This is a one day show in september in conjunction with fall fest. the lady who runs it is so unbelievably nice that its hard to write anything bad about the show, but Garden city is a shitbox. the town is all grain elevators and feed lots and depending on the wind direction smells like rotting cow flesh. I was there for about 30 hours and that was far too long. There are a few people from what I've heard who have lots of cattle or oil money but i saw no evidence of it. I mostly sold cheap prints. I'd say if its geographically super convenient to do, maybe do it. the jury fee is only $10 and $60 for the booth fee which i actually didnt even pay til i was at the show. and they had prize money! not a ton but compared to the booth fee it was okay. I got 2nd prize which was $200 so that was nice.
Just a little info for anyone considering this show.
Although the jewelers near me seemed to be really busy, but i dont know how well they did.
PARK (7)
After last weekend’s soggy experience in Sequim WA, we were excited to be headed east to the warmest part of Washington. Several of us who had put up with the rainy weekend were looking forward to the opportunity to dry out and we weren't disappointed.
This was our 3rd year participating in this art show. Last year it was our best show of the year and still stands as our best 2 day show EVER! So, we went into this weekend with expectations of a good show, but also trying not to be overly optimistic. Sales? We hid the dead center of the results from the past 2 years, less than last year but much better than our first year and to date this year, our best 2 day show of 2012 thus far. In our minds we at least achieved our goal for this show.
Load in / Load out is fairly easy, I blogged about the show logistics, fees, etc. last year so instead of re-writing all of that, I’ll refer you to last year’s blog:
http://www.artfairinsiders.com/profiles/blogs/allied-arts-leaving-richland-a
We had several repeat customers and seem to be building a great client base in this area. This is the one big show they have each summer and is well attended. We were a bit disappointed to see how they had reconfigured the portion of the show where our booth was located. We had the same booth number but instead of having our nice shady location we were without shade most of the day, we had a lot of comments from customers that we had one of the hottest booth locations, groan, grumble, etc. Set up and tear down in the direct sunshine was also a little more exhausting, but at least the tent dried very quickly after being packed away in rain the weekend before.
Friday sales started early and rapidly between 9-11 and then seemed to die for a couple of hours. The crowd seemed to shrink about 2 PM until early evening. We had a few sporadic sales through the afternoon and then after 6 PM the crowd seemed to multiply quickly and we closed the evening with a few more sales. Overall it was our lowest Friday at this show, a decent day but not the great day we had last year on Friday. Friday’s weather was warm (97 for the high) with higher than normal humidity for this part of the state. We were saved by having a fairly windy afternoon, that helped keep the air moving and made it feel a little more bearable.
Saturday started slower but sales were very steady for us from 10 – 4 and then a few last minutes sales between 6 PM and 7 PM. The weather was much more pleasant with a high only in the lower 90’s, low humidity and a wonderful breeze for part of the day. Saturday was a better sales day for us and the crowd was pretty steady all day.
Overall this is a fairly pleasant show to do. No artist amenities are offered, the focus is really on just the art. There is a stage with music and some performances by various dance groups, but it’s off to the side and the volume is not an issue. The food area is close to the stage and there’s plenty of seating near the food area so we did not have near as many people walking through with messy hands, trying to touch jewelry while eating their junk food. The show is held the weekend of the hydroplane races on the Columbia River. I learned this year that this used to be a 3 day show and years ago the organizers decided that holding the show on Sunday wasn’t worthwhile for the artists due to the races, so they shortened it to a 2 day show and eliminated Sunday. Nice to see a show where the organizers are actually concerned about making it worthwhile for the artists.
This is a show that most likely remain on our schedule and continues to be the start of our summer road trip. Next stop? Couer d’Alene ID, Art on the Green. Hoping to get a few things restocked between now and Thursday.
Well, I didn't get in again, juried out for the 25th time in a row (got in 1984-86 and then never again, who did I piss off there?).
So, I have been waiting very patiently to hear a real definitive report of the show. We got sort of one from Barbara, God Bless Her. She won an award and told us a few things--she's a newbie, so she is off the hook for not telling more.
But gee, there was Barry Bernstein there after hanging out in the gulf coast beaches and Ybor. No report from him.
Mr. Jim Parker was there--no report. Gee, are you all spending your big bucks very quietly?
And, there there were a lot more AFI-ers there too. But not a peep. Did the committee get to you guys and whisper into your ears,"Not von vord about zeesh show or it is cotchees for you guys, remember what happened to that Johnson guy, oh and that Vaughn fellow too."
So, is somebody going to step up to the plate, or am I going to have to make up an imaginary blog about the show. Believe me I could do it, but it would be so much more fun to read about real exploits. Come on guys, and girls, start earning your red dots.
Connie, I want one to put on my golf bag.
Aloha,Nels
PS. My wife Ellen, to paraphrase her, "Is utterly flabbergasted, that there are no Winter Park posts." The Ybor chickens have gone on strike, they say they are staying in the grapefruit tree until there is a post. Come on guys, SAVE THE YBOR CHICKS.
Sept. 26-27,2010
Hamilton, OH
Booth Fee: $100.00
Jury Fee: $25.00
I loved the location of this show, the artists weren't cramped, we had tree lined "streets"- (they were golf cart streets). Plenty of trees and permenant sculptures behind and around the exhibitor spaces which made for a beautiful setting. Parking was close and people were there to shop. Set up was completely painless since there was room to bring your car right up to your space and get back out on Friday all day so noone was there all at the same time.
My sales were close to the 10x's the booth fee, so that rule of thumb worked for me. Sales were about the same on Sunday as Saturday so don't panic if Saturday doesn't do as well as you think it should. Another jewelry artists did better on Sunday than Saturday. If you do metal sculpture, you will do well at this show! People were walking all over the place with those things. (they were cool!) The photographer next to me did well and I think she would consider coming back, forgot to ask her. The water colorist on my other side did great work but didn't seem too happy with his sales. His stuff was great so that was unfortunate. I think the biggest thing with shows in this climate is to make sure you have a lot of options for people to look at. If they feel you don't have a big enough selection, they will go to the next booth. I found that demonstations work fantastic at shows, especially for a jeweler. Men don't always like to get stuck in our booths, especially if the show is heavy on jewlery (which is most of them), but guys like to see how things are made and will stop to look at least for a minute which is a minute more than you would have gotten. I'll be back to this show next year.
The Greater St Louis Art Association has been producing the Art Fair at Queeny Park for more than 30 years. In the early years, this show was the premier art event in St Louis, but it has since been eclipsed by the big budget fairs, the St Louis Art Fair and Art on the Square across the river in Belleville Illinois. Over the last five or so years, the Queeny show has had its ups and downs....
I'm very happy to report that the changes that the show committee have implemented over the last year or so have all been for the positive. The crowds were good and they were steady from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon. The only lull that I saw was during the first half hour on Sunday morning. During the peak periods, which ran for several hours each day, it was difficult to make your way through the aisles.
Queeny is an indoor show held in the Greensfelder Recreation Center, a St Louis County Parks facility. Since the show happened to fall on the first cool weekend in several months, we were afraid that the customers would want to be outside rather than indoors with us, but thankfully, that was not the case. There was a positive energy to the show from both the customers and the artists. The customers that I had contact with were all happy to be out and many were spending.
We were very pleased with sales. My wife Gail makes lampworked glass beads and jewelry and we have done the show, Spring and/or Fall, more than 8 times over the last 6 years. This was our best Queeny show ever, and ranks among our top dozen shows since we started doing them in 2002. Most artists we talked to did well, some did fair, but a few didn't do so well.
After a string of mediocre shows, it is really gratifying to be in a good show that is reminiscent of those of 5 and 6 years ago. There are too many people on the show committee to thank individually, they all did an outstanding job and all the parts of the show melded well together.
The dates for the Spring Art Show are April 8-10, 2011. The Fall show is normally over Labor Day weekend, Friday through Sunday, which would put it September 2-4, 2011. More information at http://gslaa.org
