I have a question regarding the entries that are shown in the Art Fair Calendar and it relates to where the info comes from, what causes it to be shown, etc.
Specifically, Huffman Productions has four shows in the Midwest and have been fairly highly rated in the past. They have Omaha, Shakopee, Chicago and Sioux Falls. At the present time, one of the shows (Sioux Falls) is scheduled for Oct. and the other three in Nov. All the shows are called "Autumn Festival - An Arts and Crafts Affair".
My question is what would cause the Shakopee, MN show in Nov. to be listed in the calendar but none of the other three are? Does that mean it is vastly better or larger than the others? I'm especially interested in why the show in Ohaha on Nov. 4,5, 6 & 7 would not be listed.
I suppose all this is pretty trivial on my part. However, if a show isn't listed because there is some problem or negative aspect to it, then maybe it's a show I would want to avoid. I just don't know how to intrepret this and would appreciate knowing a little more about the process.
Thanks to anyone who can help with this.
Comments
Caroline,
I did the Omaha show in November and Larry ia correct in that it leans heavily toward the country crafts side. However, there were a lot of painters there and my booth-neighbor was one who did outdoor subjects such as you'd see one the cover of "Outdoor Life" and similar publications. In fact he was selling post-card type sets to National Geographic for re-sale by them and one or two other people like that. His work was very nice and he sold $8000 that weekend. Every time I looked up he was going bavk to the truck for more inventory. I really don't know about any of the others buy his work seemed to be very popular there. There was a good crowd and it's a very nice indoor venue. Ironically, I sold more in the form of orders after the show than I did while I was there. These were from peopls who had dropped by my booth but didn't buy at the time. Coumting those, it turned out to be a pretty decent show for me. Hope this helps a little but I'm not a painter so I'm not the best person you could ask. Good luck!
Caroline, are you talking about the Omaha Summer Arts Festival? That is quite a different animal from the Huffman shows...Visit their website for more details: http://www.summerarts.org/2011prefestival/
Personally, I agree with Larry that the Huffman shows are not appropriate for your painting, but the Summer Arts Festival is worth investigating.
The Huffman shows are mostly country crafts. You need to get information from someone who's done it recently.
Larry Berman
Digital Jury Services
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100
Makes perfect sense and I appreciate your taking the time to explain it. I now understand. Thank you.
And, Larry, as always, thanks for your input.
Without people like the two of you, many of us would be close to being lost! Some of us are pretty close anyway!
Thank you both for your help.
Don
Larry Berman
Digital Jury Services
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100
So the economics of this is that we offer free listings for art fairs -- but only one per organization. That means if you are running the Des Moines Art Festival, or Columbia, MO's, Art in the Park you can have a free listing. However, if you are running a group of events (e.g., Amdur Productions, Sugarloaf Craft Festivals, Paragon Events, Howard Alan -- or Huffman Productions), unless you pay for an additional listing you will not receive free promotion. ArtFairCalendar.com is my main business, dedicated to producing patrons to attend the nation's art fairs and buy art.
Hoffman has their one free listing for Shakopee. This is not a reflection on their other events but kind of a "pay to play", part of the free enterprise system! I hope this makes sense to you and you understand the intention of the site -- to bring patrons to the shows, not to provide artists with a list of the "most likely to succeed" art fairs.