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By early August, nobody really needs to read another review that talks about the heat, and besides, I'm tapped out of metaphors on the subject.  But as long as heat continues to keep folks from venturing to art fairs, or shuts down the neurons controlling impulse buying and pursestrings, it's relevant. 

And so it was at Cooper River last weekend.  Low 90s and drenchingly humid for Friday setup; drier but low 90s (again) on Saturday and Sunday.  Run by Bill Kinney of Paragon Events, this is definitely an "Art in the Park" kind of show: in a large lakeside park a few blocks off the main shopping drag, with no shopping venues or restaurants close at hand.  Crowds were light all weekend. To be fair, some of the folks who showed up really wanted to be there.  But a sizeable number were browsers who just came to the park hoping for a breeze or bike ride and got curious when an art show happened in front of them. 

Visitors were unfailingly friendly and fun--I'm a Philly guy, these are my peeps!--and Cherry Hill is only five miles across the Ben Franklin Bridge from Philadelphia.  But it wasn't really an art-buying crowd.  I made about three times booth fee, and felt lucky to have done that.  One of my neighbors, who runs one of those "spell-anything-with-photo-letters" businesses that I'm seeing more and more of these days, barely covered expenses and said that if it wasn't his worst show ever, it was close.  A couple of high-end 2-D artists I spoke with fared no better.  Even the burger-and-lemonade vendor near me said that it was a break-even event for him.  Now that's surprising!

To his credit, promoter Kinney wasn't all roses and sunshine in a post-show letter to his artists, citing the unrelenting heat, humidity, and even "indecision over...raising the debt ceiling" as factors in the "spotty" buying, though he noted that some artists' sales "left them happy given the brutal circumstances." He also shared details on his advertising spend and media placement for the show.

I appreciate Bill's efforts--he's a pretty straight shooter and knows how to recruit and run a show (although the 6 PM close on Saturday made little sense to me, with nothing to draw people to the show over the dinner hour). But although the park's ample parking lot and wide-open spaces made setup/teardown a breeze, that was the only breeze to be had all weekend, and the few shade trees around all lined the bike path, meaning they were unable to provide relief to artists and patrons.  I suspect this is a great venue for a spring or fall show, but in the dead of summer, the odds are against this being a comfortable show to do, or to attend.