This was my 4th year for this show and I had a great feeling going into the weekend. MCAC is a Friday - Sunday show. The last couple of years has had terrible weather. Last year was the tornado outbreak that rolled through the area just a couple of days before the show so people had much more to worry about than an art show.
All that being said this year started out good. Set up was on Thursday. Set up in my location went great. I was able to back right up to the booth spot and unload. I was lucky because most artists had to dolly into the park to their site. We set up the tent, all the walls and some of the art. I am a glass artist and it was a little windy so we didn't set up all the glass until Friday morning. We visited with some friends we see every year, some great artist. Friday night went to Dreamland for the best ribs in America. When in Birmingham or Tuscaloosa you have to go there. Ribs and mac and cheese. Stuffed myself.
We finished setting up Friday morning. It was a beautiful day although a little warm. We waited for the crowds. And waited. The traffic flow was sparse but steady. The judge came through. A complaint I have with this show is they only have one judge. I never go into a show expecting to win an award (and most of the time I don't) but when you only have one judge their taste is what wins. The "Best of Show" award went to a good friend of mine Shadow May. Well deserved. He is a talented ceramist and just a good guy. Some of the other awards were not what I would have deemed award worthy but that's just me. That's why there should be more than one judge. Friday turned out to be a fair day. Friday night the show had an awards dinner. It was pretty nice for a show dinner. Lot's of good food and wine.
Saturday morning was sunny, warm and full of expectations. The day started out slow but finally the crowds showed. Items priced between $75 and $150 seemed to sell well. We did sell a couple of pricer items. Overall Saturday was a good day. You saw lots of bags and packages in peoples hands. It did get hot but the crowds stuck it out. Saturday and Sunday from noon till 4 was their Corks and Chefs event. It is on the show site in a tent behind where our booth was set up. You buy a ticket ($35 I think) and you get to sample food from 10 or so resturants from the area. You get 7 chips and each chip buys you a small plate of whatever the resturant brought to sample. Wine, beer and cold drinks were free. I didn't drink anything but again I stuffed myself. I spent the next hour setting in my chair trying to ward off a nap while my wife worked like crazy trying to keep up with the customers.
Sunday was about like Saturday. It got hot with little breeze. Crowd was good and steady after the church crowd came out. People were buying but again the medium priced objects. I talked to several artists and most said they had a fair show. I don't think but a few had great shows but I don't think very many had lousy shows either.
Load out was hard. It's one of those you have to be totally torn down before you can get a load out ticket from a wandering staffer. Then you go pay your taxes and you get a pass to go get your vehicle. The street behind us that we used to unload was where Corks and Chefs took place so we couldn't back up to our site. We had to dolly out to another road down a bumpy, uneven sidewalk. The staffers working traffic were easy to work with and let me park as close as possible.
I like Magic City. I will apply again but as with most shows there are some things that I wish were different. They had a NBA basketball court set up next to the Corks and Chefs tent directly behind us. It was for young kids to come in and learn technique and play games. All weekend we either were listening to loud music designed to bring in young people or we had to listen to a guy with a mic call the play by play of the games and basketball drills. Several older people who came in my booth said they couldn't stand the loud music and said they were sorry but had to leave. I'm not sure what the basketball drills had to do with an art show. It was just loud and drew crowds of young kids who had no intention on buying art. I would also try to get more than one judge to evaluate the art. It's more fair to those who might not be the kind of art that the one judge liked. All this being said MCAC is a good show. It seems like you ramble about the things you didn't like and don't give credit to the hard work of the committee. I do appreciate the hard work they put in to make Magic City a good show and hope to see them next year.
Comments
Pat, the loud music would do me in, too. I get so tired of people thinking we all want it loud!
Thanks for your report.
Hi Connie,
The basketball thing is new and there is no survey. I'm sure the show did it for money or some type of imbursement. I never have been a part of the student shadow program. I like the sound of it and would be first in line to sign up for it. The food in Birmingham is great. We also ate at a greek place where the lamb chops where the best I've ever eaten. Just happend to drive by and decide to go in. Birmingham is about 3.5 hours from my home. I live about 45 minutes north west of Nashville on I-24. You can probably hear my southern accent. (ha ha)
Thanks for this report, Pat. We did Magic City one year and agree on all the high points you mentioned above. It is a lovely park, the quality of the art was really high, with exceptionally good 2D art, the people were polite, the activities around the show were well thought out (don't remember the basketball stuff though), with interesting things for people to do to keep them in the park. It is a very nice event.
Any chance you asked about the basketball in your survey? Or has this been there before?
However, we did have to haul up the hill from the street, to a lovely shaded spot, but still ... we are at an age when we don't want to do that anymore. We never sold that well in the South but tried just about every show at this time of the year to see if there was a winner for us. This was passable and a bunch of our friends were there so it was fun.
The year we did it they had art students "shadowing" the artists and a really nice young man spent the weekend, helped us set up and hung out with us all weekend. This was a nice program. Do they still do that? You can see from this that there is a lot of thought that goes into making this a solid event.
AND -- the eating was great! Downtown Birmingham had great barbecue, but a friend also took us to a catfish farm out from the city. Best catfish ever!
How far is Birmingham from where you live?