The Greater St Louis Art Association has been producing the Art Fair at Queeny Park for more than 30 years. In the early years, this show was the premier art event in St Louis, but it has since been eclipsed by the big budget fairs, the St Louis Art Fair and Art on the Square across the river in Belleville Illinois. Over the last five or so years, the Queeny show has had its ups and downs....
I'm very happy to report that the changes that the show committee have implemented over the last year or so have all been for the positive. The crowds were good and they were steady from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon. The only lull that I saw was during the first half hour on Sunday morning. During the peak periods, which ran for several hours each day, it was difficult to make your way through the aisles.
Queeny is an indoor show held in the Greensfelder Recreation Center, a St Louis County Parks facility. Since the show happened to fall on the first cool weekend in several months, we were afraid that the customers would want to be outside rather than indoors with us, but thankfully, that was not the case. There was a positive energy to the show from both the customers and the artists. The customers that I had contact with were all happy to be out and many were spending.
We were very pleased with sales. My wife Gail makes lampworked glass beads and jewelry and we have done the show, Spring and/or Fall, more than 8 times over the last 6 years. This was our best Queeny show ever, and ranks among our top dozen shows since we started doing them in 2002. Most artists we talked to did well, some did fair, but a few didn't do so well.
After a string of mediocre shows, it is really gratifying to be in a good show that is reminiscent of those of 5 and 6 years ago. There are too many people on the show committee to thank individually, they all did an outstanding job and all the parts of the show melded well together.
The dates for the Spring Art Show are April 8-10, 2011. The Fall show is normally over Labor Day weekend, Friday through Sunday, which would put it September 2-4, 2011. More information at http://gslaa.org
Comments
The show is still a good one to do, although good shows aren't guaranteed (never are of course). In 2012, we had our best Queeny show ever and our best show in many years, and in 2013, it was mediocre. Attendance was good both years. The artists we know who did the show have similar stories, some very good and others so-so. The show management still does a great job of getting the word out and publicizing on local media. We aren't doing the show this year, maybe next.
Has anyone done this show in the past year or so? What was your experience? This will be my first time to apply.