I tend to just lurk on these forums or comment on posts and haven’t really made a blog post yet but have been inspired to finally.
Artists, I wish there would be less judging and publicly expressed prejudice about buyers at art shows. Should we stick to the facts and tell it like it is when a show doesn’t go well? Sure we should….but we can explain when sales are down without tearing buyers apart and making derogatory comments about them. These are PUBLIC forums, and it’s been said before, BUYERS can get on them. In fact folks, some of your fellow artists are even your buying public.
We recently went to a local art show and I came back on here to talk to an artist about potentially getting a piece of his once I got through my next art show. We couldn’t look too seriously when we were at the art show since we have a little one on the way and the budget is tight until I get through my next major art show myself (about a week away!) I come on to find out he didn’t do so hot at the show (huge bummer!) but I took a slight offense at the customers being called “wal-mart shoppers”…..and based on their SHOES! (Considering we were some of the customers!)
Now for the record, this event is held at the bottom of a ski resort, in a national park, on a hot summer day, and the paths through the event are all dusty and covered with small pebbles. It’s basically like walking on a hiking trail. I’m not sure what the artist expected, but it’s not the kind of place where you wear fancy shoes, or dress up. It does however happen to be a show that people pay $ 8 to get in per person, and in an area where honestly, a lot of the people are a little more affluent and in the middle-class to upper-middle class range.
Whatever reason they weren’t buying, it certainly wasn’t because they couldn’t afford it. I made some comment about it not being a good idea to publicly bash customers, and got blown off. Did the artist just lose a potential sale. Yep….he just judged me, and all my neighbors based on clothing. Kinda killed any impulse I had to inquire about getting a piece. Absolutely silly.
Let’s not degradate people because we don’t do well at a show. There are lots of varying factors for why we might not do well. Indeed, people may not be in the mood to spend money. That doesn’t mean they are poor or stingy. It may in fact mean that our art isn’t tugging at their wallets. Any number of factors from cold weather, hot weather, rainy weather, grumpy artists, distracting commercial vendors, poor marketing, the wrong type of art for the wrong type of crowd (e.g. traditional art at a more industrial/modern show), or the art just simply isn’t what they are looking for no matter how good it is may influence our sales for a weekend.
It breaks my heart to see artists who don’t do well automatically tearing down buyers to pieces and publicly at that. How does that encourage anyone to support artists if attitudes like that are made known widespread? It makes us ALL look bad and sours buyers perspectives of a show.
It would be nice to think that prejudice doesn’t exist at the same percentages in the art world as it does in society but unfortunately I’ve seen buyers at art shows judged all too frequently on what they are wearing, the color of their skin, the questions they ask.
I’ve been able to witness this from a buyers perspective and I know what it feels like to be judged based on our “cover”. Being younger my husband and I sadly, frequently have had to walk away frustrated from potential purchases because we couldn’t get the artists attention. We’ve stood by as artists took care of older clients and didn’t even bother to acknowledge our presence in the booth. I kid you not, not even a “hello” let alone, “I’ll be with you a second.” Somehow, being younger and probably dressed more casually makes us appear to be less likely to be seriously interested in buying.
I never understand how they fail to hear us actually discussing budget, and where the piece would go and saying things like “so this is the piece you want? Yes.” The funny thing is, though I’m an artist too and don’t have this whopping income, both my husband and I are VERY committed to buying only original art. My husband’s father was an artist, I am an artist, and we’re young with an entire house to decorate. Is it a struggle sometimes? Absolutely, but we cut things out in other areas so we can support independent artists like we believe in and have pride in the objects we own. Most people would never peg us for art buyers, but with one exception, every single piece of artwork in our house was handmade by an artist or done by an independent photographer.
At the supposed “wal-mart” show I was also seriously eyeing a delectable handbag. I actually had even managed to capture my husband’s attention at the quality of it. (Who for the record, does not get my obsession with handbags, and does not understand why anyone would pay more than $40 for one. So to have him actually acknowledge a handbag as a stunning work of art is quite a coup.) The husband of artist working the booth literally picked it up right from under my nose to show it to a gaggle of older women. Who went “oh, that’s nice” and then walked out of the booth. Sigh. Why, when you have a bunch of items in a booth would you take one right out from under a person who is looking at it?!!!
I can tell you of at least four separate occasions in the last few years in which an artist probably missed out on selling an original because we simply could not get their attention away from someone else they deemed “more worthy”. Of course, you could say stick it out, come back to the booth later, but when someone acts like you aren’t worth their time it takes the fun out of the buying experience. We truly are the type of people where half the fun is making connections with an artist and knowing we are supporting someone.
Some artists get it totally right. I still remember one Boston Mills Artsfest where we fell in love with Andy Chen’s photography. Seriously, madly in love with it. We went in and looked around and were greeted warmly, despite the fact that the poor guy had to be baking (it was something like 95 degrees and he was in the outside sunny section with absolutely NO airflow) We ended up taking a card and walking out because we knew we really shouldn’t get the size piece we wanted. Of course we walked around and spent the rest of the show figuring out how to juggle the budget. Came back to the booth later and spent probably a half hour still debating, comparing photos and deciding on the perfect piece. I still remember when it dawned on me that poor Andy was standing there holding up a 3 foot framed photograph with sweat pouring down his face while we debated. I felt so bad….we had turned into crazy customers.
Long story short, because his work was phenomenal and he was so patient and so friendly we walked out with a large original and I joked with him that I just basically traded an entire art shows worth of inventory for me for one piece of his since we liked it so much.
Can we always afford it? No. Have we walked through plenty of shows and not bought? You better believe it. Do we collect business cards? Yep. We have totally been “lookers” However, we don’t forget the nice artists whose work we really love. We have indeed returned when the budget was right and bought sizable pieces. Had we got gruff or attitude for being lookers, or ignored or insulted in some way by those artists it wouldn’t have happened.
As an artist myself, I’d have lost a lot of money over the years if I wasn’t respectful to EVERYONE. (At least I sure try to be….I know I’ve had some days where I need to work at it more) Literally about 50% of my MAJOR sales have surprised the living daylights out of me, and I’m super glad I didn’t have any sort of attitude with the customers. At a major art show last year, my most expensive piece probably went to the most casually dressed buyer I saw all day. She wasn’t wearing a lick of jewelry, but picked out my showcase piece and off to her it went.
At one of my holiday shows the tiniest little grandma came up to my booth and just started pointing. I think she bought something for every single daughter or granddaughter that day (and the pieces weren’t on my lower end either!) I was a little fearful of the credit card being declined to tell you the truth as the sale was too easy, too quick, and she seemed like such an unlikely customer. I am a little shamed I ever thought that.
Quick disclaimer: I know, I KNOW that there are shows where crowd makeup means we definitely won’t do well. We’ve all picked a few shows to do in which we came back and went “whoa…def. not my crowd.” When we find shows that aren’t for us, let’s keep it at that though. How hard is it to say “Not my crowd. They weren’t buying what I was selling.” We do not need to make derogatory comments about people’s clothing, wealth, character, etc., when we do not do well. I'm not saying not to vent about someone who was particularly rude or degrading to you--that's a whole different story. Just be careful not to make judgements about an entire populace simply because they're not buying what you're selling or to pre-judge customers based on pre-conceived notions, as they just might surprise you.
