Should I Stay Or Should I Go-Oh, The Summer Art Fair 2009

by cooper on 3/18/2009 6:39:09 AMComment on this

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio. Yesterday's inbox gave me a friendly email from a fellow artist, inquiring about a summer art fair I exhibited at in 2008, wanting to know if it was a 'good one'. I always appreciate when someone shares their art fair knowledge with me, and have already responded to her email.

However. It left me pondering the concept of the venue, and here we are again this morning. Several others who regularly post blogs at FASO have mentioned staying home from shows this summer, or at least cutting back on the number attended. What about you? Are you an art fair 'regular'? Will you be again this summer? Were you just thinking about doing your first art fair this summer? Do you have your 'art fair top ten?

I have exhibited at summer art fairs since 1992, between eight and twelve events each year. I guess that means I've seen a few, but definitely not all. My range is limited to the midwest, no further east than Michigan, west than Colorado. Am I especially curious about how this summer's art fairs willl play out? Absolutely. Times they are a changin'.

I firmly believe that we have too many summer art fairs. There are some great old standards, but there are a massive flock of newbies that I think need to be eliminated. When was the last time you went to a planning/fund raising meeting for some organization, where someone piped up with "we could sponsor an art fair, you know with the white tents and everything"? I've been to two such in the past six months. And let's put that in the proper context: I live in Spencer, Iowa, population 11,000. What could the count in Chiacagoland possibly be?

So how about a top ten list for "should I stay or should I go-oh?

1. Has it been a good show for you in the past? That's a tough one if you've never exhibited at a summer art fair before. See number 6!
2. How does the staff view advertising? We are talking beyond the local paper here. Does the show have their patron email list ready to send, and hopefully it numbers more than 500, preferably add 2 zeroes?
3. Is their a slew of sideline events, carnival rides, 10k runs, antique car show? Yeah, that list could go on and on. Too many sideline events are just too much unnecessary distraction. The purpose of a good art show is good art. Period.
4. How far do you have to travel? Too many artists say "it only cost me a tank and a half of gas to get here". No, and no. Charge yourself mileage just like your accountant will do :) (thanks, honey)
5. Does the 'jury' line of the application say something like "or until full" (!!!) Read: "we haven't been able to get as many artists as we want, but we'll keep trying"
6. Is this a good year to exhibit at an art fair for the first time? You might want to read a copy of the WallStreetJournal before you answer that. And it could be a trick question--who knows?
7. Who is promoting the event, and what is their purpose? Are they there to create interaction between artists and community, and while most will say they are, is their bottom line really prefixed with a $ sign?
8. Did they jump their jury fee to $40 this year? And if yes, why?
9. Does the show maintain a website, and does that website keep info from the previous year's artists for patron referral?
10. And from the website mentioned in #9, does it look like artwork that you want to spend a weekend next to? Or is it just another crowd trying to make a buck, selling whatever? (ooh, that was a nasty one!)

And so go the thoughts of an artfairartist early in the season. Am I exhibiting at any shows this summer? At this moment, I have exactly one on the calendar. I'll keep you informed. But this post needs some color. My worst event of the summer 2008 has actually resulted in several paintings, ironic, that, eh? Here's the current look, not quite done version of Saturday Morning, Nothing Much To Do.

And do inquiring minds want to know what that 'worst event' was? Ha! This is a scene from in front of the Unicorn Cafe, location: downtown Evanston, Illinois.

Later, Cooper