(I'm away from my office visiting family in California, but still keeping my ear turned to the latest news in the art fair business.)
Whenever I hear people decry the lack of young artists entering the art fair business, I look around, and see plenty of new artists, the problem is that they are not "young." Maybe this is an older person's business. This article from the Denver Post, quotes director of the Cherry Creek Arts Festival, Terry Adams on the CCAF's Emerging Artist program, "This is our way of introducing them to this business," Adams said. "There are more artists leaving at the upper end of the age group than are coming in at the lower end, so this is our way of replenishing this generation."
Pretty cool...just like many of today's artists, people leaving established careers (for a number of reasons) and entering the arena in their '50's and '60's.
Read the article here: http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_12759316
Were you at Cherry Creek? Tell us about your experiences here.
I tried to enter this fair and was treated very rudely and told that I would be sent an application for next year if I were still interested. At this point, after that experience, No Thanks! Pam
I plan on starting to do art fairs next year. I'm 19. I've been running tables with my art & sewing creations at Japanese Animation conventions since I was 15.
If people wanna know where all the young artists are at, they should go to a anime/comic/gaming/(insert subculture fandom here) convention. Pretty much all have an Artist Alley, where artists can pay for a table or 2 to sell their work at. You rarely find artists there who are over 30, most are under 25. Tons of talented illustrators who can easily make a few bucks off their art. If you get a table, you pay for it, no jury process. Apart from tables, you can buy spaces in their art shows to auction art off or sell at a flat price.
Most young people won't pay to maybe possibly get a space to sell at or a piece of our art in an exhibit. Which is why the majority have deviantart accounts, post their art there, and when they want to sell a piece or some prints or whatever, they just put a price on it, or post a journal and tell their fans 'Hey I'm selling these!' or 'Hey! I'm opening 10 shots for commissions for this much.' And Wah-Lah! They've made a profit from their work. I see every kind of young artist do this everyday.
For me personally, I want to be successful with my art. I'm mainly doing sewing stuff right now and working on painting on the side, because I can make alot more money off sewing cute hats. My paintings aren't usually things that would sell at an anime convention (other then this one guy who comes to me just to buy my paintings (: ), and I don't have a large online following to sell them online all the time. I want to see my work in exhibits and share my art with people at art fairs. I haven't been to tons of art fairs but when I go to them I always start saying to myself, these things need an artist like me. Maybe that's a little egotistical but I just never see work like mine at art fairs(maybe I'm not going to enough, I don't know, lol) or when I'm looking around on the Art Hop. I start feeling inspired, motivated and competitive when I go to them though. (: So I figured, now that I've learned about the costs and process and whatnot (thanks to this site!) I should try it out. So I'm looking into getting into a few next year and seeing how it goes.
Aside from all that, I think many young artists don't even know about art fairs or that they could get into exhibits if they tried. The internet has made it pretty easy to not really need those venues to display and sell art.
I am young and see two things going on with the "younger generation" of people entering into shows. Those leaving college try their hands at starting their own gallery or get their work into galleries and getting into exhibitions. Some can't support themselves with their own art and take 9-5 jobs. Others find they don't know how to get their feet wet knowing which shows to do, what goes into a booth set-up/design, how to get money to pay for both shows and booth design, etc. Those who are doing shows now have money that they have earned and saved and can put that towards doing shows, something younger generations don't necessarily have. Times are different and those entering into art fairs - in this economy are mostly waiting for an up swing - a knowing that a profit can be made. But that is only my opinion, for what it is worth.
Always good to see festivals encouraging new artists. Chesapeake Bay Art Association uses the proceeds from our October Ocean View show, and a couple of other small events, to award scholarships to high school students accepted into an Art Studies college program. Also at the Ocean View show, we provide a tent and display racks for high school art students to introduce them into the Art Show world, and to the other artists. We discussed making some kind of provisions for newer artists (past high school age), but haven't worked anything out yet this year. Maybe by 2010 we'll have figured that out!
Comments
If people wanna know where all the young artists are at, they should go to a anime/comic/gaming/(insert subculture fandom here) convention. Pretty much all have an Artist Alley, where artists can pay for a table or 2 to sell their work at. You rarely find artists there who are over 30, most are under 25. Tons of talented illustrators who can easily make a few bucks off their art. If you get a table, you pay for it, no jury process. Apart from tables, you can buy spaces in their art shows to auction art off or sell at a flat price.
Most young people won't pay to maybe possibly get a space to sell at or a piece of our art in an exhibit. Which is why the majority have deviantart accounts, post their art there, and when they want to sell a piece or some prints or whatever, they just put a price on it, or post a journal and tell their fans 'Hey I'm selling these!' or 'Hey! I'm opening 10 shots for commissions for this much.' And Wah-Lah! They've made a profit from their work. I see every kind of young artist do this everyday.
For me personally, I want to be successful with my art. I'm mainly doing sewing stuff right now and working on painting on the side, because I can make alot more money off sewing cute hats. My paintings aren't usually things that would sell at an anime convention (other then this one guy who comes to me just to buy my paintings (: ), and I don't have a large online following to sell them online all the time. I want to see my work in exhibits and share my art with people at art fairs. I haven't been to tons of art fairs but when I go to them I always start saying to myself, these things need an artist like me. Maybe that's a little egotistical but I just never see work like mine at art fairs(maybe I'm not going to enough, I don't know, lol) or when I'm looking around on the Art Hop. I start feeling inspired, motivated and competitive when I go to them though. (: So I figured, now that I've learned about the costs and process and whatnot (thanks to this site!) I should try it out. So I'm looking into getting into a few next year and seeing how it goes.
Aside from all that, I think many young artists don't even know about art fairs or that they could get into exhibits if they tried. The internet has made it pretty easy to not really need those venues to display and sell art.