After a Saturday of nice weather and light but steady crowds at this promising second-year show, the Sunday forecast was dire: clouds, gusty winds, and showers throughout the day, topped off by a 60% chance of thunderstorms at tear-down.
But the rain stopped just before the show opened, and as the weather improved, so did attendance. Sunday turned out to be the best day of the weekend, as weather was a bit cool for the beach but perfect for an art show.
This show is the Naples Art Association's followup to the Naples National event downtown. Ranked #75 by Sunshine Artist readers in its first year (2010), it looked even better this year. Well-advertised and with a high caliber of artists, attendees were knowledgeable and, for the most part, buying. I spoke with about 10 artists in my vicinity, and all were at least satisfied with their sales...as was I.
The show was very well managed. Show director Marianne Megela and her staff provides all the information you need in advance via email and website, and expects you to know what you're doing. But in contrast with last year's inaugural, the staff had a much more relaxed (but still thoroughly professional) vibe.
The show was nicely laid out, in keeping with the Mercato center's spacious design. There was ample storage room behind your booth and some welcome space on either side. (That wasn't for storage, but it made for a nicer visual than having booths pole-to-pole.) Show visitors (who paid $5 to attend), walked wide, brick-lined avenues; patrons of the center's shops and restaurants had ample sidewalks behind the artists' tents.
Booth-sitters, decked out in bright yellow vests, were there when you needed them, and the parking and security teams knew what they were doing, too. Setup and tear-down were well organized and efficient: you could drive right to your booth location to unload; the parking was in a grassy field just north of the venue, less than 5 minutes' walk from my booth.
Breakdown procedures were communicated to each artist individually by a staff member (as opposed to being shouted out by a show official as they walked down your row). Classy. The staff actually checked off your name on an artist roster to make sure that they'd communicated the instructions to everyone. I admire their thoroughness, but asking artists also to sign their name to acknowledge receipt of the instructions seems a little over the top. I'm not sure what problem it was designed to avert.
That little oddity was more than counterbalanced by the great job the parking/security staff did in courteously directing the Mercato's visitors from the streets to the sidewalks during breakdown, so they'd be out of the way of incoming vehicles and the hubbub of dollies and descending tents. Failure to manage crowds in these situations is a pet peeve of mine: I nearly impaled a jogger a few years back who darted between my vehicle and another as I was pulling out of my space, and I've done many a show where folks stroll aimlessly, beers in hand, through the streets while carts and tent poles are moving in every direction. It's amazing to me that most promoters and site venues don't manage this, and I give kudos to Naples Art for doing so.
From my perspective, this is already a first-class show, in a beautiful and classy venue. Definitely one I'll hope to attend next year.
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