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This is my second to last blog I will ever write.

Hope you are following with baited breath, and possibly a few tears in your eyes.

Nobody tells a story like me.  Done it 10 years plus.

Read on.

This show was held on the last weekend in June.  A three dayer with setup the day before as well as a Friday morn setup.

Grand Haven is a wealthy lake front community, an hour north of me in Saugatuck.

Lots of people from Chicago who buy art live here.

I had previously done this show when it was a two day show.  Never made much money, usually a $2K show at best.

But, since I did not get in the Des Moines show, same weekend, much better show, I decided to give it a try,

I had a great corner spot with ample storage behind. Was able to park the van a block away.

I setup Thursday afternoon, very leisurely. Slept in my own bed and returned Friday morn around 10 am.  Show started at 2pm that day.

I was making sales two hours before official show opening.  Who-hoo!

This is a small show, less than 125 artists. No vendors!

I sold a lot of 16x20 framed photos at $200 each.

People kept coming all day long.

I went home to Saugatuck that night, a very happy camper.

The weekend turned chilly, with a strong west wind off the lake.

I wore a sleeved wool pullover plus a vest.  Kept me toasty warm.

Saturday was like Friday.  Lots of interested patrons and they were spending big bucks.  Everybody was making moola.

The chamber of commerce runs this show, it is on Zapp.

The committee kept us well provisioned with food and water.

Grand Haven is a spiffy lakefront town, almost as cool as Saugatuck.
People were well dressed and well behaved.

Went home that night even happier than Friday. Who-hoo!

Sunday ended up being chillier than Saturday.  Unusual for late June.

Crowds were equally strong and they were buying.

I ended up with a record show.

Next day,though, had to check into the Holland hospital, ended up staying three days.  But that is a story for another time.

Gladly will do the show again.

Enjoy.  Only two more blogs to come, then it is riding into sunsets with margaritas in both hands.

from Artnet News.  Which one of these would you stay in?  My vote is for the camera house.

Ever Wanted to Sleep Inside a Giant Acorn? See the Winners of Airbnb's $10 Million Contest for (Rentable) Architectural Fantasias | Artnet News

I turned 77 today.

Thought I would write a great blog.

This is going to be one of my last four blogs.

I am retiring from blogging after 10 years doing it.

Will you miss me?

This is an Amy Amdur show held on Labor Day weekend in a great location.

The Third Ward is right downtown.  Full of happening retail and bars and restaurants.  Lots of young people everywhere.

My best bud, Jim Wilbat--outstanding glass artist-- has done the show for about three years.  So I tried it for the first time.

A welcome addition to my show schedule.

We were able to park in a lot and dolly right to our booths.

Friday setup with weekend show.

Held on street pavement, plenty of storage space behind.

The Amdur team are pros, everything flowed smoothly.

We actually had nippy weather both days, I was in a long sleeve pullover both days. 
Small shows, well under 130 artists.

Noticed I said artists, not vendors.  Enough said.

Lots of well dressed patrons, and they spent money on art, what a concept.

Saturday was a Lowend day, barely did $1.5 K. Mostly prints out of the bins.

Sunday was different. Sold lots of framed work.  Saw lots of others float by my booth.

People were very engaged.  Got asked lots of questions about my work, how refreshing.

The show is a winner, will gladly do it again.

The Marjorie Strider Foundation offers two grants for artists who have been undeterred in pursuing their vision. Selected artists will each receive a $5,000 grant to support the creation and production of new work, as well as their professional advancement. Applications are due November 1. Apply here.

The Center for Craft is offering unrestricted $10,000 grants to twenty-one mid-career craft artists who will participate in an 8-month cohort experience, in which they will be guided through training that encourages and sustains a generative practice as both artists and educators. The Center intends to develop and strengthen a network of craft artists through peer-to-peer learning and connection to enrich the impact on their communities. Applications are due November 30, 2022. Apply here.

On September 18, 2022, Hurricane Fiona, a Category 1 storm, devastated Puerto Rico’s southwest coast triggering destructive flooding, mudslides, and an island-wide power blackout. Four fatalities have been reported, and more than 778,000 residents were without drinking water as of Monday. Rainfall totals exceeded 24” in several areas. 

Fiona’s landfall coincided with the 5-year mark since Hurricane Maria, a devastating Category 4 storm that decimated the island’s power grid and claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 people. Since Hurricane Maria, infrastructure in Puerto Rico remains fragile, and many homes still had temporary blue tarp coverings, making the impacts of this storm more severe. 

CERF+ shares your concern for those impacted by the storm and we need your help. If you know craft artists who suffered significant losses as a result of the severe weather, please help us spread the word that they can apply for CERF+’s Emergency Relief grant program. Questions? Please contact relief@cerfplus.org.

After decades of service to the art fair industry, Connie Mettler, our Founder and Publisher, has retired. Learn more below about her years of pioneering work on behalf of artists and art fairs nationwide and online. Please click through at the bottom to comment and share your best wishes on Connie's retirement, too! 

In the beginning...

Connie participated in her first art fair in June 1978 in Royal Oak, Michigan, followed by the Ann Arbor Art Fair that July. Connie’s husband, Norm Darwish, exhibited photographs of rotten tomatoes taken in Detroit’s Eastern Market. Shoppers weren’t sure what to make of them and Norm eventually evolved his style to offer the often Victorian, hand-colored photographs that he was known for (often with Connie as the model).

 

After several years of exhibiting part-time, they decided to pursue art fairs full-time together. Connie retired from her position with Detroit Public Schools in 1984 due to the success and fun they were having. They juried into 32 shows in 2000, their peak year. The last event where they displayed Norm’s photos was Arts, Beats, & Eats in 2006. In honor of their retirement, they were granted the privilege to be the first to tear down.

 

The first chapter...

In brainstorming about what to do next, her son, Scott, recognized an opportunity: while most art fairs had their own websites, there was no national directory that helped art collectors and shoppers find shows to attend. He built the online ArtFairCalendar.com (AFC) website in 2004, initially focusing on Michigan and Florida only.

 

Connie had no intention of starting a business, but she had good mailing lists of existing customers for those two states. The new service quickly found a national audience and expanded into other states and regions, even internationally. The most popular art fair website in the US, ArtFairCalendar.com has been ranked #1 by Google for online searches for “art fairs” for more than 15 years. The monthly “What are You Doing this Weekend?” email that is published in regional editions was part of AFC from the beginning. It currently goes out to over 85,000 subscribing art patrons nationally.

 

The ArtFairCalendar.com platform and its spinoffs collected a first of its kind combined audience of working artists and artisans, plus top show directors and staff, plus art patrons from across the country. A winning pattern emerged: Scott would suggest an idea based on what he was seeing in the new media world, and Connie (being Connie), would run with it. Can you imagine learning HTML in your 60s? Plus, multiple software platforms, soliciting advertisers, keeping clients happy, social media marketing, and managing/training new staff to use software you barely had learned yourself? All while free-lance staffing and consulting with Art Fairs across the country? That’s Connie.

 

Chapter Two...

Meanwhile, social media chat rooms and online communities were emerging as important new ways to connect. Connie was busy with ArtFairCalendar.com and not enthused about another techie learning curve to build out ArtFairInsiders.com (AFI). But when helping Scott as an editor on his second Internet entrepreneurship book, she saw that he had used the new community forum for artists as a case study! The book demonstrated how anybody, even his mother, could build an online business. She learned the new community platform and recruited her many friends across the industry to use it. There were thousands of members in the first year and today there are more than 17,000. Remember this was before Facebook became widely popular – Facebook did not even become available beyond educational institutions until 2006.

 

Several more avenues...

Having built a unique new platform online, Connie was on a roll helping her friends in the industry, and supporting herself and a small team after Norm retired. 2010 brought the launch of another website at ArtShowReviews.com. The first free art fair reviews site online, it was designed to help artists share information and find the best shows for their work. 

 

Shows across the country were asking Connie for help finding artist exhibitors, and artists were using AFC to find shows. By 2010 her son built CallsForArtists.com (CFA) to help Connie help her artist friends and fellow show directors, too. In 2019 it posted over 160 events helping artists find fine art events to travel to and exhibit. Like the rest of the industry, 2020 was hit hard by the pandemic, but 180 events have been posted for 2022 thus far and the site is open for business to serve more.

 

ArtFairRadio.com began streaming in 2010 as likely the first podcast for working art fair artists. Connie’s hosting pioneered the call-in podcast and interview formats for the art fair industry. It played a valuable role sharing business information and building community in the art fair ecosystem.

 

In 2013 Connie launched the “Best Art Fairs” survey and competition on ArtFairCalendar.com. This publicity initiative continues to help top shows promote themselves, engage patrons, and attract publicity to ArtFairCalendar.com.

 

The goodwill all this work generated in the community was huge – it allowed Connie to hold an annual “Birthday Pledge Drive” on ArtFairInsiders.com. Artists, shows, and sponsors contributed prizes as rewards for PBS-style pledges the audience sent in to support Connie’s websites. She followed this up with a Secret Santa exchange on ArtFairInsiders.com to further help build community among the artists.

 

The big pivot...

When the reality of the pandemic became obvious in March of 2020, Connie had to do something to help artists stay afloat. AFC had 70 shows listed in April of 2020; only one was live. Art Fair producers and directors were quickly pivoting to virtual shows. The first AFC “What are You Doing this Weekend…?” email edition featuring virtual shows went out on April 2, 2020. A Virtual Shows page on AFC was added, too. Connie conducted a series of how-to podcasts on Art Fair Radio, with experts on Web design, using social media, and what government resources were available to help artists get through the crisis.

 

The Covid pandemic also prompted her to jump on the Zoom bandwagon in May 2020. Partnering with Sharon McCallister of ArtFest Fort Myers, she began hosting private virtual “Show Directors Community Calls” for show producers and directors. These are held monthly online with dozens of participants from across the country. The calls continue to give top art event directors a place to share experiences and learn about resources.

 

A lasting legacy...

Connie was on the board of Arts, Beats & Eats in Royal Oak, MI, and Art Fair Director there for 14 years, a Board member of the Guild of Artists and Artisans in Michigan, and a founding member of the NAIA. Connie has now retired after 44 years in the Art Fair industry. You will still see her fingerprints on the websites, but she has finally begun leaving home without her laptop. An avid world traveler, we still receive regular updates and assignments whether she is in Viet Nam, Germany, Argentina, or California. She went snowshoeing and cross-country skiing last winter, but managed a meet-and-greet with the Art Association of Jackson Hole.

 

As Connie would say:

“With freedom, books, flowers and the moon, who could not be happy?”

Oscar Wilde

 

Thank you, Connie!

 

Do you have a Connie Mettler or ArtFairCalendar.com story to share? 

Please say hello and congratulate Connie on her retirement here!

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