Best of the Northwest Fall Art and Fine Craft Show Reviews.

Medium: 2D mixed media
Year you most recently exhibited at this Show: 2015
Your Estimated Sales at this Show: $501-$2000
Price Range of your Work: 15-500
Number of Years You have Exhibited in this Show: 1st time
Number of Years You have been doing Art Fairs overall: Forever...
Attendance: (1 is poor, 5 is great) 2
Location: 4
Facilities: 5
Ease of Participating: 5
Sales: 2
Overall: 4
Booth Fee vs. Your Sales Ratio: Okay
Estimated Attendance: 501-10,000 people

Good Things about this Art Fair:
This was my first show in the Pacific Northwest having moved here from Chicago - land of many shows!! So, in the next year I will be trying out all kinds of shows and will try to report on each one.

This show is held in 2 parts. Oct and Nov. (this review is for Oct only).

Door fee to enter is $8, and I believe most of that money goes to Seattle Children's Hospital.
Good balance of all kinds of art. Not too many of any one thing.

Fun "extras": 2 local artists were creating giant 8' x 8' art on site, another local art school had models posing for customers to sit and draw. Two food trucks with delicious selections each day. Wonderful and helpful volunteers. Free artist dinner Sat night.

All the artists I met were amazingly friendly and helpful to me as a newbie in this area.

Bad Things about this Art Fair:
Sadly this year one of the main bridges to this location was closed for the weekend. Local artists felt that greatly suppressed attendance.

Also, when we pulled up to the location it was clear that people would have to know about the show to attend. (The NW Art Alliance does do a lot of outreach so I don't think it's an issue, just my first timer observation.

The show is held in an old naval hanger in a huge city park. There is no way besides one or two banners on the main street that anyone would know an art fair was going on.

So my only gripe is low attendance but not their fault!! I would def do this show again.

Advice to Other Artists Considering this Show: Worth doing. Covered my expenses, met some very nice customers and artists.

Electricity is free. Bring a lot of lights! I was woefully under-lit. Bring a dolly, load in and out isn't difficult or far but I forgot a dolly and was sad.

The URL of your profile on ArtFairInsiders.com. [email protected]

What prompted you to submit a review today? low amount of WA reviews

Posted by: Sherry Scharschmidt | 10/29/2015 at 09:59 PM

Now that this show has moved back to the much loved Magnusen park location I am expecting a great turnout and good sales. The hangar is not big enough to show 200 artists so the board of directors made a brilliant decision! There will be two shows with different artists at each one.. One in October and one in November!

Posted by: Jana Cooper | 09/02/2013 at 10:28 AM

Show Name: Fall Best of the NW
City and State: Seattle, WA
Your Medium: Jewelry
Year you most recently exhibited at this Show: 2012
Your Estimated Sales at this Show: $501-$2000
Number of Years You have Exhibited in this Show: 3-5 times
Attendance: (1 is poor, 5 is great) 1 (poor)
Location: 1 (poor)
Facilities: 2
Ease of Participating: 2
Sales: 1 (poor)
Overall: 1 (poor)
Booth Fee vs. Your Sales Ratio: Poor
Estimated Attendance: 501-10,000 people

Good Things about this Art Fair: Good organization, nice volunteers

Bad Things about this Art Fair: Venue is a location that does not attract patrons. Difficult load in / load out, hard to find location.

Advice to Other Artists Considering this Show: Not worth traveling a long distance to participate in.

Additional Commentary on this Show: We thought this show had bottomed out and was on the way back up but 2012 was a miserable experience.

Posted by: Ruth Finkenbiner | 11/23/2012 at 11:10 AM

Show Name: Fall Best of the Northwest
City and State: Seattle, WA
Your Medium: Jewelry
Year you most recently exhibited at this Show: 2011
Your Estimated Sales at this Show: $2001-$5000
Number of Years You have Exhibited in this Show: 3-5 times
Attendance: (1 is poor, 5 is great) 3
Location: 2
Facilities: 4
Ease of Participating: 3
Sales: 4
Overall: 3
Booth Fee vs. Your Sales Ratio: Okay
Estimated Attendance: 501-10,000 people

Good Things about this Art Fair: * Marketing has greatly improved, the facility, once you are there is great, 270 very good artists, high quality show.

Bad Things about this Art Fair: Difficult location due to Homeland Security requirements, too much jewelry

Advice to Other Artists Considering this Show: It's a good show if you are local, not sure I would drive very far unless you had friends/family to stay with, expenses can be very high in downtown Seattle if you are paying for a hotel.

Additional Commentary on this Show (or about this form): NW Art Alliance is continuing to improve and rebound from the difficulties of 2007-2009, the new Director is doing a great job of marketing and promoting the show and weeding out the buy/sell that had crept in.

For more of my commentary on this show please click on my name below to visit my blog on ArtFairInsiders.com.

Posted by: Ruth Finkenbiner | 11/28/2011 at 11:29 PM

Show Name: Best of the NW Fall 2011
City and State: Seattle, WA
Your Medium: Jewelry
Year you most recently exhibited at this Show: 2011
Your Estimated Sales at this Show: $501-$2000
Number of Years You have Exhibited in this Show: 3-5 times
Attendance: (1 is poor, 5 is great) 1 (poor)
Location: 1 (poor)
Facilities: 1 (poor)
Ease of Participating: 1 (poor)
Sales: 1 (poor)
Overall: 1 (poor)
Booth Fee vs. Your Sales Ratio: Poor
Estimated Attendance: 501-10,000 people

Good Things about this Art Fair: Upstairs was beautiful and warm. Most artist were very high quality artist.

Bad Things about this Art Fair: Venue location is terrible. Increased booth fee. Increased entry fee for customers $8. Parking fee $5 plus customers have to ride a shuttle. Attendance very low. Sells very low. 57 jewelers plus others selling jewelry.

Advice to Other Artists Considering this Show: If you can find another show or just do without adding this one to your schedule do so! Until they move the venue, reduce the number of jewelers and other booths allowed to sell jewelry even though they did not jury into the jewelry category, I would suggest not applying to this show. If you are local the expenses are still high, but no travel and hotel to add to the expenses list, so it might be worth it for you to try it out for your self.

Additional Commentary on this Show (or about this form): I have had success at this show in the past and I love the smaller Spring show they put on every year. I felt for the out of town artists who had huge expense getting to this show and the buyers weren't there for them. There were amazing artist from the Portland area who won't be back. The fees for this show are more than the Bellevue Museum show if you calculate the fees and the hours the show is open. I really want this show to be a good one since I end my year with it, but I'm not sure if I can keep coming back with little return.

Posted by: Robbie Curnow | 11/27/2011 at 10:49 PM

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

Posted by: |

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Your comment could not be posted. Error type:

Your comment has been saved. Comments are moderated and will not appear until approved by the author. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.