Art Festivals
Tips on Applying for an Art Festival When Starting Your Art Business
1. Make sure the festival that you are applying for goes with the art that you are selling. You may not want to apply for an art show that states “arts and crafts” when you are selling high quality pottery because you may have a booth next to a hand made puppet maker.
2. Read all photo submission requirements for each festival. Make sure the photos that you submit when applying for shows are good quality photos. Photos should not have other objects behind the artwork. Use a good quality camera. Images should be saved jpeg.
3. Meet deadlines; the earlier the better! I plan the art shows I want to apply for a year in advance so that when the time comes I can apply when the festivals post their application.
4. Find out how many people typically attend the festival you are applying for to get an idea if this is worth you time. Take into consideration that attendance to various art festivals varies due to location, in change the economy, and the weather. The weather part is something that just comes with the profession.
10 Things You Must Have When Selling Your Art at an Art Festival
1. Business Cards- How can someone call you back if they don’t have your number? How can someone look at similar works if they don’t know your website address? You should always have business cards for your art business, period.
2. Mailing List- You would not believe how you can make money from the people who have already bought from you. Customers always need a gift for a loved one or another painting to hang in their new home. Your mailing list should be visible at your booth, you can use a notepad or a clipboard. Even if it’s just ten dollars, you should get the mailing address and email address from everyone that has purchased something from you.
3. Price Tags- You should not have people asking how much something is every time someone comes in your booth. Have price tags on all work. You do not want prospects assuming the price of a work.
4. Artwork and Tent- This is obvious but you would not believe how many times I have forgotten a painting simply because I was rushing to be at an art show. Prepare artwork and tent ahead of time. Days in advance if necessary.
5. Hooks and Crannies- Make sure you have all your hooks to hang your artwork, all your sandbags to hold down your tent and all your presentation material to make your tent look inviting. Missing a few things can throw you off balance when you are trying to be effective at selling your artwork.
6. Presentation- When you look good you feel good. How would you feel if you went into an unclean or junkie store? Exactly! So please keep work hung neatly. Keep your table with your bio and business cards organized, clean, and neat. The more inviting your booth looks the better your chance of someone stopping by.
7. Credit Card Machine and Receipts- When I first started selling art I missed out on hundreds of sales because I was not able to take credit cards. If you don’t take credit cards at the moment please sign up as soon as you can. Propay or Paypal is a good starting point. You could be missing out on hundreds or maybe even thousands of dollars because you can’t take credit card payments.
8. Packaging- What if it happens to rain on the last day of the art festival? Do you have anything to package your art? Well you should. Artwork can tear or get broken easily if you are not careful. Try to keep plastic, bubble wrap, or newspaper on hand at all times to help protect the art .
9. Bio- This probably should have been in the top three but these are not in order. People like to read about you and how you create your artwork. The more interesting your bio sounds the more interesting you are to the customer. I think it’s best to create it as a story. People love to here about triumphs.
10. Positive Attitude- Without this you will fail! I have had plenty of shows where I thought I was going to sell a certain amount but didn’t. The positive side is that though I did not make as much of a sale as I would have liked, there has been numerous times where I have gotten phone calls weeks later or months later and someone who attended that show purchased something from me. I’ve even had galleries call and invite me to their gallery because they saw me at the same show where I didn’t do as well as I thought. That just showed me that what I didn’t make at the show I made up somewhere else and that’s cool.
All in all, none of the items listed are more important than another, but you do need to have all of them to have a successful art show. Selling art can be hard work but if done right and with a positive outlook you can easily see a sale increase.
If you like what you have just read please feel free to make comments. I would love to hear your thoughts.
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