Blog

I'd love some feedback from anyone, everyone!  My husband and I set up at the Sylvania, Ohio Chamber of Commerce's Art and Craft show on Sept 11th, 2011.  Our first show!! Obviously exciting for me and he was a great supporter / helper!

I selected this for my first show because it's small and would be a great learning adventure.  It was that and more.  I didn't know there were that many things to learn.....

One learning is that people want to see what you have to sell without having to work at it!  I need to revamp the displays to make sure I don't overwhelm people with too many items that don't stand out much when someone is waltzing past the booth.  Other learning is to have more focus.  I think I had too diverse of an offering.  

People didn't even browse the earrings, somehow those got lost in the shuffle.  Although they're not my main focus, I do make them to match the pendants!   I received plenty of comments about how clever, cute, unusual, blah,blah my items were but darned if we barely sold enough to cover the cost of the show!  Midway through the show we moved the smaller tables out further into the walkway so that people could look without entering the booth.  Also near the end of the show I lowered prices (even tho they're very reasonable already) just to see if that was a contributor to the low number of purchases... it didn't have an impact.

Ideas I've had since include featuring matching sets of pendants and earrings on a pedestal, listing the components used to construct the jewelry (as in Swarovski Crystal), and then offering the pendants separate from the chains so that people look at the item more closely and the clutter of the chains would be eliminated.

Would love your comments, thoughts, see attached pics!  Thanks!

When Brian got juried into the Sausalito Art Festival, there was no way I would let him go alone! So we drove for 3 days through 6 states and arrived with time to spare. Thursday morning set-up went smoothly....what a professional set-up it was...complete with a private cart and driver. That gave us most of Friday to ferry over to San Francisco and be tourists for the day. Friday ended with the opening party on a yacht. Okay, the yacht was parked at a dock, the drink lines were long and the food was sparse, but we enjoyed our time with Minnesota friends Darren Olson and wife Karissa, and new friend and wood sculptor, Sean. Work at the festival was very impressive, with several "museum artists" making rare appearances at an art fair. Brian was honored to show with the best of the best, but that's right where he belongs! 

We rocked to some big-name musicians from our era, like Edgar Winter, Carlos Santana and Kenny Loggins, and met some incredibly nice artists like Vic Lee and John Gavrilis. A volunteer TAPED a fire extinguisher to the corner post of John's booth and it dropped onto John's toe. OUCH! The weather was nearly perfect and I can boast a star sighting...Robin Williams strolled past.

We added a brief vacation to the end of the trip and saw Yosemite for the first time. It was on my bucket list. The photo is me with Eddie our Yorkie, the van and AFI sticker in beautiful Yosemite Valley. Unfortunately, Brian is on the other side of the camera.

Kenny Loggins summed up our Sausalito experience quite well shortly before the festival closed, singing "This is it! Make no mistake where you are. This is it!"

As Bob Marley used to say, "I am a busy man, and I have work to do."

This is one of the biggies on the circuit for me.  It is one of my top three shows in the nation, the other two being Main Street Ft. Worth and Kansas City Plaza.  Can't count Winter park since they have juried me out for 26 years in a row--but hope springs eternal.

I had a pleasant seven hour ride home from it yesterday so I have had time to get my thoughts together.  So here goes.

It is always nice to swim in the same pool with the great ones and taste the sweet smell of success.  Saint Louis (SL) is one of them.

There are less than 200 exhibitors and all of them are pretty darn unique and successful looking--in every medium.

Not everbody makes a ton of moola, but most do far better than your average show.

To give you a yardstick, I did more here in two-and-one-half days than I did in Art, Eats and beats, Uptown Minneapolis and Ann Arbor combined.  It is like a cocaine high.  The hits just keep on coming.  Doesn't mean I do the white powder, but it is a good metaphor.  I mean what else are metaphors, for?

Info about location and setup.

This is a very well-organized show.  Every little detail is taken care of to the enth degree.

If you are traveling say eight hours or more, you will want to get in on Thursday, the day before booth setup which starts Friday at 11 am.  They have an artist special hotel rate at the Sheraton Clayton which is two blocks from the show.  They have free parking in an open guarded lot--they waive the $14 per day parking fee.  Hotel rate is $99 for a room that normally goes for $160.00.  Nice bar and restaurant too.  The show sign up is at the Sheraton and so was the free artist breakfest/awards on Sunday.

Clayton is a north suburb of SL.  It is where all the government buildings are.  Also, a ton of great restaurants to choose from.  Usually you will come in on I-70 then on to I-170 and get off at the Ladue exit.  Hotel is on Bonhomme Street and Beniston.  You can walk two blocks to the show from there.  There is a Starbucks, two breakfest diners plus a news shop that sells ice.  They got it covered well.  Gee Michelle, am I giving you too much info?

I just wish others would give simple info like this to me about a show I have never done, sure makes the job easier.

The show layout is basically on three streets.  Artists are back to back, down the middle of the street.  You have electric with lines running behind your booth.  It is tight in the rear with little room for inventory storage unless you can get your hind neighbor to scoot out  about 12 inches and do the same.  Plenty of room side to side.  I had a corner spot, it was well worth the extra money.

Corners go fast.  I got my acceptance via Zapp while at Ft. Worth.  I accepted immediately and paid booth fee including money for a corner.  If you don't do it pronto you are SOL.  Too many pros out there who know how it goes.  You snooze, you lose.

You are on paved streets, you need good weights, it can get very windy.  Better bring cut nails to nail down canopy feet so your booth does not go walking.

They let you in at 11 am, first come, first served.  They are not art show Naizis so you can hang around with your van for a while.  It is a very mellow setup.

Likewise, teardown is very civilized and easy.  They forgo asking you to take everything down and lay it on the pavement and get a pass so you can get your van.  You just lineup after 4pm, show closing, and they let you in.  What a breath of fresh air.  I was loaded out in an hour and a half and eating at Morton's before 7pm, after a cold shower and a short power nap.

Show runs from 5-10 pm Friday night, then Saturday it is 12 hours, 10 am-10pm.  Sunday it runs 11 am to 4 pm.  How civilized.  You have 22 hours to make serious moola and most people do.

So there, that is a lot of meat, but it is very helpful.  Hope it helps you when you get in this show.  If you were a smart person, you would print this blog out right now and store it in your file drawer under "Dreams."

Lets talk about personalities and moola--always a fun subject.

Lots of heavyweights at this show.  A lot of them had just driven in from doing Sausalito, which can be a biggie if you have the right stuff.

Artists here are comfortable, and expecting, to do big numbers, many in five-figures or better.

SL delivers.  There are several shows in the area over the year like, Laumier, Queeny Park, the Shaw, but the Art Show at Clayton is the biggie.  People wait all year to buy here.  Oh, let us not forget nearby Belville--but that really isn't St. Louis--it is its own force of nature.  You see people with really good shoes wearing expensive belts and carrying very pricey leather bags, and they are clothed very nicely.  Not a lot of tee-shirts like Royal Oak and others.

I have been lucky to get into SL five times now in 20 years, last time was four years ago.  Before the recession, this was a very good five-figure show for me.  Now in 40% off times, I wasn't expecting as much.  I was pleasantly surprised.  I did not do a ton of low end sales, it was more in the $90-$200 range.  People were buying three and four pieces at a time, and they were not trying to get you down on the price.

My neighbor next to me, Harvey Greenwald, does expensive, well crafted, leather bags mostly for women.  His bags start at $400 and up.  He had no trouble selling them.  Interesting thing about Harvey, he had his first show at Woodstock, the music fest in 1969.  I took a pic of him holding a photo of him at Woodstock when he was 23 years old.  He has been doing shows for 41 years.  He is a smooth pro.  He can charm women and get their dinero.  I learned a few new pointers from him.  

Down my row three booths away was fine ceramicist named Jenny Mendes from outside of Cleveland.  She made intricatly,designed vessels with cool edgey subject matters on them. I bought three of her pieces.  One of them I am drinking tequila from while I write this blog.  She had a so-so show, she sells to a very small niche market.  She still made money, just not a lot of it.

While waiting to set up I ran into this cool dude from High Point, NC named Steven Sebastian.  He does etchings of traditional subjects like rural farm and garden variety.  He sells expensive things, most all over $500.  I watched him all show walk back to his nearby parked truck and bring another framed piece back.  He did that at least six times on Saturday alone.

He was telling me he has been in the Plaza Art Fair for more than 25 years in a row.  That is awesome.  He has been in SL more than 10 times--equally awesome.  He expects success and he gets it.  How refreshing.

I walked around both Saturday and Sunday mornings saying hello to friends I know.  They all had great success stories to tell.  Saw Amy Flynn, Alan Teger, his lovely wife Barbara with her own work.  Saw Andy Shea, Matthew Cornell and a host of others.

There were only three Florida photographers in the show, me, Alan Teger and Doug Cavanaugh.  I felt happy to represent the sunshine state.  I beamed the whole show.

If you can ever get into this show, I hope you have equal or better success.  I am going to post photos in a seperate blog.  Right now, I am going to go work on my putting game.  I have this weekend off then it is off to Birmingham, MI, then St. James, then go shooting "Juke Joints" in Mississippi, then Bayou City in Houston.  Then I get to come home to Saugatuck in late October and dig up approximately 2,000 daylillies and get the damn weeds out of them and then replant the whole bed.

Then I go home to Florida and deal with my jungle of a yard in Ybor City which I will not have seen for five-and-one-half months.

PS.  Munks, I got to meet Holly Ollinger but she was not flying on her broom that I gave her at Christmas.

Later gators.

Background

I originally applied to this show at the recommendation of a jeweler I met in Wichita back in the spring.  I am a photographer working in traditional and historic processes with a mid-range price point.  I do offer a limited number of lower cost reproductions and postcards as well.  Castle Rock is located on I-25 just south of Denver, and about 30 minutes north of Colorado Springs.  It's an upper-middle class to high-end area with traditional-leaning tastes.  And while it's a 45 minute drive from my home, I still consider it to be local for me which helped with expenses.  The show is centrally located in downtown Castle Rock with shuttles for both shoppers and artists running regularly from the nearby Douglas County Events Center.  This is a two-day show with 177 artists and no electricity produced by the Castle Rock Chamber of Commerce.

Layout

This is an art festival first and foremost.  The show is laid out in two parking lots, one behind the library and the other behind the town hall.  The street between the two lots is closed and has may 10 artist booths along it, giving the show a loose "z" configuration.  There was a small food area near the library lot with about 5 or so vendors (no turkey legs!) and an adjacent entertainment stage with a variety of intermittenent acts.  A children's art area was set up at the far end of the town hall lot.  There was a Chobani truck situated at one end of  the cross street giving away free yogurt all weeked.

Set-up

Set-up began at noon on Friday.  Artists picked up their packets and staged at the events center.  Vehicles were allowed to proceed to the festival site as space became available and the wait time seemed fairly short.  Most people were able to drive up to their booth spaces to unload.  The pace was faily relaxed and I had my tent up before my car needed to be moved.  Booth spaces varied depending on location.  I was in a center aisle, so I had another 5 or so feet of storage behind my booth.  Those set-up on the cross street or around the perimeter of the lots had no space behind them.  Set-up was smooth for me, but others had issues - more on that below.

The Show

This is a high-quality show.  The level of the work was very good, with little to no BS.  While there were a few contemporary artists showing, most of the work catered to the more traditional tastes of the local clientele.  I saw few booths that I would have been unhappy to be next to, and I felt comfortable that my work fit in well here.  Sales here were not generally record-breaking.  Saturday morning people were buying from the time the show opened at 9 and the activity didn't drop off until lunch.  It picked up again mid-afternoon and dropped off about 4:30, with the show closing at 6.  Sunday was a bit slower start until the after church crowd arrived and activity stayed strong until about 2:30 or so.  Sales were largely non-exisitent in the last hour of the show from 4-5.

On Sunday morning the judges came around and handed out the awards.  There was one jurors' award in each category, plus best fine art, best fine craft, and best of show.  Only the last 3 had money attached, totalling $700.  I am proud to say that I recieved the jurors' choice award for photography.  Best of fine craft and jurors' choice for ceramics were both given out a few booths away from me.  It was a good corner to be in.

As far as amenities, the show had a hospitatlity tent with light breakfast items, coffee, and snacks throughout the day.  The portapotties were clean and had real handwashing stations next to them.  While a bit inconviently placed, they were located away from the artists booths so that wasn't an issue.  Trash cans were a tad harder to come by, but a local Boy Scout troup made the rounds both days picking up trash and sprucing up the portapotties.

Tear Down

As is the case with many shows, little direction was given about tear down on Sunday.  But this didn't stop it from being an orderly process.  This show is done by a lot of pros, so folks were talking with each other and helping out as usual.  The only hitch was that the artists' shuttle only ran until 6:00, so I could only partially break down before going to get my car.  Fortunately this wasn't a problem space-wise and I was able to pull up in front of my booth with no problems.

Sales

As I said before this was not a record-setter for most people.  Nobody I spoke to zeroed, but the a painter and a sculptor near me only had one sale each.  I did slightly better here that I did at the 6-day odessy in OKC this spring, so it was an OK show in that respect.  A nearby jeweler said that it was a "medium-good" show for them and better than anything they had done in AZ this year.  A couple of old-timers were saying that it wasn't worth doing for them anymore.  No one I spoke to said it was a "great" show, but most of the newbies and short-timers said it would be on their "do again" list.  Because it's local for me with a reasonable booth fee I will definitely try this show again next year.

The Bad Stuff

Every show has its issues, so I left them for last:

1.  When buying your booth space, you were given the option of standard, double, corner, end, or a combination.  For $70 you got maybe 4 extra feet on one side if you bought and end.  If you were on the island end, no biggie.  But these were over sold and created in places other than just the end of a row.  It was 4 feet between booths and if you displayed your work on the outside people looking at your work would block the view of your neighbor's work and vice versa.  There were similar complaints about some corner booths ($90) not really being corners as well.  For the most part the promoter worked these issues out to the artist's satisfaction.

2.  Parking/shuttle issues:  The artists' shuttle didn't run on Saturday morning, reportedly because the driver didn't show up.  Some artists made the substantial trek from the fairground to the festival site across the busy railroad tracks on foot, others were left jogging up the hill from artist parking to customer shuttle to get to a ride.  The artist parking was in lot 1 at the bottom of a hill, but the artist shuttle only picked up at the top of the hill in lot 5 (the customer lot).  They would drop you off at the end of the day in lot 1, but wouldn't pick you up there in the morning.  A minor thing, I know, but confusing for the artists when you're told it will be otherwise.  It would be lovely if this were corrected next year.

3.  I had a little trouble getting the gift certificates cashed in on Saturday, so I had to wait until Sunday afternoon.  Since they were a small denomination it wasn't a huge deal, just an irritation.  Better communication between the promoter and the volunteers would fix this.  Ditto with the sales tax forms at the end of the show as no one knew where these should go.

All in all I have done much worse shows sales-wise and organizationally.  Like I said, this is on my "do it again" list.  If you're already out this way and have high quality traditional work this is a decent show.

Greetings all!  I have been on a hiatus (of doing fairs) since May - mostly due to the scorching heat we get here in MD...  and since this has been a record breaking year in the heat department, I think I made a right choice.  However, was the choice right in doing The Maryland Seafood Festival?

The nuts and bolts... 

Dates:  Sept. 10/11 from 10-9 p.m. 

Location:  Sandy Point Beach Park, right on the Chesapeake Bay (the Bay Bridge is what is in the background of the photo) Annapolis, MD.

Set-up:  I will get back to that one - long answer...

Space fee I paid was $425 for an under the tent 10x20 space.  This included electric and 8 ft. tables.  There were different fees if you wanted to set up a canopy say for a 10x10 space and so on. 

Weather:  Questionable, but mostly nice DURING the event.

Sales:  FOR ME, not bad at all considering...   details to follow too.

My thoughts...  The stage was set for the event a few days prior to the event.  Before Friday we had 5 long days and nights of endless rain with LOTS of flooding in many areas of Maryland.  Got an email at 10:50 Thursday night that set-up won't begin on Friday at 10:00, but 2:00.  I arrived at 2:15 to a muddy mess and the big tens up...  the bad news is it is on top of 2 inches of standing water (and muddy grass).  We were then told no one could go on the grounds until at least 4:00.  Meanwhile food vendors with their big trucks could making it REALLY bad for everyone else.  There is only one way in and out of the grounds (via a one road path)  that too was muddy.  Finally getting my space - as it wasn't and couldn't be marked due to the standing water, I decided to try and get as much as I can on tables and pray some of the water will recede if it doesn't rain over night.  I did get cedar chips and some alpha grass from a pet shop nearby - 5 hardware stores in the area weren't carrying straw yet.  And no the parks and recs as well as event management didn't and wouldn't provide straw.  I did bring carpet (which was later sacrificed to appease any golems) which was put on top of the grass and cedar (at least it smelled somewhat decent in my area) outside of it smelled questionable.  It wasn't until 8:00 p.m. I got out of the park and setting up.  I can say ALL vendors who beyond pissed on how it was all handled - no parking attendances or security to direct who can and cannot get on the land, no volunteers, and we didn't get electric until 12 noon Saturday.  During the whole weekend I was still under 1 inch of rain.  If I didn't bring the grass and cedar and carpet, people would have never been able to see my products nor venture into my space - the farthest point in the tent was my booth, which was at the farthest part of the fair.          

Sorry for harping on how miserable we were, but I spent all Saturday in bare feet standing in that water as my shoes were ruined not to mentioned badly sunburned (the back of my booth is where the sun shone in - which was MY FAULT for not bringing sunblock and the tent was open, no sides).  Saturday wasn't a bust though - sales and people were good!  I must add - for me.  I have had fellow "artists" (I don't think many were true handmade by the artist present - mind you a few of the wood carvings, nautical art, etc. - was beautiful!) periodically come into my booth and ask...  "so how are you doing?"  On a good note I covered all of my expenses Saturday - including paying for some friends for helping me with sales while I did candle making demos and took bathroom breaks.  Sunday didn't make too much, but must be one of the lucky ones as many didn't do well.  And on that note, I think the ones who didn't do well were the ones who couldn't shake off the anger from walking their merchandise into their booth about 1/8 mile away from the parking lot in muddy conditions, not having a nice display - some didn't use table cloths for instance.  There were those who should have done better - selling the right stuff at the right place, but had more lookers than buyers.  So, all in all I call myself lucky.  Very lucky.  If the ground conditions were better or at least did something to make the situation better, it could have been a VERY successful day for all involved. 

I felt bad for the food vendors - they were all in the mud and you had to be in mud to get your food.   While I do feel some of the blame for the way things went down was partially the promoters fault, I lay most of the blame on the park.  This event happens every year, during the middle of hurricane season and they would rather have big mud pits and patrons and exhibitors fall than put down straw, mulch, etc. to make for a better venue.   I am just thankful there were plenty of people who came out for the music, the seafood, the seafood cooking demonstrations, the crab picking contests, etc. or we wouldn't have had many people come - the arts and crafts were something to do.  I did get several people find me saying they saw my website and wanted to buy from me - those were heart warming moments!

I would say about 6,000 or so were there for the weekend - I couldn't really tell only because the art and crafts were soooo far away from all the action.  There is potential for more, but with it also being on Sunday with to big football games and 9/11 - it didn't help.   If the place had better grounds, it would have been a fabulous fair and I am saying that after having sunburns, mosquito bites, VERY sore muscles, etc. yet still walked away with a decent profit.  Note:  I am not mentioning numbers as numbers, to me doesn't mean the same thing from one medium to another, but I can say I did over $1000 and I am just a candle maker who also makes lavender products and my own incense sticks (which ended up being the biggest seller).    I can say I did walk the show a few years ago and it was hopping, and was sunny when I was there, but they still had rain issues then.  I also liked the variety of exhibitors then too, than this year - everyone said too much jewelry (not that it was bad), but you have that - a person selling plants, another selling African carved wood animals, etc.  mixed with some true artisans - it wasn't the best  in variety this year.  - Michelle

P.S.  I did take the photo with my IPhone - didn't want to risk my camera getting dirty and with the back light couldn't get a good shot of the booth...  Sorry!

Well, I just got back from St. Louis, been without computer since last Thursday, I know, how archaic.

But, tonite I got to read Connie's post, Munks and John's.

I am just so happy I was the guy who got the whole thing rolling.

Which brings me to the whole point of this blog.

As you know, I am not a rah, rah ,rah cheerleader kind of blogger.

But, here is the pure joy about this site.

It trumps Sunshine Artist, it trumps Gregg's reviews because it is so immediate.  And, it can effect change.

Notice the inciteful comments from, Parker, Bernstein, Warren, et al, others.  Lots of good imput.  Lots of good comments that will help make a change in that show.  Notice how John, the overall director, was open to comments and criticism.  Where do you see that in our business?  Very little.

So, this is a great site: it encourages interactions, it incurs helpful comments--and , most importantly, it sometimes makes things get better.

 I am proud of Connie for getting this whole thing going--it has great  consequences ahead of it. Be part of it, comment, add, and include insights--they are all important.

Like I said, I was happy to be the guy who got things rolling.

I will have a great review of the St. Louis Art Fair tomorrow.  Tonite, Ellen and I are enjoying the Michigan skies.

 Aloha, Nels.

Since I drive to CA from Spokane for my shows I try to have a show every weekend.

My last show before going back to Spokane just kept going from bad to worse.

I was the first to set up I made sure that the person incharge showed me the spot.

After setting up the tent and table we found out that my number goes from right

but I was told to set up on the left side of my number but that was easy to fix.

we switched numbers no big deal.  Then slowly vendors started to set up.  Making sure

that my tent was set up exactly between the lines.  But the tent two down from me  after he

had his tent set up the person between us did not have a 10X10 space.

I had all my glass up when we found that I would have to move.  I could only

be grateful that I had 3 men helping me move my tent a few feet without

breaking anything.

It seem everything was going wrong and I was feeling that I wanted to just pack up and leave.

With the help of so many wonderful volunteers at the show it made me to go on.

I see how hard the people who make our art show work to make it a success

for us.  Hopefully we do not forget that.

$11,000 in prizes

Kissimmee, Florida

Deadline:  September 16

Labor Day weekend is the host of three Big festivals -- in the East, Long's Park outside of Lancaster, PA; Arts, Beats & Eats in the Midwest and the Sausalito Art Festival near San Francisco. Over the years I've watched Midwest artists bypass the show in Royal Oak to go to one or the other of those really good shows. I'm always interested in what happens there. Here are some excellent links about Sausalito. Don't neglect to read the first one:

http://sfciviccenter.blogspot.com/2011/09/sausalito-art-festival.html, which includes this information:  "...the program asked that photographs of the art not be taken without the artists' express permission.  That was fine, since the real focus of the event seemed to be eating, drinking,and listening to music played by famous old rock musicians."

Good story from the Marin Independent Journal: Artists have high hopes at Sausalito Art Festival.

This show started years ago with mostly local artists and you had a central paying location.  While the local artists had some talent, there were far too many amateur artists.  Impulse buying was nonexistent due to the paying process and I pretty much went to the show to visit with one of my husband's cousins.

Not sure exactly when in the last ten years they opened up the art festival to artists nationwide and got rid of that awful central buying system.  This turned it into a really great show;  lots of new artists not seen everywhere and, being at the what used to be pretty much the end of the art season, it was one of the last opportunities to buy fine arts and crafts.

This year it did not have the same high quality it has  in the past 5-6 years.  There wasn't any energy.  I have no idea what happened.  Nothing really made me stop in my tracks.   I am hoping this year was a fluke.

This of course did not stop me from buying, I beat the previous week's high from Port Clinton.  My husband helped, we bought a lazy susan for our dining room table and a gorgeous little wooden bench for our entry hall.  The  wood art I have seen this season especially the functional wood art,  is absolutely amazing.  The pricing is also amazing so an artist offering a 50% discount made a piece we wouldn't have bought a piece that we happily brought home.  The 2D art was better than in the past.  Glass and ceramics, not so much.  I found lots of jewelry to look at and of course, some to buy.

There is a small festival in a parking lot just down the street from the main festival.  My personal jeweler Amy Taylor was located there.  Due to some recent gem  finds, she is now making two more bracelets for me.  She is my right arm jeweler.  At the main festival was Teresa Dever, my left arm jeweler.  I added to the left collection also.  I have taken a chain maille class and as I look at the bracelet I purchased, my awe of Teresa's talent increases.  Her chains are not only beautiful to look at but so beautifully made.  There isn't a link that is not perfection.  

Just a note about Lake Forest --Of all the festivals in the Chicagoland area, this one probably has the highest household income per capita of all of them.  This is a town filled with a lot of old money and a lot of new money.  The town is filled with CEOs, CFOs, Presidents and Vice Presidents of very large corporations.  The demographic skews older too, befitting those positions.  (I keep picturing Munks' bull picture in the library/office of some lakeside mansion).  It is hard to tell how this translates into sales, but the possibilities are there.  

I am going to assume that this show was just off this year.  I will be back next year and I hope the good artists are too.

Here's my report on Arts, Beats and Eats that took place for four days over Labor Day weekend in Royal Oak, MI, where I am the co-art director with Lisa Konikow. This event was presented for the 14th year last weekend. The first year I served as an advisor and on the board and the rest of the years have been part of the staff. This show has a huge budget and lots of everything: sponsors, performance stages, restaurants, beverage booths, carnival rides, an extensive children's area, 100's of volunteers, big name performers (this year Vince Gill and my favorite George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic), amazing PR -- let's put it this way: it is a BIG Deal in metro Detroit. It brings 100,000's of thousands to downtown Royal Oak for all of the above activities. It covers 8 city blocks. It is a festival, not an art fair.

Ralph Rankin, Lisa Ben-Zeev, Michael Bryant, Jim Parker, Patti & Bob Stern

I have made it my mission to make it work for my friends the artists. With my husband, Norm Darwish, we participated in the event for 10 years. The arts can get lost in all of the other activity, no doubt about that. A festival brings to the area people who may never attend an art fair, but they are there for the fun and the music and can become customers once exposed. Many artists go the following weekend to Art and Apples in nearby Rochester and customers follow them there to purchase art. I consider an event like this an audience building show. Many people get their first exposure to art fairs here.

Welcome back to Royal Oak, Don Ament

Here's the story:

Check in on Thursday was lots of fun as artists came in excited to be part of the festivities and encouraged by the reports of excellent sales in 2010. We had a whole day to set up and it was good to see old friends and meet the people whose names we've been entering in databases for six months and whose images we've been seeing. It was a beautiful day.

Friday: Near record breaking heat, a very small crowd coming through the show. Some artists made no sales and others made expenses and more. The jurors made their rounds for the $7500 of prize money. The jurors arrived: 2 women, 2 men and 3 ethnic groups represented. Their background, one is head of Cultural affairs for Oakland County, (Kristie Zamora) another head of the design team at GM, (Deadra Hall) another a studio potter who is Dean of Students at a local college (Henry Tanaka) and Albert Young, a veteran of art fairs who is a glass blower and heads up Michigan Hot Glass.Things started to go awry. Some artists were in a small parking lot and were getting very little traffic.

Because of last year's huge crowds we redid the layout of the show and added 20 artist spaces, bringing the total of artists in the show to 155, by all reckoning a "small" show. The whole art area had been flooded with people from the opening last year and we hoped for the same this year. The new layout put about 15 people in a small parking lot adjacent to the rest of the show. We added a new street that didn't flow well either. Since the crowds didn't materialize for two days because of the weather the people who were not so obviously in the traffic pattern really concerned us. This layout was done to spread things out so it wouldn't be as crowded as last year. We moved the main gate up into the show so people wouldn't have to stand in the traffic to get in as they did last year.

Laura Junge & Chris Jackson return to the show, third year

Friday and Saturday were very hard days for everyone because of the weather. Early Saturday morning the Budweiser truck making deliveries on the main street hit the overhanging awning of an artist and pushed that tent into the next and the next, causing damage to three booths. The head of Budweiser was there within hours to make good on the damage. Interestingly, the booth with the most damage belonged to Stan Baker, a potter. Last year photographer Larry Humphrey's awning got clipped by a truck that sent it crashing into Stan's booth. Who would imagine this would happen to him again? Best wishes with your next show Stan.Stan and Jim Reinert pick up the pieces

So the promise of last year was dashed the first two days. The layout that we thought would be full of people didn't work well for some. There was a lot of disappointment. Saturday evening Jon Witz, the producer of ABE, and I went to the troubled sections to see what we could salvage for the rest of the show. Oh, did I say there was a big fudge truck at a main intersection? I asked him to get it moved but because of the amperage it required it had to stay. Some of our plans did not work out, some adjustments were able to be made. Planning festivals is an art, not a science.

Saturday night before closing a storm shut down the University of Michigan football game, and Ann Arbor is a 45 minute drive away, and we knew we were in the storm's path. Artists buttoned up well, the winds, the rain and the hail came hard. There was little damage to artists booths, but trees went down all over the region and on artists' vans (Ginny Herzog and Michael Kifer are two I know about.) I was helping Kathleen Robinson-Young, who had a bad foot, off the site and got caught in a really bad wind with the fencing blowing down around me and took shelter beside a mini-van. In the meantime, our stalwart assistant Allie Maher was rescuing Mark and Julie Glocke as their EZ-up (attached to their good tent) started to fly dragging Julie across the parking lot and giving her a good knock on the head. The Glockes were the only ones who had to leave because their tent was so badly damaged. Allie and I continued to make the rounds in the pouring rain until we were sure the tents were all secure. Allie (daughter of artists Annette Morrin and Chris Maher) is a trooper and almost singlehandedly can upright a tent.

Perhaps some of you remember the bad storm at Columbus in June and the blog post Meredith Kuntzsch posted here. Meredith was injured at Columbus, but who did I see in the dark scurrying around fixing other people's booths and making sure all was well? Meredith, of course. 

Sunday morning dawned beautifully, just the kind of weather we had been hoping for and the audience showed up. We had our artists breakfast at a  nearby restaurant and awarded the prizes:

Best of Show: Alexis Silk, glass; 1st Place: Xiao Jiang, painting; 2nd Place: Dave Bruner, printmaking; 3rd Place: Greg Barnes, drawing; Awards of Excellence: Candiss Cole, fiber; Ivy Solomon, jewelry; Chris Coffey, photography; Paul Adams, painting; Mary Cody, jewelry; Richard Skelton, sculpture; Spirit of the City: Sidney Carter, painting; and Golden Dolly Award (best artist's helper): to Casey Herzog, granddaughter of Ginny Herzog. Casey has spent the last four summers traveling with Ginny as her helper, seeing the country, learning how to run a business and meeting and greeting Ginny's customers. She was thrilled to win the award, to get her grandmother reinvited for 2012 and to take home an award check.

Monday the people came in large numbers again and artists began to feel like they were going to take some money home with them. As usual, a few people had their best show ever, some made zero sales and a lot were in the middle. 

I heard complaints about the Royal Oak Police. Berry Davis and Colette Fortin were dismayed to find a police dog sniffing into their boxes behind their booth and I do believe the police were very vigilant during the show. This event is a huge undertaking, the President was coming to Detroit on Monday to march in the Labor Day Parade and security was at its peak. Our apologies to anyone who felt that they were being singled out for surveillance. Unusual boxes that looked like they did not belong with an artist's setup were investigated. 

Barry Bernstein took a little money home with him.

Many thanks to all who came to Royal Oak with moderate to high hopes. It was a pleasure to meet you and work with you. I love this business and the people involved. Your success is my success and your disappointments are mine also. I know the heartbreak of barely making ends meet and the fear of not being able to continue to in the career you have chosen. I hope you will believe that Lisa and I work to serve you and wish you the best in the year ahead.
Patti Stern charming her visitor

P.S. Friday morning we had a staff meeting in Royal Oak and have set on the path of rectifying all that is in our power to improve the event for artists in 2012. The changes are starting now. The layout will be revamped; no fudge trucks in sight; no sponsor booths; the main entrance will be laid out to insure equal access to all booths; there are plans to have the shuttle drop off at the art area; vulnerable areas will have increased security, i.e., there will be no vulnerable areas. Our producer, Jon Witz, is interested in your feedback: jon@artsbeatseats.com as are Lisa Konikow (lisa@artsbeatseats.com) and myself-- and you know where to find me.

Important members of the ArtFairInsiders.com community:

Michael Bryant and Christine Green

Martha Bennington

Paul Zerjay

Miyako Cauley & Allie Maher, our stalwart assistants

Connie Mettler, John Stillmunks & Nels Johnson

At 11:30 pm Friday night I caught Daniel and Barbara Lager hanging out at one of the stages and they gave a thumbs up to Detroit's fabulous Thornetta Davis, listen here.  On Monday I talked with Thornetta as she checked out the art on Washington. I know Richard McCollum and Marvin Bower scored VIP passes from me for Vince Gill on Saturday, and I believe Barry Bernstein was there also.

I always try to make one concert and the closing for the festival was George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic -- they rocked downtown Royal Oak. Great to see a few artists there, Alexis Silk and Harry Roa getting funky also. Who's George Clinton? Listen here.

You weren't there but would like to see what the press was saying about the show? We have a serious PR machine, lots of press, onsite coverage by WDIV-TV and all local TV stations, print stories in all the media:

http://www.freep.com/article/20110902/ENT05/110902050/1115/ENT1005/With-video-High-temps-Arts-Beats-Eats-cause-slow-pace-festival-kickoff

What the event means to the local economy: http://www.dailytribune.com/articles/2011/09/04/entertainment/doc4e640fe1eee20043700669.txt

About the storm that came through: http://birmingham.patch.com/articles/storms-send-most-of-festival-crowd-home-early-thousands-left-without-power

Some of the other fun that was going on:  http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2011/09/photo_gallery_zumba_fans_try_t.html

A shameless plug for shopping at art fairs: http://www.dailytribune.com/articles/2011/09/01/news/doc4e5fdd1b70e2d728334353.txt

Imagine the US Postal Service being involved in this way: http://royaloak.patch.com/articles/brazilian-bombshell-delivers-the-mail-in-downtown-royal-oak

Jon Witz's take on the festival on Monday morning:  http://royaloak.patch.com/articles/arts-beats-eats-attendance-down-so-far-fest-will-stay-open-extra-hour-monday

And again:  http://www.freep.com/article/20110906/ENT05/109060339/Arts-Beats-Eats-14th-anniversary-popular-Labor-Day-fest

It was a strange show this year. I've been in this one every year except once since 1988. One year very early on I got skunked, but generally do okay, some years better than others and  always made expenses and then some. This year was the first time in about 20 years that I lost money doing this show.

First, the good things about the organization. The organizers were on top of it this year, being exceptionally helpful, and if someone needed help in setting up or tearing down, the guys in the golf carts were there to lend a hand. One young guy helped me out for about half an hour, taking down the booth and folding tarps and tops, and schlepping baxes and panels over to the roadside. This was the first time I can remeber when we got out of the grounds before dark, and in fact had time to spare before sunset.

The loadout process still sucks, altough this year didn't suck as badly. The grounds are crowded, the roads are small, and there are a hell of a lot of artists to get out. The time waiting to get in the grounds at tear down is easily 45 minutes to an hour, and I've always waited until the prints were packed way before my wife would go get the van, and I would continue to tear down the panels and booth. They don't let people in until the spaces free up. When someone abuses the loadout by getting their vehicle immediately, they tie up a loading out spot for over an hour while everyone else twiddles their thumbs and waits in the line. The smart ones have a wheeled dolly they load virtually everthing on and trundle it off the grounds to a parking lot across the entrance. That's okay if you're young and strong ;-)

The weather sucked, heavy overcast for much of the time, dank , cool, and humid for most of the day. It looked like rain but never did. The crowds never hit a crush as they have some years, although the volunteers said the crowd size was up this year. It didn't look like it to me from my end of the Green zone up next to the Lilly Mansion. I had some minor sales early, but it never turned into much. Part of it was my fault so I'm not laying the total blame on the economy or the show. I didn't see much 2D work being carried around, just a lot of small sacks.

So what did I do right? This is the only show where I get a double booth. It looked about as good as it ever has, nice open arrangement  with a gallery appearance, two sets of free-standing panels, a 38 inch and a 30 inch Pro-panels set at a right angle mirror imaging each other, and they were placed under the center pole of each tent.  Everything was easily visible and it was an open and airy looking set up, with small crowds wandering about inside at times.

What did I do wrong? Not enough time to get everything replaced that sold from the last show. I was up late matting and framing until the last minute, but apparently chose the wrong ones to get done. The old 20:80 adage applies here, and even within the 20% portion there is still a skewed distribution. I spent too much time trying to get a few more pieces framed during the show and not enough time talking to customers, IMO. I did get one piece framed, and it was an older image that hadn't moved for a while, and I placed in a newer more contemporary frame, and it sold within 15 minutes of being hung. There were a lot of questions of pricing, although most pieces were priced, and a few asking for discounting on multiple pieces (Like 2 pieces are enough to ask for a discount?). I'm not going toward Walmart pricing, and don't plan to. My prices are already low enough as it were, not the lowest out there and not the highest.

My feeling is that I need to do some serious weeding out of pieces that have sat for a while and not moved.  There are a couple of shoots I've done that are way overdue for selection and processing. It's time to retire and replace about half of what I have. My concerns are that the work is starting to get stale.

The next show is Funky Ferndale, and given the nature of that show from I'm reading, there's a set of pieces that I need to redo specifically for that show, and here's hoping the gamble pays off. Maentime, I've got 4 days to bust my butt getting work caught up and ready to roll. I'm bummed mightly by this years dismal performance at Penrod, but it's already behind me and all I can do is figure what I could have done better and just freakin' do it.

100 artist booths - $15,000 in monetary awards

Well for me it was.  I saw a lot of wonderful art from a lot of different artists.  

This show is a notch above the Glen show, most likely because there are more new artists than your usual Amdur show.

But I have to admit, it was too big.  This show is on two streets, a parking lot and a plaza.  I would have been perfectly content with the street with the parking lot.  The art in this area was so wonderful that I had found several things before I got to the other areas,   (and there was wonderful art throughout the show, I just had to "push myself away from the table" by the time we got to the other areas).

My partner in crime, my cousin, and I spent more at PC than any show so far this year but from what I heard, we may have been the exception.  The comments I heard were--"no energy", "not a buying crowd", "old demographic" (ouch to that one :-)  !!).  I know of several jewelers that had good shows but how good, I really can't say.  

There were more ceramic and glass artists than a usual Amdur show also and that was good for me, bad for my wallet.  The 3D was the among the best I have seen in years. 

Having the Taste of Highland Park at the same time guarantees that the food will be superior to your average festival.  And the Sabra Hummus people were generous in their samples along with bags of pita chips.  

Will this show rank in the top ten like last year's?  That is up to the artists but it was a high quality show and the patrons should have taken advantage of this top notch art.