Posted by Linda Anderson on September 29, 2009 at 3:46pm
60 artists gathered in beautiful Usher Park for the inaugural Fine Arts & Wine Festival in Itasca Illinois. The event is sponsored by the Village of Itasca who is fortunate to have the funding to do what it takes to enhance and promote the event. I typically do not do a "first" show, but my weekend was open.......Setup was Friday morning and was extraordinally easy. Drive up to the curb and a team of village worker volunteers were lined up to assist artists - enjoyed greatly our help from the personable chief of police! A gazebo stands in the center of the park with sidewalks that meander to that core so all booth locations were fantastic. There was generous spacing that allowed about 5' between booths and unlimited amount of space behind each booth. Vehicle parking was streetside, around the park and along neighborhood streets. Each day I arrived to park my van a close 100 ft from my tent. Overnight trailer parking was found at the neighborhood school a block away. Along one side of the park, artists assigned to those booths could park both on the grass behind their tents.Since the show ran from 4pm to 9pm Friday evening, electricity was included. Unfortunately, heavy rains were also included Friday evening which dampened the spirits of all. Still, residents turned out and the lighting in this park area looked spectacular! (4) Vineyards had booths throughout the event and while nicely dressed patrons came Friday evening, I think the artists enjoyed the yummy wines more as we were quite saturated while hunkering under our tents. I don't think many artists had sales Friday.Saturday and Sunday went well - predicted rain stayed away. Residents from Itasca and neighboring Chicagoland suburbs attended and those interested in purchasing had no reservations. This was not an elbow to elbow turnout, but rather a consistent flow of patrons. Over the weekend I would estimate attendance was approximately 2,000 to 4,000 (lower than it should have been due to weather). But..... sales were better than I would have expected. My neighbor, a fantastic mosaic artist with high price points ($2,000 & up) did very well Saturday selling five or six large pieces but nothing on Sunday. They also took home the $1,000 second prize ribbon. I had a good day Saturday selling more framed than matted only pieces and was greatly surprised that Sunday was even better. A jeweler on my other side had beautiful work and received the $500 third prize ribbon. Good thing she won that as her sales were the lowest she's had all year with nothing sold Friday or Saturday. A nearby painter from TN had lousy sales until Sunday - he was glad he did not pack up early and went home Sunday with great sales. While this was not a huge money maker for me, it was the best Chicagoland area show for us in terms of profit and environment. Cheerful organizers and volunteers helping constantly.When the rains came Friday night and the lighting presented problems, the public works guys were on it immediately - working efficiently and with great attitudes. Talented musicians playing non stop through the weekend from the gazebo offered great ambiance to the festival. A nearby nature center brought animals to a grassy area on Sunday and had supplies for children to draw the animals. Another childrens activity included sidewalk artistry. Prior to the festival artists could pickup a park bench from the village and paint it. Benches were then sold via an auction with half the sales going to the artist. These benches were great pieces of art with the highest sale at over $1200 and the lowest at $400 or so. The city will use the funds from these sales to improve the park area. One of the park features that attracted me was the swan pond. Swans even had a little house they stayed in at night!Onsight food included a rib guy and an Italian Beef & Vienna hot dog guy..... This is the Chicago area afterall and the food was FANTASTIC and reasonably priced. Both had restaurants in the downtown area. A nice artists breakfast was held Saturday from 8 to 10 at a nearby restaurant.Hats off to the organizers and village employees. Well done. Other than the obvious drawbacks of low atttendance for a "first time" show, the only complaint I had was to find one artist snuck in resell crap on Saturday and Sunday. Pay attention promoters - I'm giving you his name and his booth is shown in my video! Bear with me as I describe the drama:Saturday Neil (my husband and indispensible assistant) & I noticed a great amount of white garbage bags with matted work going by our booth. We were quite busy too and did not give it much thought that day or investigate who was doing so well..... but our mosaic art neighbors noticed it as well. General initial thought was "good for that artist". Shortly after opening Sunday morning we noticed the trend continuing but when my first "looker" of the day said to me - "Why should I pay $50 for a 16x20 here when I can get something for my wall for $10 over there" well.... that got me going. Neil was the first to check it out. An artist by the name of Hailin Gong got into the show when the organizer saw his paintings at another event. When Neil arrived at booth #45 what he saw was about 5 small paintings on a wall and a rack full of knockoff prints matted in cheap black mats - photos of Wriggly Field in the 20's, Marilyn Monroe, Chalk drawing reproductions of baseball/football players.... you know the stuff. Neil asked the guy for a business card..... no card. Neil asked the guy where his booth sign is..... don't know - I'm here helping my boss. Neil asked where his boss was.... don't know - getting a sandwich? In the mean time the crap was selling right & left and Neil noticed the helper was placing them in the bags facing each other so the actual work could not be seen by others as the purchasers carried them throughout the park. Neil came back & relayed the info to me and my mosaic neighbor friend Laura Harris. Laura said she had seen this guy roll in a couple of large racks early both Saturday and Sunday mornings but didn't give it much thought.I was still tending to my customers so Laura went to visit the booth and ask more questions. By this time the helper was acting a little nervous. Laura asked to meet the artist. The helper responded - he's at another show. After Laura returned, I finally had some time and went to the volunteer booth looking for the organizer. She was out & about, but I discussed the matter with the charming chief of police and mentioned that since it was their first show I didn't think they'd want the reputation of allowing resellers participate. He was stunned and said he would pass it along to be taken care of.ok....ok..... I could not help myself.... I finally went to booth 45 myself. I too asked to meet the artist and the nervous little helper explained to me that he is handicapped and could not drive the 40 minutes to run his tent so he was just helping him out. I pointed out the matted stuff and questioned the validity of ownership. Oh yes.... his boss took those pictures and drew those Marilyn Monroe and Walter Payton faces...... To which I replied - well, he must be pretty old to get a photo of Wriggly Field in the '20's. This poor guy (perhaps his green card should be checked) was very well trained and replied - oh yes, he has the rights to those photos....... I think I was more amused than upset at the overall situation. I explained to the helper that his boss put him in a bad position and he should call his boss. I mentioned the rules clearly outlined in the artist packet was the artist must attend all 3 days and that work was to be done by the artist. Again I heard the sad story about the artist's disability and distance and he did not want to call his boss. It was easily recognizable this routine had been done many times in the past and I did not want to get carried away so I told the guy I mentioned the problem to the chief of police and he will likely be at his booth soon to tell him to put away the reseller stuff. The guy responded - why.... this our first show.... give us warning....The lies were ones a teenager would not even expect to get away with. They need to learn a little consistency :-) I left the area before my giggling began. The show was to end at 3:00 and it was now about noon. I needed to get back to my booth and take care of my customers. The organizer visited my booth shortly thereafter and expressed her regret that this "artist"? got away with sneaking in the crap and did make him shut it down. We all regret we did not come across it early on Saturday.Overall I was highly impressed with this art event. The patrons were unlike those at Deerfield or Cantigny in that they purchased AND were personable - enjoyed talking with artists about their pieces. My thoughts are that given the well thoughtout planning, fantastic involvement by volunteers and obvious availability of funding by the city, this event will grow stronger each year. I've discovered my niche is any event on one of the Great Lakes or anywhere in Michigan and while I have pretty much decided to stay away from the Chicagoland area shows next year, I may do this one again if I have that weekend open.Below is the link to Neil's you tube videos. Views of booth 45 belonging to Hailin Gong showing his assistant are on Itasca Show #3 - the one without the tent top.Itasca You Tube VideosHave a great fall season everyone. Perhaps will see some of you in Novi!Linda AndersonAnderson Photo Workshttp://www.andersonphotoworks.com
I did not attend last year - but sure would have if I had the weekend open. I did hear from the folks who had a booth next to mine that last year had a larger turnout and they were again happy. I was so impressed with the organizer and city employees who were quite gracious and well organized that I can only imagine it's still a great one. Unfortunately this year I again have a conflict and did not apply. If you participate, you'll have to let us know how it was. Have a terrific show season Amy
Linda... Great 2009 comments. Did you attend in 2010? Was the quality still there as the year previous? Any thoughts/comments about doing it in 2011? Would love your feedback! Thanks!
Nice review and interesting (and good) way of handling the re-seller. I like it when I see other artists taking the initiative to report some suspicious activity too. I would have at the last show (this past weekend) but it wasn't a juried event and about 90% were re-sellers. I am sure I would have been the odd ball out where I could see them complain - why is a craft artist here?
It is really a lovely area and the city employees as well as the citizens are wonderfully warm. I think they still need some assistance however with their judging and promotional advertising. The potential for this becoming a major show is very promising. Organizers expressed many times how village funding removes restrictions that other shows may have and they want to attract high quality artists. I received a call after my acceptance but prior to my payment to verify I was coming. I think they had a difficult time attracting artists as it was a "first" event. They did well obtaining your involvement. I would estimate half the artists were excellent. It's likely however anyone who applied was accepted. The great jewelry artist next to me was quite disappointed that the other two jewelers there were not top end jewelers, but rather beading crafters similar to what is found at local craft shows. As with the reseller guy, she found many were purchasing low end $10 pieces rather than her exquisite $75 to $100 items. I did note Nels was on the list but his booth remained empty all weekend. My initial thought Friday night, before I noticed he was not there, was oh no..... he should not be here. Like a few of my shows, I will do these firsts if I have the weekend open and I had initially thought I would not return in following years. But, I was so impressed with the overall effort and recognize they are setting the foundation to eventually have one of the best Chicagoland art events I may return. They ask for suggestions, they want to improve and are willing to do what it takes to attract the best. I had several locals make purchases in my booth noting that they want to support the event and the artists so this show will become an annual favorite. Combining that type of resident support with the fantastic volunteer efforts leads me to believe they will eventually succeed. I do hope so as the village and park setting is marvelous!
Thanks so much for this report, Linda. I spent some time with the organizers in the Spring getting their application up to speed and critiquing their prospectus. It sounded like a great area and like they may have pulled it out! Whew!
Comments
Hi Amy,
I did not attend last year - but sure would have if I had the weekend open. I did hear from the folks who had a booth next to mine that last year had a larger turnout and they were again happy. I was so impressed with the organizer and city employees who were quite gracious and well organized that I can only imagine it's still a great one. Unfortunately this year I again have a conflict and did not apply. If you participate, you'll have to let us know how it was. Have a terrific show season Amy