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ArtWalk on the Bay

• The venue is a grassy 4.3 acre park adjacent to the luxurious (and brand new) Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel. The flat and accessible park offers ease of load-in and out. ArtWalk on the Bay provides high quality 10' by 10' tents that are also 10' high.
  
• Access to more than 40,000 annual attendees
  
• A page on the ArtWalk on the Bay web site that will remain up until summer, 2011. Check out www.artwalkonthebay.org/
• Tenting opportunity provided by show management
• An opportunity to be included in the festival's very dynamic publicity outrreach (print, broadcast, online)
• Listing in Event Brochure/Map
• Booth sitters offered to participants

Artists who participate in ArtWalk on the Bay find that they sell artwork long after the event as a result of the comprehensive web page dedicated to each artist that can be updated by you as
frequently as you wish...you can upload new artwork images, change your artist statement, etc. This living gallery is a unique feature to this event, and one that many artists have stated "is worth the price of the registration fee."

ArtWalk on the bay does not charge an up-front jury fee. We typically receive approximately 500 applications, and we accept approximately 150 artists.

The festival is a celebration of arts and culture throughout the region. KidsWalk features interactive art activities for kids, and showcases the art education program founded by our organization: ArtReach, which takes professional artists into elementary schools to address the lack of programming for our region's budding young artists.

To learn more:www.artreachsandiego.org

Musical performances also take place throughout the weekend, featuring everything from gospel to classical music. The festival is embraced by San Diego's Mayor, the Port of San Diego and numerous corporate sponsors, as a world class celebration of culture in the region.

Visit the website to learn more: www.artwalksandiego.org

To apply, go to: http://www.artwalkonthebay.org/register.htm

Anyone know of any dog rescue groups looking for vendors for their fundraising gala in northern Illinois or southern Wisconsin. I have been a vendor with two different greyhound rescue groups, looking for more.

Thank you in advance.

Does anyone have any insight into this show?

The show is held on Washington Street, downtown Grand Haven. This is an awesome port town on Lake Michigan about 30 miles west of Grand Rapids.

The show is put on by Howard Alan. Show fee $350, $25 app. fee. Set up is at 5am Sat morning. The town revamped there streetscape which made some manuvering a little tricky, glad I started setting up at 4am(don't ask). There were banners above Washington street at both ends, yard signs pointing the way to the show and posters in many storefronts. People knew you were going to be there. Promoter provided Panera Bread bagels each morning, no other perks were provided..water, boothsitters etc. Which is fine with me, I can take care of those things myself. I would much rather see money spent on advertising.

The show was set up in two sections. Fine art down main street, around 80 artists. Crafters were on a cross street, around 20. The town had a block for sponser booths, kids activity, etc.

Saturdays weather started out with a little rain, by 10am it was blue sky and beautiful. Got up into the upper 80's. There were tons of people, but the buying energy just was not there. Plenty of interest,just could not get them to pull the trigger.

Early Sunday saw two thunderstorms come in. Lots of rain. Arrived at show to see around a dozen EZ-ups collapsed on the towns section. A couple of EZ-Ups in the art section were also damaged. I believe the rain filled the tops with so much water they couldn't take it, I don't think it was the wind. Sundays energy was about the same.

A bronze sculpture next to me sold his lowest price pieces for the weekend, he did around $1000. Was his worst show so far this year. A photographer friend of mine was happy with his sales, he has a double booth. I do not ask people what they make, if they share it with me fine. A fiber artist did $3000. A painter next to me did abstract fish. It was her second show ever and she did well. She sold her largest painting for $1100 plus a couple of smaller pieces. Was great fun watching her have success!! Me, I did $1800 and was happy to end up with that. This was my 3rd year here, previous shows were in the upper 3k. By the way, I make stone lamps and vases.

I sleep in my trailer so do not know what hotel costs are, I do know they are not cheap from the past shows. I pack my own food so no restaraunt reports. Sorry Nels, was to tired to go out for a drink to give you a report.

I will do show again, was just one of those years. Helayne with Howard Alan did a great job, was always around to put out fires.

Kevin

Traveling the show circuit you soon become aware that some shows are managed extremely well. Francisco's Farm Arts Festival is one of those shows. The show takes place on the grassy grounds of Midway College in Midway, KY, a very nice setting. This is one of those community shows, run by volunteers, where the entire community embraces it... there are other gems like this: Medina, OH; Williamsburg, VA; or Belleville, IL come to mind. Many of these shows hover under the radar of the big rating sites so word about them is passed on like folklore from artist to artist.

It was the 7th year for the show. Local sponsorship by area businesses was solid, which kept the cost down for artists (booth fee is $150). I was impressed with this show... knowing all the thought and planning that had gone into making the experience positive and hopefully enterprising for the artists. Seldom do you meet a group of volunteers who are as friendly and hospitable. There
must have been 50 volunteers working this show and each knew their role and worked hard to make the show as pleasant as they could for the artists and patrons who visited. There was a sense of pride on the part of the volunteers from Marcie Christensen (show director) on down ... it was their show.

So where is Midway, KY? Well, it's in the middle, midway between Lexington, KY (20 min.) and Louisville, KY (60 min.)...pretty country but it's out there. Because of its location, the show has the challenge of developing a marketing strategy and reputation that can draw folks from outlying
towns and cities. Surprisingly, most of the folks who visited my booth were from outlying areas and yes, several came from as far Louisville and Cincinnati.

About 150 artists attended and many like myself had returned; it was my 2nd year. The quality of the art was solid and mediums were balanced. I would say, most of the artists I met were local, an hour or two away but the show's web site indicates that artist came from 14 different states. I had traveled some distance to get to the show and my neighbor (fabric artist) came up from North Carolina, about 8 hours away. My other neighbor was local. There is a fun group of artists from the Lexington and Louisville area who participate in this show. It's a treat to be around artists that are so positive.

So how were the sales? The weather was hot...I mean, real hot (90 -95degrees!) A good number of the booths were out in the direct sun and I'm sure sales were affected. This made for slow sales, especially on Sunday. However, most of the southern artists seems to take the heat in stride and have created elaborate cooling systems in their booths... multiple fans that run off a marine battery. By the end of the weekend, I had battery envy.

The artists around me seemed pleased with sales and finished in the 2 to 3K range. For me, my expensive items, in the 300 to 600 range, sold again and again. I had a good strong show and finished in the 3 to 5K range (up from last year). Though money was spent by patrons, folks were cautious about their spending. I'll get a better sense on how other artists did, later. This is one of the few shows that I've participated in that aggressively collects financial data and comments from artists and then generates a report a few months later back to the artists showing the sale ranges for different mediums.

Amenities: You could stay in college housing for $45 per night and many artists enjoyed convenience of on the grounds housing and free breakfast..a big breakfast but you're staying in a dorm. Sorry Nels, this is an alcohol free campus... but there are some good places in town. You can get Sam Adams on tap at Duggans and it went down real smooth after a hot set up on Friday. Dinner was provided to all artists on setup day, catered by a local restaurant. On Saturday, artists were encouraged to head into town and enjoy the local cuisine... a smart strategy for bringing business to local establishments. Six other artist and myself enjoyed a fantastic meal at Bistro La Bella (a little pricey but YUM). The show had music, GOOD music, a nice mix and not too loud.

Things that need changing: Layout was confusing. It was modified this year because of construction on campus. You had to pay attention to make it to every nook and cranny and a few booths somehow got lopped off the main flow of the show to an outlying area... those artists did not do well. I suspect that next year the construction will be over and the flow of the show will return to its previous flow.

Attendance could be better. It was light, especially in the afternoon and went down to a trickle by 4PM each day. That said, my largest sales came at the closing bell on each day.

From my perspective, this is a show to pay attention to. Would I do the show again? Hell yes! It is well organized, has community backing, and an increasing and faithful following.

If you were there, tell us how things went from your perspective?

Cheers!

Hello vodka, it's me, Patti and I will be visiting you after the art show every night that I am doing this show!!The events manager is called Special Events Management, and they are far from special...We can't blame the weather, because it was near perfect- the perfect storm never really appeared..the quality of the art was far from stellar, but not bad.What bothered Bob( my husband) and I most was that one of the awards was given to an artist who was not present...and they could care less.When we heard that the award for Best in Functional Art went to a particular artist(name to be held for fear of something happening to us)Bob went to the office and asked how they felt about awarding an artist who was 600 miles away...they said, oh he was here, we handed him the award this morning at the awards breakfast- Bob stated"no, that wasn't him,that was a worker doing the show- I know the wood artist who does inlaid work"She asked "how do I know if it is the artist at check in?" duhhhhhh! Check an ID, is that rocket science? That was the way it went, and down hill from there.With our coaxing- ten times- the committee finally approached the worker -stand-in-guy, who was busted.

The crowds came to the show, most of them did not buy...what a shame...a beautiful area, beautiful homes to fill- no buying power.Scratch this one off my list!!!

What happens when you gamble big can be a huge loss that makes you want to cry, as was the case for me. I had my worst sales in 5 years at an art festival. I am not going to bash Bill Kinney as I did see some positive things. I did see a fair amount of advertising (saw signs, saw full page ads in several newspapers, and even a tourist TV station ad.) Also I talked to people who heard about it on the radio. There was plenty of parking for patrons and parking for artists was only about 400 yards away. Setup and tear down went fairly smoothly with prior day setup available. Also pizza during setup was appreciated.

The weather was okay overall. Saturday was beautiful; Sunday was very humid in the morning and then threatened rain in the late afternoon. The show was officially closed an hour early to allow us to pack up before the storm hit. It was a good call, as there really weren't many people there at the time anyhow.


Despite the apparent advertising just not many people turned out, I'd estimate about 4,000 to 8,000 people with most attending on Saturday. Maybe the low turnout had to due with the fact not enough people live in the area. I thought this show was going to bring people from New York City and Philadelphia but I don't think that happened. Maybe that was a pipe dream. Atmosphere of show was rather dull; it was just in a big field near an elementary school. No art festival program either was provided. The quality of art was varied from quality high end work to questionable. There were way too many photographers and jewelers, making up about 40% of the 140 artists at the show! There was not enough space provided for storage. Most spaces were exactly 10’x12’ with the 12 feet being on the side (not the back). There was plenty of room on the field, why not lay it out to give artists more room? Of course the worst aspect of the show was sales. I did only $250. Of fellow photographers I had talked with their numbers were 0, $200 and $800. Some photographers might have done better, but this was just a sampling from three that gave me their numbers. I talked to a few painters with sales of 0, $1800 and $3200. I talked to one sculpture artist that did about $3000. Of the dozen other artists I talked to but didn't give numbers about half did "horrible" and the other half did "okay".

Why the low turnout? I think part of the problem may be not enough people live in the area.
Long Beach Island only has a population of 3,500 people and the mainland across the bridge of Stafford Township only has 22,500 people. They need to draw people from places further out and don't think it did.

Would I do this show again? No. Would I give any of Bill Kinney's other shows a try? Perhaps I would but not likely. I think he is aiming his shows in locations and markets that might not work for me. I generally need to do shows with more people attending and with people that can visualize my whimsical work on their walls in their homes. This show provided neither for me. I am not sure I can put my finger on what sells best here, but those that sell well in Boca Raton, Florida might have a chance here. As for me it was one of my gambles gone horribly bad. I’m over crying about it now and will soon be back at the craps table. We all gamble when we do shows, some gambles are bigger than others. Some pay out; some take all your money. All we can do is make our best judgments, based on the information we have available and throw the dice. May the dice be kind to us all.

What a weekend! Because I was doing this show on my own, I decided to set up the tent and walls on Friday night. We NEVER leave inventory in the tent over night, NEVER! Am I glad we have that policy. The weather predicted rain over night and rain on Saturday morning. So I figured it was better to have the tent up and waiting for me on Saturday morning, when I arrived. Nothing worse than setting a tent up in the rain.

Everything was fine on Friday night. The tent was up, the walls were good, I put an extra tarp over the entire tent for good measure. I brought extra weights (totally 175 lb). About midnight the rain started. It rained hard, but apparently my tent did just fine, as nothing in the tent was wet. Then at about 2:30 am (according to the airport) there was a 50 MPH gust of wind. Based on the location of my tent around other building, it was just too much and down went my tent.

When I arrived at 6:00 am, my tent and walls were twisted every-which-way. The tent is broken in 6 different spots. The mess walls (from Flourish) did survive.

One other neighbor had their tent damaged too, but were able to save it. In all, 28 tents were damaged over Friday night. Most were able to repair and remain in the show. The show tried to find extra tents, but only found 2 tents. So, after an hour or so of being in shock and with all the support of my artists-neighbors, I decided to stay, with out a tent. The woman on one side of me offered her outside wall, an other offered their huge umbrella, someone else handed me a tarp. The 7 artists-neighbors around me were incredible. I would not have stayed, if they had not helped.

At the end of the show, I ended up with decent sales ... I can only image how strong my sales would have been, if I had a full set up. I was only able to put out about 25% of my regular setup.

This is a very good show. The people from Spring Green are very supportive of the artists. Many people come from Madison, WI as well.

This has long been one of my favorite festivals. This year, not so much. The exceptional work just wasn't there. There were many fine artists there but nothing breathtaking as there has been in the past.

The really good news---last year you couldn't get near the stone duck booth. This year, it was empty. I never saw any patrons in it. I also never saw anyone carrying any stone birds of any type. (I was at the festival both Saturday and Sunday)

The not so good news---a new yard art booth that seems to be franchised like the stone birds. I was suckered completely because the items are made of what looks like recycled material and what they sell is actually a lot of fun. The prices are exceptionally attractive. I am not trying to start another debate but since they were at both shows I went to this weekend, and they knew each other, I am wondering if the product isn't produced through kits of some kind like the stone birds. They were busy the whole time I was there.

I didn't see a lot of packages being carried either day although one large sculpture was gone on Sunday when I went to look at it again.

There were a lot of new artists there. This is pretty typical of this festival. Unfortuneately, a lot of the new ones weren't as good as in previous years.

I am confident that this is just a blip and not a trend for one of my top 5 festivals.

(the many dogs were not only well behaved but they were of exceptional quality)

November 11-14 & November 18-21
Apply Today!
150 spaces
Application Deadline - July 2

1. Located in a new highly desirable location on 34th Street at 5th Avenue across from the Empire State Building and a block from Herald Square- 7W New York gives shoppers access to some of New York's best restaurants, hotels, entertainment, with convenient access to public transportation.
   
2. With only 150 spots available each weekend, this show is sure to be the best of the best!
3. Our extensive booth package is like no other show. We provide gallery like space that includes hard walls painted white walls, carpet, free drayage, booth signage and extensive marketing.
4. Unique Exhibiting Options:
   We invite juried artists to exhibit with us for 4 days
   Option 1: November 11-14
   Option 2: November 18-21
   We invite juried artists to exhibit with us for 8 days
   Option 3: BOTH weekends!
5. We work hard to promote you, the artist. Our promotion begins the minute you contract with the inclusion of your images and contact information in our online artist locator, which links to your website and lists your contact information. We provide complimentary show passes, full color brochures and VIP passes for your individual distribution! Exhibiting artists will be featured in an extensive online campaign and through our aggressive PR efforts.

2009 Artists Talk Shop:

Or, apply right now: www.zapplication.org

Does anyone know of large art shows where you can take a well-behaved small dog?

Do you know of any larger festivals that have tent-camping nearby?