This is our first full year doing art fairs. Being new to this, our philosophy has been to take things as they come and try to learn from our experiences. Ann Arbor was our ninth show of the year. After the previous eight it was an easy call as to whether or not we wanted to come back. It was equally apparent what lessons we could take away from those experiences. Not so with Ann Arbor. I would like to relate what happened and ask those that have done the Ann Arbor shows if they can offer any insight. I do not want this to sound like complaining but it probably will anyway.
We applied to the Guild show and State Street. We did a Guild show in Birmingham, Mi. over Mother's Day weekend and did reasonably well. Sunday of that show was our second best sales day. The work we displayed in Ann Arbor was substantially the same with some new images added. We were called of the wait list for the Guild Show while waiting to hear from State Street. We needed to make a decision right away so we accepted the Guild invitation. As is to be expected, the booth choices available were limited so we took one on S. State Street S. of South University. A couple of days later we were accepted for the State Street show and declined that invitation.
Sara is a native of Ann Arbor and her parents still live there. I served on the Ann Arbor Police Dept for nearly 29 years, and in the late 90s was in charge of after hours security. In those days the students would return during art fair to party, particularly the fraternities. In a kind of full circle moment, our booth was across the sidewalk from one of the frats I had the most trouble with. It looked abandoned now, with a lone beer keg on the balcony above the front porch. We should have snagged that thing and returned it for the deposit. That would have improved our bottom line. Based on our local experience, we knew it was going to be hot, muggy, uncomfortable and probably wet at some point. In other words we had a good idea what we were getting into.
We had an assigned set up time of 5pm on Thursday. We drove by the check in point at 10:30am where we picked up our information packet but were told we had to abide by the schedule. We drove by our booth location and saw there was practically no one on the street. We ran a short errand and came back to ask if we could set up if we dollied in. Knock yourself out we were told. So, we found a parking spot on the street about a block away from our booth location and set up. We were done with the tent at about 2pm and decided to come back at our scheduled time to hang our work. During that whole time the street was pretty much empty except for some Sprint contractors setting up a temporary cell tower at the end of our row powered by two diesel generators. We were downwind, and the fumes were overpowering. When we came back at 5pm the street was jammed with people trying to unload to set up. Why more people were not scheduled earlier is a mystery.
We arrived on Thursday with high hopes and great anticipation. We were two booths in from the boundary of the fair near a shuttle bus stop for remote parking. This can either be a good or bad thing so we hoped for the best. Another photographer across from us said he had been in his spot for three years and had his best sales there. But, he said that everyone else every year was new. After a couple of hours it was clear why. As the shuttle buses unloaded about 2/3 of the crowd walked down the sidewalk and never walked to our row of booths or they looked at the ones closest to the sidewalk. We were on the other side of the street. When we did get traffic, if they liked a piece the usual response was "we just got here, we need to look around". We thought they would have to come back by our booth to catch the bus, so we were not too concerned. We should have been. There were other points to catch a return ride. Those folks walking back to the bus stop were hot, tired, and just looking for one thing, air conditioning. There was a gully washer thunderstorm in the afternoon that cleared a lot of the crowd out early. A lot of debris from other booths came through our tent on the whitewater. It was kind of entertaining. Mixed in with the smells of fresh rain was the odor of the diesel generators no more than 50 feet from us. The painter next to us had to go into the student union for a while as he was about to become ill.
The next day one of the generators was being moved as we arrived. I do not know if someone complained or if they just needed it elsewhere, but it was leaving. It was fun to watch someone not very experienced at backing a trailer try to hook onto a generator and maneuver it between some very expensive art. We tried a new approach with early shoppers. If someone showed interest in a piece we would offer to store their purchase pointing out that we only had one print of certain images. We had a couple of takers but watched with amusement as several other tried to hide the ones they liked in the back of the bin, not willing to commit so early in their art fair experience. As the day wore on sales were slow so it was not necessary for both of us to be there. Thinking our sales problem was due to our location I walked the State Street Fair and the Original. I ran into a few folks we had met at other events. Some reported OK sales, others were in the same boat as us. I tried to determine if there might be a better location for us in the future. It was apparent to me that there were a lot of booths set up into dead ends that looked like dead zones to me. Foot traffic at the Original show was sparse and that is being kind.
Hope sprung anew with Saturday morning. I checked with everyone in our little half block peninsula cut off from the rest of the fair to see how the location was impacting their sales. A potter and a jeweler both said they had two good, not great days and were happy more or less. The photographer across from us that had been there three years had steady traffic and good sales. The rest of us had tanked so far. Again sales did not require my presence so I started walking around on a fact finding mission. I introduced myself to several of the other artists who did not look too depressed to talk. Most attributed slow sales to the heat. One person who had done the show for over 30 years said it was the worst heat he could remember.
It rained Sunday morning but a few people brought their umbrellas to take advantage to the cooler weather. Sara had enough so she used the shuttle to go to the mall and shop. Eventually the clouds cleared and the heat returned for breakdown. The process was to get a ticket from a volunteer when you were on the ground and ready to load. The ticket had to be presented at the original check in point about two blocks away to obtain a pass that would let you in to the venue to load. Our jeweler neighbor left to get her pass to load, leaving her friend behind. About 45 minutes passed and she still had not returned. We were concerned. When I arrived at the check in point I saw the problem. Artist traffic was backed up clear down the block, around the corner blocking through traffic on a major street, as well as half way up the block on an a joining street. There was one person handing out the passes after radioing to a person in the vicinity of the booth to see if there was room. I decided to park on the street and dolly out instead of waiting in line for an hour. That was the last straw for me. Between the heat, rain and practically no sales I sort of lost it at that point.
So, the bottom line is we had very high expectations for this show based on what we had done in the Detroit area previously. In fact we had done shows in Kalamazoo and South Haven and had OK sales there as well. We did not cover expenses despite not having a motel bill and minimal restaurant meals. I am convinced location had a role in this. But I am also left to wonder if our work did not play well here. Much of our work is industrial/abandoned mixed in with some more traditional images. Our price point is $50.00 to 950.00. We are still trying to sort out where we ultimately want to focus. The more traditional images of our neighbors sold better than ours. We did have some limited interest in our larger works but in retrospect we did not handle those encounters as well as we could have. We have missed some opportunities there. I walked all of the shows east of Division Street. I noticed as the weekend wore on some photographers were offering show specials and $5.00 small prints to generate revenue, which leads me to believe sales were slow for them as well. Many of the artists I talked with said we should not give up on the show as it is usually very good for them. Yet I read posts here that say the shows have been in decline for a while and it is no longer viable to do them. I am sure we would never return to spot we occupied this year. But, if we were offered a spot on Main or further in the middle of the fair on State would it be worth trying again? That is the question I am trying to answer and would appreciate any input from those who were on Main or that vicinity.
By the way, if you have a normal size vehicle and are on the State Street side of the shows it really is not necessary to buy a parking pass for $100.00 as we did. We have a half ton pick up. You can park in the Forest or Maynard Parking Garage for $15.00 per day. Meters are not enforced on Sundays so you can park for free hopefully near your booth so you can dolly out if you have to. We basically paid $100.00 for parking we could have paid $45.00 for had we not bought a permit.
On the bright side, word got out that we were in the show and many of my old colleagues stopped by to say hello. Some of our neighbors thought crime was afoot because of all the cops around. Another point which may be due to my faulty memory but I remember a lot of characters at the art fairs in the day. Wild clothes, even wilder hair styles, tattoos before they were so fashionable, protesters, political activists and anyone with a cause real or imagined were everywhere. This year's crowd looked straight out of suburbia. What ever happened to the "weird" side of Ann Arbor. I cannot believe I am saying this, but I miss it.
Sorry this was so long...thanks for reading.
Comments
Hi there! I'm a photographer and was just down the street from you at the intersection and think we even spoke. My hopes were smashed at this show and my goals far from met. This was supposed to be the crème de la crème of art shows for Michigan and it bombed. I have never seen the streets so empty at such a major show. Even my friend who has been doing them there for 10 years said it was his worst.
I do think our location off in the corner played a role but the extreme heat really killed it in my opinion. No one wants to come out in the heat that week. This fair is notorious for really bad weather and I think they should move the dates. Just because it's historically been at this time, doesn't mean it's the right time. This is my first year as an artist here but I have been many times in the past and just stopped going because who wants to walk around in 95 degree scorching weather. I remember long ago, the streets being packed with people, a river of a crowd flowing through. Not so this year.
I found the organization to be poor. The traffic line up to get out was not cool. I was the emerging artist but when I pulled up to check in, no one even knew who I was or had me on the list. My name was not on the guide and my friends had trouble finding me. I received no packet and had to wait around to get approved. I found this fair to be behind on perks for artists. Paying for parking every day was a drag. The water on the streets when it rained did not drain properly and I had a half a booth of sludge in my tent one day. I also had to wait an hour and a half for a booth sitter to relieve me to go to the restroom. They forgot about me both times I requested one. When you are doing things solo, it really helps out to have good assistance. I felt they lacked here.
I'm sorry your experience wasn't good. Mine wasn't either and I really have to rethink this art fair and all art fairs in general. People tell me I have a great product and it's not me, but the inconsistency combined with the hard work and physical aspect has not been paying off at all for me. I had such high hopes but I think people are interested in lower end crafts than fine art these days. I had always dreamed of being at art fairs, now that I am I see they aren't at all what I had imagined.
Connie,
We will be at Arts, Beats and Eats and Common Ground two weeks later.
Is this bad? Is the decision bad? Absolutely not. These are supposed to be art shows, you are supposed to be creating work that hasn't been seen before, something with the imagination of the maker behind it. Why just make product??? That is not the essence of being an artist. Right? Be true to yourself and what is important to you. Will you make more money that way? Maybe not, but good grief, life is short! You have an expertise that is exciting to you -- good luck. So sorry I haven't come across you this year at the Michigan fairs, my life has taken a turn that hasn't allowed me to attend many this year. I AM going to do a podcast with people like you who have chosen the art fairs as a second or third career. If you run across any others send me their names so we can be helpful to people like you (when I did shows it was for my husband's second career also).
Two reasons.
One. Too high expenses for too little returns.
Two. Too many exhibitors for too few real buyers.
Do two smaller shows, it will be mellowed, cheaper and you will feel good about yourselves.
A2 is cooked, put a fork in it.
Great article. I did Ann Arbor on State Street for 20 years and quit the show two years ago. There are indeed terrible dead spots on some of the streets. I fortunately never had one. I also never experienced the lack of respect that you received. The guild people were always great. Sales went from fantastic to fair over the 20 year period. I quit for two reasons. Too old any more for the long hours and work, and expenses began consuming too much of the income. In addition the excitement was gone. Hari Krishna's went from groups of 40 to about three. The hugh weight lifter drag queen quit walking the streets. The weird college students trying to express their new individuality were replaced by foreign students from wealthy families. You can still do well there especially with items under $30 but as the song go's.......those were the days my friend....we thought they'd never end..
Back in the 90's I started coming the the Art fair to work for Norm Darwish. All the freaky people. piercings, and tattoos got to me. I saw girls that I seriously hoped would never come home with one of my 4 boys. I wasn't used to it and I had a hard time looking at some of those people.
Now, I see that stuff in our small town high school. I guess the shock wore off.
Sorry to hear about your show experience. Thanks for your thorough review.
Robert,
No need to send a sample of a digitally matted print. We set a couple up yesterday and printed them. They look great. Thanks so much.
We did Ann Arbor Original in 2007 & 2008. We were underneath the big tents they had near the tower and north of the main street. 2007 we did two sales, period. The first sale happened opening night and it was a whopper: $6,000. The second sale was early the next morning for $2,200. A tornado came through town and brought with it cooler weather for the next two days. They were perfect, but we could have gone home before the tornado since we didn't make any more sales. But we did have plenty of prospects throughout the weekend who promised if we return next year, that we'd be in their collections. Several even gave us their addresses in Ohio and said if we did shows close to their home that we should let them know.
Fast forward to next summer. We did the Toledo Botanical Gardens show and our big ticket customers came, but didn't buy anything. A few weeks later we were in Ann Arbor Original again and got visited by a few of the folks we met last year, including the big ticket customer who didn't buy again. No problem with that, really. But we did nothing all weekend except suffer from the heat, lack of foot traffic, and complete lack of sales. The fellow next to us had thumbnail sketches in a bin and sold 5 of them for a whopping $400 total. That's stupid to me. Selling low end stuff like that when your walls are stocked with big ticket stuff. A lady down from us in the big tent sold a lot of flowers painted on fabric. She made a killing. No one else did that, though. One of the Florida faves was there for his first time, and he didn't go back next year. One patron walked by us on the way out of the show and said, "Why are you doing this show when the real show is down on South University?" I thought, "HUH?" The Original is the reason it's all happening, right? I dunno?
So we decided not to come back. That was that. None of the big time collectors showed. I suppose it had plenty to do with the economy then. Michigan and the USA was hit hard early in 2008. Reading the reviews about it since then, the show will never recover. We decided never to do shows that large, and certainly never to do them with the possibility of that kind of weather. Or that high a booth fee! I also don't care for the "NO REPROS" policy. It's all ridiculous. Just too much trouble all around. Lots of great art back then, though.
Do what works for you. Don't listen to reviews as much. Develop your own strategies.
Thanks Robert. We never would have thought of that.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next