Plantation Junior Women's Club Art in the Park Reviews.

Medium: Mixed
Year you most recently exhibited at this Show:
2015
Your Estimated Sales at this Show: $500
Price Range of your Work: $35.00 to $1200.00
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) 1
Location: 2
Facilities: 2
Ease of Participating: 1
Sales: 1
Overall: 1
Booth Fee vs. Your Sales Ratio: Poor
Estimated Attendance: 501-10,000 people

Good Things about this Art Fair:
Nothing

Bad Things about this Art Fair:
To begin, in my humble opinion, the name of the show was confusing enough. Many of my regular customers tried to Google the event, but Google could not find it! Others, tried to locate it on the internet based on the name “Art In The Park,” – which was a bigger mistake. They could not find it.

The show, while pitched as “Art In The Park” was really, “The Plantation Junior Woman's [sic] Club 49th Annual Art In The Park.

The Joy Of Art.” Which brings me to the next problem: it is a craft show – mistakenly, or deliberately, misleading artists/vendors to believe it is an Art Show. As we all know, they are totally different venues.

However, upon arrival, unloading wares, booths, tables, etc. for set up – is an absolute nightmare. Vendors park in the street and hand truck or dolly their booths, display materials, and their products through the winding pathways of paverstones from Hell throughout the park.

Admittedly, the park's walkways are beautiful – viewed from the customer's point of view – but not for the artists setting up and tearing down.

To be fair, we were advised to bring a dolly, cart, or wagon, but being accustomed to the usual art shows' sometimes tedious routine of drop off and pick up directly next to my booth, I was far from prepared for what it would take to get my wares to my assigned spot.

While the street parking was excellent, and a mere 40 foot stone's throw away from my booth, it took a herculean effort, and at least 3 times longer, to bring my art and paraphernalia to my numbered spot as I had to meander my way around on those damned beautiful, rolling, winding pathways.

As one might expect, if one were familiar with the park, hand trucks are not allowed on the grass.

See my blog on ArtFairInsiders.com for additional commentary on this Show *

While Mother Nature is beyond anyone's control, the weather on Saturday was so rainy that it did not add any luster to the disillusionment. On Sunday, while slightly overcast, the weather was fairly cool, breezy, and comfortable; almost picture perfect for an outside show. Unfortunately, there were very few customers. Comments were consistent from the artists and patrons alike with whom I spoke. The patrons familiar with the show in past years stated that they love to buy CRAFTY stuff at this show, and it was unfortunate that this year's show had so few vendors. In my sampling of fellow vendors, of those that were veterans of this show, the overall opinion was that it was the slowest crowd they had seen in years. For the artists, this show was akin to attempting to sell new cars at a yard sale. While the condition of the economy could well be a contributing factor to the less than stellar attendance, it would definitely have helped if more than the park's surrounding neighborhood could locate information on it. Hell, if I had found more information on it, and understood that it really was a craft show, I would not have booked a double booth! Shame on me; I took a chance and it was a swing and a miss.

On another note, the 'judging' was far from any other art shows' standards. While awarding the ribbons to those chosen in their categories, it was touted that these ribboned vendors were of course, the, and I quote, “habitual winners” – year after year. While some of the artists' works were beautiful, and may well have received the awards deservedly, the flavor of the show was once again borne out as being very clique-like and stale. To return to the actually judging, I have to say that I never even saw a judge, never spoke with one, and I was not the only neophyte in this show who never did find out who performed the actual judging. I found this very interesting, as my art usually begs for people to at least ask how it is made...at the very least, my art pieces are conversation starters!

If you plan to participate in this show, in my opinion, you should not...but if you do, you should not expect or prepare for anything more than participation in a craft show. Bring a sturdy wagon on which to load the mandatory booth, a box of your lower priced works, a folding table, chair, and an umbrella. Save the heavy, expensive, display structure packing and carrying time, as well as the wear and tear on your pricier artworks. It is a craft show folks, albeit an expensive one at $200 plus the $25 application fee – it would have been a good deal for a real art show, but expensive for what it was.

Posted by: Kevin Doyle | 11/25/2015 at 11:06 PM

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