I have put off writing about this festival because I have mixed feelings about it. There were several AFI members there and I was going to follow their lead on the commentary about this show.
If saying that the only reason I went to this festival at all was to see some AFI'ers, you may get the idea about the show in general. It is held in a very nice upper middle class community, load in should be fairly easy since it is held on one street with lots of parking near by. There is storage behind the booths.
The GOOD-This is not a large show but the quality this year was an improvement over last year. In addition to stellar AFI members being there, I noticed a definite upgrade in the artists, for the most part. They also had live music that was appropriate to the festival and there was a food booth that looked to be manned by locals rather than the usual roving band of food vendors.
The BAD-I think I saw one ad in the newspaper a couple of weeks ago advertising all the DW festivals. There may have been local ads but I am not local to Deerfield so I didn't see them. The stick signs on the way to the festival were minimal. The weather on Saturday was extremely warm, especially compared to what it has been lately so the contrast was noticeable. Don't know if this held down crowds as people were finally able to go to the beach or up to 6 Flags.
The UGLY-I haven't spoken to her but Patti Stern posted on her facebook page that she had two pieces stolen from her booth on Saturday nite. In the past, this would have surprised me in a place like Deerfield but I am no longer as naive and far more cynical. This show was not that large that something like this wasn't noticed so I have to wonder about their security.
The BEST- I got to meet Amy Furgiuele and Michael Stipek. Both have lovely work and I got to see Michael in action as he sold two framed pictures. David Hipwell wasn't at his booth as I wandered around. I got to visit with Patti and Bob Stern also.
That's about all I have to say about this festival.
Comments
I'm the promoter for the Deerfield Festival of Fine Arts and want to clarify a few things.
Advertising: There were print ads in the Chicago Tribune & Pioneer Press. There were also 15,000 direct mail postcards sent to Deerfield and neighboring residents. We were listed on WDRV radio station and the Weather Channel crawl. Press releases were sent to every print publication, radio and television station in the Chicago, Peoria and Milwaukee areas. We signed up for on line Red Eye, Metromix, Daily Candy, Reader, Art Fair Calendar, Daily Herald, Pioneer Press and more.
The campaign was identical to the past 3 years in which our attendance was outstanding.
Security: This was most upsetting.. The security company and guards instructions were identical to last year. We feel awful about this. Next year, we will definitely be making a change for the better.
Attendance: This is the first year in many years that the attendance has not been "wall to wall". The past 3 years, other festival promoters and artists have commented on how the economy has affected sales and attendance. We think that has finally affected Deerfield. We will, however, study our marketing campaign and add where we need to.
Hopes: We sincerely hope that artists will give our festival another chance. The past 3 years have been very successful from a promoter's standpoint as well as polled artists. This was one of those years, unfortunately.
Thanks for your time,
Debbie Netter
Hey Geri, I visited the Deerfield show as well. That was one of the few weekends I did not have a show I was exhibiting at this summer. I had been at the Cuneo Museum show in Vernon Hills the week before and wanted to compare the Cuneo show to another event produced by D&W. Attendance was not good at either show. It was very difficult to FIND the Deerfield show. I saw no advertising and I had been looking. Web presence was not strong for either show-again; I had been on the lookout. I stumbled across the street side signs when I got within 2-3 blocks of the Deerfield show. Not good. I didn't see any ads in the Tribune-which I read religiously each day. I spent almost 4 hours at the show talking to artists. It was great to meet Amy Furguiele, Michael Stipek and Dave Hipwell, wish I'd met you too!
After my experience at Cuneo, I won’t be doing it again. I had thought to instead to the Deerfield show next year. Now I won’t-especially after reading Amy’s latest post about art stolen from booths on Saturday night.
I totally believe in my work and my decision to enter into the art fair circuit this year. I made the decision to not consider at my sales show by show, but instead to look at the entire summer as a whole. I know it’s possible to sell thousands of $'s of paintings at a show which would totally make up for lack of sales at other shows. I know that’s the nature of selling oil paintings. I keep repeating this mantra to myself as often as necessary. I do love being at the shows with my work and talking about art to everyone, visitors and artists. I’m really looking forward to the travel and shows in other states this summer. I love traveling, painting and talking to people about art, love it.Sales would be nice, I know they will come.
This has been a very interesting summer so far being my first season on the road...very interesting. Made all the more interesting by this forum. Much more information to triangulate with.
Geri:
That's an excellent snapshot of the event from a visitor's perspective and it was great to meet you as well! I wrestled with how to review this show simply because there were several aspects about the show that negatively affected the "feel" of the show, but not all of them were under the control of the promoter. As was stated, it was beastly hot on Saturday and there were hardly any crowds that day. At one point, the only people you saw walking around were artists! They also had predicted a storm for that afternoon (which thankfully missed us!), and I have a feeling that might have kept folks away as well. Some of the things that I thought were within the promoter's control did occur, however, and I think they're worth noting as well. Unlike Mike, I don't think it was very well advertised... I attended the "preview party" on Friday night and I believe it was held in conjunction with a Deerfield "Business After Hours" type event as there were lots of business owners who stopped by and had NO CLUE the show was going on! They live and work in Deerfield and had not heard anything about it. Since it's a busy weekend in Chicago, I would think it would be important to really get the word out, particularly on your own stomping ground. Secondly, I heard from 3 different individuals (I believe you were one of them, Geri...) who stated it was very hard to find the venue. Evidently in one ad, the address given was wrong and one woman said she had driven around for over half and hour to find the place! Crazy... The final "big deal" item was the fact that about 4 or 5 artists' tents were broken into overnight on Saturday and LOTS of items were stolen... glass mosaic pieces, very large stone sculptures, and at least one very large architectural piece that the artists said weighted about 30-40 pounds and they couldn't figure out how in the heck they got it out of the tent and hauled away without being noticed. There was security overnight, but whether it was just one guy and he was at the other end or doing something else, I don't know... I just know it looks like it was several people who pulled this off as they did not take small, "walk away" types of items. Patti and Bob Stern were my neighbors and were ones that had a piece stolen, and I'm sure they have a few words to say about the security...
After this weekend, I went back through the application and made some other points that I think affected the overall show. According to the application, the promoter was wanting 150 artists. In looking at the first invite list there were about 80 artists listed and after seeing the "open call" that went out on AFI a few weeks before the show (always a bad omen...), it looks like about 10 more artists were added. As we were setting up, most of the artists in my area were all "first-timers", with only 1 being someone who had done the show in the past. This also did not bode well... The application also stated no "mass produced items" (which there were... A guy across the way had painted "island themed" wall pieces and they all look amazingly alike and were still in plastic packaging!), and that "reproduced items should be in flip bins and [were] not to be more than 25% of exhibited work". I saw a painter or two who had prints in plastic tubs and they were the vast majority of work being displayed with only a very small amount of originals on the walls. These were pretty easily spotted, and seemingly overlooked by the show. If you're looking to fill spaces, I imagine, then these are easily overlooked for the bottom line.
As someone had stated, it was my own fault for being at a show that I didn't attend or "see" before I attended, but I did very much make every effort to try and get information before applying. Honestly, I really couldn't find anything beforehand! My recommendation for those looking at this show in the future is that it would be best for someone who lives in the Chicagoland area and who wouldn't incur a lot of travel expenses. I would say that the price points that seem to sell this year were $20-75 (by what sold in my own booth and by judging what I saw walking around...), although there were a few smaller amounts of higher priced items sold. (I had a $275 necklace sell, but most items were earrings around $20-$30...) I made the error in that due to some of the promoter's information (that the median household price is $850,000...), I assumed it would be a "higher end" show and so I brought more of my higher end pieces. Perhaps I would have sold more if I had brought more "low end" items as well... (Lesson for me for next time in bringing as much as possible...) I do not think I will be returning to this show in future years, but think it might be a good venue for someone local wanting to get a feel for doing an art fair and how things operate as it did have fairly easy load in/out, and seems to have a fairly good local turnout... when the weather is good! Good luck for next year!
Thanks for the report Geri, I really enjoy all these reports even though I'll probably never get to actually go to one of them - the joys of living on the other side of the world!
Thanks Carla. This weekend is Old Town and Wells Street on Saturday and maybe a trip up to my old stomping grounds in Racine for Monument Square (and, I will admit it--kringle)
Jim--we will try to make it all the way through both festivals although that is a lot of art. (I don't do Ann Arbor or Madison cuz more than 300 artists and I get cross-eyed!!)
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