Giles on sat 11 apr 98
Last week, in a fit of insanity, I agreed to take over from the
resigning chairman of the Craft Guild of Dallas' Fall Fair committee.
It is our major fund raiser for the year. I am doing many things that
are foreign to me--budgeting, setting the time frame for applications,
advertising, jurying, etc.
I was wondering. If you had a dream show, what would you want?
(besides guaranteed sales and attendance!) Here are some of the things
we have done for the artists in the past:
> 4 to 5 hour set up time on Friday afternoon (opening Gala Fri.
night)
> volunteers to help unloading
> dinner provided by us between set up and opening Fri. night
> volunteers to booth sit for meals and bathroom breaks
> free champagne and chocolates Fri. night
> lunch provided Sat. and Sun. and /or artists dinner Sat. night
> Some help loading Sun. afternoon
It is a small show, 50 to 70 booths, and relatively inexpensive, $125
to $250. I believe we have the best quality of work of any show in
our area. Our audience is relatively small, 2,000 to 3,000 in the
estimates I've seen. They do , however, spend money. I usually make
between $1000 and $1500, and my sales are in the mid-range. Some people
do two or three times that, and of course, some do less.
My challenge is to make the show more attractive to both artists and
audience.
I would appreciate any suggestions.
Kristen Giles
mgiles@onramp.net
Julia/Brian Moore on sun 12 apr 98
Anything you can do to increase the crowds, and hence the
possibility/probability of sales, you should do. This generally means
ADVERTISING. You can often get advertising for free by working with TV
or radio stations, or even magazines and newspapers, to be your "media
sponsors," but you can only have one of each type of media. (they may
want to play music on-site during the fair, so watch out who you ask)
Also, a lot of TV stations have noon news programs that welcome guests
from the community if they are promoting an event of interest to their
viewers: get on these programs and bring artwork from some of the
participating artists to show on the air. If you have a cable station,
sometimes they have a morning chat program that generally is hurting for
guests. A cool poster that attracts the eye and can be plastered all
over town gets attention as well. An added plus is to reserve posters
and T-shirts for the artists, giving them out free or at least selling
them at a good discount.
You seem to be very artist-centered, which is terrific, but in my
experience all the amenities in the world don't make up for high sales.
A corollary to this principle is that if sales are very high, artists
will forgive the lack of luxuries. A few basics are: access to
restrooms (either by providing good and plentiful booth sitters, or by
placing potties near where the artists are and reserving them just for
the artists), some free food (either morning bagels or donuts, a brunch
one of the days or a box lunch, or at least coupons for freebies from any
food vendors you have set up), easy setup next to the booth, ample close
parking, and if the day is warm lots and lots of free drinks (bottled
water is best, soda is good too).
Please do not hesitate to contact me off-list for other suggestions. I
must warn you, however, that our fair is in less than a month and I am
going nuts with that so personal correspondence must wait.
Julia Moore
Director of Exhibitions and Artist Services, and
Co-Chair, Broad Ripple Art Fair (May 9 and 10!)
Indianapolis Art Center
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Jennifer Boyer on sun 12 apr 98
I used to do a show that is similar to what you describe. It was a fund
raiser for an arts organization. Exhibitors were encouraged to donate a
piece to a fund raising auction which was on exhibit at the show. It was
the kind where each piece has a box, and you buy tickets and put them
in the boxes of the pieces you want to win. Donating exhibitors got a
free book of 10 tickets. I won several things over a period of years
and looked forward to it. Sounds like you have the right idea for
exhibitor perks: having meals served is great, and so is a party!
Good Luck,
Jennifer
Giles wrote:
> ----------------------------Original
> message----------------------------
> Last week, in a fit of insanity, I agreed to take over from the
> resigning chairman of the Craft Guild of Dallas' Fall Fair committee.
>
> It is our major fund raiser for the year. I am doing many things that
>
> are foreign to me--budgeting, setting the time frame for applications,
>
> advertising, jurying, etc.
>
> I was wondering. If you had a dream show, what would you want?
> (besides guaranteed sales and attendance!) Here are some of the
> things
> we have done for the artists in the past:
>
> > 4 to 5 hour set up time on Friday afternoon (opening Gala Fri.
> night)
> > volunteers to help unloading
> > dinner provided by us between set up and opening Fri. night
> > volunteers to booth sit for meals and bathroom breaks
> > free champagne and chocolates Fri. night
> > lunch provided Sat. and Sun. and /or artists dinner Sat. night
>
> > Some help loading Sun. afternoon
>
> It is a small show, 50 to 70 booths, and relatively inexpensive,
> $125
> to $250. I believe we have the best quality of work of any show in
> our area. Our audience is relatively small, 2,000 to 3,000 in the
>
> estimates I've seen. They do , however, spend money. I usually make
> between $1000 and $1500, and my sales are in the mid-range. Some
> people
> do two or three times that, and of course, some do less.
>
> My challenge is to make the show more attractive to both artists and
> audience.
> I would appreciate any suggestions.
>
> Kristen Giles
> mgiles@onramp.net
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Jennifer Boyer jboyer@plainfield.bypass.com
Thistle Hill Pottery
Powder Horn Glen Rd
Montpelier, VT 05602
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VandRKatz on sun 12 apr 98
I live in the Houston area & only do local shows, but I must say that your
show offers more than any show that I have participated in. ONE - said that
Boy Scouts would help load & unload ( they did help a bit setting up ). ONE
other sale was in the parking lot of a restaurant & the restaurant offered to
sell us lunch. I have paid up to $150 for a long weekend sale, so the fee is
not the issue. It sounds to me that you are doing a great deal for the
vendors.
However, I do think some shows offer to rent tables & chairs.
Good Luck,
Vicki Katz
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