Well, I survived my first outdoor art fair. As it turned out, I probably overstressed about it in terms of the magnitude of the fair and having enough merchandise. Truthfully, the fair was a bit of a let-down, which I’ll get into more detail later, but more importantly, there were lessons learned from the whole affair:
Lesson #1: Don’t expect to make much (if any) money. Most artists know not to expect to make much money from art fairs. In fact, you’re lucky if you break even, especially given how much freaking money you invest to do the show in the first place. It’s even more expensive if you’re doing an art fair for the very first time like I did because you’re investing in tents, tables, tablestands, signage, prints, framing/matting, registrations fees and lots of other stuff you wouldn’t even think of until you actually have at leat one fair tucked under your belt.
Basically, art fairs are for making face-to-face connections with your audience, networking with other artists,getting feedback from others and taking advantage of the opportunity to explain your artwork to interested people. In fact, one of the exhibiting artists that day said that he just likes doing the art fairs for fun. So, if you’re in it for the money, it will take a while before you get to that profit margin.
Lesson #2: Make sure to have a variety of works. I think this is an area for improvement for me. I decided to exclusively show my inkblots but I stuck mostly to six blot designs that I liked the most. When people thumbed through my prints, I think they wanted more variation. On the plus side, I did offer different sizes of prints, some of them having mats while others didn’t, which enabled me to also have a nice range of prices.
Lesson #3: Have something to do while you’re there. Fairs usually run all day and inevitably there will be some dead time. Luckily, I had my sister to talk to and I brought some jazz music to play with my portable iPod player. If I didn’t have those things, I probably would’ve gotten pretty antsy. Bringing a book or an iPad or helps pass the time but I’ve heard that people really dig it when you’re sitting there sketching or working on something.
Lessons #4: The wind is not your friend. Too bad this wasn’t a kite-flying contest that I was participating in because the wind showed its ass and wrecked havoc on several vendors pieces. Every now and then, you would hear the sound of breaking pottery, glass and/or pictures frames. Even one of my sister’s framed prints was not spared and my prints suddenly became suicidal as they frequently sailed from the tabletop to the ground. The more experienced exhibitors brought a tent flap to put int he back of their tents to protect their wares from the wind gusts.
Lesson #5: Know your venue and audience: This was the first time my sister and I had exhibited at Ahlara and it was the first time both of us had been in Mooresville, so neither one of us were quite sure what to expect. As it turned out, Mooresville is a small town and the crowd that came out, as well as most of the vendors, seemed more of the arts and crafts type. Because of that, it would’ve been more accurate to call it the Ahlara Arts & Crafts Fair instead. Those that bought things (and there were few that actually purchased anything from any of the artists) seemed more into buying jewelry or home accessories like pottery. While I did get some intrigued viewers and nice feedback, I got the feeling that my inkblots were too “out there” for a lot of people. In fact, quite a few people joked that they were afraid that I was using them to “psychoanalyze” them. One lady told me that she would have bought one but joked that she was afraid her husband would think she was trying to get inside his head. Another scoffed that they could easily do the same thing (boy, I wish I had some paper and ink handy so I have the prove their “skills” right there).The latter two comments almost makes me want to write a separate post about the dumb things that you overhear when working at an art fair.
#6 Port-a-potties suck: I think that pretty much goes without saying but do be careful of how much you drink during the day. You’ll thank me later.
So, all in all, the fair was a tremendous learning experience. I’m not sure if and when I’ll do another fair because I’m still doing my cost-benefit analysis. I do think it’s up to each artist to decide if it’s worth it to them and if it’s really the best way to get exposure for their art. While they can be a lot of fun, they’re also a lot of work and may not be the best way to go for everyone. Right now, I’m just glad that I had a chance to do it but I’m glad that now I can just concentrate on creating more art and regaining my normal routine.
