WestHampton Festival of the Arts Reviews'

Medium: Painting
Year you most recently exhibited at this Show:
2015
Your Estimated Sales at this Show: $501-$2000
Price Range of your Work: 65-2500
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) 2
Location: 2
Facilities: 1
Ease of Participating: 3
Sales: 1
Overall: 1
Booth Fee vs. Your Sales Ratio: Poor
Estimated Attendance: 501-10,000 people

Good Things about this Art Fair:
Easy load in and out. High quality artists. Nice location.

Bad Things about this Art Fair:
Poorly attended. Conservative crowds. Barely any contact with show organizers.

Very "no frills" for artists (no extra touches like a coffee in the morning or anything, not that this is mandatory, but considering the booth price and how dismal the sales were it would have been a nice touch).

Then they sent out a rather self-congratulatory email after the show to tell us all that "average sales" were between $3-5k per artist.... My sales were closer to 1800, which is not stellar for me and not great for a show with such a high booth fee and pricey location for travelers!

My sense from talking to the other artists was that none of them were happy with sales with few exceptions. The fellow across from me made $0 which makes me wonder who made $100k to make the average so great in their little pamphlet afterwards!

The crowd was into very conservative art, my best sales were still life pieces, the best selling works I saw (judging on what attendees were carrying around) were gallery wrapped photos of seascapes,and blown glass pumpkins.

I know my work is a bit "weird" and doesn't fit in some shows, but I felt that the self-reported sales averages and show attendance were pretty inflated. Sales were what I would expect from a show with a $200/booth fee, not a $500+ fee!

Advice to Other Artists Considering this Show:
Meh. If you have a cheap place to stay nearby and you make seascapes or very traditional interior designy type art that goes well in a vacation cottage this might be for you.

If you make anything remotely edgy or conceptually challenging this is not your scene.

Go to the beach while you're there, it was the best part.

What prompted you to submit a review today?
This was one of a couple "bad" shows that really bugged me because of the high price tag attached.

There are no guarantees in this business, but some shows just seem scammy when they oversell how great they are and then overcharge for a mediocre event!

Posted by: Felix Eddy | 04/24/2016 at 11:23 PM

this was a good show overall. educated customers who are willing to pay for quality items.some artists said sales were slow, but i was pleased as a first timer to this show.
load in and break down was relatively easy and artist parking was very close.it is a pretty big fair and it was managed very well.
i was very impressed with paragon and with bill kinney.
would definitely do again.

Posted by: debrah block krol | 11/12/2013 at 01:56 AM

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.