Art Show Artist – Equipment And Choosing A Show

By Penny Logan

If, after reading the last article, you have now decided to step out and start earning a living from your art at shows, it’s now time for you to figure out what equipment you will need and actually apply to a show or two.

In order to get into an art show, you will need to not only have photographs of your artwork, but also photographs of your booth and display. So you have to have the booth and display in order to have a photo before you can apply (set it up in your yard or garage and take some pictures). You don’t have to buy costly equipment to start, but you need some basics – a tent, and a way to display the artwork.

Most art shows are outdoors, although there are a few indoor ones at convention centers or somewhere like that. You have to figure out how to display your art in a manner that won’t blow away in the wind – sturdy tables for jewelry, a screen to hang 2D artwork or shelves and pedestals for sculpture or pottery. By now you will have been to an art show or two and hopefully figured out what you want to use by looking at other booths. And you need a tent – a white EZ Up 10′x10′ from Sam’s Wholesale will work just fine to start with. The best equipment would be a tent designed for art shows and Pro Panels (carpet covered panels for hanging artwork), but at $2,000 and up for such stuff, it’s usually too costly at the beginning. Do some shows and determine that this is really what you want to do before spending a lot of money on it.

Hopefully, after reading the first article, you got busy creating enough artwork to fill the display tent. And got plenty of ideas from your strolls down rows of tents at the local show and from talking to other artists.

Next – applying to a show or two. Every show has a different application and different requirements, so you just have to read all the rules to learn how to apply. Www.zapplication.com online is a very easy way to enter shows and they have some good shows, but it costs more than smaller local art shows that require paper applications via the post office. You have a good chance to be accepted at a smaller show – they might receive 100 applications to fill 80 spaces whereas zapplication shows can receive 1500 applications to fill 200 spaces. Local shows usually have lower fees, too. Often I enjoy the smaller shows and wind up making more profit, because lower fees, less travel expenses and the same or bigger crowds makes the local show the best choice. You can expect to pay $80 – $400 for most shows booth fees, and up to $800 for some on zapplication.

A jury fee is supposedly what you pay to have a “jury” of judges look at your work and decide if it should be accepted at the show or not. Basically it is a way for a show to make more money. It is always non-refundable.

Doing shows in far away places sounds nice, but that isn’t always your most profitable choice. I travel a lot, but only when I can go to a location like Florida in January and do 3 or 4 shows in a row. Otherwise your expenses will eat up all the profit.

Find shows online at zapplication or www.festival.net or by looking in art show magazines, Sunshine Artist or Where It’s At. Brochures from different cities and towns often list festivals and shows, as do websites for cities and shows. Ask other artists to find some shows that would be good to start.

You cannot tell by the name of a show what it will be like, so you have to ask other artists or ask the promoter – who sometimes will not tell you the truth, but sometimes will. For example, I would not think that Gruene Market Days out in the country north of San Antonio would be any kind of art show at all. It’s monthly – the third weekend of every month. From the name, I would think they sell tomatoes and strawberries. However, it turns out to be a great little art show – the promoter only lets good quality work in, and the public knows this and they come to shop for arts and crafts. There are no tomatoes.

Some festivals have everything – music and arts and crafts, lots of food, a petting zoo and carnival rides. Old Pecan Street Festival in Austin and Gulf Shores Shrimp Festival in Gulf Shores, Alabama are two such shows. Both have long hours and are hard to do. And Pecan Street has an expensive booth fee – $425. But I still do it because it is in my back yard. I was going to do a show in Louisiana on the same dates as Old Pecan Street Festival – the booth fee was only $250 – but when I added up how much I would spend on gas, and campground fees for my travel trailer or hotel room, it turned out to be more expensive than just doing Old Pecan Street Festival locally. You have to take all these things into consideration when choosing a show.

As I mentioned you have to read every application and all the rules to figure out how to apply to a show, even on zapplication. Some shows require originals only, no prints, for example. Some shows let you apply online at the show’s website, even though they are not on zapplication. Some only have paper applications, but will mail you one if you email them. Just follow directions. They are all different.

Since you will have to send in applications months in advance of the show, then wait more months to find out if you have been accepted or not, you need a plan. And a calendar. Don’t quit your current way of earning income until you’ve already done some shows and decided this is what you want to do. Do not decide you have to be in one particular show – sometimes you get accepted and sometimes not – it’s unpredictable whim. There isn’t anything you can change about this process and you will get rejects, so put on your big girl panties and deal with it. You can succeed in spite of this process by applying to more shows. The best solution I ever heard was to take rejection letters, put them in a blender with some water, and make some interesting homemade paper to use for price tags.

You never know why you got rejected if you get a reject, and nobody will tell you. That’s kind of suppressive, but just let it go. You don’t have to get used to it – you just have to determine to win with your art no matter what someone else’s opinion is. And that’s all it is – just opinion. Sometimes it’s even less than that – reasons for rejecting artists from art shows often do not have to do with how good your art is. It can be that there were too many applications for your category or that they had to let the sponsor’s sister in. You never know. Don’t feel rejected.

Perfect photographs are the only way I know to improve your chances of being accepted in shows that actually have juries and base their acceptance on artwork. But even then if they have 100 applications for jewelry and 20 for sculpture, the sculpture will get in and only 20 of the jewelers may get in.

As an aside to illustrate my point, I’ll tell you a story. A lot of fine art shows offer cash prizes – best of show, and first – third prizes in different art categories. I gave up trying to win a prize because the judges just go by their own opinions. If people pay me money for my artwork, that is good enough validation for me. But the first time I ever won a first place prize was at a show where I least expected it – and I had already decided there were two artists at that show who were better than me, and deserved the prize. They got nothing. Well, that was my opinion, and I thank the judges for their opinion, since it was me they chose. But if you don’t win a prize or don’t get accepted into a show, it doesn’t mean your artwork isn’t good enough. Really!! Just carry on. Decide you will flourish and prosper as an artist, and you will win.

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