Thinking about participating in an art fair?

        It's an early night for me tonight as I lay in bed rest for some sleep. I want to make sure I'm really rested to wake up tomorrow and be fully ready for my day ahead, so today might be a shorter blog since I'm feeling the sandman already trying to wisk me away. 

         I have an opportunity at the end of next month to participate in an outdoor art fair that is very DIY friendly, in fact it's encouraged. I have never been apart of an art fair and am apprehensive and motivated at the same time.      

     Being apart of an art fair can be very rewarding if you have a great booth with great products in a great location; so long as it doesn't rain out or have poor attendance. I have always felt that the type of art I produce would sell really well at a fair.

           Any artist thinking about doing a fair needs to take in account that you have to take off work all weekend. So you want to try and make at least as much as you would at your normal job to make it worth it. Also there is normally a booth fee to just be there as an artist and sell work. So if you think your inventory of work can sell more than the time you might take off and to pay off your booth fee then you are off to a great start!

 

Another thing to think about is the networking opportunities that an art fair provides. So maybe you don't make quite enough to break even for the weekend like you thought. The contacts you made with the other artists or people walking in the fair,  might pay off triple that in the long run! That alone makes a strong agreement to why it's always a great idea to do an art fair if possible. 

            I have been to many art fairs and some I've had some money in my pocket I was willing to spend and other times I have had little to nothing,  but I've always seemed to walk away with at least one item. When setting up inventory for an art fair I think it is extremely important to make sure you have a wide variety of different priced items. If you bring all large and high priced pieces you may bomb because the people walking around only have $20 in their pocket and they want to spend it but can take on your pieces because you only brought your best and most expensive work. So think variety in size and price.

         My current inventory is a decent size and when I get home after this week if I decide to go in on  this fair I will really start turning out some work to make sure I have a sizable stock. Anyone have some pointers they can give me that I haven't already covered? Is anyone thinking about doing their first art fair too but don't know where to start?

                                        Until tomorrow - Dream Away 
                                                 Samantha Menzo 
                                               Cloud Nine Studios