[Jewelry making - Article 00213] - Re: [Orchid] Decline of Arts Festivals

[Stephen Walker]

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>     A couple of points: what are those options that you refer to? 

    In my own case, beginning in the early 1990s I started advertising
    in magazines for direct retail sales. It worked very well for me
    then, but the Internet has replaced that as the way people find
    things for mail-order. I also opened my studio as a full time retail
    store ten years ago. Our local studio tour has also become a viable,
    but small alternative to traveling to shows and it has done a lot to
    promote my local market. My son just opened a second store for our
    jewelry in Rochester, NY. I am actually doing the Park Avenue Arts
    Festival this weekend to help him promote his store, which is right
    off Park Ave. 

>     And are the broad comments concerning shows an extrapolation from
>     your personal experience? If not, on what do you base your
>     comments? 

    These are my personal observations. 

>     There's another possibility to account for the decline of sales at
>     shows: some exhibitors keep repeating themselves and those who do
>     will eventually wear out their audience. 

    I think you are absolutely right about wearing out the audience.
    There is another thing I have observed; that I call "jury inflation"
    A show has a reputation for good sales, so more artists apply to it.
    Since the better ones who are juried in tend to be more expensive,
    the lower priced work that has a broader market appeal shrinks. In
    this way the show becomes top heavy on price as the jury eliminates
    the more modestly priced work. Now you have a better show as far as
    the jury is concerned, but the audience cannot support it, so sales
    go down. 

Stephen Walker
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