OK, so I submit my stuff on Zapp and pay the fees for my wife and I for a supposedly great show on Long Island. We get accepted and they take our booth fees. We arrange for dog sitting and all the misc. stuff to be gone for four or five days, make hotel reservations, and then get told: 'So sorry, we made a mistake and can't get any of our friends to attend because of a religious holiday on that weekend.' They did refund our money, but we lost out on a show we'd done several times before that had been at least productive. Why didn't they look at a calendar before scheduling this thing? Go figure!
Then there was the very big wine festival we did a couple years back when they insisted our 'banners in various stages of disrepair on bamboo poles' would not be allowed - over ten thousand people showed on the first day and they had no trash cans anywhere on the premises! When we came in on Sunday morning, the place looked like a war zone.
I can't begin to relate the number of shows we've been at that were to be "100% hand made by vendor", yet were unbelievably far from it. There was a lady two spaces up from us at one indoor show that had boxes clearly marked "Made In China" full of porcelain piggy banks that she'd use felt tipped pens to mark on and then sell. While she pushed the limit on handmade 'content' we've seen far worse many times.
A favorite gripe of mine is the set-up/break-down instructions that never are enforced, thus many artists (probably those that don't follow application instructions!) block streets with vehicles and trailers while still breaking down or zip in at the last second and are still setting up when the show opens.
Of course there are those that promote their event as being the greatest thing since sliced bread for the artist community! They've thousands and thousands of buying attendees! They've all sorts of wonderful attractions and rides for the kids! They've super security and music and whatever you can think of! What they don't tell you is that when you show up you find all the artist/crafter spaces are way out of the pedestrian traffic flow and you're lucky to see ten percent of all those attendees!
I could probably come up with a few more (like the being accepted and then being told we were on a wait list), but these are our personal top five. Anyone got some more?I can't begin to relate the number of shows we've been at that were to be "100% hand made by vendor", yet were unbelievably far from it. There was a lady two spaces up from us at one indoor show that had boxes clearly marked "Made In China" full of porcelain piggy banks that she'd use felt tipped pens to mark on and then sell. While she pushed the limit on handmade 'content' we've seen far worse many times.
A favorite gripe of mine is the set-up/break-down instructions that never are enforced, thus many artists (probably those that don't follow application instructions!) block streets with vehicles and trailers while still breaking down or zip in at the last second and are still setting up when the show opens.
Of course there are those that promote their event as being the greatest thing since sliced bread for the artist community! They've thousands and thousands of buying attendees! They've all sorts of wonderful attractions and rides for the kids! They've super security and music and whatever you can think of! What they don't tell you is that when you show up you find all the artist/crafter spaces are way out of the pedestrian traffic flow and you're lucky to see ten percent of all those attendees!
Comments
Country cottage art is an art form that attracts a completely different crowd than shows with raku, fine sculpture, blown glass, oil painting, etc. There's nothing wrong with country cottage art, it just draws a different crowd. Mixing it with the other causes people who are looking for the raku, fine sculpture, etc. to stop going to that particular show because that's not what they are looking for. When that happens, the money dries up and the artist selling the raku, etc. has just spent tremendous time, money and effort to receive nothing in return. Trust me, I've been there and lost a lot, so I finally stopped doing shows,except the juried ones. There aren't that many juried shows that I know of other than at the colleges and university shows for students. I even heard the one in Austin that used to draw big crowds has gone more toward country cottage art and the money isn't there anymore to make it worth while.
What can we do as artists to keep the quality up and keep our crafts going? Any suggestions will be greatly welcomed.