Thanks to all of you who participated in the survey and shared it with others. Our second 
annual best art fair survey is all tallied. The purpose of the survey is to bring attention to the best shows in the country and promote "art fair tourism."
Artists have opportunities to share their best shows, but the people who attend don't. We sent out emails to our 50,000+ email subscriber list and posted it through our websites, Facebook and Twitter. Friends took it and shared it also. The results reflect the art fair buyers perspectives, a very component of our business.
The top 50 fairs have exciting quality art, fascinating artists and ever-changing venues in big cities and small towns, oceanfront and lakefront, it all adds to the diversity of your experience and keeps you coming back.
 |
AMERICA'S BEST ART FAIRS - the Top Ten
- Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival, Winter Park, FL (March 20-22, 2015)
- Old Town Art Fair - Chicago (June 13 & 14, 2015)
- Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, the Original, Ann Arbor, MI (July 15-18, 2015)
- Lakefront Festival of the Arts, Milwaukee (June 19-21, 2015)
- Coconut Grove Arts Festival, Miami, FL (February 14-16, 2015)
- Krasl Art Fair, St. Joseph, MI (July 11 & 12, 2015)
- Mount Dora Art Festival, Mount Dora, FL (February 7 & 8, 2015)
- Cherry Creek Art Festival, Denver, CO (July 3-5, 2015)
- MAIN ST. Fort Worth Arts Festival, Fort Worth, TX (April 9-12, 2015)
- Peoria Art Guild Fine Art Fair, Peoria, IL (Sept. 26 & 27, 2015)
Don't miss the entire Top 50 art fairs, craft shows and art festivals, including the Best Regional shows, the best urban show, and interesting demographic information: www.BestArtFairs.com
There are more details at that link about who took the survey, why people come to art show, what they buy, why they buy and why they don't come to some shows any more, including a lot of great tips for show organizers.
Learn even more in our podcast where we talk about more of the details and share statistics. Our guest Laura Berarducci, Marketing Director of the Ann Arbor Convention and Visitors Bureau talks about the economic impact of the popular art fair on the region.
Listen to that here: podcast-bestartfairs
Show directors, we are preparing a report analyzing the results of the survey that will be ready soon. Stay tuned, you'll be hearing more!
Comments
I live much closer to California than where I frequent, which is Florida and the southeast. I haven't been to a west coast show in a long time (2003) since I can book a tour of successive weekend shows in the southeast and never have a break in time, nor will I have to drive very far to get from one show to the next. Everything in the west costs much more as well (booth fees can be huge--three to five times as much as southeast events), plus they don't have significant awards. Are there really that many more customers and deep pockets? It's probably too risky to try it in this economy. It wouldn't take very many so so seasons, or (worse) a few seasons with losses, to put an artist out of the art fair business.
I said this somewhere else on AFI in a post related to AFI's ten best... Peoria, here we come! I bet they'll be overwhelmed with apps next year. WOOHOO!
Sweet!
I think I love Mount Dora.
http://www.dailycommercial.com/news/article_24217579-df59-5451-994e...
The purpose of the survey is really so the shows can tout how great they are and to bring people to attend the shows -- and buy art! Mount Dora did a great job of getting out the vote and ended up high in the voting.
Plus, they are getting the word out in the media: http://www.dailycommercial.com/news/article_bf5b129f-dbed-5df5-aca2...
Thanks, Mount Dora. Great promoting! Anyone else?
I'll stick with my review from September, that claims that St Louis is the best art fair in the country, and that is from the patron's viewpoint.
La Quinta is on the "50 Best", Jeff. This survey was sent to people who attend art fairs, the art fair patrons. AFI members are located across the country, but few of them voted in the survey. Who wins in any election/survey depends on the voter turnout. Right? I'd love to see more information about the California events showing up on this site. I/we depend on others to get the word out. The purpose of the survey is showcase all the wonderful work available at art fairs. The more this info gets "shared" the better for all of us.
I'm not complaining but am a little bit amazed that the La Quinta Arts Festival is not in the Best list. I wonder how many members of AFI do west coast shows. There are only two California shows in any of the lists, La Quinta and Sausalito. It would be good to see a map showing where AFI members are located (home base) to get an idea of the percentages across the country.