I spent the first five years of my full time drawing career exhibiting at craft shows. I didn't have a display for nicer shows and they were the first ones I found. I still exhibit at some nearby craft shows (Step by Step Productions craft shows are worthwhile in the Chicago area... they are heavily advertised, well attended). So I decided to give the Lill Street Craft Fair - a new artist section in conjunction with The Taste of Lincoln Ave. Most of my images sell best in Chicago, so I'm trying to start venturing downtown more often. The fest was PACKED with mostly 20-something alcohol swilling partiers. Not exactly my target market. There was no sign pointing to our short, shady street of artists and only the more sober or shade-seeking attendees wandered down our way. Many of my greeting cards seemed to be disappearing on their own, probably during extended conversations with friendly drunks. If they improve the signage next year, it could be well worth doing. At $275, the price was low for a Chicago event. Set up was easy, parking was horrendous - definitely locate the parking garage suggested by the promoters. I'd suggest paying extra for electricity, there were lots of shoppers after dusk and only those with electricity were being visited. Tear down was a bit of a mess. If you waited till after 9 pm, you could drive right up to your booth, but most tired artists carted their stuff away.
I haven't been very good about posting show reviews, but an incident prompted me to write about this one. I would like your opinion about displaying on side walls. At this particular event, we were snuggled up every ten feet like sardines. I always pray that I'll have some room to display my work on the side walls of my tent. No such luck this time. Because of the heat, my very strange, negative jewelry neighbor took her entire tent down. "Finally," I thought, "some room to hang on the side." Crabby jewelry neighbor had first taped her signage to my vinyl side wall. When I took that down, she taped her sign to my mesh display wall. I told her I was going to hang a picture and that she should move her sign (that she taped to my tent without asking). She immediately became bristly and said that people would think that the work was hers and it would cause problems for her. Granted the attendees were imbibing, but would they really be clueless enough to think a jeweler would have a random pencil drawing hanging on the next person's tent? She was quite nasty about it. If she had been kind in the slightest, as I had been to her the whole time, I might have skipped hanging it. But I did anyway and she carefully crafted a sign with bold letters disowning the picture with arrows pointing to it stating, "This is NOT my work, don't ask me about it." So... is it rude to hang work on your own tent when it faces the display area of your neighbor? And a lesson... be kind to your artist neighbors. We're all fighting for crumbs. I bought work from the WONDERFUL jeweler on the other side of me and bartered with the sweet pottery artists on the other side of Ms Crabby Pants (who were making sympathetic faces at me about said crabster.) Three surrounding artists were all taken aback by the negativity and nastiness of this jeweler. Customers all asked me about the sign, and sober and drunk patrons alike asked, "What's with her?" But regardless of the mood or the personality of my neighbor, was it wrong of my to hang work on my own tent on the outside walls?
Comments
Carla and Wendy;
I'll be at #88 in Long Grove. Let's hope it turns out okay. My last one in Orchard Lake sank to the bottom of the pond.
I attended the Lill Street show last weekend as a tourist, as I was in town for another event on Saturday and was really interested to see how the Lill St event would turn out. First, I knew that Taste of Lincoln was going to be a nightmare, but it was even worse than I could have imagined. In addition to horrible parking, unbelievable heat and insane crowds of noisy drunks, the $10 suggested admission is ridiculous. We walked all the way around to the craft fair side of the event, hoping there was no entry fee for the crafts. Wrong. I was not about to pay $30 for three of us to see about thirty artists, even though I wanted to see you all!. Luckily, I asked the gate attendents if I could just go to see the art and not pay, and they said they didn't care. So, fine with me, free entry! Otherwise there is no way I would have paid to enter.
I have to say that the quality of the show was great, if really small. We had just come from the Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival in Logan Square and that was a joke. Very little to see, and at least half of what was there was not worth seeing. Anyway, I digress. The point is, we were already hot, tired, and annoyed by the time we got to Lill Street. So I was pleased and surprised with the quality of the artists and there was a bit of shade which was nice.
I saw the "Crabby jeweler" with the sign about your work, Wendy, and it made me laugh. I can imagine how your day went. I think it probably would have been best to not hang there, but I could see where her attitude may have made me want to hang something there just to be a little spiteful, but then I have bad habits like that :-)
Anyway, I won't be doing this show myself as I can't imagine it was a very good one. I heard lots of complaints from artists saying they were not selling anything. Not surprised, given the party going on at the end of the street.
Wendy! I was going to do that craft show but chickened out in the last minute. I am doing Long Grove, I saw your name there. Have you done it before? What is your booth number? And if you are my neighbor, watch out with those pictures on my side! Just kidding. I know you are a great neighbor ;)
Holy heck, I wanted to EDIT my last comment because I misspelled a word and deleted the whole dang thing! The overall message was thanks so much for the help and education. In retrospect I shouldn't have hung the picture in her display area, even if it was my tent. I'm so used to artists being kind and supportive that I got thrown for a loop. I've always hung my work on my sides, even in close proximity, always asking my neighbor if it was okay. Perhaps some of them agreed, but would have preferred not to have anything of mine in their patrons' line of vision. I'm grateful for the feedback and I promise to be extra respectful of your space if I'm lucky enough to be the neighbor of any of you! Still... she should have asked to hang the sign on my tent. We could have had a dialogue and perhaps she could have helped me understand the protocal, just as you have. Good luck!
Many thanks,
Wendy Zumpano
www.pencilportraitcards.com
Additionally if there is extra space, ask your neighbor for each of you to set up at the opposite ends of your space. For example, if the spaces are 12x12 that would give you a four foot isle between you to allow people to stand comfortably to look at the work on the outside.
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next