon it as the only promotion we saw for it was a banner across a main street about a mile away, posters and postcards in the shops of La Villita, and a small, free blurb in the calendar for the entertainment section of the newspaper. We found the show on ZAPP and fees were modest - $200 booth fee, $25 jury fee and $50 electrical fee (optional).The website for the show, was minimal. No listing of exhibitors or links to their sites and if the show wasn't promoted, how would the public know to look at the website, anyways??!! I emailed the director in advance of the show to put up the hours of the show and the exhibitors and sent her links to other festival websites to show how other shows were promoting themselves on the internet. But all that was done was to add a postcard from the show.When we arrived for check-in, we found that parking was nearly impossible - no meters, only a few lots blocks away with a $5 minimum. Even though a two block area was barricaded at the check-in site, no one was there to let artists park there and pull out after check-in. Only two people were manning the check-in booth, the director, Janet Paduh, and a helper. It took 50 minutes for her to check-in the first dozen people in line ahead of us. We realized that she had marked off booth spaces and indicated them on the map, but had not assigned anyone until check-in! Therefore, wasting an enormous amount of time in the check-in process. There were NO artist packets with booth signs, name tags, programs, instructions or unloading passes. Nor were there any volunteers for assistance, artist hospitality etc.The quality of the 150 exhibitors in the show was weak, IMHO. I knew only three of the other exhibitors. Sales were very slow for nearly everyone I spoke to. One sculptor sold two nice pieces as he did an early exit from the show on Sunday. I doubled my only small sale at Houston Bayou, but did not make expenses.I feel that this director had no clue on how to run an art festival and have no idea why they hired her to do the job.The pluses for this experience (yes - there were several!)Load-in and out was one of the easiest. There was plenty of room on the sides of the booths. La Villita is a charming area. Security was excellent. Parking was close by. People in San Antonio are some of the nicest I've encountered anywhere!!San Antonio has become my new favorite city to visit. It is very easy to get around. Buy the daily trolley pass for $4. The trolley has four lines that go throughout downtown and you never need to wait more than 10 minutes and there is unlimited hopping on and off, with map signs at every stop. Parking can be very difficult and we preferred the trolley, when possible. San Antonio's famous River Walk is wonderful...like a canal throughout downtown, with river boat cruises.http://www.thesanantonioriverwalk.com/There are restaurants and hotels all along the river, with many sidewalk cafes. We even had a hostess walk us three blocks away to another restaurant - Zinc - because theirs had a 2 hr. wait. Then our waitress at Zinc, walked us a couple of blocks to direct us to our parking garage.We got the Staybridge Suites, only blocks from the heart of downtown, for $55 per night on Priceline. It came with two full size beds, full kitchen w/ refrig, range, microwave and dishwasher. Free laundry facilities, fitness room, business center, outdoor pool, afternoon snacks with wine and beer, full hot breakfast buffet, movie DVD library, WiFi and high speed internet, parking....ALL FREE!San Antonio has wonderful restaurants and there is free musical entertainment throughout the River Walk, as well. I want to go back!I am considering a different show in San Antonio, however, for the future. The Fiesta Arts Fair at the Southwest School of Art & Craft is an official “kick-off event” for the renowned Fiesta® San Antonio, is held in mid-April.http://www.swschool.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=64This show will conflict with Main St. Ft. Worth this year. MSFW will be my next show and I haven't done it in 8 years. I'm hoping that, perhaps, the focus of the event has improved since I last did it - when it was more about stacking empty beer cups and chomping on turkey legs while the music was blasting. Please FW, don't disappoint me. If you do, I will consider the Fiesta Arts Fair in San Antonio.
I have done the La Villita show one time in the past. It was the same as you described. The only attendees were the ines who stumbled on it... Won't do that one again!
The King William show in April is a one day show. It is very good, very well attended and FUN! Load in is ok, load out is pretty bad. Only one way in and out, not easy to figure out (map given in packet, but still difficult), but still worth it! Hope you try it!
Thanks, Ginny, for this thorough review. I'm hearing strong murmurings of decent sales in Texas so certainly understand why you chose this event as a filler. After reading this I'm thinking maybe there is also an "art" to putting on a decent art fair :)
Can I go with you next year as a helper at San Antonio? It's been on my list of "must visit" cities for a long time.
Comments
I have done the La Villita show one time in the past. It was the same as you described. The only attendees were the ines who stumbled on it... Won't do that one again!
The King William show in April is a one day show. It is very good, very well attended and FUN! Load in is ok, load out is pretty bad. Only one way in and out, not easy to figure out (map given in packet, but still difficult), but still worth it! Hope you try it!
Can I go with you next year as a helper at San Antonio? It's been on my list of "must visit" cities for a long time.