Grrr... have you ever spent longer than you intended on a post and then hit the wrong key and LOST THE WHOLE THING? I love you all enough to start over.
Long Grove, IL is located in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago. It used to be an extremely popular little shopping area... primarily very crafty painted wooden type stuff, but the weekends used to be nonstop swamped there. I don't go often but I've heard it is not quite as popular anymore. I thought I'd give it a try because it wasn't too expensive and was close to home. When will I learn?
On the good side, setup and tear down were easy - you could drive up to your booth. Cold water was offered often, lots of choices for lunch delivered to your booth, booth sitters dropped by at least twice a day. I had wonderful neighbors and the quality of the show was decent. I only saw a couple stinkers. Some pretty good live music played throughout the event.
But I sold next to nothing. Didn't make booth expenses. Everything else really doesn't matter, but I'll vent about the rest just to make myself feel better. The artists had to park at a remote site with a shuttle. Didn't want to wait for it after a terribly disappointing Saturday and had to drag my roller bag over some rough terrain... quaint brick sidewalks, stone and the like, while sulking the whole way. I sold only small ticket items. I had a lots of interest in commissions and some significant jobs could come out of it. Maybe it's just me? I'm in a SERIOUS slump. It looked like the ceramics guy across from me was having a decent show. The sculpture guy next to me from Miami said he did about $1000. My beloved AFI-ers Carla Banks and Claudia Winters were neighbors on the next row and Carla was suffering too. Claudia did better, but probably not as well as she usually does. I met Amy Ikenn and she said she lost money there the year before. I bet if I'd taken a moment or two I could have done some research instead of blindly applying for the damn thing. Storms were a big part of the problem on Saturday, plus the wine tasting area was at one end of the event... if the tasting stations had been scattered around, we would have had more traffic. All in all, it was a complete bust. I sold cards and a couple 8x10 pieces. Packing ALL of my larger frames back up was terribly depressing. Fortunately, Sunday was an absolutely gorgeous day, despite my miserable sales. Plus my husband and sons showed up to help me tear down! A two hour tear down was complete in less than an hour. God bless three extra sets of hands.
I'm in Lake Forest, IL on Labor Day weekend and oh how I hope it gets better. I've had more bad shows in a row than I've ever had this summer. Trying to stay positive, but GEEZ. To make matters even worse, yesterday I got a rather snooty rejection email from a wonderful Christmas show that I did last year. I know many of you are struggling too. We'll just have to get through this rough patch and try to learn from it.
I get tempted sometimes by the cheaper, smaller shows close to my home. While I might be driving less, the setup and tear down is still just as time consuming. In this economy, we really need to focus on shows that have been consistently successful for our fellow artists who recommend them. If I'm still an artist next year, I'll be smarter.
Comments
I received a disappointed email from a business owner in Long Grove who feels that some of us are unfairly representing Long Grove in this thread. He stressed that the concert series put on by the Long Grove Arts and Music Council is one of the best in Chicago and that five new stores are opening in the next month - including a high-end jewelry store, an upscale restaurant, a year round Christmas store, a hand made craft store and possibly an art school. He was very passionate about the treasures that can still be found there and our comments about the town, without having explored it thoroughly ourselves (I know I didn't), may have been too harsh. I found it refreshing to have someone defend their town and explained that I was just really disappointed by my sales. I do think that Long Grove was booming more in the 80's and 90's, but so was the art show circuit!
Thanks Robert! When I was doing some research there were so many options and I have noticed that the new EZups have really light weight tops (which I don't want). My Caravan top is heavy and I wanted to stay with that type of fabric but one that fits better. Yep, they are pricey, but a good fitting, non leaking top is priceless!
Donna and Anita;
here is the link to the guy that was making the canopies for John Mee, http://www.thepatchplace.net/vinyl.html.
John himself had passed away several years ago and his family continued the business up until this past year. The guy that actually made the tops is now selling them himself. I have a set of older sidewalls that I bought from a place in Chicago called Elaine Martin, Inc. that is also out of business. They had made a set of side tarps for me that were about a foot longer than the usual. Those are finally breaking down after about 15 years of use, and I'll get my replacements from this guy.
About the canopy itself; it is heavy vinyl coated fabric that stops a lot of heat from the sunlight. They don't have light panels as of a year or so ago although that may change. There are buckle straps in the corners and in the middle which are doubly reinforced with an attachment pad of the vinyl material. They can be used to roll up sides and keep in place under the valance. I use the center buckle to also snug the top taut. There is enough extra material on my EZ-Up frame, which is the heavier one with the wider legs, that the section above the criss-cross of the scissor joints, at 2.5 ft and 7.5 ft across the side, that the material lies down and forms a funnel to drop the water. The EZ-Up design pulls tight across there and the water puddles and pools which is where most of the damage comes from. The Mee canopy has slack there and the water runs right off. Unlike the EZ-Up top, they do not leak at all. During our thunderstorm, there was no water coming through the top. There were drips from pin holes in my 15 year old side tarps, but none through the top. The originaal EZ-Up top would have been leaking like a sieve about 5 minutes into the storm.
The side tarps from this guy are the same material as the tops and have zippered sides and have sets of buckles and straps on the top to attach to a variety of frames.
His prices aren't cheap, and have gone up since I bought my last top about 4/5 years ago, which was $285 then. More than the entire Sam's Club EZ-Up. OTOH, I don;t worry about overnight storms and having to be there to push up the to[ to dump water off. It's cooler underneath the canopy than the originals. It's going to last a lot longer also, so the cost averages out better. I clean mine when it gets noticably dirty. I'll use Armour-All on it as a protectorant and it looks like it's fresh out of the box :-)
Yes Geri there ARE a lot of shows in Chicago and many with overlapping dates. I think some buyers feel that they will see the artist again so there isn't a sense of urgency to buy a piece. For me it isn't always a plus being local because many use that as excuse not to buy at the time.
Long Grove, like many small destination towns, has sadly lost its' charm and many of the wonderful shops are gone. Same has happened to Hinsdale which used to be a town to find some wonderful items that you wouldn't find at "the mall". Luckily our town supports local and we would prefer to go to our neighborhood TrueValue than Home Depot (however, we too have many vacant store fronts and was chosen for scenes in the movie Contagion because of it... yish). I work at a boutique in town and the residents support it which is refreshing. And then there are those that have seemed to weather the economy storm like Geneva which still seemed to have filled store fronts. I think some towns (and residents) reacted better than others to save their downtowns (no easy feat!). I'm sure that having a show in an area with many vacant store fronts, going out of biz signs, etc., continues to remind people of the economy and makes them a little less likely to open their pocketbook. We then become an inexpensive way for people to spend the day and "see art".
To answer the question about the Chicago economy--it is no better or worse than a lot of places. There is still a lot of money in the area. I still think the problem is too many shows in the overall area. And there is too much overlap of these shows. Does downtown Chicago really have to have a Howard Alan show and an Amy Amdur show pretty much within walking distance of each on the same weekend?
It seems whenever I look at artists' schedules it seems that 'everyone' is doing Lakeview. Don't know about sales but the quality looks good without my having ever been to it!
My cousin said that the Long Grove show was greatly improved over past years but sadly, the shops the area was known for are mostly gone. The economy is good in area itself but this was a little tourist area and relied on day-trippers. With so many shops gone, it is not a destination place anymore. I think that in itself is discouraging to buyers. I went to the town early this summer with a neighbor and we were shocked at how many stores had closed. While you wanted to support the small business owners, in the back of your mind, the state of the economy kept popping up and I felt like I should be saving money not spending it.
It's going to be an AFI party at Lakeview!!! I'll be there too!
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