Blog

Suburban Collection Showplace

200 Artists

Deadline: February 26

Application Fee: $30; Booth Fees: $400-$950

Want to stay close to home AND earn money 

in April? Then please consider applying to our show.

The Showplace is a first class expo building situated right off the freeway in an affluent area of Detroit's western suburbs. The show offers fine artists in the region a reliable, regularly scheduled, weather-free venue to showcase their freshest and most beautiful work, and word is spreading rapidly that this is a destination event for artists and patrons alike.

Consistently lauded as one of the most artist-friendly Art Fairs, accepted artists are given postcards and free tickets for their customers, email blast content for their patrons, free electricity, a roving snack cart with complimentary snacks and drinks during the show, complimentary morning coffee, muffins, drive right up to your booth for unloading and loading, plus more! 

What to expect:

• Elegant Grand Gallery entrance showcasing your art
• Delectable cuisine and relaxing entertainment
• Community partnerships and other fresh components, to create a regional marketplace for artists and their patrons.  

Effective promotion is as crucial to overall success as the selection of artists.  Our mission is to deliver a high quality experience for patrons and artists that will assure qualified buyers, return visits and exponential event growth. 

For more info:  www.GreatLakesArtFair.com 
 

Apply: http://greatlakesartfair.com/artistapply.html

     The Elkhart For the Love of Art Show was held on March 12, 2016. This show is held in the Elkhart RV Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame is located not far from the Elkhart City limits. It is also right off of the I 80 Indiana Toll Road which makes it very visible to people coming from the toll road or from Michigan.

     The RV Hall of Fame sits in the center of a huge open area. There were signs along the road in Michigan and near the Hall of Fame announcing the art show. They weren't huge signs but if you were looking for the show the signs did tip you off that you were near the show. There was also one of those tall flags at the drive into the Hall of Fame to catch people's attention from the road. There was plenty of parking for shoppers close to the building as well.

     The Hall of Fame was a great building to use for the art show. Artists could actually drive right inside the building to load in their booth and art work. They did have to arrive early to do that but it would be well worth it if you work an art show all by yourself or have heavy equipment or art work. There was plenty of space for each booth. None of the booths looked small at all.

Shireen Cline is the show's producer.  Shireen has been working so hard to put on a great show.  I have bumped into Shireen at several shows this past year.  She has been attending shows to observe what each show was doing to put on a good show.  Shireen is bubbly and energetic.  Her enthusiasm is infectious. 

     Shireen had about 50 top notch artists lined up for her show.  No category was top heavy.  There were several artists that were demonstrating their art work during the day.  One man was weaving the most beautiful Mexican rugs.  A glass blower was demonstrating how he blew glass pieces.  There was an artists drawing caricatures for shoppers. 

     AFI member Monica Langowski actually finished painting one of the cushions for the sofa above that Shireen is sitting on during the show.  I don't know how she did it.  I noticed the cushion was not finished as I visited her booth earlier in the day.  When I came back later it was done and Shireen posed for a photo on the sofa.  Monica told me that she was also chosen to display this sofa in one of the showcases in the Merchandice Mart in Chicago for the new Spring One of a Kind Show in April.  What a great opportunity that will be for her.

     Shireen had 5 top decorative artists and 5 top functional artists chosen from all of the exhibiting artists.  Of those 10 one artist received a free booth in next year's show.  Shoppers also entered their names in a drawing when they arrived to the show. 

     There were several great door prizes for shoppers that were given away later in the day.  There was also a children's drawing.  One little girl won a free week at art camp from the Elkhart Art League. 

    Soft music was playing for the enjoyment of shoppers who needed a little break.  It was a great place for artists or shoppers to also take in a little lunch.  There was only one food booth at this show.  The food was not meant to overshadow the art at this show. 

     I did notice shoppers with packages as they left the hall.  I think the artists would have liked a larger crowd at this show.  I don't know why there weren't more.   It was a fairly warm Saturday for March.  I suppose people may have been taking advantage of the warm weather.  After talking with Shireen I know she tried to cover all the bases to get shoppers there.  She personally told me she spent quite a bit on advertising.  I even saw her at the Garage Sale Art Fair in Kalamazoo in February handing leaflets out for the show.  Sometimes shows take a few years to develop a following which may be the case here.  However, I do think this show is going to continue to build and get better with each year.

      The opportunity was there for artists to have larger booths if they wanted them.  This hall was easily accessible for wheelchairs, too with no steps and wide walking aisles. 

      The artists all seemed very friendly and were more than happy to talk about their art work.  That added to the intimate atmosphere of the show.  Another nice thing about getting into this show is once you jury into this show you will always be invited back.  

This was the first year for the PA Guiild show to be held in the new convention center smack dab in the middle of downtown Lancaster.  The town thinks of itself as an arty destination and has lots of small shops and galleries and artists studios. A few years ago I was successful with this group when the show was held at F&M college on the outskirts of town. Construction and parking woes caused the end of that location.

The facility is quite large and attached to a new very nice Marriott which gave decent price breaks to the exhibitors although it did not honor the 10% discount we were to get on food and drink purchases during the show.

The load in/out facilities are totally inadequate for a show with 140 art/craft exhibitors.Set up was all day and into the night on 11/11/11 and I was going to space 111 at 1 PM - surely a good omen. We had timed access to the loading dock area and assigned 40 minutes to totally unload and then move to parking about two block away. The loading area could handle about 6 vans or cars and maybe three vehicles with trailers at one time.  From the trailer load out area it was an uphill dolly through other vehicles trying to unload and then one large overhead door and then through a set of double doors that they kept closing. Some people were assigned load in times as late as 7 pm - I don't know how long it took them to get set up but it took me almost 4 hours with multiple dolly trips through the traffic jam.

Saturday there was a line to get in, admission $8.00 with some $2.00 discounts available, show hours 10 - 6.  They advertise heavily: internet, billboards, local TV and radio and postcards.  The crowd was good for the first 4 hours and then was pretty thin and almost non-existent the last hour. A very good blown glass artist from south Carolina was my neighbor with a striking display and he started out doing very well and sold a few of his higher end pieces and lots of his $30 - $60. pieces. He was very happy with his Saturday sales. A weaver/clothing next to me sold slowly but some, A potter friend had made her booth fee, booth fee $450 and up, but not the hotel cost. I had lots of lookers, lots of talkers, lots of artists wanting to figure out how I did whatever. I had two purchasers - both under $100.

Sunday there was no line to get in at the 10 AM open, show to close at 5.  It was virtually empty except for  the exhibitors, until after 12 PM.  People in this area go out to church, then breakfast, etc. After 12Pm traffic was decent with people dressed in their Sunday clothes and ladies in their "arty" clothes.  Fiber and wearables can do well in the area but a couple of my neighbors had pretty slow sales even in this category. Many  of the potters still appeared to have lots of inventory even though I did my part by purchasing from them. Lots of jewelers in the show but I don't know how their sales were - across from me was a local jeweler that was busy talking all day but not sure how many sales she had - she seemed to know half of the town. My neighbor glass blower was selling $20 and $30. ornaments as people admired his work and told him how reasonably it was priced but wouldn't purchase his items over $100.  He did finally have a "be back" come and purchase a nice piece, and it was reasonably priced for the quality. He agonized over a $275. sale for  two full days.  I had people agonizing over $85. beautifully framed reproductions, $3.50 notecards,  The three hours or so that people were there on Sunday I talked until I almost lost my voice.  Results were one sale and a lady who loved my work but it didn't match her sofa.  There were also the artists who wanted to pick your brain. I'm sure some of the more traditional crafts people did well but most were disappointed overall.

By 3:30 or so most of the public had dwindled and we were "bowling in the aisles" and everyone you saw walking around had an exhibitors badge. We were all dreading the impending tear down and load out. At 5 PM we were allowed to bring in our packing materials and begin packing, tear down completely, find one of two people, drag them to your space so they could see it was totally torn down and then be given a load in pass. Now you can walk to the garage two blocks away and then sit in traffic on city streets blocks around the hotel and convention center for about 1 hour or more.  Announcements pleaded with the local exhibitors to kill time, go have a drink, eat, etc. and let those with long drives have first access.  Actually a fair number of them did and I love them all. I was facing about a 3+ hour drive in the dark on back roads. I ended up having time to go have a drink, eat or whatever as I waited almost two hours for my trailer to finally get a loading space after everything was boxed and on dollies.  It took about 45 minutes still to load into the trailer with the same maze of traffic, vans and other dollies, shut double doors, and either a steep ramp or stairs to deal with.

It appeared that about half of the exhibitors were still waiting in vehicles, sitting on their boxed displays and waiting at 8:30 when I left. I was lucky.

I don't know the answer to the load in/out for this facility for 140 exhibitors. They eventually let us use fire lanes and go out the front entrance of the hotel lobby. Traffic was often blocked in both directions. I think the facility was designed without adequate access.  If artists had all day to load out it would have worked but added an extra night of hotel costs.  It should also have closed at 4 o"clock as the daylight savings time took effect and it was dark by the 5 pm close. It was a wonder that someone wasn't hit by a car in the loading area.