 |
|
|
|
|
|
From Passion to Survival
why we do art shows |
| I’ve always thought that there are two types of people
who do art shows, and probably many that fall in between. Most are those
that are creative and can take advantage of the concept of art shows by
using that creativity to earn a living and support a family. And there are
people that can’t deal with the real work world and don’t get along well
with others. Its relative easy to tell which type
that is when you’re set up next to someone you either get along or don’t
get along with. |
| I became interested in
photography in the early 1970’s and found that I had an innate
understanding and love of the medium. I carried a camera everywhere and
took pictures every day. It became an obsession. I spent a few weeks one
summer on Monhegan Island (Maine) and ran into a woman who was selling her etchings. She had them
spread out on a bench in front of the restaurant
where most of the people ate. Intrigued by the concept of selling artwork,
the following summer I brought a few boxes of my own matted
photographs and the sales paid for my summer vacation. That same woman
told me about a few shows in New York City that she had been exhibiting
at. I made some calls and got the applications and I once I did my first
show I was hooked. |
| Back then everything was low
tech. There were no professional looking displays, everything was hand
made. My first display was built with 1x2’s and pegboard (image below)
with clear plastic thrown over the top if it rained. |
1978 booth |
| There were no uniform bodies of work and no jury slide photographers to
photograph them. Those specialties didn’t exist yet. And it was relatively
easy to get accepted to almost every show you applied to. You learned
about shows by word of mouth from other artists, and once I learned about
Sunshine Artist Magazine, I would pour over it from cover to cover looking
for shows to apply to. I moved from doing mall shows to outdoor shows
where you could earn more money in two days outside than for a week in a
mall where you spent most of your time reading books and eating. |
| Once I started doing art shows on a regular basis,
I became part of
a "family" of artists. Friendships developed and we looked forward to
seeing the same people from show to show, maybe sharing breakfast or
dinner with them and you watched each other’s family change and children
grow up. Doing art shows was a fun way of earning a living. |
| Technology started to affect the art show business, as it did everything
else in our world. Displays began to look more professional. Bodies of
work became tighter. Shows started getting more competitive. Even vehicles
became more suited for transporting art. |
|
Things were good through the end of the 1990’s. Some artists consider
9/11/2001 as the date things began to slide downhill because people cut
back on non essential spending. But if you think about it, change was
inevitable. Art shows became more about the money than about the art. Baby
boomers were starting to age, they were the artists and the buyers of
the artwork. The Internet had a substantial affect as people began to make
purchases on line. You could find all sizes of art at very low prices at
the big box stores. Costs related to art shows began to rise as sales
dropped and artists began to earn less money. Then the move to online
applications happened and the number of people applying to shows increased
making it more difficult to get into shows where they would earn less
money. |
| For some, the move from 35mm jury slides to digital jury images and the
online application system became the reason or blame for the downhill
trend. Better quality images of your art were now within reach of
everyone, not just those artists who had hired a professional jury slide
photographer in the past. With higher quality images being prepared by
more and more artists, it was inevitable that applications would become
more competitive. |
| So where will it end? I'm no longer doing
shows, but still love
walking them and seeing artists that are into what they're creating. It's
been about three years and I'm itching to do it on a smaller scale, I've
even applied to a one day show this August. Who knows, maybe you'll see me
out there again. |
| comments - e-mail Larry Berman at
larry@bermanart.com |
