Pedestal Express is focused on the Art Community. Artists appreciate our services from the unique product offering to the on time deliveries. The business was established in 1993 with the sole purpose of providing modular pedestals. Our idea from the beginning was to keep it simple.  The average pedestal weighs 7 pounds, yet will hold up to 500 pounds. Every Pedestal is a full 12" diameter as a knock down easily transportable, quick set up exhibit display. Today this "green" waterproof system is still hard at work going from Art Fair to Art Fair.

One of the tools of your trade is presentation, getting that right is what brings you paying customers not tire kickers. Pedestal Express understands this and has patented a low profile design that sets your Art on stage and not the pedestals. E.g., when handed an apple you see the apple, not the hand. Every art object needs to stand alone at a dream height to easily sell. These modular Pedestals snap together in a every 6 inch increment, giving you that exact height.

Check out the video on the website. The pedestals are very adaptable, you can paint them and they break down into small sizes that make it really easy to pack them up and move them to the next show yet look great at the show.

Learn more:  www.PedestalExpress.com. Tell Patrick Mitchell, the designer of these pedestals ArtFairInsiders.com sent you!

Just got conscious from the drive back from Boulder City, NV and the Art In The Park show. This was a first time show for me, thought I'd look into something different in a new location in the same time slot as the Annual Rio Grande Arts & Crafts Festival which I did last year and despite Sunshine Artists giving it a high rating was a bust for me and I didn't see many other artists selling there either. Makes me wonder how Sunshine rates shows but that's a thought for another time...Boulder City grew up in the shadow of the Hoover Dam project in 1931-1935 (used to be called Boulder Dam but they changed it, there was a song about the change and how disappointed they were). Anyway, Boulder City is a quaint little town with a funky historic district which has a Palm Springs/Scottsdale feel to it. Lots of old buildings, motels, antique shops and restaurants but I digress. Art in the Park is the major fund raiser for the Boulder City Hospital and takes place in three grassy park areas and on the street which divides them. Two of the parks contain crafts, which, as reported by visitors to my tent were mostly "buy/sell and other junk". The street in-between had a lot of food vendors and the larger of the three parks, Wilbur, had the fine arts which to me seemed a mixed bag of stuff. When I arrived I found that my booth was directly behind a park bench which basically said, "don't enter". The two artists who were already there informed me that Wendy Adams, the Community Events Manager knew about the issue and that I should see her. I found her and she and her assistant were very accommodating about moving me to another spot of my choosing (there were a lot of empty available spots on their map) on the other side of the park. According to several artists this show is not in its old glory, apparently there were many more booth spots in previous years that were not filled this year. Sorta like "you should've been here last year!" Load in was easy from the streets surrounding the park all day Friday prior to the show and with near 100 degree temperatures we needed it! I thought late September early October would be a little cooler! After setting up the tent we had to take a break as it was getting too hot, after lunch, a swim in the hotel pool and a little nap (it was a long drive there) we came back later and set up the art. Artists were still loading in late in the afternoon/evening. Saturday morning arrived with a 9:00 open time and the people started to arrive locally and brought in by the bus load from Las Vegas and nearby Henderson. With some recent shows I've noticed the crowds thin considerably near the end of the day but there were still decent numbers of folks walking around at the 5 pm close time. After frying our brains in the high 90's weather all day I wasn't waiting around for the stragglers to close my booth. Besides which the buying crowd was not buying. It wasn't until Sunday that people seemed to be more serious about purchasing but even then they were few and far between. Some large pieces walked out but I saw a lot of artists with a lot of spare time. I sell traditional B&W photography with hand-colored images and my sales came in the afternoon on Sunday but were not enough to make this a "must do" show. Load-out was about as easy as load-in with plenty of space to drive up to the park after I had everything packed and stacked. So, licking my wounds I left Boulder City behind with a question mark as to whether I would go so far in order to make so little.

Matthews is a suburb of Charlotte and a charming little town.  It's the area in which I chose to settle 9 years ago when my company moved us from Denver.  There are surprisingly few fine art/fine craft shows in the Charlotte area considering its size; and very few of quality. 

The show is located in the square in front of the Town Hall/Library.  Sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce which is located in a rail car next to the Library.  Very picturesque.  very easy show to do.  Load in/load out can't get any easier.  Pull up to your spot and take care of business.  A couple of the artists have done the show for all 26 years.  It's pretty well juried.  No crap.  Historically, it's always taken place the same weekend as Festival in the Park but they moved it to the following weekend this year.  At this show, I can always count on my favorite silversmith to have some new designs and I always pick up something new from my favorite potter.  It's primarily populated by local artists.  A solid mix of mediums.  It's relatively well advertised. 

Setup started after 5 on Friday and the show started at 10 on Saturday and ran until 5.  noon to 5 on Sunday.  Dipped down into the 40's on Friday night so Saturday was a bit brisk and gusty but the sun was shining which was a plus.  Things started out a bit rocky for me.  I normally keep the sides of my canopy up to catch the sun on my glass.  It turns out I was in a bit of a wind tunnel and it sent 3 of my pieces crashing...Down came the sides in a hurry!  Luckily, they weren't favorite pieces.  and my friend who was helping me is a mosaic artist so she scored big time!  nothing goes to waste!  Same thing happened to the blown glass artist on Sunday.

This is a show that you can walk, spend time with each artist and get out in little over an hour.  I've walked it in 20-30 minutes and seen everything so it's a short stop for folks to drop in and then go on about their day or grab a bite in the adjacent restaurants.  This is not a show that has massive crowds at any given time but it was steady enough throughout both days that I didn't have time to sit even if I wanted to do so.  Sales were steady for small and big ticket items.  It was my first time debuting this particular body of work in Charlotte and it was well received by the crowd.  Other artists I talked to said that the last 3-4 years have been flat but this year turned around for them.  Sunday was a stronger day than Saturday for many that I talked to.   I got home and had 2 emails asking about commissions.  Since I had won $100 in a raffle at the Artists Reception, this show was almost pure profit for me since the booth fee was a very reasonable $150. 

This is a well run, organized show.  Volunteers were plentiful and efficient.  Lunch provided by Subway.  Indoor restroom for the artists. Kids art projects.  Awards were underwritten by Chamber members.  Musical artists rotated through every couple of hours and were pretty good for the most part. No food booths onsite except for an Italian ice cart since it's mere steps from 2 sports bars, a Thai restaurant, Subway, mexican place and a coffee shop.

It's a quality show and has local patrons who appreciate the show in their back yard and the artists.  There was room for another 8-10 artists.  It would have benefited the show to have those spots filled but several shows going on in the Carolinas during the same weekend competed for the artist pool.  I'll be back if they'll have me and as long as it makes financial sense to do so... Can't beat the 5 minute commute!

First the show – This is a fairly small show that went from one day to two days this year.  It is setup on the streets of colonial Williamsburg and is part of a month log celebration of the arts.  Setup is on Saturday morning.  Warning it is dark in some places especially in section D.  It is also “tree lined” streets, which means look up before you start setting up.  I had to be moved over one space because I would have been lifting my tent directly into a tree.  As with most show setups I’ve found, they say it begins at 5AM but Clif and I arrived at 4:45 to find people already setting up.  The streets are a little tight and there was one impatient bozo who made things a little difficult.

The weather purely sucked, as only fall weather in Virginia can suck.  It was cold and rainy both days.  Heve having done this show before, I’m not sure if it affected the crowds.  It was, however, well attended and sales were good for me.  Per my usual disclaimer, I work alone and don’t get out of the booth much so I’m not sure how others did.  The couple booths to my right were happy.  Several booths to my left did not seem to make many sales.  Section D, where I was, is probably the worst section to be in.  I expected this to be my best show of the fall in the north.  Although I was happy I was hoping for more.  I did make more than 4 times what I made in Maitland, Florida last year so I’m not complaining.

Parking is easy and close by.  Load out was fairly simple.  Don’t believe the show prospectus that says we have only an hour to break down.    Clif and I were out by 6:30 and most people appeared to be gone by then but there were a few stragglers.  The same impatient bozo decided to bring his van in the wrong direction at 4:50.  He seemed totally oblivious to the customers who were still in the streets and the long scratch my awning made on the side of his van.

The weekend –I started out by losing my phone, in the dark, in the middle of Saturday morning setup which always stresses me anyway.   This is after my credit card terminal dying in the middle of the show last week.  Once again I was unable to take credit cards except with the knuckle buster.  I know I had it prior to the show because even after I told my dear husband several times we needed to go west on 199 he went east and I went west.  He called me to tell me I was going the wrong way.  Men!  So I’m sure it dropped out of the van while I was looking for my space.  Everyone looked for it, no one found it.   For the next year I will probably be running into people who say “Oh, you’re the woman who lost the phone”.  Clif left his phone for me and all seemed well until I set out to go back to the hotel.  I had no navigation system!  I became extremely lost and finally made it back to the hotel.  Luckily Best Buy was across the street.  I had already decided to get an I-Pad, now was the time.   Midway through the buying process I inquired about places to eat nearby.  They had already heard about my phone and lack of navigation.  Everyone had.  I was going on very little sleep, one egg Mcmuffin for breakfast that Clif brought me so I had no idea where the McDonalds was, and way too much caffiene.  There was no place nearby to eat except Target?  Note on Day’s Hotel, it is a tall Day’s Inn.  There is no restaurant; there isn’t even candy in the vending machines.  So I ate at Target.  In best Nels fashion I will report that the chicken, spinach, and artichoke sandwich is quite good but very small.  DO NOT get the soup.  As my husband once noted about food gotten at a New Jersey turnpike rest stop, it would have been better if it had no taste.  The brownie was quite good.

The next morning I gathered all my stuff, loaded the truck and set off again, very hungry.  After losing my phone I had sworn that the I-Pad (in its carrying case which I also bought) would never leave my side.  Throughout the entire loading process I was constantly aware where the I-Pad was.  I managed to find a 7-11 for breakfast.  One small bottle of chocolate milk, three granola bars and more caffiene.  Life was good until I got to the parking lot and couldn’t find my purse.   This was it, I had lost my mind.  I now endeavored to call the hotel.  My greatest fear was that I had left it on the luggage cart because I was positive I had both it and the I-Pad when I left the hotel room.  There are many, many, Days Inns in Williamsburg.  And voice recognition is not able to understand the difference between a Days Inn and a Days Hotel.  After going through five of them and getting terribly irate at the 411 voice recognition software I headed back to the hotel.  Miraculously I was able to find my way and I had left my purse in the room.

I am now home, with all my possesions intact and a replacement phone on the way.  Time to do it again next weekend.

Hey all!  Remember me?  The gal who did a 40 Questions Blog Series?  I had A LOT and I mean A LOT of fun doing the whole series here on artfairinsiders.com as well as on my own blog - www.quickcraftartisttips.blogspot.com, but it wasn't until this summer a follower of the blog said - didn't you cover it all in 40 questions?  What more can you talk about? After some thought, I realized it never ends - the advice, the experiences, etc.  Information is always changing.  Using the idea of the alphabet I thought why not do a blog series on The ABC's of doing Art Fairs.  So, the best place to start is the very beginning at the A's. 

Ahh! Let the knuckle cracks begin ...

1. A is for Advertising. Now I am not necessarily talking about billboards, t.v. commercials and news print ads, I am talking more about word of mouth advertising to get people to know you will be at a fair.  Perhaps the goal is to gain people's attention via various internet sites.   Most people have a blog, belong to Facebook or Twitter - take full advantage of this and let your followers know where you will be - do a count down each day until the event or let people know if they heard about you via one of these outlets - at a fair - you will give them 10% off their entire purchase that day (or something like that). The next step is to see if those fairs have social networks and post your info there, but not spam it. Try, "Can't wait for this show, looks like the weather will be great. I hope you all get a chance to visit my booth, #123, I make ____." With any luck people will check out your profile and maybe become a fan that day AND see you at the fair. At the same time don't forget to pass out fliers with upcoming events at fairs leading up to others and always keep in contact with those on your email contact list - whether that consists of fans, friends or family members, all generally like to know what you have been up to.

In addition, the latest craze (dad-e-o)  is using videos to market yourself both on your website as well as on Youtube (or solely use Youtube if you don't have a website).  Video is personal and raw, and might I add - fun!  You can do nearly anything with it.  Most digital cameras (even those around $75) have some video capabilities and with web cams built into new computers and sold as affordable accessories, it is worth looking into.  Do a tour of your booth at an art fair or of your studio.  Hold up a popular piece and talk about it on camera.  Demonstrate how you make your work and then take this with you to shows and show how you demonstrate there especially if you physically can't at a show.   Get customer testimonials on camera.  Show off your latest creation.  Do announcements of upcoming shows, studio tours you're participating in, etc.  See where this is going.  Today people are all about visual and using video to get the word out as even now, people don't have a ton of time to read things, but watch a 2-3 minute video - that is what makes for great advertising!  There are many books and articles on the topic of using video to market yourself, I recommend taking a few minutes to check out those resources!  I use video on my website with the help of two candle reviewers (I make handmade candles) and post their reviews on my website - www.bythebaybotanicals.com so the average person who happens to come across my website can get an even better idea of what a fragrance smells like as well as answer the question - do they really burn they way you say they do?  It works!

2.  A is also for Advantage. You always need to know who has the upper hand whether it is the high traffic booth spaces at an art fair or knowing what you competition is doing. How else will you get the sales that your competitors are getting? Go to shows and see what your competition is doing - how they price their work, display it, treat their customers, how are they promoting it, etc. Funny enough it is better to be friends with your competition than be enemies. The reason is pure and simple - usually your competition does something different than you and if they get a buyer that is looking for something you do and not what your competition does, you might get a referral. Reciprocate. You may find each of you have stories the other can benefit from, learn of different suppliers, join a guild in your medium that helps like minded artists in many ways, or even learn more about different art fairs - whether to stay away from shows they do to not compete with them or vice versa. The goal is to be different from your competition and if you know what they are doing and see loop holes then you can find your advantage over your competition. An example is when at shows you often see a lot of jewelry - how do you find the advantage here if you too sell jewelry? It isn't by branching off to another medium and still sell jewelry - it sends the wrong message to customers and irritates promoters who are trying to offer a wide variety of work for fair patrons. The answer is to show off how your work doesn't break, comes with a lifetime warranty, you offer resizing on the spot, will clean it for free or fix it if it gets damaged, talk and show off your new original designs that is so unique no two are a like, share knowledge about special properties of different gemstones, or better yet label yourself the fair's jewelry expert and make it known that you can answer any jewelry question anyone has (or at least the best you can) to win people's confidence thus getting customers to open their wallets a little wider.

Next up B's. Each week I will be running down the letters of the alphabet so stay tuned to what B words will be covered. In the meantime - have a productive week and for those doing a show this coming weekend - I hope it is successful!

- Michelle Sholund, www.bythebaybotanicals.com & www.quickcraftartisttips.blogspot.com

P.S.  My blog is in the F's, but will be posting here once a week from A-Z.

March 8-11 

La Quinta, California  

a short drive from legendary Palm Springs

10am-5pm daily
230 Artists 

Deadline - October 31

La Quinta Arts Festival will celebrate its 30^th Anniversary in 2012 on the spectacular grounds of the La Quinta Civic Center Campus, a short drive from legendary Palm Springs, California. The Campus is a life-size picture postcard framed by majestic mountains, lush green lawns, and a lake - a spectacular outdoor gallery extolled by Art Fair SourceBook as "the most stunning festival site in the country."

Hosting 230 of the nation's foremost contemporary artists, this four day show attracts an affluent demographic and many wealthy snowbirds who have second homes in the desert. Art sales consistently exceed $2 million each year. The festival runs concurrent with the BNP Paribas Open, an international tennis event, attended by 350,000 of a highly appealing demographic as well as the polo finals - both located a few miles from the festival.

 
La Quinta Arts Festival requires the Artist to pay a show fee of 20% of all art sales made at, or as a result of participating in La Quinta Arts Festival.  A low booth fee of $275 for a 12x12 space means minimal up-front investment to participate, and allows LQAF to be successful only if the artists are successful. 

Noteworthy:

• Consistently ranked among the Top Ten Fine Art Festivals in the Nation by both Artists and Festival Patrons
• Juried Online by 5 respected authorities from across the country in each  of the 11 media categories
• Dedicated 24/7 Artist Hotline
• 24 Hour Private Security and Police
• Leisurely 2 day set-up and tear-down. Also Paid Labor Assistance with flatbed golf carts.
• Artist Hospitality includes morning and afternoon snacks, chilled bottled water throughout the day, a gourmet lunch box delivered daily to each booth. (Artist selects lunch order.)
• Impressive Artist Award Reception  
• Booth Fees from $275 to &775 - all booths located on lush grass!
• Volunteer Booth Sitters - contact by cell phone for your convenience!

July 1-Aug. 31 - $35

Sept.1-Oct. 31 - $50

For more information and to apply through ZAPP^TM  Click here: http://www.lqaf.com/artists-resources/la-quinta-arts-festival-participation/ 

Any questions, please contact Dedicated Artist Helpline:

Phone: 760-564-1244 ext. 112

Email: Helpline@LQAF.com  

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Find more 2012 art fairs looking for artists: www.CallsforArtists.com

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Looking for more art fairs that are looking for you? Visit www.CallsforArtists.com

Hi Everyone,

I really enjoy all the information that his group has to offer and wish I had come upon it a couple of years ago and I wouldn't have made so many mistakes.  My question is:  Is there any artist that is making what I think is called "Soldered crystal cross bottles"?  I am looking for any type of information or book on various ways to make these and or ideas for various looks.  I cannot find any instructions for this on the internet no matter what words I google. Help!

Loretta

Hello everyone,

We could use some artists to write a few show reviews for www.artshowreviews.com.  If you are not familiar with this website, take a few minutes to look it over.  We have no reviews for Hawaii, Alaska, Arkansas, New Mexico, and Oregon.  We also have several states that have only one art show review.  Montana, Nevada, Alabama, and Canada just have one show review.  I want to ask anyone out there if they could help us out by adding a few reviews so that we can get some more shows added.  You are also welcome to add any show reviews you want to the other states.  It will all be welcome.

Thanks for your help,

Jacki B

I just did my first art fair this past weekend with my tent at the College Park Art Festival. It was a great learning experience for my very first event but I must remember to wear tennis shoes! I did pretty good in sales. I met lots of people who informed me of other events coming up and many thought I have been doing this for years by my set up and shock to hear its my first public affair. I do look forward to participating in many other shows in the near future.

Karen Howard

This is year three of this art extravaganza where there is almost $500,000 worth of prizes. The prize winners are voted on by the public, so essentially a "People's Choice" award. I've attended every year. ArtPrize^® turns the city of Grand Rapids into an art gallery for two weeks. Galleries, office lobbies, restaurants, courtyards, parks compete to host the art, in addition to all the public museums in the downtown area. There are 164 participating venues and 1582 artists whose work has been chosen for exhibition. 

People you and I know participate:

"Fukushima, The Bald-Headed Suiters and the Angry Slab", a digital painting by John Leben

"Restoration, Recycling,and Remembering", painting by Barbara Krupp

Also participating from the world of art fairs were Vinnie Sutherland, Mark Chatterley, Sally Bright, Betsy Youngquist & Scott Long, Dylan Strzynski. If I missed anyone please add them in the comments below.

I loved Sara Youngman's pen and ink drawing "Doodler; or How a Basically Antisocial Printmaker Survived Her First Summer as an Art Fair Artist".

On Sunday the streets and galleries were crowded.Laura Alexander, who is in the Top 25 to win the prize, stood by her work for hours on end, engaging the admirers of her work, cut paper she made precisely for ArtPrize that took over 300 hours.

There wasn't very much 3D work, but these vessels by David Huang really caught my eye:

Shawn Smith's sculptures represent pixelated animals and objects of nature. He says he finds images of his subjects online and then creates 3D sculptural representations of these 2D images. Really interesting:

Being in the crowd of onlookers and sharing ideas about the art is part of the fun. My friend, Sandy Dunstone, went with me again this year. We saw Diane Aronoff, a photographer from Ann Arbor, and had drinks with Barbara Krupp and Allan Teger at the end of the day. Barbara had two large paintings in the exhibit and they looked stunning.

If you want to vote for the winners you must register in person in Grand Rapids, then you can vote by text or online later. The deadline for the first round of voting was midnight last night. But because of the crush of voters the server crashed and you can still vote until 4 pm today.

Here's a quickie look at the Top 25 artists around the city: http://artprize.org/

The work will be on exhibit until October 9. The whole experience is really worth the trip.

            TIME EXPOSURE NEAR THE END OF THE SHOW ON SATURDAY NIGHT.  IT NEVER LET UP.

      I just can't say enough about this show.  It's hard to believe I had lost some sleep worrying about setup and parking, even though we'd done the show two years earlier.  We were in a different spot this year with different logistics.  

   As it turned out, setup was well organized and relaxed.   No Xanax needed.  The setup times were staggered nicely and we were able to unload right in front of our spot.  Although the unload time was limited to 45 minutes and monitored closely, we did not feel rushed and the staff could not have been more artist friendly.  

    Parking has improved.  There was a parking garage right across the street from us for normal size vehicles.  There was a parking lot for oversize vehicles a couple of blocks away, but we got the impression you'd better get there early and leave your van there for the show.  

      We elected to park at our hotel, which was within reasonable walking distance.  Well, maybe for a thirty year old.  Ann is still recovering from her knee installation.  As for me, I'm still dealing with a bad ankle diagnosed as adult onset rollerblading.  It worked out fine, however.  

     Tip:  we started bringing a bicycle to the shows.  On this trip I was able to make it to a CVS a half mile away and bring back a 20 pound sack of ice.  Nice.  

     OK.  Back to the show.  We made our first sale an hour before showtime.  When the show started we were flooded with paying customers and it didn't let up until closing time Sunday.  We haven't seen a steady buying crowd like this since our last Ft. Worth show.  

     A photographer who had the corner near us had his best show of all time.  One couple, longtime friends of ours, had their second best show in fifteen years. They broke 15K for the show and I'm going to guard their identity so they won't get hit up for loans.

We had our second best show since starting my second art show career nearly ten years ago.  

     The weather was certainly a factor.  It was PERFECT.  The natives said they hadn't had it this nice for quite a while.  Kansas City suffered through the Summer heat wave with the rest of the country and this weekend was the first in quite some time when they could get out of their air conditioning and enjoy the outdoors.  

     I was not able to walk the show because I didn't want to leave Ann alone with that crowd.  We had trouble restocking because the browse cart was so crowded we were blocked from accessing our replacements stored underneath it.  Late Sunday a young man told us he'd tried to get into our booth twice before during the day but it was too crowded.  

     We had heard from other artists that although the setup was smooth and well organized, the teardown was chaotic.  This proved not to be the case for us.  

     I could go on, but this show is one of the all time greats.  If you were to ask a group of artists to finish this sentence:  "My best show of all time was.."   This would be in the top three.  

     We felt lucky to have been selected for this show and will apply again next year with crossed fingers.   

The Atlanta Arts Festival is held in Midtown's Piedmont Park, the same site as the Spring Dogwood Festival. The last time I was in this park we were participating in the Dogwood and vowed never to return. The main sponsor was (I think) Purina Dog Chow and they were holding the frisbee dog championships in the middle of the park. I think there was maybe one dog to every two people. So you can imagine how pleased I was to see these signs!

The festival is set up in a very large circle on the grass. It is very pedestrian friendly and most artists do have shade. The set up requires (I am told) a very regimented procession of vehicles in order for everyone to get in and out. The executive director is Julie Tepp who used to work with the Dogwood Festival. Several years ago she vowed to return the much loved Atlanta Arts Festival which went by the boards in a recession many years ago. She has a lovely park, an affluent neighborhood, great artist coordinator (so sorry I can't remember Nancy's last name), a cadre of volunteers and all the bells and whistles of a good event (kids activities, a cooking stage, entertainment, family art activities and artist demonstrations).

I saw and met a bunch of members of this community including: Michele Levett, Hyacinth Manning, Matthew & Bea Hatala, Michelle Babcock, Diane French, Michael Stephens and Robert Jones. I loved seeing old friends like, Amos Amit, Ronnie Phillips, Mikel Robinson, Scott Wilson, Holly Foss, Sandy Atkins-Moran, Harry Roa, William Cowherd, Jack Brumbaugh and Michael Bryant. There are approximately 200 artists.

The weather was perfect. When I was there on Sunday afternoon there was a good crowd and a lot of people visiting the booths and interacting with the artists. I did see some packages but can't give a good report on sales. Perhaps some of the members listed above can add some details.

I don't know, Nels, is there enough "meat" in this?

Sales were being made --

The treat of the day though was seeing an old friend still exhibiting his fine paintings: Scott Wilson. We did a lot of reminiscing. Great to see you Scott! I wish you  many more fine art fairs and a continued fine life!

Saturday was stressful with minimum sales and a storm that came and went. Sunday went much better with a large sale and better weather. The organizers seemed accommodating although they fell short on a few things, I could see they were trying to make the participants feel respected. The event was visited by locals rather than tourists. Lots of children and lots of dogs. Friendly folks out for a sunny day in the park. 

All in all, I'd say it was a good event, ( but it's relative based on my sales I know). It was good to meet another artfair insider there too since I'm a newbie.

Alex

I was in Atlanta September 18-20 for the Third Annual ZAPP Conference. I've been to a fair number of conferences and will tell you right off that one of the best things about attending these events is the people, both people you've only heard about (art fair directors, artists), people you've met online (say, ArtFairInsiders.com or Facebook) and old friends and acquaintances.

The first activity was to attend the Atlanta Arts Festival in Piedmont Park. There I met a great group that I've known online for a long time: Julie & Tracy Tepp (Atlanta Arts Festival organizer), Kelly Kindred (Bayou City Art Festival), Nichole Smith (Newport Arts Festival) and Liz Smith (Artisphere).

Then off to a meet and greet where lots of familiar people appeared: Mo Riley (Ann Arbor Street Art Fair), Les & Ella Slesnick (retirees), Sarah Rishel (artist), Terry Adams & Tara Brickell (Cherry Creek), Patty Narozny & Elise Richey (Hotworks), Cindy Lerick & Laura Miller (St. Louis Art Fair), Katrina Gallegos (Coconut Grove), Karla Prickett (Smoky Hill River Festival), Stephen King (Des Moines) and a bunch more.

I went to dinner with Liz Smith, the Slesnicks and two men who have served on a fair number of art fair juries: Jerry Gilmore and Jerry McFadden. Hint to you: if you want to find good local restaurants hang out with Gilmore. He was on a mission to eat his way through the Southern cuisine.

The conference was a whirl of information

• including a keynote address about the changing demographics of the US population and what that means to the art audience.
• Lawyer Marci Rolnik had a mountain of interesting information about copyright that could easily have been worth the whole conference for artists. 
• Karla Prickett, Deanna Henion (artist) and I were on a panel about jurying moderated by Leah Alters from the Columbus Art Festival. (I got lots of feedback about the thread on this site where you all told me what you wanted the art fair directors to know about your thoughts on jurying. I made a full report. Many thanks for your input. I was prepared.)
• Reed McMillan brought a host of ideas to invigorate art events including flash mobs, pop up events, the Renegade Indie shows, inviting food trucks, shifts in consumer behavior, re-imagining partnerships with communities
• a Symposium led by Stephen King with outsiders to our industry, Tucker Berta a strategist with economic districts; a representative from Americans for the Arts, Mitch Menchaca; the CEO of a dynamic website, Custommade.com, Michael Salguero; artist Kirsten Stingle who is also a storyteller; and Carlton Turner, executive director of Alternate ROOTS, a regional non-profit arts organization. This was the best part of the conference for me. The mix of people telling their own stories of how they have brought art to the streets and their approach to making their work count despite the today's economic realities was inspiring.
  
  Reed recommended a book, Raving Fans, a Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service. Have any of you read this? It sounds like it would be full of ideas for our business.

Karla Prickett & Jay Downie

• Two workshops on social media with attention being paid to artists needs and the art fairs separate mission
• Last (and always the best part) a Mock Jury with show directors and artists viewing the images of artist who were in the room. The jurors were Jerry Gilmore, Randall Smith and Nichole Smith. If you have never seen a live jury or seen your own work in the midst of others' work, put this on your list of things you need to do. It is always eye-opening and one of the best things you can do for your career in the art fair business.

Throughout both days Larry Berman provided complimentary image evaluations and private portfolio reviews. Great to see artists Carroll Swayze, Beverly Hayden, Aaron Hequembourg, and Ron Schmidt once again.

I also met Julie Cochrane from FestivalNetworkOnline.com but hardly had a chance to talk, Jay Downie from Main Street/Fort Worth and as always enjoyed the company of the folks from State College, Rick Bryant, Carol Baney and Pam Lautsch.

The ZAPP staff led by Leah Charney did a great job of putting together a conference with good topics and interesting speakers who were full of useful information.

Rick Bryant helping me with Facebook

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When I think of Atlanta I always think of a vibrant, growing city, population pulsing and new business abounding. Being from Michigan I've certainly seen the impact of the hard economic times, but I have to tell you, these hard times were evident in the beautiful Midtown area of Atlanta also. These gleaming buildings, maybe not even ten years old had many closed storefronts and empty spaces. I have always tried to ignore the economic downturn, and wanted to believe that if we all work hard, are smart and creative and make good choices we can be fine. Atlanta told me differently.

I had thought the term "new normal" was something the artists invented to explain the new economic realities but I heard it on the lips of the participants in the Symposium, not even referring to art fairs. 

Do you "like" this post? Please click on the button.

Welcome to the Cooper studio.  Yup, still on the topic of that summer art fair.  Who'da thunk it was so complicated, eh?

The summer art fair.  And no, we don't have to limit ourselves, it could be a fall event--we'd even allow winter if you move it indoors.  Think art festival, then it becomes season-less or generically seasoned.  However/whatever.

Today we need to talk about one of the major problems with the art festival venue.  In a nutshell?  Rampant abuse of the format.

I've looked into the history of the art fair a bit.  The original purpose was for a group of artists to show their work, sans a brick and mortar style gallery.  It makes perfect sense that the local art center or art gallery would help with that, organizationally speaking.  They often pull in a lot of volunteer work, and their mission statements tend to read like this:

Mission

Our Mission: To bring People and Art together

Our Vision: To enhance the quality of Life through Art

Our Goal: To provide communication and aesthetic appreciation of the visual fine arts, through the use of education 

(Krasl)

 Or this:

It's About the Art.

Experience collaborative, creative merrymaking at its finest.  Join friends old and new... 

 (Marion)

And this:

From a spark of love of the arts and small town life, the idea of Art on the Prairie grew with dedicated planning...

(MaryRose Gallery)

How did we get from that to a company directing a collection of 14 art fairs?  And in the off season hosting a "boot camp" to tell artists what they need to do to be art fair artists?  Average price to "show your art" there?  $479.  And then the company grows and needs to make more money, so of course, another art fair is created.  Is it about the art, or about the company needing more revenue?  Please don't tell me you need a moment or two to think about your answer. 

And of course, they are not the only culprits.  When the local school dance team needs a fund raiser, their moms decide to host an art fair.  When the town 4th of July festival isn't big enough, they add on an art fair to attract more attention and numbers.  Does it matter that they don't have a clue about showing art and their mission statement doesn't have anything to do with promoting art? 

"We can charge the artists to show us samples of their art, and make some money there, and then we can pick the ones we like to exhibit their art at our fair and make even more money there."  "We can make money, lots of money" . 

Which is all well and good for the hosts of art fairs.  But what happens when there is an art show every other weekend?  When the art fair patrons begin to see the art show as "just another art show, and we went to one last weekend so why go to this one, it's pretty much the same."?

Obviously the art fair patron is the ultimate decision maker regarding the success of the art fair.  But the artist doesn't need to be the hapless victim caught in the middle.  If you are an art fair artist, or planning on becoming one, do some questioning first:

1.  Who is hosting/directing the fair?

2.  What is their goal or mission statement?

3.  Is it business or is it art?

Think of it like this:  Is it called an art fair, or a money fair?  Whoa.  Caught you, did I?  If as artists we would chose to exhibit at events that put the art first, could we thin out the events that think of their revenue first?  

Because when the art fair host thinks "anything for a buck" it trickles down to the artist.  And when the artist thinks "anything for a buck" they start to use phrases like "cobble something together to sell next weekend/next year".  That's not good for the artist.  It's not good for the art fair patron.  Most of all it's not good for art. 

When you look at that schedule of art fairs for 2012, please, put art first.  Thanks for reading.

Later, Cooper

With my iPhone app for metal quotes, silver just dropped to $32.00 an ounce and continues to drop.

And, in the time it took to PREVIEW this, just dropped to $31.81.  What twist of fate is now happening to us?

It's been a grueling three weeks, having entered this popularity contest for votes in order to win a $5000 grant. It has consumed me! The contest is called Dream Big Grow Here, and its purpose is to encourage small businesses in Northeast Iowa (there are other contests in other parts of Iowa) to expand and promote their idea or "dream". My dream, which I have had and been working on for 6 years, is to extend the designs that I've been developing on my pottery into other, manufactured products, like textiles. It's been slow going because of time and money shortages. This grant could give me a jump start.

I am now in second place, behind a garden center, and quite a bit behind too. But I have a lot of support and I believe this last day will bring people out of the woodwork.The voting ends at midnight tonight.

If you could please take a moment out of your busy day and help me towards this goal, I would be so grateful!

Let me also add that I have started a raffle for one of my teacups that you can win if you let me know that you voted. You can add a comment here ("voted" is enough), or on my Facebook page which you can reach if you click on the Facebook icon on my contest entry.

Click below to vote:

http://www.myentre.net/busProf ile/tabid/95/Default.aspx?entr y=356

Thank you!

Elisabeth

January 28, 2012

Waukesha (Milwaukee), Wisconsin

ArtWorks: Studio Clearance Sale

Waukesha Expo

Hours: 10am-4pm

100 Artists
Deadline: October 1 

We all have those pieces in our studio: we're tired of looking at them; they're damaged, last year's "model", or old pieces; or we just never really liked them to begin with.  We don't put them out to sell, but we don't want to throw them out either.  So what do we do with them?

Studio clearance is a section of your display must have art pieces available at a reduced price.  A minimum of 25% discount.  Up to 90% off.  This show is scheduled at a time of the year that is slower for artists and we need to give shoppers a reason to come out and view our work.  This is a "meat and potato" style show.  Nothing fancy.  Just come in and sell some art.

There is NO expectation for your booth.  You can bring a table and chair, and only discounted art to sell. (Make it even easier and just rent a table and chairs from me from just $20).  Or bring your entire display and have a section of art at discounted prices.  Your choice.

The show's advertisement will state that ALL artists will have art on sale in their booths.  Booths are limited to 100 spaces.  Note booth sizes are 8ft wide x 10ft deep.  You may have to adjust your set-up to accommodate this size booth.  A limited number of half-booths are available at 4ft wide x 10ft deep.  Also 1.5 booths spaces are available (12ft wide x 10ft deep).

Admission is $3 at the door.  However, if shoppers bring 2 canned food items, they get into the show for FREE!  All food items and any money collected at the front door will go to the Waukesha Food Pantry, our non-profit partner.  Parking is free.

Learn more and download the application:

www.artworkswisconsin.com  

*************

Looking for more art fairs to fill up your schedule?

Check this out:  www.CallsforArtists.com