Hi Friends...I am fresh out of the van and home from Tupelo. Here is my review of the show...
I arrived Friday afternoon and checked in at the information tent with nice staff. I had been assigned a booth on the very end of a row (bonus corner booth), so I was able to pull up right next to my space, unload and set up.
After set up, I went to my hotel and freshened up for the GumBall. The Gumball is a preview party for artists and patrons. If you donated a piece to the silent auction, admission was free. I donated a piece as did Robert Wallis, so we went together. Gumball is a classy event with free food, very good food btw, and a cash bar. The silent auction was impressive. There were many good pieces there and people were bidding. I was glad to see my piece sell for a good amount and Robert's did too. Robert and I had a great time chatting and having dinner and cocktails. He told some great stories.
Saturday the show started at 9am and the weather was fair. It had rained the night before, and was still a bit drizzly, but cleared to a nice day. The crowd came as did the buyers. I would say they had a good crowd and good buying energy for reasonably-moderately priced art. On Saturday, I covered all expenses and moved into profit. There were some artists though, that had sold little to nothing on Saturday. I heard a lot of people say that last year was better for them.
Saturday evening was the artists award dinner with a nice meal and free wine/beer. The show gave out 1st, 2nd and 3rd place awards in all categories with cash prizes for each and one best of show with a $1500 purchase award. I have to say I thought this was generous to do all three awards per category and have money for each and have a nice artist made trophy for each. I get the feeling that whatever this show makes on jury fees and booth fees goes right back into it for artist amenities and awards. I would like to congratulate fellow AFI member Suzanne Ens for winning First Place in fiber!!! It was well deserved, her work is amazing!!!!!
Sunday the show began at 10:30 am and the crowds were not there until about 2pm and even then they were very light. I do not know if Mother's Day had anything to do with that or not, but this is a very church going community and nothing seems to happen until afternoon there anyway. I had only one sale on Sunday and there was a significant shift in clientele from Saturday. This crowd was much older, many more families and 99% lookers. Typical Sunday for many shows.
Load out was just as easy as load in and I had the whole thing packed up and was pulling out in about an hour. I ended the show with a very modest paycheck profit. I was very impressed with the hospitality this show offers. Free dinner on Friday and Saturday nights, The Salvation Army served free hot breakfast Saturday and Sunday mornings for artists and water was passed around several times. I think the awards were very generous and I found the staff to be very friendy. I liked this show. This was not a very big money maker and I will keep it in the maybe category for the future, but I still thought it was a nice show and I liked it. There was a lot of good work there and some very nice artists. One caution for those that have higher end work (over $500.00), I heard many artists with these price points were doing little to no sales. There were a few artists that zeroed at this show, sadly that happens sometimes, I have been there too and it sucks. Overall, I give this show a B+, they did everything right and the only thing keeping it from an A in my mind is low sales, but I am grateful for the little profit I did make.
I will be doing The Northern Virginia Fine Arts Fair in Reston, VA this coming weekend. Due to the very long drive for me I will probably be posting that review next Tuesday. Stay tuned........
Comments
Wish I had checked who would be in attendance. I dropped by on Sunday morning to see an old friend and look around. Had to leave before things got going. I was impressed with the quality of artists. There was craft and some not so impressive work, but by and large very nice.
PS - it's true that our dog boarding issue/cost really adds to our expense total, but still, this show was super under performing for us. All my customers from last year came by to say hi but only one made another purchase, and only after she found the lowest priced piece she could find.
Last year I didn't put out some inexpensive humorous pieces that I thought would be too controversial for the locale. I put them out this year and they sold fairly well. Other pieces from the surrounding area sold, with word of mouth working. One guy walked in and asked if I had a photo of a small community moth of Tupelo. I had just finished matting it and was starting to frame it. First time I've ever sold anything before it was done ;-) I made the sale and continued chatting with the guy as I finished framing it.
For me, the things that may move are images of older locales and iconic buildings that are starting to go downhill and catching them before they crumble is probably the key.
Teardown was a bit problematic for me as my back was giving me problems and I had to go slower and rest every ten minutes or so. I was about 3 1/2 hours packing up but there were still a few folks packing up when I left. The street lights helped and there was virtually no traffic on the road despite the barricades being gone. I would have to say the fair location is a good one.
I'm staying with relatives and will take a few more days before heading home. I'll take advantage of the time and take more photos around the area of places that have meaning for me and see how those translate to other shows.
Here is an article from the NE Mississippi Daily Journal for even more info: http://djournal.com/view/full_story/22555254/article-Crowd-shows-su...