The Artist were given the impression it would be water front art show. And only a small portion were water front, and the other artist were put further and further in what resembled a ghost town. The show was a financial disaster
The you was meant in the plural sense; after "All of us need to review our application criterias" in regard to the shotgun application process (press the button & apply to 15 shows on the net) that has been previously mentioned by others;There is no research etc. if fact recently there were blogs about a missrepresented show in Texas, we all need to do great research.There are multiple sources for event reviews, and if it's the first year, how much expense, and previous events demographics,are what I used.Or just get on the phone; or ask on this site. Sorry you thought you were singled out. Complaints usually are pointed at the promoter who usually has done extensive research into the event before sinking his $$$$ into it. Tired of hearing no artist responsibility/ mailing lists do save the day /, artists responsibility and also any local P.R./ Paragon"s actions make an effort/ I don't see anyone doing such/ All promoters bank on their reputations and this does make a difference for us all; also for you cause you are off to Montauk; good sales too you. As I have said each artists experience is individual// I had a neighbor at Ann Arbor not sell a painting in 4 days, and was back the next year and didn't sell a thing;; I have seen incredible glass artists bomb out in Winter Park, Fla. no guarantees in this business; I only get a feeling for a show from the reviews, I do not base my decision to apply on others experiences; ie. Nels" review on Vero Beach; yeah 4 0f us in our area kicked, one not till 2 in the afternoon, but many were not positive. It is really up to us to make it happen for ourselves at an Art Festival; the promoter will make their $$$ back; rain or shine; I am mailing summer postcrds for our 3 shows; almost 4,000. Hope you will tell us about Montauk and future travels; no attack was meant, and info is always welcomed positive or negitive. Fair Winds, Bill
I am not here to validate anyone BUT YOU ALL FORGET Paragon lowered their booth fees last year at their 5 shows due to krappy economics in the world//our world// Now I did go to a first year Hampton show/ No Rock stars etc. in fact few folks show up//some as always did real well/ others survived/ you know this story; and I don't know why crowds are low for paragon he does the p.r.//I also don't comprehend this reference ranking that is available and some live by it ///in 30t years of shows I know of few who fill those ranking cards in. ALL OF US HAVE TO LOOK AT OUR PERSONAL CRITERIA THAT WE EVALUATE AND APPLY TO SHOWS//i AGREEE WITH LARRY BERGMAN/ STOP THIS SHOTGUN APPLICATION PROCESS THAT ARTISTS ARE DOING/// OR STOP THE COMPLAINING CAUSE YOU ARE NOT DOING YOUR PROPER RESEARCH FOR SHOWING YOUR SPECIFIC WORK.
David,
Looking at your home page and seeing that you state 0 years in the art show business explains some of your comments.
I too am fairly new to doing shows but not new to the business world.
When you say we are all "creators of our own realities" that ends when we sign a contract with any promoter. We are now putting our trust into the realities that he has created. My reality is the work that I have created. His is the environment he creates to promote and sell my work.
We give credit when credit is due and criticism when it is due also. Keep reading this website and you will find this to be true. The criticism comes to protect people like you who can and will fall victim to promoters who truly don't do their job.
We look at the promoter as the retail store. That is his job. If our products don't sell, there can be many reasons why. We may have a crappy product or it's a crappy store or it may be the combination of both. But when you go through a jury process and have several other successful shows, it kind of eliminates the product. That leaves the store, weather and economy etc...
Keith,
Who knows why D.C. failed? That is an honest question.
I'm sure there was a lot of hard work in putting this all together but it's obvious that some very basic stuff was missing. Bill does provide a statement of the advertising he does and all we can do is take him at his word.
One of my neighbors made a comment which kind of makes sense...." how many people even read anymore?"
I do not know the answer to your question but think about this...How can a promoter give you a discount to a show without guaranteeing you a booth? Is he now the jury too? How many times will he bump someone to let you in? He can't without being unfair to someone else.
If I really wanted back in, either I get a free pass on the jury system or now I'm even taking a bigger chance spending more jury fees for nothing. I think he wants to make it up but he's putting himself in a bigger spot doing it this way.
We live close to DC, but wouldn't do a Paragon show on a bet due to a very bad experience with one they canceled out of what I'd call stupidity. Event promoters and managers MUST consider holidays, near by shows, other events and all kinds of things before setting dates and calling for vendors. Paragon is quite weak in that area.
I did participate in this show and it was not good.
If you look at the "quote" from the promoter what stands out to me is that 80% of the very poorly attend event did not even know they were going to see art it is amazing that anyone sold anything. This was poorly laid out but I can see that in the future this has the potential to be a good show. Give it 5 years, I also agree that the level of art was spotty in a few places but overall seemed high. Unlike others I only saw the promoter once at the end of the show. It was very hot no one came around to offer to booth sit (which was fine since I had great neighbors and there was poor crowd), despite the temperatures reaching over 90 degrees there was no water or other artist amenities.
The lack of signage, show map, poor layout and attention to the artist are all things we can overlook if there is a buying public but this was the promoter's biggest failure!
Victoria,
What happened between the "artist" and Bill was completely uncalled for. Being three booths down we saw what happened and the artist was completely wrong. In business there is a time and place for an honest discussion or disagreement but that was not the place nor time. He was an unhappy camper from the minute he got there. Honestly, we wished he was never there.
As for the $50. discount...do the math. 9 to 10 shows, spending another $4000.00 that is a great deal....for Paragon, not me.
How about a free show of my choice?
Thanks Gordon for the report. I had this event on my radar since I first started preparing my 2010 schedule. I opted not to apply. I wasn't sure about it but your report now tells me everything I needed to hear. Hopefully there will be many more reports from others to confirm and further support the evaluations of this and other events.
I think forums like this are going to be an ideal way to separate the good from the bad promoters. Frankly I will place more emphasis on discussions in this forum than any national ranking by very limited and anonymous sales reports.
Artists want to know that a fine art event will be well promoted "to the right audience" and that the art show is the primary event of that weekend activity.
Financial disaster? You will probably hear that it was a complete disaster.
I was always told that if I had nothing nice to say don't say anything. If I were to hold to that, all I could say is it didn't rain.
I don't even know where to start. We ALL had high hopes for this event but it seems that Washington is truly broke.
The layout stretched for more than a quarter mile with two sections near the docks. We were near the water taxi where the "wealthy" buyers would come every 30 minutes. HA! We watched 2 weddings and a party on Saturday but no one came to shop.
The few people that did come by our way wanted to know what was going on. They had no idea about the festival. This area is a place to come to kill the afternoon and hang out.
It is filled with nice restaurants and shops and that is where everyone went.
At check in we got a name badge, a restaurant menu and a map of the National Harbor.
We all expected some sort of booth signage and maybe a festival map but nothing of the sort. We were in charge of informing the public where everything was.
As for quality...it WAS there! As for buyers...Washington has put them on the endangered species list for this show.
We didn't see the "director" until 3:30 Sunday afternoon to tell us when we could start to load up. From the comments he was getting I would have thought that he was wearing bullet proof armor. It was not good. There were some that were very vocal and one that was really irate . Very unkind and very inappropriate.
As in any show, someone will do well and God bless those who did but the vast majority went home empty. This was not a buying crowd. They were not there to shop. They didn't even know what was going on in their own community. Then you had the Washington tourists..say no more.
This was one of those weekends you just want to forget.
Comments
Looking at your home page and seeing that you state 0 years in the art show business explains some of your comments.
I too am fairly new to doing shows but not new to the business world.
When you say we are all "creators of our own realities" that ends when we sign a contract with any promoter. We are now putting our trust into the realities that he has created. My reality is the work that I have created. His is the environment he creates to promote and sell my work.
We give credit when credit is due and criticism when it is due also. Keep reading this website and you will find this to be true. The criticism comes to protect people like you who can and will fall victim to promoters who truly don't do their job.
We look at the promoter as the retail store. That is his job. If our products don't sell, there can be many reasons why. We may have a crappy product or it's a crappy store or it may be the combination of both. But when you go through a jury process and have several other successful shows, it kind of eliminates the product. That leaves the store, weather and economy etc...
Who knows why D.C. failed? That is an honest question.
I'm sure there was a lot of hard work in putting this all together but it's obvious that some very basic stuff was missing. Bill does provide a statement of the advertising he does and all we can do is take him at his word.
One of my neighbors made a comment which kind of makes sense...." how many people even read anymore?"
I do not know the answer to your question but think about this...How can a promoter give you a discount to a show without guaranteeing you a booth? Is he now the jury too? How many times will he bump someone to let you in? He can't without being unfair to someone else.
If I really wanted back in, either I get a free pass on the jury system or now I'm even taking a bigger chance spending more jury fees for nothing. I think he wants to make it up but he's putting himself in a bigger spot doing it this way.
If you look at the "quote" from the promoter what stands out to me is that 80% of the very poorly attend event did not even know they were going to see art it is amazing that anyone sold anything. This was poorly laid out but I can see that in the future this has the potential to be a good show. Give it 5 years, I also agree that the level of art was spotty in a few places but overall seemed high. Unlike others I only saw the promoter once at the end of the show. It was very hot no one came around to offer to booth sit (which was fine since I had great neighbors and there was poor crowd), despite the temperatures reaching over 90 degrees there was no water or other artist amenities.
The lack of signage, show map, poor layout and attention to the artist are all things we can overlook if there is a buying public but this was the promoter's biggest failure!
What happened between the "artist" and Bill was completely uncalled for. Being three booths down we saw what happened and the artist was completely wrong. In business there is a time and place for an honest discussion or disagreement but that was not the place nor time. He was an unhappy camper from the minute he got there. Honestly, we wished he was never there.
As for the $50. discount...do the math. 9 to 10 shows, spending another $4000.00 that is a great deal....for Paragon, not me.
How about a free show of my choice?
I think forums like this are going to be an ideal way to separate the good from the bad promoters. Frankly I will place more emphasis on discussions in this forum than any national ranking by very limited and anonymous sales reports.
Artists want to know that a fine art event will be well promoted "to the right audience" and that the art show is the primary event of that weekend activity.
I was always told that if I had nothing nice to say don't say anything. If I were to hold to that, all I could say is it didn't rain.
I don't even know where to start. We ALL had high hopes for this event but it seems that Washington is truly broke.
The layout stretched for more than a quarter mile with two sections near the docks. We were near the water taxi where the "wealthy" buyers would come every 30 minutes. HA! We watched 2 weddings and a party on Saturday but no one came to shop.
The few people that did come by our way wanted to know what was going on. They had no idea about the festival. This area is a place to come to kill the afternoon and hang out.
It is filled with nice restaurants and shops and that is where everyone went.
At check in we got a name badge, a restaurant menu and a map of the National Harbor.
We all expected some sort of booth signage and maybe a festival map but nothing of the sort. We were in charge of informing the public where everything was.
As for quality...it WAS there! As for buyers...Washington has put them on the endangered species list for this show.
We didn't see the "director" until 3:30 Sunday afternoon to tell us when we could start to load up. From the comments he was getting I would have thought that he was wearing bullet proof armor. It was not good. There were some that were very vocal and one that was really irate . Very unkind and very inappropriate.
As in any show, someone will do well and God bless those who did but the vast majority went home empty. This was not a buying crowd. They were not there to shop. They didn't even know what was going on in their own community. Then you had the Washington tourists..say no more.
This was one of those weekends you just want to forget.