craft shows - Blog - Art Fair Insiders

Call for Artists: Piedmont Craftsmen's Fair

Posted by Connie Mettler on April 10, 2015 at 9:00am

November 20-22
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Benton Convention Center
Patron's Preview: Fri. 5:30pm-9pm
Sat. 10am-6pm; Sun. 12pm-5pm

Presented by Piedmont Craftsmen
125 exhibiting artists
Deadline: April 16

Application Fee: $35; Booth Fee: starting $600

Piedmont Craftsmen is a Juried FineCraft Guild that has represented and supported Fine Craft Artists since 1963. Artists jurying for Piedmont Craftsmen's Fair are applying for lifetime membership in a Guild with a year-round gallery in downtown Winston-Salem, and strong Exhibition and Education programs.

Artists accepted to the show are evaluated by a standards committee for invitation as Exhibiting Members.

Piedmont Craftsmen's Fair accepts exhibitors in all the major fine craft media, including clay, fiber, jewelry, metals, glass, mixed media (2-D and 3-D), fine printmaking, photography, and wood.
The event is promoted to and attended by an audience that includes Charlotte and Raleigh as well as North Carolina's Piedmont Triad. Fair visitors also come from South Carolina and southern Virginia.
Promotions include print advertising (newspaper and glossy monthlies), radio, direct mail, billboards, social media; television, national, statewide and regional news releases to print and broadcast media; valued at roughly $80,000.
Artist Amenities: booth sitting, Saturday night craftsmen's social event, artist rates at several hotels, loading dock managers, 2 Preview Party guest passes.

Booth fee: starts at $600 for a 10x10 booth, includes pipe and drape and electricity. 50% due with contract, balance by September 19.

Reported Exhibitor sales at the Fair over the past several years have averaged over $3,200.
Piedmont Craftsmen has a large and loyal customer base for our annual Fair and our Year-Round Gallery in the heart of Winston-Salem's Downtown Arts District.
The Gallery/Shop, which only sells work by juried exhibiting members, welcomed more than 17,000 visitors in 2013, and has averaged more than $200,000 in sales over the past four years.
Piedmont Craftsmen has an active community education program, including long and short term artist residencies in the public schools, and partnerships with Habitat for Humanity and the Sawtooth School for Visual Art.

Our Fair Exhibitors and members say:

Good treatment of the artists...helpful set up and breakdown...You all do a fantastic job...
The annual Fair is outstanding and could be in any large city anywhere in the world...
They will do whatever they can to help you as an artist because they are there to help artists...one of the top galleries in the southeast...
they get my "Good Housekeeping seal of approval for craft artists...
a history of attracting top craftsmen who continue evolving...

More information at www.piedmontcraftsmen.org

Application at zapplication.org

Email: members@piedmontcraftsmen.org

Phone: (336)725-1516

Fair and membership Manager: Deb Britton

Call for Artists: 47th Annual Fair Diddley

Posted by Connie Mettler on March 7, 2015 at 8:57am

May 17

Woodstock, Illinois

Presented by the Mental Health Resource League

10 am to 4 pm

300 Exhibitors

Deadline: March 15

Booth fee: $135

On the Historic Woodstock Square. Woodstock Opera House and other historic monuments. Where "Groundhog Day", the movie, was taped with Bill Murray.

MHRL has a reputation for featuring hand-crafted, quality, original work at both the Fair Diddley® and Fall Diddley® shows. We are able to achieve this by requiring each of our vendors to be placed at one or both of the events through a juried application process. Through this process, we have been able to provide you with an outstanding display of folk art, wood carving, dried florals, pottery, painted and appliqued clothing, jewelry, fine art and much more.

100% of our net proceeds are donated to over 20 McHenry County Agencies.

Learn more & apply: http://www.mhrl.org

Contact: Craft Chair, fairdiddley@mhrl.org, 815-322-6796

Next Podcast: East Coast Craft Shows, inside the business

Posted by Connie Mettler on March 15, 2015 at 7:30pm

THURSDAY, MARCH 19 - 12 noon

Connie Mettler talks with Marcy Boroff, from Renaissance Craftables, one of the east coast’s premier craft show promotion companies partnering with downtown areas and non-profits. Marcy Boroff had worked with her mother, Barbara, on shows for years and took over the business in 2010.

She operates 8-9 events each year primarily in the Philadelphia area and in New Jersey near Philadelphia.

As a craft show promoter, Marcy feels very strongly that it is a partnership between the artists, the downtown areas or non-profits she is partnering with, and the community of festival-goers.

How did this company get from mall shows to the streets of some of the best shopping areas in the East?

We talk about:

the role of the show promoter and why they do it
choosing a location to host a show and starting a new show
building and implementing a marketing plan
the good part of being a show promoter
the bad part and the worst part
building relationships with the shopping areas where they host their events
building relationships with artists
the future of craft shows and their economic impact

Learn more about the company: Renaissance Craftables General Guidelines for Artists

If you live in the east and are sometimes wondering what is all this talk about art fairs when what you do are craft shows -- this podcast is for you. There are regional differences in our business and the Boroffs were some of the first people to develop the market in the East.

Got questions for me to ask Marcy? Leave them in the comments below.

Hope you'll be listening on 3/19 -- if you can't make it then you can always access our podcasts at the Radio link up above at this iTunes link.

Craft shows do not work for me...

Posted by Scott Pakulski on November 4, 2013 at 12:20am

So, I added a few craft shows in November thinking Holiday sales would help. Well, I was mistaken. I participated in a craft fair this weekend and only had $235 in sales for a two day show. I think my photography (even though it is Lego minifigures) is still too high end for craft shows.

I am an original artist. I have no buy sell items in my booth. This show had a lot of exhibitors who were selling buy sell items. Maybe my prices were too high for a craft fair. But I had little traffic in my booth. People were buying, just not my art. It was a very frustrating weekend. But a learning experience nonetheless...

So, next year I vow not to participate in craft shows. They do not work for me. I earn much much more at art fairs. Is the clientele different for those who attend art fairs and those who attend craft shows? And why are there not a lot of holiday art fairs? I would like to finish out my year with a few nice shows in November and December here in the midwest (Michigan and Ohio primarily). I think my work does do well in the Holiday Season. My Etsy shop always sees a spike this time of year. I would like Holiday art fairs to finish out my year...

Call for Artists: Chelsea Invitational Craft Show

Posted by Connie Mettler on February 16, 2011 at 8:00am

May 7 & 8
Chelsea, Michigan
State and regional artists
Deadline: March 31
(no application fee if you apply by Feb. 28)
Sat: 10am-5pm
Sun: 11am-4pm

The Chelsea Craft Invitational is a curated arts and craft show that features up to 100 of the areas best artisans. Beautiful functional and decorative work. Wearables, garden art, and item to refresh your home for Spring.

The Chelsea Invitational Craft Show is returning after a five year hiatus. This successful event had been put on hold because there were some issues with dates at the former school venue. Now indoors at the Chelsea Fairgrounds, just a few blocks off of I-94, we can be assured of being the first weekend of May every year.

The event attracts well of suburban people from the Ann Arbor area. Traditional and decorative work has traditionally done the best in this market. Frankly the show works best as a mix of "county crafters" with fine arts people. Work under $200 sells well and we have not been as successful with higher ticket art.

We suggest that this show is great for those artists within 300 mile, those that have a strong Ann

Arbor list that they want to tap into a second time annually, or those that need a show to complete their routing.

This event is organized and promoted by Mark Loeb of Integrity Shows, an established promoter of Metro Detroit area shows, including the Royal Oak Clay, Glass & Metal Show and Funky Ferndale.

Email Mark Loeb, mark@integrityshows.com with any questions.

Download application: Visit this link.

Carol Sedestrom Ross - Influential in the Modern Craft Movement

Posted by Connie Mettler on June 23, 2010 at 2:00pm

I would like to extend my condolences to Carol Sedestrom Ross's family and friends. Carol died suddenly from a heart attack on June 14. Her passing marks an important milestone in the business of the nation's fine craft shows. She was probably the most consequential figure, bringing craftspeople into the mainstream and creating quality marketplaces so they could earn a living.

Carol was the founder of the American Craft Council, who started the first wholesale craft market in the U.S. in 1973 at the fairgrounds in Rhinebeck, NY. Carol's idea at that time was "If I could just figure out how to start some craft markets we could have beautiful things made in our own country. Probably 90% of the 500 people who showed in that first fair I organised at Rhinebeck in the early 1970's had some other job. When I left Rhinebeck ten years later probably 90% of the exhibitors were making their living from selling their craft."

Read more from her co-worker Mary Strope in this discussion: http://www.artfairinsiders.com/forum/topics/carol-sedestrom-ross-died

Here is an excellent article from 1998 where Carol was interviewed on the business of crafts: http://www.artfairinsiders.com/profiles/blogs/a-walk-through-history-the

You should read it!

Photo from http://handeyemagazine.com/content/carol-sedestrom-ross

A Walk Through History - the Roots of the Craft Show Business

Posted by Connie Mettler on January 13, 2010 at 4:07pm

My friend, Richard Rothbard, recently came on this article and forwarded it to me. It is a thorough interview with Carol Sedestrom Ross, founder of the American Craft Council, who started the first wholesale craft market in the U.S. in 1973 at the fairgrounds in Rhinebeck, NY. Some of you will remember the excitement of those times, but if you don't this is an excellent look back at how art fairs and craft shows came to be. Just in case you don't read all the way, here is an important quote: Carol's idea, "If I could just figure out how to start some craft markets we could have beautiful things made in our own country. Probably 90% of the 500 people who showed in that first fair I organised at Rhinebeck in the early 1970's had some other job. When I left Rhinebeck ten years later probably 90% of the exhibitors were making their living from selling their craft." Interview with Carol Sedestrom Ross June l998, Copyright © 2003-2004 Craft Australia In June,1998 Craft Australia co-ordinated the visit to Australia of Carol Sedestrom Ross from the USA. Ross is the founder of American Craft Enterprises, the commercial arm of the American Craft Council which brought contemporary crafts into the mainstream of American merchandising. This article documents an interview conductedwith Ross by freelance writer Jo Litson, with Beth Hatton in attendance. Jo Litson: It seems that since you first became involved there has been quite a radical shift in the way that craft is perceived in America and the way that it is being marketed. Carol Sedestrom Ross: I actually started my career as a potter and, in the 1960s, I was married to a man who was teaching ceramics at the State University of New York. For years he graduated talented young people who went on to get teaching jobs in other universities because at that time craft education was just burgeoning. Suddenly in the mid-60's there were no more jobs and yet all these young people were still coming through the schools. At the same time in America everything that was beautiful, well-made and unique was imported even though we had so much local talent. If I could just figure out how to start some craft markets we could have beautiful things made in our own country. Probably 90% of the 500 people who showed in that first fair I organised at Rhinebeck in the early 1970's had some other job. When I left Rhinebeck ten years later probably 90% of the exhibitors were making their living from selling their craft. So it turned around very quickly. Craft marketing in the US seems to have gone through three major stages. The first big interest on the part of the public was totally nostalgic - they couldn't believe that people they knew were actually making things. In 1973 we did an exhibition at Rhinebeck called Living With Crafts. We installed a range of crafts in a house on the fairgrounds used to demonstrate electricity, and held the display over for the Duchess County Fair. Jo Litson: Which is like our Easter Show in Australia? Carol Sedestrom Ross: Yes. I was sitting in the entrance to the house, at a Wendell Castle desk, and people would say to me: "Everything here is imported from Scandinavia". I would say: "No, it was all made in the 13 Northeast States" and they simply couldn't believe it. So that was the first stage of marketing crafts in the USA. I used to call it the thumbprint era, you could sell anything that had a thumbprint on it, people were thrilled with homemade things, lumpy and bumpy and not quite perfect. That period went away and during the 80's we had crafts turning into luxury goods. Jo Litson: Greed is good. Carol Sedestrom Ross: With this burst of economic wellbeing in America, buying unique craft objects seemed a wonderful way for people to speak about their individuality. They could own something special that other people didn't have. Being populist rather than elitist, I found part of that movement unfortunate, there was so much money available that craftspeople started to make "collector pieces" selling for $5000, $6000, $8000, whatever. There was a lack of grounding in that era. Instead of well conceived design with a basis in function there was a drifting off into this other kind of craft. Then of course the 80's crashed and burned and this huge group of people, who had been fairly used to producing 10 to 15 big pieces a year and selling them for large amounts of money, suddenly didn't know what to do. Many started to develop a less expensive, bread-and-butter line of production work. Everybody was concerned that this was the end of the crafts but actually I consider it the true blossoming of craft in the US because people are now having to be very accountable to their audience. They are having to stretch their creativity to produce a craft that fits into what is going on rather than necessarily a personal statement. They are having to be clever about how to make it work. We now have so many mass merchandise stores in America - Gap, Banana Republic, Crate Barrel, Pottery Barn. You can go into the central business district in any city and find exactly the same goods for sale. Most Americans cannot afford to furnish their entire lives with handmade things so what they do, for example, is buy inexpensive dinnerware and supplement it with special handmade pieces - salad bowls, coffee servers, those kinds of things. Mass merchandising has created a huge appetite for craft in the US. The only way that small stores can make themselves different to the chain stores is through craft. So galleries, gift shops, even big stores like Nieman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue are looking for those special items which no competitor has. This is what has brought craft from being marketed separately through its own circle of craft fairs. We now have almost 1200 craftspeople in our gift shows across the country. I don't know whether the same thing will happen in Australia. When I first started going to England about ten years ago the craftspeople there wouldn't hear of the idea of making your living producing craft. We now have about 80 British craftspeople coming to our San Francisco and New York gift shows and most of them are making their living from selling their crafts. So it may be possible in Australia too. Most of it has to do with what is going on in society generally as opposed to what is happening in crafts. Jo Litson: I am assuming that many practitioners don't want to get locked into too many production lines but then if you are really successful and there is a demand for your work there must be a compromise possible. Carol Sedestrom Ross: I had this conversation with a young man a few years ago. He was upset because a famous glass collector in the US wouldn't buy his one-of-a-kind pieces because he also did a mass produced line of wonderful goblets etc. So I said: "Let's have a look at this. Would you rather sell one piece to a collector who will put it in a closet or on a shelf in his apartment and show it to his friends so that maybe 30, 50 or 100 people will see it? Or would you rather make beautiful, useful objects which many people can buy, and in that way bring beauty into their lives?" It is quite a different perspective. Jo Litson: So the collector wasn't interested in somebody who was also producing. I suppose that is one of the difficulties for the crafts practitioners? Carol Sedestrom Ross: It is very hard to figure out. I am talking about craft marketing only. There is a whole other aspect of art/craft made by people who probably do something else, teach or whatever, and who produce and sell fewer pieces. There is quite a separation between the two. Some craftspeople were accused of selling out because they were producing multiples, of losing their way, of not being artists any more. It all boils down to how you define creativity. I think that if you are creative enough to make things that bring beauty into other people's lives, people who don't have thousands of dollars to spend, that is a wonderful achievement. Jo Litson: Craft is sort of halfway between mass produced and one-off work. Carol Sedestrom Ross: Maybe that movement is particularly American because we have such a huge population at mid-income level that supports it. Jo Litson: What have you come to Australia to do, will you be talking to craftspeople and craft organisations? Beth Hatton: Carol will be talking mainly to craft practitioners. Her tour is aimed particularly at advising people who are thinking about taking work to America because Craft Australia has been participating in the San Francisco Gift Fair ever since 1995. Carol will be giving craftspeople an idea of what they should be doing to develop their product for the American market. Jo Litson: Is it specifically for America or are her talks about developing their products for the Australian market as well? Carol Sedestrom Ross: I think both because I am going to be speaking a lot about how to present yourself with printed material or in a booth, and that can be anywhere craft is marketed. I am also going to talk about current trends. Since I first got involved in this I have become interested in how major sociological trends have driven the crafts. It was the Industrial Revolution that truly started the early Arts and Crafts Movement in Europe and the US. Was there a similar movement in Australia? Beth Hatton: Yes, English practitioners and teachers came to this country and influenced the arts and crafts in late 19th century. Carol Sedestrom Ross: The Arts and Crafts Movement eventually died in the US, I think because the public was not particularly interested in handmade things. It was the first time in history that you could buy mass produced things and use them and throw them away and get more of them. I think that artists are always the first to respond to social change so it doesn't surprise me that Charles Rennie Macintosh and William Morris and other artists of the Arts and Crafts Movement were the ones saying:" Wait, wait, we can make these things, too". But nobody was paying any attention to them, we do now but not then. That was a "pushed movement" then, in marketing terms, the artists were trying to push their ideas onto other people. What is happening now is what is called a "pulled" movement because the public is very tired of mass produced things and prefers handmade so it is pulling the movement forward. There is now a huge appetite for craft in the US. I heard a lecture last Friday by John Naisbit who wroteMegatrends. He is most famous for his "high tech, high touch" concept, that is, the more technology we have in our lives the more things we need to touch to remind ourselves that we are human. It was the industrial revolution which started the craft movement and now it is the technological revolution 100 years later that is really pulling it forward. Jo Litson: The more time people spend with their computers the more they need the other side. Carol Sedestrom Ross: In the craft movement we forget to look at what is going on in the rest of society. The crafts are part of these huge sociological trends that cause things to happen. I feel that I wandered into marketing at the right time. When I started the Rhinebeck fair, which was the first big craft marketing initiative in the US, I'd say to people: "I must be doing the right thing because it is just so easy." I seemed to know intuitively what was ready to happen, so it just grew and grew. Rhinebeck was held outside on a fairground in the summer time. It seemed to me if we were ever going ensure crafts as a profession we had to do a winter fair. If buyers were going to be confident that they had craft as a resource they had to be able to buy it at least twice a year. So in 1977 I started a show in Baltimore, Maryland for which I was able to find 275 exhibitors. It was the first time in the US that crafts had been marketed in the winter in the city in a trade hall. I was lucky because Joan Mondale (the Vice President's wife) had promised that if her husband's party were elected she would start a campaign for America's craftspeople. So after the inauguration I asked her to open the fair in Maryland for us. That really started it and Baltimore is still the premier event for craft in the country. Jo Litson: In Australia our major art galleries don't show much craft. We do have craft organisations such as the Centre for Contemporary Craft which is going into Customs House. That is going to be really major, it is right down on the Quay where all the tourists go and there will be a whole floor of craft, but generally we don't see much craft and what we see doesn't necessarily register with us as craft. So do you think craft fairs are crucial for practitioners to be able to show their wares? Carol Sedestrom Ross: Well, they were in the US. For example, Rhinebeck is only 90 miles from New York City, a lovely little Victorian village that people love to visit - location, location, location. Then, because we had two wholesale days and three public days, I was able to spin the public relations. I released to New York papers and magazines the fact that Nieman Marcus was coming all the way from Dallas and Marshall Fields was coming from Chicago as well as Bloomingdales and Bergdorfs and all the big stores. When these names went into the local papers then the general public wanted to go and see why the big important stores were going. Then I turned it round the other way and released to all the trade publications and big store magazines the fact that we had 54,000 people coming to see these beautiful crafts. So that was how I was able to get the spin going. We had over 500 craftspeople in the fair so it was well worth making a trip to see - it would have been hard to get the steam engine rolling unless I had this kind of focus. So that is why fairs are important. They have come to be part of the fabric of American life. I now read novels which refer to going to Rhinebeck or to "that wonderful fair at the Baltimore Convention Centre" and I think wow, I started all that! Beth Hatton: You're part of history. Carol Sedestrom Ross: Talking about a downtown area which is showing crafts, when I was a child my father used to travel a lot. Whenever he came home with Marshall Fields bags I knew that he had been in Chicago and when he came home with Bloomingdales bags he had been in New York. You can't do that any more with either domestic or international travel. So it is important that there is some place in Australia where you can buy Australian crafts. In San Francisco I go to small galleries to find things that were made or bought in San Francisco. Tourism and the interest in tradition and heritage are feeding the demand for crafts. Beth Hatton: The desire for the local product, something that is identifiably from the country. Jo Litson: Have you seen much of Australian crafts, to have any sense of them? Carol Sedestrom Ross: I haven't seen much yet, only what has been sent to the [San Francisco] Fair in the past three years, which is different enough to be interesting to American galleries. Tom Peters wrote in The Search of Excellence that companies originally competed on price, then they competed on quality and next, in the wave that is coming now, competition will be based on design. So what is happening in the US right now is that a lot of companies are hiring craftspeople to design for them. I have a friend in San Francisco (Susan Eslick) who is designing for six companies. Not only is she a ceramist but she can also do painted designs which is not a combination you often find in craftspeople. Susan was in our show SURTEX (Surface Textile) which we started 12 years ago for people to sell designs. They bring portfolios of designs for sheets, towels, record covers, greeting cards, wrapping paper, whatever. That show stayed at about 120 exhibitors for almost nine years but it has now burst forth to almost double in size. That says to me that the exhibitors must be selling their designs. The Olympics will have a major impact on Australian crafts. The State of North Carolina did an economic impact study a few years ago and found that in 22 counties of a mountainous area, the crafts contributed 122 million dollars annually to the State economy. So they decided to do something with that. They published Heritage Trails which was distributed through all the tourist areas, listing various little villages where there were people carving corncob pipes or making ceramics. After the first year those small craft businesses had increased anywhere from 15% to 46% in terms of dollars coming in. Tourists love to see how people live and make things in small villages - it is part of this current wave of nostalgia - we don't know what is out there in the future so let's go back in time. That is why there is a retro theme going on now. All these megatrends are driving craft. If it hasn't started to happen here yet it probably will. Customs House could be the beginning of a focus. Jo Litson: So when is the San Francisco Gift Fair? Carol Sedestrom Ross: It is held twice a year and the next one is in August. Beth Hatton: Craft Australia is taking 12 people over this year, we have been going for the last three years taking a range of crafts. Carol Sedestrom Ross: It is an international gift fair. We have 18 British craftspeople coming as well as handicrafts brought by various Asian governments which makes for a nice mix. Beth Hatton: People are now designing items on computer which can then by produced by the computer. British writer Peter Dormer spoke about this at a Craft Australia conference a few years ago. He saw computer aided production as a great threat to craftspeople making things by hand in their studios. Eventually it could do craftspeople out of a living. What do you think? Carol Sedestrom Ross: The computer is coming to life within the crafts in a number of ways. For example, some weavers are using it in their designing. A number of crafspeople in the US have their own web sites, so they can photograph a piece, put it on the computer and phone a collector interested in their work. Beth Hatton: So they are using it as a marketing tool. Carol Sedestrom Ross: Yes. There are people who are hoping to create sales directly on the computer in this way. Many people are marketing through television home shopping networks and QVC or whatever. A woman who makes collapsible baskets did a demonstration on QVC of how they were made. She then sold something like 35,000 in an hour. So there are different ways in which the computer is being used. I am not at all pessimistic about craft until there is a global disaster and nobody goes shopping any more. Craft in the US is no longer an alternative, it is very much part of the mainstream. Crafts have become the darling of the gift industry in the US. On the opening morning in our gift show the craft section is always the most crowded. Buyers know that they are dealing with limited edition, small quantity merchandise and if they don't place their orders early they could miss out. There is a sort of mystique around craft, you can't order 400 dozen in two weeks, you have to get there first to get what you want. So in 20 years we have come from way outside the lines of society to being right in the middle of things. Beth Hatton: So you don't envisage companies buying up images out of copyright such as Monet and printing them on everything for sale? That is what craftspeople will be competing with. Carol Sedestrom Ross: I know. But a lot of craftspeople are selling their own designs to these companies, it is another source of income for them. Truly creative people won't have to worry about that sort of production. Jo Litson: It won't be special any more if it is copied. Carol Sedestrom Ross: When I go to the mass merchandise stores I recognise ideas from craftspeople I know. But they are never the same - they don't have that same attention to detail, they are watered-down versions and the stores only do a big thing on them for six months. Some craftspeople say they don't want to be in a gift show because somebody will steal their ideas and I say: "If you want to keep your idea you have to put everything you make in the basement. Once you get it out into the world it's fair game". Anyway there aren't many really new ideas around any more, it is just the way that you interpret them that is original. Beth Hatton: Keith Richards says something like that, too. He doesn't claim personal ownership of his ideas, he thinks that there is a great pool of ideas in the universe and he just puts up his antennae and picks them up for his songs.

Call for Entries: 10th Annual Bloomsbury Fine Art & Craft Festival

Posted by Connie Mettler on June 2, 2009 at 9:37pm

September 26 & 27 Bloomsbury, New Jersey on the historic Main Street 80 Exhibitors Deadline: June 15

This sounds like the September art fair for which you have been looking: "This is a community run festival and all proceeds go directly to our local elementary school, funding the cultural arts program. We have a very small school (pre-k thru 8th grade, one class for each grade) and a correspondingly very small budget...the festival provides for cultural and/or educational assemblies that our children would otherwise go without. We've had local artists in for an Artist's Day, authors in to do readings & workshops, dance/music assemblies and many more.

The festival was started 10 years ago by a former art teacher at the school, and when she moved last year community members took over the running of it. It's an enormous undertaking & many many people are involved & committed to its success. Bloomsbury Fine Art/Craft Festival is in Hunterdon County, NJ, a very affluent area of the state, and is easy to get to, directly off a main highway about 1 1/2 hrs from both NYC & Philadelphia. We usually attract artists from NJ & eastern PA, but have had people travel from further away (Florida, Ohio off the top of my head). The festival is held on Main Street, which is lined with old trees & Victorian era homes. Local non profit organizations (churches, PTO & the FD Ladies Auxiliary) run food booths, all featuring home-made goodies...we have a stage & feature 5-6 different musical acts throughout the weekend, and also have a children's area with various activities (magic, story telling, face painting etc.) that are run throughout the festival." --Lisa Thomas, Chair Visit their very nice web site for more info and to download an application: www.bloomsburyartsfest.com *********** Looking for more art fairs for 2009? Visit: ArtFairCalendar.com/callforentries

Call for Entries: Three Chicago area events

Posted by Connie Mettler on February 19, 2009 at 7:22pm

1. August 22 & 23 Oswego Art Fair Oswego, IL Presented by EM Events Sat. 10 AM - 5 PM & Sun. 10 AM - 4 PM 65 Artists Application deadline: March 1 Late August brings beautiful weather to this region. Couple that with this fine small event think hard about adding this event to your art fair list. Where is Oswego? It is located 50 miles southwest of Chicago, well situated at the southern end of the Fox River Valley.

The Oswego Fine Art Fair provides a cultural art experience for the Village of Oswego and the surrounding communities. Art enthusiasts and patrons are delighted by an assortment of attractions including unique pieces of art from renowned artists from across the country, children's art activities, live musical entertainment and delicious food from local vendors. Hosted by the Village of Oswego, the Oswego Fine Art Fair is located on picturesque Main Street, in Oswego's historic downtown business district which serves as an extraordinary backdrop for fine art. Celebrating its 6th year, the Oswego Fine Art Fair has something for everyone to enjoy! Booth Fee: $230 --- Prints allowed --- Make checks payable to: Village of Oswego For an application: www.emevents.com

2. September 12 & 13 West End Art Festival LaGrange, IL presented by EM Events Saturday 10 AM - 5 PM Sunday 10 AM - 4 PM 90 Artists Application deadline: March 1 Celebrating its 14th year, the West End Art Festival is a LaGrange tradition whose purpose is to bring a quality, fine art event to the Village of LaGrange and surrounding communities and highlight the west end business district. Artists from across the country participate in LaGrange's late summer festival that attracts art admirers and patrons each year. This is an affluent community where 64% of the homes are priced from $200,000 to $500,000, located 14 miles west of Chicago.

Presented by the LaGrange Business Association and held in cooperation with the Village of LaGrange, the festival is held in the shadow of the landmark Stone Avenue Station along Burlington Avenue between Brainard and Spring Avenues. The charming and historic West End area of LaGrange provides a picture-perfect setting to showcase art. Other highlights include live music, food from local LaGrange restaurants and children's art activities for an event to be enjoyed by all ages. Booth Fee: $285 --- Prints allowed --- Make checks payable to: LaGrange Business Association More info about LaGrange: villageofLaGrange.com To download an application: www.emevents.com 3. September 26 & 27 Lakeview East Festival of the Arts Chicago presented by EM Events Sat. 10 AM - 6 PM Sun. 10 AM - 5 PM 130+ Artists Deadline: March 1 Beautiful fall weather brings you an event in a hip Chicago neighborhood, a great place to finish your outdoor art fair season in the Midwest. The Lakeview East Festival of the Arts is Chicago's premier fine art and fine craft festival showcasing over 130 juried artists. Lakeview is located on the north side of Chicago, near Wrigley Field, north Halsted and Lincoln Park in a very diverse, culturally rich community with unique boutique stores, cafes and restaurants.

The Lakeview East Chamber of Commerce has hosted this event for the past three years and has been rated as one of the top shows in Sunshine Artist's Magazine. More than 40,000 attendees are expected to attend this year's festival. The festival is set on Broadway Avenue just north of Belmont Avenue. This event has a strong marketing and media plan and hosts an annual artist reception. Other amenities include: -artist reserved parking -vendor fee permit waived -Saturday night Artist Party -a full breakfast served Saturday and Sunday -Booth Fee: $400 Make checks payable to: Lakeview East Chamber of Commerce --- Prints allowed Download the application at: EMEvents.com ********** Looking for more art fairs for your 2009 season? Visit: ArtFairCalendar.com/callforentries

Your Challenge Today, If You Should Choose to Accept it...

Posted by Connie Mettler on November 29, 2008 at 7:00pm

Yes, it is Sunday morning on a long holiday weekend. There were very few art fairs this weekend. Those of you who are online should be ready for this challenge from an old friend of mine who is looking for your most outrageous art fair/craft show story and who wants me to:

1. "spice this _ _ _ _ _ _ up a bit

2. stimulate the prurient to expose to the voyeurs the full story (in other words, what really goes on behind the booths)

3. forbid anyone who paints beach scenes or clowns from becoming members (guess he wants me to jury for membership on this site)

4. offer tickets to my festival and the opportunity to burn one with an old freak (or maybe some equally outrageous prize, I'm working on this, Jack)

5. dump the goofy that seem to want serious cone parking (wasn't that you who stole the cones at the last event?)"

Lots of very fun people create art and have a great time meeting and playing with one another at events across the country. I have many stories of traveling with my rather outrageous partner, and the people he attracted and enjoyed.

Who wants to go first?

Note: this page contains paid content.

Note: this page contains paid content.

Note: this page contains paid content.

Note: this page contains paid content.