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What is one of the best things about art fairs? Near the top of everyone's list is meeting the other artists and spending time with them. Which brought me to Springfield, MO, March 15-17, for a professional development conference sponsored by Best of Missouri Hands.* 

I was really pleased to be invited to speak at this conference. I love to talk about the business of art fairs and to meet the many, many people in this organization who are members here at AFI. (And let's face it, folks, travel is in our blood).

BOMH was founded in 1989 dedicated to the development and recognition of Missouri's arts and artisans through education, interaction, and encouragement. They sponsor juried exhibitions and their members have access to exhibiting opportunities at popular places like Silver Dollar City in Branson. They host workshops and have regional chapters which develop a real spirit of camaraderie. 

If you've never been to an artist development conference think really hard about it the next time you have the opportunity. In fact, you might want to put this on your calendar for next year as it is open to artists from other areas. The attendees were an amazing audience, no iPhones or iPads in evidence. They were really there for development, listening and note taking.

"Framed" at the Frame Gallery: Robert Lyall, Marian McKinney, Connie Mettler. Thanks to Fresh Gallery for the photo.

What you missed:

• gallery exhibition and sale of member's work
• Friday night frolics: workshops where you could try your hand at printmaking, wax resist and other media, taught by members
  
  Speakers:
• Reed McMillan, currently sales manager for the International Contemporary Furniture Fair,whose long list of credentials includes Producer of The Artist Project, and Show Director of the American Craft Council spoke three times on Seeking Inspiration, Adapting to a Changing Market and Maintaining Artistic and Creative Integrity.
• Connie Mettler, after more than 25 years participating in art fairs, an event consultant, art fair director and show organizer, but now runs four highly ranked websites around the art fair business, advising artists and bringing patrons to attend art fairs. She spoke on Jurying for Art Fairs, Insider Secrets to Art Fair Success and led a roundtable on the business of art fairs.
  
  treasures to take home, hand dyed yarn from Marci Blank, "memory" key from Bob Lyall, aroma flask from Robin Ragsdale

More workshops:

• Introduction to wholesale markets - led by long time wholesale exhibitors, Dodie Eisenhauer and Teresa Gallup
• Insight from an Art show Manager - led by Vic Barr who manages the Queeny Park Art Shows
• Legal Issues for Artists
• Managing your web page
• Making the most of the Artist/Gallery Relationship
• What Makes it Great? led by Martha Greer. What makes a show great? What compels an artist to participate?

Social events: Welcome Reception, Gallery Reception and gallery crawl - hospitality!

More details: www.bestofmissourihands.org/conference/artsmart 

The people I met: Don and Gail Crozier, Vic Barr, Dodie Eisenhauer, Teresa Gallup, Bari Precious,Julie Bell, Marcie Blank, Serena Boschert, Jean Hartley, Peggy King, Nancy Koehler, Robert Lyall, Marian McKinney, Robin Ragsdale, Joyce Wathen, Don Ament and so many more! Thank you for your welcome. 

Martha Greer, executive director of BOMH, is pretty amazing, thorough and on top of everything. Photo courtesy of Fresh Gallery, Springfield, MO.

Favorite story: potter Bari Precious' website url was recently up for renewal: www.preciouspots.com. She was offered big bucks to sell it. Any idea why? 

*With support from the Missouri Arts Council.

Six minute video that includes Reed McMillan's tips on jurying and the importance of the "hand of the maker" in the work he views:

I was in Atlanta September 18-20 for the Third Annual ZAPP Conference. I've been to a fair number of conferences and will tell you right off that one of the best things about attending these events is the people, both people you've only heard about (art fair directors, artists), people you've met online (say, ArtFairInsiders.com or Facebook) and old friends and acquaintances.

The first activity was to attend the Atlanta Arts Festival in Piedmont Park. There I met a great group that I've known online for a long time: Julie & Tracy Tepp (Atlanta Arts Festival organizer), Kelly Kindred (Bayou City Art Festival), Nichole Smith (Newport Arts Festival) and Liz Smith (Artisphere).

Then off to a meet and greet where lots of familiar people appeared: Mo Riley (Ann Arbor Street Art Fair), Les & Ella Slesnick (retirees), Sarah Rishel (artist), Terry Adams & Tara Brickell (Cherry Creek), Patty Narozny & Elise Richey (Hotworks), Cindy Lerick & Laura Miller (St. Louis Art Fair), Katrina Gallegos (Coconut Grove), Karla Prickett (Smoky Hill River Festival), Stephen King (Des Moines) and a bunch more.

I went to dinner with Liz Smith, the Slesnicks and two men who have served on a fair number of art fair juries: Jerry Gilmore and Jerry McFadden. Hint to you: if you want to find good local restaurants hang out with Gilmore. He was on a mission to eat his way through the Southern cuisine.

The conference was a whirl of information

• including a keynote address about the changing demographics of the US population and what that means to the art audience.
• Lawyer Marci Rolnik had a mountain of interesting information about copyright that could easily have been worth the whole conference for artists. 
• Karla Prickett, Deanna Henion (artist) and I were on a panel about jurying moderated by Leah Alters from the Columbus Art Festival. (I got lots of feedback about the thread on this site where you all told me what you wanted the art fair directors to know about your thoughts on jurying. I made a full report. Many thanks for your input. I was prepared.)
• Reed McMillan brought a host of ideas to invigorate art events including flash mobs, pop up events, the Renegade Indie shows, inviting food trucks, shifts in consumer behavior, re-imagining partnerships with communities
• a Symposium led by Stephen King with outsiders to our industry, Tucker Berta a strategist with economic districts; a representative from Americans for the Arts, Mitch Menchaca; the CEO of a dynamic website, Custommade.com, Michael Salguero; artist Kirsten Stingle who is also a storyteller; and Carlton Turner, executive director of Alternate ROOTS, a regional non-profit arts organization. This was the best part of the conference for me. The mix of people telling their own stories of how they have brought art to the streets and their approach to making their work count despite the today's economic realities was inspiring.
  
  Reed recommended a book, Raving Fans, a Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service. Have any of you read this? It sounds like it would be full of ideas for our business.

Karla Prickett & Jay Downie

• Two workshops on social media with attention being paid to artists needs and the art fairs separate mission
• Last (and always the best part) a Mock Jury with show directors and artists viewing the images of artist who were in the room. The jurors were Jerry Gilmore, Randall Smith and Nichole Smith. If you have never seen a live jury or seen your own work in the midst of others' work, put this on your list of things you need to do. It is always eye-opening and one of the best things you can do for your career in the art fair business.

Throughout both days Larry Berman provided complimentary image evaluations and private portfolio reviews. Great to see artists Carroll Swayze, Beverly Hayden, Aaron Hequembourg, and Ron Schmidt once again.

I also met Julie Cochrane from FestivalNetworkOnline.com but hardly had a chance to talk, Jay Downie from Main Street/Fort Worth and as always enjoyed the company of the folks from State College, Rick Bryant, Carol Baney and Pam Lautsch.

The ZAPP staff led by Leah Charney did a great job of putting together a conference with good topics and interesting speakers who were full of useful information.

Rick Bryant helping me with Facebook

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When I think of Atlanta I always think of a vibrant, growing city, population pulsing and new business abounding. Being from Michigan I've certainly seen the impact of the hard economic times, but I have to tell you, these hard times were evident in the beautiful Midtown area of Atlanta also. These gleaming buildings, maybe not even ten years old had many closed storefronts and empty spaces. I have always tried to ignore the economic downturn, and wanted to believe that if we all work hard, are smart and creative and make good choices we can be fine. Atlanta told me differently.

I had thought the term "new normal" was something the artists invented to explain the new economic realities but I heard it on the lips of the participants in the Symposium, not even referring to art fairs. 

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Want to know what happened at the last one? Details:

Stop the presses!
Curious about what’s in store at the ZAPP® Conference? Listen to the two most popular sessions from last year’s conference: The 2010 opening presentation, Rise of the Aggregators, and the 2010 symposium session, State of the Art Fair.

Rise of the Aggregators:
The 2010 conference opened with a presentation from writer, researcher, lecturer, and cultural consultant, András Szántó. Szántó’s thought-provoking keynote chronicles the ups and downs of the gallery system. Szanto predicts that the next art-world business model is one in which artists will sell directly to the marketplace and marvels that art fair and festival artists have done this for years. LISTEN NOW

State of the Art Fair:
What happens when you get Stephen King (Des Moines Arts Festival), Elaine Kroening (Positively Pewuakee), Reed McMillan (The Artist Project New York), Larry Oliverson (Lawrence W. Oliverson Fine Art Photography), Teresa Saborsky (ARTiculate Sculpture; National Association of Independent Artists), and Steven Wood Schmader (International Festivals and Events Association) in the same room together? You get an in-depth conversation about the current state of the art fair! At the 2010 ZAPP® Conference, these leaders tackled topics that included the impact of generational change and the role of art fairs and festivals in creating community. LISTEN NOW

Have a friend who needs to know about the ZAPP® Conference? Forward this message on and spread the word.

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The third annual ZAPP® Conference is coming to the W Atlanta Midtown hotel September 19-20, 2011.

Register now at http://regonline.com/zappconference2011

In 1995 a group of 25 artists met informally in Chicago at the Old Town Art Fair to discuss concerns and interests of the current state of affairs in the art and craft show world. The concept of the National Assn. of Independent Artists (NAIA) was born out of that meeting and the organization was officially formed and named in March 1996.  The stimulus for this meeting was a near riot at an art fair in Charlotte, NC, that April.  What sounded like a gunshot went off and the huge crowd stampeded down the street smashing tents and artwork that was in the way.

Artists decided that it would be a good idea to adapt some "best policies" to present to art fairs in order to avoid this kind of occurrence happening again. I was at this first meeting and it was exciting to join the group to see if working together artists could improve our working conditions. The NAIA has done a lot of good things for artists, but to artists the most invisible one is the Show Director's Conferences.

I've attended most of these conferences, always held in conjunction with an art fair so the directors can see how events are held in different parts of the country and to learn how they can improve their shows. Last week they met in Indianapolis with our sponsor being the Broad Ripple Art Fair. In attendance: (photos below)

     Dave & Carla Fox: Art in the High Desert
     Sharon McAllister & Jeanne Seehaver: ArtFest Fort Myers
     Jay Snyder & Craig Thompson: ByHand Cleveland
     Brian Wood: Cedarhurst Center for the Arts
     Antonia Lindauer: Cherokee Triangle Art Fair
     Terry Adams & Tara Brickell: Cherry Creek Arts Festival
     Vaughn Griffith & Mary-Sue Bartlett: College Hill Arts Festival
     Peggy Finnegan: Colorscape Chenango Arts Festival
     Stephen King, Angie Lolbet & Beth Johnson: Des Moines Arts Festival
     Patty Narozny & Elise Richey: Hot Works
     Sara Shambarger & George Barfield: Krasl Art Center
     Georgie Kelly & Mary Fourhman: Madison Chautauqua Festival of Art
     Nichole Smith: Newport Arts Festival
     Linda Beckstrom & Lynn Pritchard: South Shore Frolics Festival of Art
     Lisa Konikow & Connie Mettler: Arts, Beats & Eats
     Sarah Arnold: Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival
     Lisanne Robinson: Sebastian Art Festival
     Leah Charney: Zapplication
     Artists: Les & Ella Slesnick, Marji Rawson, David Rosenberg, Rich Fizer, Kate Strong, Teresa Saborsky, Carroll Swayze & Mary Strope, Admin for NAIA

As you can see from this list it is an excellent mix of events from the big name festivals to smaller volunteer run events. This makes for great dialogue as, depending on your point of view, just about every issue has a different answer.

This year's conference was a dialogue among the attendees addressing what artists feel are the most important topics at today's shows.

The first presentation was on the costs of doing art shows presented by Terry Adams (the guy with the really big budget), Sara Shambarger (smaller budget) and two artists, Carroll Swayze and Rich Fizer (really small budget). The budget for Cherry Creek is well over $1,000,000 and Terry presented a pie chart for where the money comes from and where it goes. How much is funded by jury fees? Make some guesses in the comments below.

The next topic was Booth Images, facilitated by Carla Fox and Stephen King. Everyone weighed in on what the booth image meant to their show and how important it is. The general consensus was that shows use booth shots for two purposes:

• to get an idea of what the presentation will look like at their show and
• to see that the work that is presented in the art images is related to the final presentation

They also agreed that indoor shots or outdoor shots were not any kind of a deciding factor, they just really wanted to see how your art would fit into the finest possible presentation to the attending public.

This was followed by a cocktail party. We were asked to attend as our favorite artist, work of art, or style of art.

Nichole Smith as "Mixed Media", Jeanne Seehaver as "Annie Liebovitz"

Stephen King as "Stephen King"

Who is this show director who attended as "Andy Warhol"?

Connie Mettler & Lisa Konikow attended as "Art Fair"
Lisa took first place and Connie took third place in identifying important works of art. We were proud!

Leah Charney as "The Lady in the Hat" by Matisse.

Would you believe that this is the face of Zapplication?

The next entire day was spent on buy/sell, identifying imports and production work. Carroll Swayze presented a paper with excellent research to help directors identify imposters and buy/sell people. Some show directors google every applicant to make sure that the applicant is the actual artist. We all shared our personal experiences and resources for finding buy/sell. All agreed it was best to find out these agents before the show and allow them to make their case rather than wait until they were in the show, causing disruption on many fronts.

That evening we rode a school bus to the Preview Party on the lovely grounds of the Indianapolis Art Center. Congratulations to Patrick Flaherty, the new director of the Broad Ripple Art Fair, for this excellent gathering. Then back to downtown Indianapolis to make some last connections with one another and promises to weed out the buy/sell.

Even at a party the directors are still reviewing booth images! This is Teresa Saborsky, Jeanne Seahaver, Terry Adams, Carla Fox & Leah Charney (back to camera)

Peggy Finnegan from Chenango Colorscape and Terersa Saborsky, director of the NAIA

Almost all of us returned on Saturday to Broad Ripple to see the show, meet friends and BUY ART!

Summation: much of substance does get covered at these conferences but nothing beats the interaction with fellow directors and the networking that continues through the year.

Solutions: A Working Conference

May 19 & 20, Indianapolis, Indiana

In conjunction with the Broad Ripple Art Fair

In the past year we have been a part of many conversations concerning what are perceived as serious issues in our industry. While we were planning this conference, we began by discussing the "normal" format with Keynotes and other speakers. As discussion continued, it became apparent that the one advantage that NAIA has over other conferences is that we can bring artists and directors together to work on the issues and come up with possible solutions. So, rather than the same old format where all sit for two days listening, do some talking -- and, ultimately, little is accomplished -- we decided to work on issues.

We have selected three primary topics that were narrowed down after talking with both artists and show directors. Though specific formats are being worked out with facilitators, the general agenda will be as follows:

• The Cost of Doing Art Shows
• Booth Images
• Buy/Sell/Imports/Production

This conference will be the first in which artists and directors will work together to identify and discuss issues in the industry then work toward workable solutions during the conference.

If these are issues of concern to you then join us.

The rest of the story.