Subtitle: Don’t rely just on the word of other artists
I will start out by letting you know that I am on a bit of a rant right now due to feeling grumpy after another artist, who called to ask advice on shows, also “chewed me out” for recommending a show last year that for us was great, for her this year, not so great. A lot of the new artists I meet are unaware of the various websites that post show info. Some of them seem to rely entirely on other artists or ZAPP for new show ideas for future months or future years. Over the past year I’ve seen several newbies at shows I would not have expected to see them at and they seem surprised when their results are less than what they expected or they tell me about a particular show and complain about how bad it was. I even got asked by one artist why I didn’t warn her about a particular show. Well, she didn’t ask about the shows I thought were bad, she only asked about shows I thought she should consider.
As has been stated on this site numerous times, as people are asking advice on shows, each artist needs to do their homework including:
- Searching AFI, both the discussions and the blogs
- Searching Art Show reviews
- Searching AFSB if you have a subscription
- Searching the Sunshine Artist Forum
- Reviewing any other art / craft subscriptions you have
- Talking to other artists
- Searching other Internet sites for any input, even if it’s just the local paper giving some idea of attendance, events, parking, etc.
- Review the demographics of the area, number of expected attendees
- See if there are other “big events” scheduled for the same weekend – example: does the show clash with the annual cross state football game, etc.
- Look at previous artists if they are listed on the events website – does your work fit?
Once you make a decision, own your decision. I understand, it sometimes feels like a roll of the dice, a lot of factors are out of our control such as weather, Wall Street, etc. Shows also change over the years. We all know what it’s like to do a show that didn’t meet expectations. Whatever you do, if you haven’t done your homework, don’t pass the blame to the artist who told you about the show.
Any other “homework” ideas? I’m sure I’ve missed something, but I’m about ready to email the list to this other artist and ask her to please do her own homework! I don’t mind sharing info but I don’t need a rude call that managed to distract me from important stuff, like taxes. LOL, usually I enjoy a distraction from taxes but today’s distraction was most unwelcome.
