Is It All About the Venue?

Lindly Haunani recently sent me a story.

Watch this video.



Did you notice the protective bubble that seems to exist around the violinist. Even the few who finally stop to listen, keep a "safe" distance away.

The violinist, Joshua Bell. A world class musician. The violin, was worth $3.5 million. He played six beautiful and complex Bach pieces over 45 minutes. Six people stopped and listened for any length of time. About twenty people gave him money, but kept walking.

Just two days earlier, he played a sold out show in Boston. The tickets cost an average of $100. You can image that the audience paid full attention to every piece played.

Same musician. Same instrument. Different setting. And an entirely different response.

It certainly made me think about the many shows I have done when people have walked absent-mindedly through a show. Chatting on the phone, or with a friend. Half looking at the work. At these very shows, there are artists showing work that is worthy of being in a museum....or who have work in a museum.

I have yet to see someone walking through a museum, chatting on their cell phone, and munching on popcorn. Why does one setting invoke respect and focus, and another half-hearted attention? I do not expect people at a craft show,...even a high caliber show....to be looking at the artists and their work with reverence. But, if you do come to see beauty, then why not see the beauty?

It also made me think about how the context in which we sell our work, creates a perception of value. If you sell your work on a bare table in a school gymnasium, don't expect people to value your creative genius. If you put mediocre pictures of your work on your website, don't expect to have anyone see what you see in the work. Sell your work at price that is too low to reflect the work that went into it, and people will look to see what is wrong with the work, to solve the apparent contradiction. Put thought and effort into the design of a piece, and neglect similar attention to the finishing, and don't be surprised that the design is not fully appreciated.

Attention. Attention to where and how is essential to success. Neglect that attention, and you will have an even harder challenge to get your audience to pay attention, appreciate...and buy...your work.

What Can You Do After A Bad Show?

Throw in the towel? Decide you were crazy to even think this could work?

Those are possibilities, but maybe not the best ones.

First, sit down with a pad of paper. Divide it into two columns. In one column, write down everything that went wrong. Everything you wished you could have a do over on. Everything that you felt 'in over your head' about. For instance, you did not cover your costs. The weather was horrible. You had work stolen. You heard people whispering about how high your prices were to their friend as they walked out of your booth. You were sick as a dog, and you had no choice but to do the show anyway. You forgot half your work, and your were hours from home. Your neighbor kept coming into your booth and complaining about everything. Your booth was in the worst spot in the world.

In the other column, write down everything that was positive about the show. The people who bought your work were in love with it. The weather was gorgeous. Your neighbor at the show was a gem. You made a connection for a possible new outlet for your work, or two other shows that might be a good fit for your work. You found out about a great display at a reasonable cost. Someone gave you a great idea for a new product to try and work on.

These are just a few of some of the good and bad things that have happened to me at shows....and a few fictional ones for kicks! No matter how bad a show has been, I have always walked away with a bit more knowledge or insight. Some of the insight came from what went wrong, and some was gained from a positive experience.

Without looking at the experience, good and bad, we are leaving the outcome of future shows to chance. The more we understand why something is working for us, or what needs to change, the more we can move towards the success we want.

If a show is bad, it is easy to blame the weather, the price of gas, or the promoter. But at every bad show I have had, other artists have done well. Actually, there was one show....I guess you could call it the exception that proves the rule, where no one did well. Many different things can contribute to bad sales at a show. A recent survey by the NAIA (National Association of Independent Artists) is a real Buyer's Beware wake up call for artists about trusting the reputation of a show before investigating further for yourself. Artists who had participated in the Coconut Grove show in Florida were surveyed and it was fascinating to see the effects of charging a gate fee, or inviting other "attractions" to a show can have on the artists' sales. The group also has a survey of the Artists' Landscape on the website, and it is a bleak one. Artists are aging and retiring. Collectors are no-shows at shows. They too are aging, and less interested in acquiring more "stuff".

Are we back to throwing in the towel? That might seem pretty attractive after reading either or both of these surveys.

I think rather than throw in the towel, it is important to look at your approach from the ground up, and start thinking about what is working, and what is not. Thus the list.

Look around at how people are buying luxury goods these days. After all, craft is a luxury good, isn't it? If the way you, your friends and associates, your neighbors, you or your spouses co-workers are indulging themselves, is at the mall, or on the internet, is it any wonder that sales are down at a craft show? If people are spending $25 in gas, $30 in admission fees, and another $15 to $20 on food at a show, is it any wonder that many in the middle class are feeling too pinched to spend another $50, or $250 to purchase a hand-crafted treasure? Is it any wonder that they might feel as if just looking is what is in their budget?

And yet, some people are selling. Some people are succeeding.

It is time for a critical eye on every aspect of what we do. Is our display the best it can be? Is our work priced right? Is this the right show for our work? Have we done anything new lately? Is there another, perhaps better, way to reach your customer? What have you done to add value to your work? This could be through building your reputation in your media, to packaging, to advertising, to adding context or story to your work.

Sitting in the corner of your booth, engrossed in a Sudoko puzzle is not the path to success. Go to a show as a customer. Walk the show and observe. Which booths draw you in? Why? Which artists make you want to buy from them? Why? Which booths do you walk right past without barely a glance? Why? Visit shops and galleries that carry handcrafted work and notice the same thing. What makes you enjoy the experience? Which work draws you in, and why? Is there any work that makes you say...if only they would do, "x", then that piece would be amazing! Now, think about your own work, your booth, your selling style. Where can you improve? What can you do differently? No matter how long you have been in business this type of exercise can be helpful to shake you out of your routine. It can help you see what else is drawing the eyeballs and dollars of your potential customers.

What if you do all that, and you still feel stuck? Then it might be time for outside help, paid consultant or artist friend. If your blindspots seem to be unmoveable, it might be worth the investment. But doing the work on your own first, will make any time spent with a consultant more effective. They will better be able to get a grasp on where you are struggling. The more efficiently you can help them get there with you, the faster they may help you find some solutions. And we all know, time is money.

The same old, same old, is not going to work.

What will you do differently at your next show? Or will you do shows anymore? Maybe your answer will be to find an entirely different route to reach your customers. We can't just wait out the bad economy. We have to work smarter. Things are changing, and what worked ten, twenty years ago, may not work for anyone anymore. It may be time to forge a new path.

Shining a Light on Things

If you plan to do shows, retail or wholesale, lighting is something that you will have to figure out. It was the also one of the parts of doing shows that scared the heck out of me. Electricity has this affect on me. Watts, volts, amps....my head starts spinning. This big dark cloud settles in and I find ten other reasons why I don't want to go there.

But, I did want to go there. I wanted to do shows, specifically juried shows, so I was going to have to figure it out. After several years of doing shows, I think I have finally reached a degree of comfort with this area that had previously seemed elusive. So, let me share what I have learned, and maybe help alleviate any anxieties you may have had around this area, and maybe shorten your learning curve.

Let's start with why. Why do you need lights? Because you want your work to be seen in the best light possible (Pun fully intended!). Without lighting, your work can be almost invisible. I was next to an artist at a small show this past December who had part of her work hung up on panels, with lights illuminating the panels. The rest of the work was sitting out on a table. The ambient light in the room was limited at best. As a result, the work on the table was hard to see. The color, the detail, were all lost in the dim light. It had to have had an affect on her sales. The only work that people were looking at was the work on the panels. It was terrific that she was selling some of this work, but what potential sales did she miss by having half of her work in the dark?

How much light do you need? Let's talk about the 10 ft by 10 ft booth, standard at most juried shows. Some shows will include electricity with your booth fee. Often this is about 300 to 500 watts. It is not enough. Trust me. I have tried to use that much in the past. It is not enough. 1000 watts is a better level of lighting. Most track light fixtures are 50 watts. So this means 20 fixtures. Yes, twenty.

I have finally accepted that this is what I need to do. I have done shows with 300 to 500 watts, and have been perpetually frustrated by my inability to adequately light the work. Some of the work is well lit, and other pieces are sitting in shadow. Not the presentation that I want. If you have dark walls, you definitely will need lots of light. Black walls are popular for colorful work, because it makes the work seem to "Pop!" But it also absorbs a lot of the light in the booth.

What kind of light? Ideally you want to use halogen lights. They have a full spectrum quality. You want the colors of your work to be as true to what they would appear in natural light as possible.

What kinds of fixtures? Track lights are the most common kinds of light used in a craft booth. They give you lots of flexibility as far as placement, and direction. But they have potential pitfalls as well. It is important to be sure that lights are not pointing at your customers faces, blinding them, or that they are not hung too low so that tall visitors to your booth risk scalp burns. Many fire codes also require that the track be at least eight feet off the ground.

On a recent webcast that was available to ACRE show participants, Bruce Baker touched on this topic. One of the booths he showed caught my eye. It had several crossbars in the booth space. One across the front, and then one from front to back, and another from side to side. Lights were arrayed along these central crossbars aimed at the work in the booth. Baker recommends that lights be placed above where the visitors to your booth will stand. If the lights are hung on the front crossbar, pointing into the booth space, as soon as the customers walk into your booth, they will block the path of the light onto your work. And as they turn around to leave the booth, they get a blast of bright light in their eyes. Not a good parting experience.

There are other options of course. Some jewelry cases come with lights. Under shelf lights are great for work that is displayed on nearly any type of shelving. But even with these types of lights, you will want to have some overhead light.

So, where do you begin? There are companies that specialize in tradeshow lighting. Look through Crafts Report, and you will see plenty of advertisements. Or go to the local Home Depot or Lowe's. You will find track, lights, cords, and all the components you need to install your lights.

In my next post I will show you what some of those components look like and how you can hang them, for those of you who are like I was a few years ago....in the dark!