Secrets of an Artist’s Business Manager, Volume 1
(A new, hopefully regular series, in which Meghan, aka “the missus”, will share with the world her vast wisdoms and insights into the Art of Making Money Selling Art.)
First things first, do some basic research on Google. I wanted to know what other fairs and events were happening in the area, so I started with the ones in town that I knew of and had been to. There’s no research that will compete with your own reconnaissance.
Once I’d picked through that admittedly small list, I found a website of a local vendor I’d seen at shows that Phil’s been to, and they happened to have a list of events where they would be showing their stuff. This strategy was a GOLD MINE. Once you’ve got a preliminary list of events in your area, use Google and add “calendar” or “schedule” to the event names. You’ll probably find a few more local vendors to keep an eye on, and you should get a pretty good bank of shows to check out. The other advantage to this strategy is that the vendors attending an event can clue you in to what the audience for the event is. If you’re looking at a pottery vendor who attends a lot of juried events with strict applications, and you sew aprons from thrift store t-shirts, maybe those aren’t the shows for you. Sure, you could get in to the show, but if the vacationers at a beach town don’t get your gritty urban sense of humor, then why spend the money to get there?
While I was looking for more vendors using that Google pattern, I found a few great websites that have art fair schedules. These are FANTASTIC sites.
1. http://www.indiecraftshows.com – There’s a blog too, with lots of good tips and tricks to follow and learn from. Heck, I just linked over there, and spent ten minutes reading articles. It’s always got great stuff, I tell ya!
2. http://www.artfaircalendar.com – This contains a lot more of the larger and juried shows.
3. http://www.virginia.org/site/content.asp?MGrp=3&MCat=11 – The third site I was really happy with was the Virginia tourism site, and especially the event calendar function. I tried North Carolina’s tourism site, but didn’t find it as easy to use. (I didn’t try super hard either.) Definitely try your state and those within driving distance. You might be surprised!
Other calendar-type sites I’ve found, but have had less luck with (but hey! they might be perfect for you!):
* http://www.craftsfairguide.com/events1.htm – West Coast only
* http://www.craftsfaironline.com/ – Self-proclaimed “oldest craft directory on the web” (based on the design, who am I to argue?)
* http://www.fairsandfestivals.net/
* http://artfairsourcebook.com/
* http://craftershock.com/indiecraftfairguide/ – I just found this one tonight, and I will definitely return to it after I’m done writing this blog post.
Which leads me to one last thing (still with me?)… keep checking things out. Go back to step one and repeat, until your calendar is as full as you want it to be of the shows that are perfect for you. I can tell you that the okay-ish shows I found the first time around aren’t always the ones we ended up applying to.
I could keep going, but this post is plenty long enough. Coming up in Volume 2: how to organize all the info you’ve found while you’re doing your research.
Happy Researching!