Taubman Museum of Art Sidewalk Art Show Reviews,

I am curious about this show... I am a potter. Do either of you happen to know how many potters there were at this show and do you think potters would do well?

Thanks!

Kate

Posted by: Kathryn R Learn | 04/06/2018 at 09:00 AM

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: 35-3000
Number of Years You have Exhibited in this Show: 1st time
Number of Years You have been doing Art Fairs overall: 5-10 years
Attendance: (1 is poor, 5 is great) 3
Location: 3
Facilities: 3
Ease of Participating: 3
Sales: 2
Overall: 3
Booth Fee vs. Your Sales Ratio: Poor
Estimated Attendance: 501-10,000 people

Good Things about this Art Fair:
Great small town with good restaurants and nice people. Easy set up and take down, nice breakfast on Saturday morning.

Bad Things about this Art Fair:
Small, well organized show but very conservative buying crowd. Some buy and sell and a wide range in quality of exhibitors.

Advice to Other Artists Considering this Show:
If you are a landscape oil painter, a watercolorist, or a glass artist - you will do well, the artist next to me topped 4000. but if your work is contemporary rethink this one.

Posted by: Marge Luttrell | 07/04/2015 at 09:03 PM

Show Name: Taubman Museum of Art Sidewalk Art Sale
City and State: Roanoke, Virginia
Your Medium: Painting
Year you most recently exhibited at this Show: 2013
Your Estimated Sales at this Show: < $500
Number of Years You have Exhibited in this Show: 1st time
Attendance: (1 is poor, 5 is great) 4
Location: 5 (great)
Facilities: 5 (great)
Ease of Participating: 4
Sales: 1 (poor)
Overall: 4
Booth Fee vs. Your Sales Ratio: Poor
Estimated Attendance: 501-10,000 people

Good Things about this Art Fair: This was our first time at this show and our second show overall. Roanoke is about a 4 1/2 hour drive from our home in Oliver Springs, Tennessee. Based on my limited experience this appears to be a great downtown location for an art show. The proximity to the Taubman Museum of Art and the large downtown hotel with the pedestrian bridge, restaurants and other merchants including some of the Roanoke tourist destinations combine to produce a natural site for an art show.  The show promoters did a good job getting the word out with online and print media coverage. The Roanoke community is rightfully proud of their town and their art show. 
The volunteers and Taubman staff treated us very well. Parking was readily available and free. I appreciated the sense of humor and attentiveness of one of the volunteers whose name I don’t recall. I waited too long to do this, I think I can find her name on the Taubman website. Roanoke is a great downtown area to have a show and the Taubman Museum is impressive. The expense to do this show is very reasonable. The surrounding countryside is beautiful. The staff and volunteers were professional and helpful. Loading and unloading was relatively easy. Our booth was well shaded by trees and very comfortable on the first day when it became pretty hot in the sun.  

Bad Things about this Art Fair: We had the next to last site on a street between a few tall buildings that served as sort of a wind tunnel. The winds were from the rain storm could have been damaging had the weather been much worse. One artist said he had lost his tent a few years back in that same location. Fortunately our booth was well weighted and we were able to withstand the winds with minimal problems.   A good thing for the Roanoke artists but not such a great thing for us is that the patrons are rightfully loyal to their Roanoke and Virginia artists. A few patrons to our booth complained because Sherry did not have any paintings of places from around Roanoke. She explained that this was her first visit to the area. We had scouted places for Sherry to do some plein air painting and took lots of pictures the day before the show started. I want to point out that this was only two or three people, most of the patrons were polite and appreciative of Sherry’s wo rk. One patron told Sherry her work was “a feast for the eyes”. Two of the painting awards went to artists from New Hampshire and Maine, but I do not think their sales were very good.

Advice to Other Artists Considering this Show: Even though we live from an area that is relatively close to Roanoke (another Southern state-Tennessee). There were some differences in the nature of the patrons. It seemed that many of the patrons were really not comfortable engaging in conversation with us. The patrons at the Fernandina Beach show, and later in the Oak Ridge, Tennessee show were much more talkative and questioning. This was a bit confusing for two people who “have never met a stranger”. We learned pretty quick that a smile and maybe a hello were as far as many patrons wanted to go in the way of personal interaction with Sherry, or I when I was minding the booth. It is not that some of these people were unfriendly or rude, they just appeared to be more reserved than what we are accustomed to. As we move around to different parts of the country and gain more experience we will become better at reading people and what type of personal engagement is acceptable.

Additional Commentary on this Show (or about this form):
Sherry is the artist. I am just the Sherpa Spouse and Computer Geek for our new venture.

Posted by: John Smith | 07/13/2013 at 12:24 PM

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