I was just in NYC for Thanksgiving, I was so excited because the ONE OF A KIND Show in NYC was supposed to be going on Nov 11-13 and Nov 17-20.This is a show I had always wanted to see and this time it was finally going to happen. NOT!!!
While at my sisters house in Riverdale NY I double checked the show information online. I was somewhat surprised to find that the event was not posted consistently throughout the web. Some posts had both weekend dates listed and some posts only listed the November 11-13 date. There was no phone number readily available either but my sister and I went to the address given. GUESS WHAT ? NO SHOW! The doorman to the building said the show was canceled. It would have been nice for the sponsors of the show to post it was canceled. What if I made a special trip to see it.
In the meantime I remembered that the ACC show was also going on this weekend so we jumped in a cab and off we went. We were going to have our art show experience after all.
However and I hate to say this , (because I thought one day in in the future I might want to try to jury in the NY show, since my sister lives there) the show was not up to standard. My sister and I both felt half of the items displayed in the fair looked as if they could have been at a flea market. What a disappointment! There were a few artists whose work was noteable, so I was glad to see that, but .... I certainly expected to see great things. It is NYC, after all.
I asked one exhibitor if she knew what happened to the ONE OF A KIND SHOW, she answered that the booth fees were so high very few people could afford to do it.
This post address the same subject as the higher booth fees article. These promoters may just run themselves out of business if this keeps going on.
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I can confirm not seeing any customers , we were thee on Sunday, it was dead. What a lousy experience you had.
We did Richard Rothbard's American Craft Show at the Javits Center two weeks ago -- Richard may know artists, but neither he nor anyone else on his staff bothered to introduce themselves to us or even say one word to us all weekend. Moreover, although drayage was included in the price of the booth, they did not have a working elevator for the staff to use, so the artists ended up carrying everything by hand down a non-working escalator -- because Mr. Rothbard was not willing to pay for the escalator to run during the load in time. During load out, he let the up escalator run, but turned off the down escalator. However, the worse part was that there were no customers. Saturday was so/so, but there was no one there on either Friday or Sunday. We did the NYC One of A Kind Show two years ago and the traffic at that show was ten times what it was at the American Craft Show. I understand that this was only the second year of the show and it takes time to develop the traffic, but his total lack of concern for the artists made us cross this show off our list.
Thank you for describing what goes on at the show in more detail. Yes, I am not at that level either. I hope to be able to attend one day, and see for myself. In the meantime one of our fellow artfairinsiders is going this weekend and has promised to tell about the show.
I have known people (other jewelry artists, mostly) who have done the OOAK in Chicago, and are doing it again this year. They say it's their best show the entire year. I attended last year (thinking about going this year too), and not only did it bring in a CRAZY amount of crowds, I could barely even talk to one of the artists I knew because she was so busy. She doesn't do production work, her work (and the work of the other artist I know who is there this year) is one of a kind, but she does do a lot of wholesale I believe.
I did see a lot of "designers" there, it's true - but they are mixed with the artists...not sure about the ratio (50/50, or something better or worse), but I will say that the quality of work (at least in jewelry, where I tend to focus since I'm a metalsmith myself) was high last year.
I have heard that if you have a great original body of work you can do well. Also, if you can cater to wholesalers (i.e., have that to offer at the same time as retail, or at least contact info/"look books" or whatnot), you will also do well. I encountered a number of people who were shopping on behalf of their stores/boutiques who were approaching artists as I was browsing their booths, to see if wholesale mass orders could be worked out (for individual pieces).
I'm definitely not at that level yet, but I aspire to be...so I'm going to keep the Chicago OOAK show on my radar for the time being, and see how it holds up over time! I will say that the # of people who attend is really high too - very, very high traffic, more than any show I've done so far...
Thanks, Barry. I have no aspirations for this type of show, especially now that I know what it really entails :D.
OOAK has very little to do with one-of-a-kind or art. This is not an art show like the Smithsonian show or Winter Park. Go to the web site for the Chicago show. First of all, it's expensive because it is at the Merchandise Mart and it is unionized, so you are paying union wages for installation of electricity, load in, etc. Secondly, there are some one-of-a-kind made by the artist work but many of the exhibitors call themselves designers, which means they design the work and have it made elsewhere. Thirdly, they call it ooak because the products aren't made by large firms, like Jared, etc. However, here are some of the so called "artists" from their list: Boutique Home, which is "custom drapery, bedding and upholstery," they are calling that fiber art. Haute Interiors, LLC, which is described as designer napkin cuffs. Hilary's Cookies, and Rich Chocolates and Candies, which are both self explanatory. To be fair, there are some excellent ooak artists like Barbara Heinrich, Cynthia Chuang, Bruce Erdman, David Bigelow, and David Goldhagen. How bad could it be if these people are doing it? If you have the right product, you could do well. Just don't have any illusion about it being truly ooak in a pure sense. If I ever do it, I want to be next to the chocolate and cookie booth. Yumm!! Free samples. Just don't eat for a week before the show and bring your exercise clothes.
I don't quite see how OOAK and production work fit? Can anyone enlighten me? I thought OOAK really meant that there was only one like it?
thanks
It was two weeks ago. Richard owns the American Craftsman galleries in the city. Here is his website: www.americancraftmarketing.com.
well that is good news Connie for the Richard Rothbard ny show. What is the name of his show and when is it?
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