Hi Friends, here is my review of the 2013 Talbot Street Art Fair.This show is on a street in an older but nice neighborhood in Indianapolis. Load in and set up were easy, as there is parking near most booth spaces or you can unload on the street. I set up on Friday afternoon.Saturday the crowds were there for the whole day and my sales we good. There is a mix of art and craft at is show and I found the other artists there to be very friendly. The show runs Saturday from 10-6.Sunday had good crowds, mostly lookers in my case, as I sold only a couple of pieces. I made a good profit by the end of the show with a bonus of award money for best in sculpture.Load out was equally easy and fast. Everyone was nice and helpful during load out.Due to my award I am guaranteed a spot for 2014 and will go back. Overall, I liked this show and felt it was well promoted and organized. My only suggestion would be to have more volunteers available for booth sitting.I will be in Cedar Falls, Iowa this coming weekend for the College Hills Art Festival and will post a review next week!Now, how's that for a review at a truck stop restaurant on an I pad!!! LOL. Off I go home to the central time zone (YAY).
Hi Joan
I am sorry I missed you, I tried to come see you as well, but you were with a customer and I had limited time. Hopefully we will meet soon!!!
Hi Anne. Thank you very much and thanks for reading my reviews!!
Elle, I didn't do the show, but we were there first thing Saturday morning, so I was eagerly awaiting your review. My husband and I liked your work very much. We go to this show almost every year and thought this year's was a good one--the crowd seemed to have more energy than it has in the past few years; the art and artists seemed to have more energy, too. We saw lots of people carrying bags--more than we saw at the Broad Ripple Art Fair a few weeks ago. Congratulations on your award and thanks for writing this review!
Robert--when we looked at your booth, I finally connected your name from this website with some of your images that we have admired for years.
I did Talbot Street for the third time and was delighted to score the best sales I've had since 2008, back when I was still doing pottery! I loved the buying energy that seemed to fill the crowds, I haven't seen too much of that in recent years. Although I did hear a couple of sculptors with big ticket items complaining about their poor sales. I guess my success bar is pretty low, but I was happy. I tried to meet you on Sunday morning, Elle, but you weren't there yet, and once the show began it was too busy to go wandering off.
BTW, I stayed in a comfortable airB&B room in a beautiful private home, complete with pleasant hostess and friendly and companionable dog and cat, for less than the price of a cheap motel. It was the first time I've tried www.airb&b.com, and recommend it. I'll be staying at some others later this summer.
This is a really friendly pleasant show to do with little stress for "performance" that we felt at the "biggies." Nice folks and what's not to like about Indianapolis. I love being in the neighborhoods of our cities. Where was your space, Elle?
Arggh! I tried responding on a tablet and it got wonky weird trying to edit. It looks like I need to be better attuned to having enough stock so I'm sitting twiddling my thumbs when the best pieces sell out.
I had an interesting conversation with an older customer (I didn't remember him) who was lamenting not buying an older piece I had done that looked like a Maxfield Parrish done in B&W. He was still looking for it, and I found a copy of it just a few weeks ago that was scratched. It would be easy enough to scan it in several sections and splice it together in Photoshop and then repair the scratch. Heaven knows where the negative is, but as we talked I realized the original was shot sometime about 1986.
The show wasn't spectacular for me but it's the best I've had this year, and was a little better than last year. After the disastrous weekend before in Deerfield, IL, I needed a little better measure of success. It's given me some ideas to consider, so it's s till good.
I'm impressed with how fast you cranked this out :-)
I started tearing down a little early when I heard it was supposed to rain at 7:00 PM. I pulled out at 7:30 and it was starting to sprinkle a little bit. Luckily it never rained any appreciable amount. The show was a little better than last year, and if I had a couple extra of some new pieces, I would have done better.
Comments
I am sorry I missed you, I tried to come see you as well, but you were with a customer and I had limited time. Hopefully we will meet soon!!!
Hi Anne. Thank you very much and thanks for reading my reviews!!
Elle, I didn't do the show, but we were there first thing Saturday morning, so I was eagerly awaiting your review. My husband and I liked your work very much. We go to this show almost every year and thought this year's was a good one--the crowd seemed to have more energy than it has in the past few years; the art and artists seemed to have more energy, too. We saw lots of people carrying bags--more than we saw at the Broad Ripple Art Fair a few weeks ago. Congratulations on your award and thanks for writing this review!
Robert--when we looked at your booth, I finally connected your name from this website with some of your images that we have admired for years.
Joan--so glad to hear that you had a good show!
I did Talbot Street for the third time and was delighted to score the best sales I've had since 2008, back when I was still doing pottery! I loved the buying energy that seemed to fill the crowds, I haven't seen too much of that in recent years. Although I did hear a couple of sculptors with big ticket items complaining about their poor sales. I guess my success bar is pretty low, but I was happy. I tried to meet you on Sunday morning, Elle, but you weren't there yet, and once the show began it was too busy to go wandering off.
BTW, I stayed in a comfortable airB&B room in a beautiful private home, complete with pleasant hostess and friendly and companionable dog and cat, for less than the price of a cheap motel. It was the first time I've tried www.airb&b.com, and recommend it. I'll be staying at some others later this summer.
Thanks, Elle, for your report.
This is a really friendly pleasant show to do with little stress for "performance" that we felt at the "biggies." Nice folks and what's not to like about Indianapolis. I love being in the neighborhoods of our cities. Where was your space, Elle?
Here is some more info about Talbot: More than 270 artists showcase work at Talbot Street Art Fair and a video. The article says about 30% of the exhibitors were new to the show. I think that is pretty amazing.
I had an interesting conversation with an older customer (I didn't remember him) who was lamenting not buying an older piece I had done that looked like a Maxfield Parrish done in B&W. He was still looking for it, and I found a copy of it just a few weeks ago that was scratched. It would be easy enough to scan it in several sections and splice it together in Photoshop and then repair the scratch. Heaven knows where the negative is, but as we talked I realized the original was shot sometime about 1986.
The show wasn't spectacular for me but it's the best I've had this year, and was a little better than last year. After the disastrous weekend before in Deerfield, IL, I needed a little better measure of success. It's given me some ideas to consider, so it's s till good.
I'm impressed with how fast you cranked this out :-)
I started tearing down a little early when I heard it was supposed to rain at 7:00 PM. I pulled out at 7:30 and it was starting to sprinkle a little bit. Luckily it never rained any appreciable amount. The show was a little better than last year, and if I had a couple extra of some new pieces, I would have done better.