Art Event Failures - The Artist Perspective

Planting Seeds is the name of the artwork on the easel.

I recently was involved with an art event. As an artist, when I am invited to come and it is free to me I have a tendency to be suspect as to the mindset of the organizers. As a business person who has both owned a brick and mortar art business and as an organizer of art events myself I know there are two distinct and different mindsets to these events and as an artist one needs to understand how and event will pan out in advance before entering or accepting an invitation to an event. In this case I should have trusted my gut feeling and thanked them effusively for the invitation but not calendar myself in as an occupier of a booth. I’m not sure why I didn’t but I will not return next year even though I have been asked to come again.

At the onset of the invitation I was delighted to have been on their radar, for that told me that I was definitely visible even way over in their small town, but the day I showed for the event I realized their intent was not ultimately going to be the type of event I come to for selling my art.

Little was expressed to me as to the goals of the event initially but the event was presented clearly as a fine art event and not a fine art mixed crafter event. Unfortunately, those lofty expressions weren’t exactly the truth. There were lots of crafts and clothing and jewelry. It was also presented as a community event and not an edgy shock art event either. I have been a part of those types of events myself and since I’m not a prude I can see a place for that type of art, I was not shocked at seeing the art but I was shocked at a couple of the entrants not being vetted for a community event that included small children. There is a line where age is a factor in the grand scheme of an event and one artist should not be subjected to the fall out of outraged parents and confused and abused teens carry the response into the next booth and that artists offerings are barely noticed because of the situation.

I was invited more than four months before the event so I watched closely for advertising, formal paperwork which should be normal in these cases as well as some sort of outline/timeline for setup, tear down, placement and all the things an artist expects to see when they show up for an event. The event map/booth assignment and event layout came almost at the last minute. Not enough time to get over to the event grounds to check out the layout.
When we showed up for set up we found that a whole row of tents were placed outside the core of the event and access to the main core was sketchy at best. Naturally we found ourselves in that group. If it weren’t for my faithful buyers coming, we would have been devoid of foot traffic. The first night there were 10 people who walked through. When we queried about the advertising, we found they had only used social media, depending on the artists to bring their own buyers.

How did I deduce this?

One, they admitted the following day that the whole event was put upon one person’s shoulders and he did not use the newspapers, the local businesses for flyers, or even any form of standard advertising, any traffic that came through only came through because of the Farmers Market. Two, another one of the board members for the Famers Market said to me, we want to enhance the traffic for the Farmers Market, we are not interested in having a huge art event take away from the Market. The purpose of the event was and will always be to enhance the Farmers Market. It was also said to me that historically they have been unable to get people to come out for the 5:00pm to 8:00pm hours the first day of the event so the glorious talk up I received in the beginning was merely bait.

Did I have a successful event? Yes and no. I always have sales, but all of my traffic was produced by my own means, it was twenty four hours for my regulars to make their decision to buy and I was back home to follow up on the sales. I could have done the same sitting in a nice comfortable chair at home and not had to drive the 65 miles each way for two days. My patrons could have come to my house for a viewing and had a much better time, and some wine as well. The event had no wine and beer garden, it was not intended to cater to the art buying crowd. Also, my customers buy right off the internet because they trust me to provide a quality piece of art for a good price and fair shipping.

What are the two types of events?

One is an annual thriving market for artists to successfully sell their art which is what artists needs most.
The second is an event that only satisfies the needs of the organizers for their goals that are not intended to help or enhance the local artist market. These should be advertised to the artist in a manner that allows them to decide if they are worth the effort for the sake of being looked at by people who are not interested in buying art. This type of event is just eye candy for the organizers. It does satisfy certain types of artists.

As to the shock art, really the point was what? Let’s offend as many people as possible who might be interested in art and turn them away from coming the following year just in case they are forced to endure it once again? There is a very small viewership that appreciates this type of art and it should be presented in a forum where the artist is lauded instead of labeled disgusting. The artist is trying to make a point, it is hers to make, although I’m not sure why used tampons made into ceramic sculptures or framed pubic hair, or a really bad drawing of a vulva has much to offer in the way of creativity unless the point is proactively narcissism for the sake of public self-flagellation, is her soulful need and she is confusing it with creativity. The artist in the next booth who had to deal with the fallout was extremely irritated.

In general, it will not be and event that artists can depend on for new buyers, or dependable sales, it is simply an event designed in the minds of the organizers to provide an extra viewing distraction for the people buying fresh groceries for their table. Wonderful, but be honest with the artists and let them decide if the viewers are worth the effort of coming. It is a lot of work to enter an event and artists expect at the very least to gain interested contacts for future events and one on one sales.