art fairs
Susan Campanini
I will do a post to rec.crafts.beads after this weekend's Broadripple Art
Fair and share my experiences (hopefully good ones!).
As far as advice, I am not that experienced myself. One thing we figured
out, though, was that it was worthwhile to ATTEND a fair one year before
deciding to enter it the next year--that way you can see the set-up, what
kinds of stuff was accepted, and have some idea about the consumer audience,
so to speak. This would be just as useful for nonjuried shows, I think.
Also, I have sometimes phoned the person responsible for the fair or show
and asked them what some of the other artists' work is like who have been
going to the show for a while--does it tend more toward craft than art? Are
there other jeweler's? What price range does most of the jewelry sell for at
their show? Do they have a lot of country crafts (for my beaded work, this
is usually a sign of an audience with different tastes than mine)? How many
people attend the show most years? How long has the show been put on? All
of this information helps you to evaluate what your chances might be.
With all that said and done, it's always a risk. Even for a great show
with a huge audience of just the kind of folks who will love your stuff, it
can pour rain! Part of the strategy, I guess, is to be fairly mellow about
it, go to enough shows that a few bombs will be evened out by some good ones,
don't go to so many that you're sick of it, don't make your family budget
dependent on doing well at any show . . .
One last note--if you do decide to enter juried shows, get some good
slides, made either yourself or by a professional photographer, of your BEST
work and enough copies so that you can enter several shows--sometimes they
take a while to send them back. Some juried shows have a "jurying fee" which
is money you don't get back if you're not accepted, but some are free. I
usually don't apply for shows that have a really big booth fee for the space
itself unless I know the show from past years, but the jurying fee is usually
not so large, so it's worth the risk on a good show.
Hope this helps,
Susan
gwen baker
the Ohio Arts Council put out alittle publicataion that lists fairs and
festivals all over the state of Ohio. The Arts and Crafts Guild also put
out a publication the critiques the shows, similar to the Sunshine
Arts(artist?) only this is Ohio specific. I would imagine that other
states have this info.
I have tried several shows that on paper look like they would have a good
traffic flow of buyers, which would lead to greater possibility of sales.
Several problems we have ended up having include, fair goers not realizing
that artisans were there, that there were various locations for the
artists, and people coming in and getting space oin a supposed juried show
the day of the show-with no prejurying. sound like a craftt show not a
juried show if you understand my diferences. That fiasco ended up costing
us more than we made-I even had people trying to dicker on price.
We are now looking in the litle book and marking potential shows and
scoping them out. Sctually this is one of the suggestions that the craft
council, and sunshine arts also makes. Check them out one year and then
decide, The one thing that you must consider is that the shows change over
the years and what goes this year may not even make it into next years
show.
Another problem that may be encountered in established show,is that the
individuals who have been there year after year get the choice spots and
first year vendors could end up in an area that no one even goes to. I set
up at a juried show and this also happened to me. When I went to get a
drink I was totally amazed at the number of people, the street was wall to
wall-the area i was saw maybe 1 out of 20 that came to the festival.
--
Gwen Baker
bake...@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu