July 18-21
Ann Arbor, Michigan
The Ann Arbor Art Fairs
  Wed. -  Friday, 10 am to 9 pm; Saturday - 10 am to 5 pm
    never on  Sunday

This enticing extravaganza of art is officially divided into four  events. In addition to this, every square foot of outdoor  space in this area has been sold to people who did not jury into these  four events.    

If there is something you have been hankering for, you can find it in  Ann Arbor in July. People come from around the country and some shop  all four days. Customers here for the first time are awed by the  quantity, the quality and the creativity and vow to return next year.  Come to add to your art collection, come to see the best in contemporary  art, come to start your collection, you will not be disappointed.  

1.   Ann Arbor Street Art Fair - the original!
      200 artists around the Burton Memorial Tower and Ingalls
      Mall on the central campus
This is the art fair that started the whole event.  Established in 1959, it is highly juried - over 1000 applicants apply  for the 190 spaces. The most avant garde work will be exhibited here, as  well as many artists who rarely exhibit their work outdoors.
For more info: www.artfair.org 

Shop at your leisure at the "original" show on the UM campus

2.  South University Art Fair        
     175 Artists in the South  University shopping district
Held in the area where the Street Fair  was originally, this event organized by the local merchants has very  high standards and some outstanding artwork.       

3.  State Street Area Art Fair
     320 Artists
This fair,  coordinated by the State Street Area merchants, has been around since  l963. It is located on Liberty, Thompson and surrounding areas. Often  you will find newcomers to the world of art fairs exhibiting here...the  stars of tomorrow!      

4.  Summer Art Fair
     Two locations:
         200 Artists on Main Street and Liberty
         175 Artists on State Street across from the Diag

Organized by the The Guild, an artists organization, this show has  the widest range of price levels of any of the Ann Arbor events. Uneven  quality, it has some of the best in the show and some of the worst. It  is easy to shop on Main Street with nearby parking and a plethora of  restaurants.
For more info:  www.theguild.org 

Read more of the story from the Detroit Free Press.

Pricing art...the hardest thing for me. I can price other artists art, no problem. But when it comes to mine, yikes! Am I too low? Too high? Ok, I finally decided on my price...but then...The "bargainer" comes.

OK, I'm easy to convince and yes, sometimes I go down a little in some paintings, if it is a harder to sell, or getting close to the end of season, end of day, etc etc. But how low can I go? 

Guy: OK, this painting is 180.00?

Me: Yes Sir, 180.00

Guy:What about 120.00?

Me: Mmmm...I can't go that low. That painting is very popular and it took me hours to make.

Guy: Ok, how much and I will give you cash right now?

Me: OK...160.00

Guy...NOPE! 130.00 or nothing

Me: I'm sorry Sir, I can't

Guy: OK, no deal. (walked away)

Me: Thinking...Ok, No deal...Whatever! Don't try to take advantage of my me and my work.

I didn't care but at the same time the lower they want to go I just want to say: Hey dude...Seriously?? Go and call a plumber, an electrician, they will charge you that just to go and take a look at your toilet (nothing against plumbers or electricians, just an example)...who do you think I am?? World Vision??? Unicef? Angelina Jolie?? No working for charity dude, but how low is too low? Or what kind of deals do you offer if they are interested in more than one of your pieces?

I will give a full blog, chock full of good meat on Monday.  Today by noon, I had made more than I did in three days at Boston Mills.  By 3pm when sales tapered off, I had made more than I did in

Columbus which was my best show so far this summer.  I was not alone.  Coming out of Shue's Restaurant across from my booth, where I made good use of their bathrooms with my by products of my heart condition,I saw people coming out with five and six packages of art.  How 

refreshing-- a real art show.  Tell ya more on Monday.  Nels.

Art fairs are a lot of hard work. They’re also expensive to participate in and attend. They’re stressful and full of physical challenges. Below are some tips I’ve created to help me not just get through the next show, but have fun doing so without taxing my system unduly. Each of these tips has been hard won through many years of experience. Take the ones you like, invent and share other tips that help you. Please. I’m ever open to hearing how you, my fellow art fair artists, sail through your shows!

1. Believe the show is awesome – NO MATTER WHAT. Some of my most amazing shows have seemed slow – only to blossom weeks later with an offer or an order I never would have garnered otherwise.
2. Pack wonderful tasty snacks to get you hydrated and fed – body and soul – throughout the day. Treat yourself, make it high quality everything. Include soul food. Soul Food = chocolate et al – stuff you love. In moderation.
3. Don’t complain. Not no way. Not no how. Not during the event. That vibe is sticky and will cling to all your good intentions in your work. If you have suggestions for improvements – thoughtfully provide those to the appropriate audience after the show.
4. A slow show does not mean your work isn’t worthy. Never forget that.
5. An awesome show doesn’t necessarily mean you’re an awesome artist either – see #6.
6. What defines you as an artist is YOU. Not your sales. I have had amazingly profitable shows, and crazily horrible shows. The work is the work. These externals might distract you from your Vision. Stay mindful of that.

Celebrate Every Show You’re In!

7. That said – note trends in your sales and adjustwhat you sell accordingly! That’s not prostituting your Vision – that’s sharing it in ways The Public is ready to accept at the moment.
8. Never forget that you are creatively educating people in all of this amazing effort of yours.
9. Give yourself a present after every show. You deserve it. It doesn’t have to be extravagant but it should be a pat on your own back for a job well done.

10. You are an amazing example for others!
11. Go YOU! You are Brave, Hard-working, Persevering,  Dedicated, Patient, a Visionary par excellence! Not many people can stake a claim in this many wonderful traits.

Lucky? Hardly!

Do you hear people say “I wish I was as lucky as you, getting to do what you love?”. I do, too. A ton. I usually chuckle and state “Luck has nothing to do with it!”. I work hard at making this dream come true. You do too. Those folks could too – we have made this a choice we’re willing to work – and work hard – for.

We deserve every good opportunity that comes our way from putting our work out there for all the world to see and react to right in front of us! We can minimize whatever negative challenges that come our way by alway, always treating ourselves as a treasured employee – because we most certainly are! Without us this business would literally disappear over night!

One of the hardest things for me being a full time artist is pricing work.  I try and look around and get an idea what everyone else is charging.  I listen to prospective clients to see how many are agreeable and how many put down my price sheet and walk away.  It's hard to know sometimes what the right price is.

I wrote my blog entry this week about a client who had an old price sheet.  Do you honor old prices or stick to the new?  I think it depends on the client.

http://www.pencilenvy.blogspot.com/2012/07/coming-to-america.html

Happy selling!!

Wendy

I've met a lot of crabby people lately which hasn't done a lot for my mood, so when I went looking for an artist to feature this month no one was quite what I was looking for, then voila! Marti McGinnis's fanciful colored "happy art" danced into view!

A lifetime of exploring, living the expected life and finally choosing the unexpected and expressing it exuberantly in an outpouring of color, Marti's current body of work focuses on the ancient art of fabric felting with a decidedly modern twist. Her self-styled "happy art" reflects her love of texture, coloration, friendly animals, cartoons, writing, designing -- this girl does it all! A Renaissance woman?

Marti is not only a visual artist, having explored wood, canvas, paint, pencil, aluminum she is also a blogger, website designer, social media leader and still she finds time to create one of a kind fanciful creatures and wearable art that pop your eyes out. I'm guessing the richness of her creativity informs it all. Now I'm happy and I think you will be also.

Her current body of work is felting, an ancient art, wherein a non-woven cloth is produced by matting, condensing and pressing woolen fibers. She is pleased to say she has met many of the animals whose fiber she uses to create clothing, pillows and many happy figurative animal shapes.

She does only a few art fairs so don't miss this opportunity to see her work and meet her this month at the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, booth #A015. I'll be there, how about you?

Learn more about Marti:
     www.artfaircalendar.com/art_fair/featured-artist.html

Ann Arbor, the combined art shows, have just updated their iPhone/iPad app listing all the artists by medium with links to their location on a map of the combined shows.

Now if they would also give us contact information for each artists. But I'm not complaining that much. Cherry Creek never updated their app from last year that didn't run at all.

My article from last year:
http://www.bermangraphics.com/artshows/art-show-iphone-apps.htm

Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100

My very favorite "kids" activity at an art fair happened yesterday in State College, PA, at the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, the Children and Youth Sidewalk Sale. At the CPFA 150 young people, from 8 to 18, compete, jury in and sell their own artwork, just like the big kids festival that runs the next four days.

I've heard executive director Rick Bryant's presentation on the event at a conference and it is such a model of involving children and a sense of "buying in" of the community to embrace the festival that it astounds me that more art fairs have not borrowed the concept.

Kirstin Floria who is now an exhibiting artist in the event had this to say of her seven year experience participating in the kids show: “I loved it,” she said. “Arts Fest is so important to my family. Instead of taking vacations, we would just go to Arts Fest every year. It was always a whole celebration for us.”

Here's the story from the Centre Daily Times: http://www.centredaily.com/2012/07/11/3257577/arts-festival-begins-today-with.html

Does anyone know of any other stellar programs to get kids and families involved in the arts at other festivals?

This Howard Alan show is held in Pioneer Court right in the middle of downtown, great visibility from both the street and the surrounding highrises. NBC studios is located on the property and they usually do a live report from the show.

This show has it's challenges, it's a dolly show but you can park fairly close on the surrounding streets without having to play Frogger, right Steve. I always rent a tent for this show from the company that travels with Howard, it makes life much easier. The layout is mostly single file with a few booths being btb, but all have very good back storage. Wind can be an issue, so bring plenty of weight as you're not allowed to stake down. Parking in surrounding garages is pentiful (but expensive), Howard has arranged fairly close parking for oversized vehicles and motorhomes for the entire weekend for I believe $65.

Last year the Gold Coast show was the same weekend which affected sales for most of us and while we didn't have that problem this year we did have 100+ degree temps to contend with on Friday which cut attendance by 50%. I was worried because for me this is a Friday show as I have built a good following from the ladies that work in the surrounding office buildings, but they just didn't want to brave the heat. Saturday morning early a front came in and dropped the heat into a more comfortable upper 70's which brought out all the people and I had my normal sales day. I went into to Sunday still being significantly down in sales due to losing Friday but the crowds started early and the show was packed all day, I ended up recouping the lost sales and with the after show orders my total was higher than last year.

Breakdown is tightly controlled by Debbie, Howard and Terry, you must be completly broken down and then you can get your car to load out. Debbie and Terry were working my street they kept people moving and co-ordinated parking for load out. My space is on the opposite end of the court from the street and I have an elaborate setup, but even having to dolly I was out in 45 minutes.

My medium is jewelry so it's an easy carry, but if you have larger items be prepared to ship as a lot of the people are tourists. As usual sales were across the board, my neighbors were Chicago themed photographers and they both did well, painter next to me with large high priced items sold a couple of originals, glass artist behind me with unusual wall pieces wasn't pleased with his sales but saw the potential with this show and said he will do it again.

This is one of my favorite shows to do, I drive from Tampa just for it.

Congratulations to everyone who participated in these two highly juried events.

The Des Moines Arts Festival was held on June 22-24 in downtown Des Moines with 185 participating artists

Best of Show: Joachim Knill
Joachim Knill of Hannibal, Missouri, displays his works in what looks like a shipping crate on the outside and an art museum on the inside

Best of Emerging Iowa Artists: Lindsay Burke

Merit Awards:

David Burton, 3-D Mixed Media

Chris Dahlquist, Photography

Cali Hobgood, Photography

Shadow May, Ceramics

Ella Richards, 2-D Mixed Media

Juror Awards:

Aaron Hequembourg, 2-D Mixed Media

Brian Mancl, Photography

Justin Robinson, 2-D Mixed Media

The Cherry Creek Arts Festival was held on July 6-8 in the Cherry Creek neighborhood of Denver

Best of Show: Benjamin Frey, Drawing
2nd Place: Lissa Herschleb, Painting
3rd Place: Brianna Martray, Sculpture
Merit Award: Mark Traughber, Mixed Media
Merit Award: Heinrich Toh, Graphics & Printmaking
Merit Award: Eileen Sorg, Drawing
Merit Award: Harvey Brody, Painting
Merit Award: Ron Hoyle, Drawing
Juror’s Award: Aaron Hequembourg, Mixed Media
Juror’s Award: Loretta Petraitis, Painting
Juror’s Award: Gena Ollendieck, Mixed Media

Looks like Aaron Hequembourg was a double winner. Congratulations, Aaron! Well-deserved awards.

A brief introduction . I am Joseph Paratore a Nature Photographer from Michigan and have been photographing for over 20 years. My wife and I are new to the Art show adventure life style. We are in our 3^rd year. The first year ( are timing  couldn’t be at a worst time to start a business) we did two shows, last year six shows and this year it will be 13. So far this year we’ve  been rained on 3 times and suffered through 3 shows in a row with 95 to 100 degree heat. I don’t remember anyone telling us it was going to be this hard of work.

I want to share my experience on a new show called New Buffalo Artigras put on by Amdur productions. New buffalo is quaint Harbor village in Southwestern Michigan located on the shores of Lake Michigan near the Indiana border. This is another Hot spot for Chicago vacationers with second homes and cottages. It seemed to be a lot smaller to similar Harbor towns like Saugatuck, South Haven, and Grand Haven. There are many excellent restaurants in and around the Downtown area. One I highly recommend is Casey’s Bar & Grill, from the outside it doesn’t look like much and you  may think Bar and grill Hamburgers  Not!!!  I had the best mushroom stuffed Raviolis with garlic cream sauce ever. And I must admit I am a food snob. With the quality on the spices and sauces I would think this to be upscale restaurant.  Did I mention that the prices were very reasonable?

Now the Show.  This is my first time doing a show with Amdur. So I didn’t know what to expect. Setup was done with flight times and Drop and drive, first time doing that also .  My time was set for Friday at 2:30- 4:30.We arrived at two in hopes of setting up little sooner. The setup was u shape on three streets near the main part of town. One street  Thompson which we were on was a paved street with a severe slope in front of a huge condo complex .One street was dirt and sand and the other was somewhat paved. I got their at 2:00 hoping to get an early start along with a handful of other artists. I was about to set up when I was stop because the Main sponsor Amway didn’t like where their Tents station was at and had to be move to more level area. They took up about 15 booths so Amy had to relay out one quarter  of  our row of booths. Even though She was under a lot of pressure and very short with us (which she later apologized for) she handled the situation fast and professionally . The setup was brutal the temp was around 96 degrees and no breeze .By the end of our 3 hour setup I was weak and dizzy.                        Saturday  morning  was very warm. The show started slow with a few people visiting booths. From eleven to twelve thirty it pickup and we made some sales. The afternoon was real slow there were a fair amount of people but they weren’t buying. I talk to about 15 artist or more and they were all struggling. At about 4:30 a huge storm blew in and we were pelted with quarter size hail. We were fortunate we saw it coming and shut down the hatch early. Rained heavily for 30 minutes.

There was another storm overnight, so when we arrived on Sunday there were two tents completely pancaked on our row. I heard that photographer had lost $13,000 worth of images and inventory. Just heart  breaking.  Sunday didn’t fare any better for me and many artists. The leather purse maker next to me made a great rebound from Saturday and did ok by their standards. I thought they did well; they were making a lot of sales. Everyone else I talked too barely made expenses .We sold a couple of big images so we made booth fee but didn’t make expenses. The foils of a first time show I guess. Most agreed that $450 booth fee was way too much for a first time show. I’m not convinced that area will support an Art show of that status .Only time will tell I guess. I don’t think I will be doing New Buffalo Artigras!   show anytime soon . If the booth fees were $250 to $275 I may try it again.

It is about making a living isn’t ?

Anyone familiar with this show? July 21-22. Sheboygan Wisconsin.

Thinking about different shows for the summer and not sure about this one!

Ann Arbor goldsmith Scott Berry will be a one-man operation during Michigan's Ann Arbor Art Fairs this year. After working with his recently retired father, John, for 25 years, Scott will be visiting numerous art fairs alone. The father-son team had worked together since 1986.

To read more about the team and their products, click here.

Having liability insurance is a "good" thing for you the artist.  If someone gets hurt in your booth and they decide to "sue" you are covered.  Also, if for some reason you are out of work because your studio was broken into or whatever, or your art gets stolen you are covered.  The city is trying to protect themselves and you.  It's not that expensive so go for it.  I just had to make a claim because I sent $2200 worth of jewelry to Chicago and it was stolen from the lobby.  The insurance did not pay for the total value but they covered half so that I could at least buy more materials.  In this day and age, insurance is a good thing.

Can I make a request on blog posts? It would be really helpful if you would tell us the city and state of the art show you're blogging about. I don't have any idea where the XYZ Outdoor Art Show is located. But if you tell me Atlanta GA, I have a much better understanding. Thanks.

There has been a lot of talk on AFI about broken zippers, canopy panels that are too tight, etc.  I just had an extension put in the back panel of my canopy so that it isn't so tight and subject to torn zippers.  I had the zipper placed in the center of the panel so that I could open and close it just like the front.  This work was done by a lady named Jeanene Graham in Tucson, AZ and she did a beautiful job.  Anyone who is in need of this sort of thing would be wise to contact Jeanene.  Her prices are reasonable and, again, she did a beautiful job.  Just wanted to throw this out for anyone who is struggling with the above issues.