ArtFest Naples Invitational Art Festival Reviews..

Show Name: Naples Invitational - Part 2
City and State: Naples, FL
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: 1st time
Attendance: (1 is poor, 5 is great) 3
Location: 5 (great)
Facilities: 5 (great)
Ease of Participating: 4
Sales: 3
Overall: 4
Booth Fee vs. Your Sales Ratio: Okay
Estimated Attendance: 501-10,000 people

Good Things about this Art Fair: The organizers, Taire Malloy and Jill Spanbauer, work very hard to put together this event, which is a fund raiser for the Eden Autism Foundation. The artist amenities are well thought out. The fair personnel are constantly on site, making sure all was going smoothly. The Fleishmann Park location is beautiful - a lovely park near a big shopping mall. The advertising was plentiful and there was lots of signage on main streets. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. This is the first time the show was held in March, in addition to the usual January dates. For a first time show, it was better organized and had better artists than most. Set up on Friday was a definite plus. Also, the organizers had discount hotel rooms blocked, which is most helpful in Naples during "the season". The Naples community certainly supports the arts and has folks who can afford it.

Bad Things about this Art Fair:
Turnout was a lot lighter than expected. Maybe it was because there was a big St. Patrick's Day parade on Saturday far away from the fair site. Maybe it was because there are so many shows in Naples and this was towards the tail end of the Naples art season. Maybe some people balked at the $5 donation at the entrance. Maybe it was because it was a first year show. There were about half the number of artists this time as there were in January. Usually, the booths are set up in a large circle, and each booth has equal access to the crowd. This time, there was only a semi-circle, so once patrons got to the end, they had to come back past the booths they had already passed, or walk around the empty sidewalk on the other side. We lost the interest of some people that way. This should be rectified next year when it is no longer a first year event, and more artists are present.

Advice to Other Artists Considering this Show: Because of the design of the park, it is mandatory that both load in and load out must be dollied. It's not very far, but it must done. Some spots are more shady than others, and the sun can be hot in March. You may want to bring a generator to run a fan. The Foundation asks for (but does not require) a piece of art to be donated for their silent auction. I had several folks tell me that they saw my piece at the auction tent and wanted to see more.

Posted by: Susan Cole | 04/17/2012 at 12:22 AM

Show Name: Naples Invitational Art Festival
City and State: Naples, Florida
Your Medium: 3D mixed media
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: 1st time
Attendance: (1 is poor, 5 is great) 3
Location: 5 (great)
Facilities: 5 (great)
Ease of Participating: 5 (great)
Sales: 3
Overall: 4
Booth Fee vs. Your Sales Ratio: Okay
Estimated Attendance: 501-10,000 people

Good Things about this Art Fair: The folks that run this event are super to deal with. Easy setup on Friday. On site artist parking and security in a park setting on grass.

Bad Things about this Art Fair:
Once again it seems Florida shows are suffering from lower attendance and sales. In this area there is an event pretty much every weekend.

Advice to Other Artists Considering this Show:
This was a first year for the March version of the show. The January version had better attendance and sales.

Posted by: Stephen Cebula | 02/13/2012 at 11:09 PM

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