Fountain Square 2010 Evanston, Illinois

Hello vodka, it's me, Patti and I will be visiting you after the art show every night that I am doing this show!!The events manager is called Special Events Management, and they are far from special...We can't blame the weather, because it was near perfect- the perfect storm never really appeared..the quality of the art was far from stellar, but not bad.What bothered Bob( my husband) and I most was that one of the awards was given to an artist who was not present...and they could care less.When we heard that the award for Best in Functional Art went to a particular artist(name to be held for fear of something happening to us)Bob went to the office and asked how they felt about awarding an artist who was 600 miles away...they said, oh he was here, we handed him the award this morning at the awards breakfast- Bob stated"no, that wasn't him,that was a worker doing the show- I know the wood artist who does inlaid work"She asked "how do I know if it is the artist at check in?" duhhhhhh! Check an ID, is that rocket science? That was the way it went, and down hill from there.With our coaxing- ten times- the committee finally approached the worker -stand-in-guy, who was busted.

The crowds came to the show, most of them did not buy...what a shame...a beautiful area, beautiful homes to fill- no buying power.Scratch this one off my list!!!

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  • I did the Evanston Fountain Square show earlier this year. Would not go back. They actually let a booth of flea market vendors setup t-shirts in the middle of the festival. There was also a guy there who had one or two water color paintings in his booth but had a bunch of mass produced pink signs for little girls to put in their bedroom with Justin Bieber & princesses - he will of course write the child's name on it in magic marker for $8! Pathetic. The show did not care at all. Many artists went and complained to the director and were told that the t-shirt booth would be kicked out. Well when we came in on Sunday, the t-shirt booth had been moved, just to another location. Sales were low-moderate, but would have been better if the show was actually juried and/or the director actually enforced the rules.

    There were also a lot of kids standing around and being loud, loitering, and the cops were everywhere trying to control this loitering problem. I spoke to one of the officers because kids were bouncing a basketball off the back of my tent/pro-panels. It was explained to me that loitering in that town has become a big problem.

    There were certainly some quality artists set up there, but I'm guessing if the show keeps letting in such junk, you won't see many good artists setting up there for much longer.

  • i sell metal too! ive done 2 shows, one in evanston,il and the indoor, called " one of a kind show". i travel from chattanooga. its a haul, but i made a friend so now i have a free place to stay in chicago.

    since i won best in sculpture at the evanston show i dont have to jury in, so i'll go back and do that show and while im there im doing the gold coast show cause its one week apart. honestly i dont think its worth the trip, but my sales in galleries right now are not good, so i dont have a choice, but to travel.

    basically i put $1700. in da bank. sales were $2800. i pricelined a $55 hotel...but its booth fee, gas, then food that sucks it up. i haven't had one residual sale from either show.

    i was wait listed for the decatur srts show in atlanta...how is the market there? i assume its like everywhwre else slow....i just came back from an orlando festival, it was pathetic, there i won $500 award but sales of 500.00 is just wrong...many vendors didn't even make their expenses.

  • I was just accepted into the Fountain Sq 2011 show. I live in Atlanta, I paint floral onto metal ceiling tiles. I have never done a show in Chicago area, The reviews of this show make me not want to do it.. I would like to sell in the Chicago area, just dont know which shows might be good for me.... any suggestions?
  • I am glad that Bob and I showed a voice in this matter at Fountain Square...after all "If you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem" Che Guevara
  • Ive only done outdoor festivals for about 1 1/2 years, i would like to give indoor shows a try even though they r more expensive, i cant handle the weather conditions anymore. thanks for hotel and info great review.
  • I wouldn't believe the statistics on show attendence. The side streets are wind tunnels. Sunday four booths across from me had to tear down due to wind. People next to me about stroked out trying to keep their booth on the ground.
  • Hey Patti,
    Thanks for busting the cheaters. If we don't have a union or guild to verify who's real, we have to do our best as individual experts in our mediums to rat out the buy/sell and factories. Every dollar that is spent at a booth that is not legitimate is a dollar not spent in our booths and is a slap in the face to every one of us who make our art.
  • Hi Denice ~ I am not here to discourage you from doing any Evanston art shows- all I am saying is the Fountain Square art show was run very poorly... but statistics say the show has 50,000 in attendance and the one you are doing only has 25,000. I don't know what your medium is, and I am not an advocate of canceling shows.As far as hotels, you can Priceline it- the area includes Skokie which is very close....10 minutes...we actually stayed in Northbrook because we love the Renaissance Hotel there and got it for $54 a night for a 4*- it doesn't get much better than that.
  • hi patti-yikes- sounds like all is not well in Illinois--scary thing is im doing evanston, il show aug 7,8.9 takes place around the lake...maybe i can still cancel... if not, any hotels worth checking out? thanks for any info-denice
  • Hey Patti, We were the jewelers just down from you. Great review! The first mess was getting into to unload. I can't believe how screwed up THAT was. Of course the traffic in the area was bad and when there was a delay about getting in there really was no place to just sit and wait. Yikes!@ Once we got in the guy in our section did a good job. Our saturday was fair, but pretty much lower end. Sunday not good. I will say that the jewelry award went to a fine Jeweler ( Gary Allen, Omaha) much deserved. There were at least three buy/sell jewelry booths. The really fun part of the show was during tear down when a disgruntled person took his anger out on our booth and ran it over with his van. Not nice!
    After a discussion with the show guy (our section guy who did a great job) and the police he decided it might be best to make restitution. After many years in this business there is always a first time for everything.
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