We're all looking for ways to find our customers. Ready to get on the road? Or maybe, stay at home and turn your yard into an art fair. In Ferndale, MI, 13 artists have gotten together to show their work in a socially distanced safe setting in their own yards. The 13 artists live in a radius of five miles of one another.
"The hyper-local art fair includes 13 artists in 10 yards in a five-mile area of Ferndale. Guests are asked to wear masks and maintain social distancing to curb the spread of COVID-19. Cash is preferred, but individual artists may accept other forms of payment."
Do you and your friends think you could pull this off? Somewhere in the archives at ArtFairRadio.com there is a podcast about artists starting their own events. You know how to display your work and definitely you know how to market it and seen so many shows you're full of ideas. I think you can.
Learn more about how they're doing it in Ferndale: Backyard Art Fair
Comments
I live in Greensboro, NC. One of the two neighbors sits on the board of one of our local art centers. The other is an avid collector. Aside from their databases, each artist promoted it to their email list and on their social networks. They've been doing this before COVID, but it certainly was nice to be included - this year, especially.
Great idea. How did you advertise it?
Very cool, CA! Where do you live?
I've been hearing about good sales in many places around the country in these smaller or downsized events. My surmise is that the marketing is directed at only those interested. Many people who used to be enthusiastic art fair buyers have dropped off because of the commercialization and large crowds and inaccessibility. In this new situation those things are gone! They are more comfortable attending AND people who attend art fairs just for something to do, the tire kickers amusing themselves, are not there, leaving (you guessed it) the "good shoes" people eager to view art.
There is a backyard art event where I live every year - it’s been going on for several years. Two next door neighbors host artists in their backyards. Every year, they invite different artists to participate so it’s always new and fresh and more artists get exposure. I was invited this year and despite COVID, although the crowds were much lighter than usual, we all did well. I think they usually have 12 artists; this year they kept it to eight so we could distance better. Everyone wore a mask and the homeowners supplied hand sanitizer for each artist’s table.