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Belleville, IL - May 16-19, 2014 - Art on the Square

Maybe you were at this show. It is one of the goodies. 

We all complain about the music, the food, the kids activities, the sponsor booths that are ubiquitous at the art fairs, so I just found the schedule of activities for last week's Art on the Square that to my mind turns that griping on its head.

Besides the kids activities and the stages look what else they are doing:

Saturday

10:30-11 a.m. Framing and Matting: Enhancing Your Artwork with Colin Shaw of Arch Framing in St. Louis

11:30 a.m-noon I Loved It! I Bought It! Now What Do I Do with It? with Deb Bokemper of Ageless Design in St. Louis

12:30-1 p.m. -- The Art of Lighting Art -- Making It Come Alive, with Carol Hiatt or Carol Hiatt Design Associates of Belleville.

1:15-1:45 -- Inside/Outside Show on KTRS-AM 550, with John Shea and Jim McMillan

2-2:20 p.m. Green Design -- The Fingerprints of Art in Your Environment with Diane Rosen of Diane Rosen Interiors in St. Louis.

3-3:30 -- Traditional-Contemporary -- You Can Mix It Up! with Gigi Lombrano of Gigi Lombrano Interiors in St. Louis.

4-4:30 p.m. -- Coloring Your Home with Kara Osthoff of Kara Osthoff Designs in Belleville.

Sunday

Noon-1 p.m. -- Tiffany Brooks, designer and host of HGTV's 2014 "Smart Home Giveaway."

1:15-2 p.m. -- Coloring Your Home with Kara Osthoff of Kara Osthoff Designs of Belleville.

2:30-3:15 p.m. Tiffany Brooks

3:30-4:15 p.m. Tiffany Brooks

There will be question-and-answer sessions following all seminars.

P.s. You can listen to a podcast that I did with the show organizer, Patty Gregory, right here: http://my.blogtalkradio.com/artfairs/2013/08/14/how-to-bring-buyers-to-the-art-fairs

It is full of helpful information for show organizers.

A word of warning to anyone who has applied -- the deadline is/was April 18 -- to The Dayton Art Institute Oktoberfest in Dayton Ohio the weekend of September 26: chalk up the $30 you spent for the jury fee as a minor loss compared to what you could have lost by actually doing the show.  If you are accepted, run in the other direction.

I did this show the last two (or three?) years and had come to the conclusion that it was quite overpriced at $400 per 10 x 10 for an event that draws a huge crowd, but the crowd is interested in eating, drinking beer and listening to the live bands.  Each year they attendees seem to get less and less interested in the art.  Now we are something to walk past on the way to the beer.

What prompted this message is the notice on Zapp about the imminent deadline, and my innocent peak at the application to see if the booth fee was still too high for the return.  I noticed that they had posted photos from last year's event so, oh what the hell, I'll take a look and see if I notice any artist friends.

Out of 1180 photos -- that's one thousand, one hundred and eighty -- guess how many had anything at all to do with the art?  This includes showing an artist, showing some work, catching the corner of a tent, anything.  The grand total is zero.  No kidding.  And this from an art institute.

That pretty much says it all, don't you think?  They should be ashamed.