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The 4^th annual Celebration of the Arts was put on by the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce. Wesley Chapel is in Pasco county about 25 miles outside of Tampa and 94 miles outside of Orlando. The show was located at the Shops at Wiregrass which is an outdoor mall with widely known chain stores, great restaurants and bars and a new night club. The show was lined along the main street with about 100 artists displaying their art. It was $165 to be in for both days.

For me, being relatively new to the art show scene, this show was great . They offered a Friday night set up. Since the show takes place at a very busy mall, they could not close the streets until after the mall closed. We were allowed to set up at 10:30 at night. Usually I set up by myself, but with this being so late at night, I bribed my husband with a few margaritas and he agreed to help me. We arrived to set up at 10pm and the show promoters were ready to go. We were handed out spot assignments and were free to set up. We were able to pull right up to our spot and take our time. So nice.

I arrived on Saturday morning at 8:00 am and the show started at 10 am. The parking was close to my tent, so it was very easy to cart my art without much hassle. Saturday started off extremely slow. Surprisingly, there were not many art patrons or mall shoppers that day. Maybe because it was the hottest day of the year so far. It really felt like the middle of July in Florida. That being said, the promoters helped us make the best of it. They had volunteers in golf carts continuously driving up and down the strip offering us free water and snacks.

Saturday was a slow day for me. I make mixed media wall art that ranges from $70 to $500. I had one good sale in the morning, which automatically covered my costs plus some. So I was happy. But the rest of the day, nada. I did see some other sales though. Many lawn ornaments (it is Florida after all), a few small watercolor pieces, really anything you could fit in a small bag. If you are like me and sell items that are big and require a little muscle, it just wasn’t happening.

That night, there was an awards ceremony at they new club at the end of the mall. They had 6 awards with $2000 being the top award. All of the winners were very deserving. The top prize went to a mixed media artist. Beautiful work.

Sunday was a different story. The mall was packed. Sales were not huge in price but they were plentiful. The show was from 11-6 that day and I had 1 sale every hour. For me, this is fantastic. I wasn’t able to talk to many of the other artists because I was surrounded by car dealers and newspaper vendors, but the few I did talk to (a jeweler and a leather craftsman) did well.

Closing time was at 6pm. We were asked not to bring our cars to out tents until our space was completely broken down. As I was breaking down at 6:12pm, I look behind me and there was a caravan of cars lined up to get close to their tent. I guess some people missed the memo or just chose to ignore it. After the caravan moved along, I was able to pack up my stuff, get my car and call it a day.

All in all, this was a really enjoyable and profitable show for me. It was my last show for the season before I pick back up in October. Free water and snacks, really good live entertainment that was going on all day, events for kids and the awards ceremony. I think it was the little touches that made it more enjoyable. And for the Chamber, who has only been doing this for a short time, I think they did a really great job.