Welcome to the 13th annual 200 Best!

We here at Sunshine Artist do not have a catchy name for our 200 Best Awards. No fellow named Oscar or Tony ever worked for us, and even if they did, we hardly think those monikers would lend themselves well to our annual contest. No, the Hollywood ceremony that seems most akin to ours is, perhaps, the People's Choice Awards, for that is essentially what the 200 Best is. It represents not the votes of art critics or event promoters or even our show reviewers, but the votes of YOU - our subscribers.

How it works

This is a list of the 100 top-selling events in each of our two categories (Fine Art & Design and Classic & Contemporary Crafts) based upon your votes. You were asked to send in your ballots, which were included with the April issue, listing your 10 top-selling events of calendar year 2004. As you may recall, the ballots were very detailed and included spaces to write in not just the names of the events, the months in which the shows took place and the promoter, but your gross sales at each venue. We then tallied up the total individual votes - and they numbered in the thousands.

Our #1 Fine Art & Design show this year received 50-percent more total votes than its nearest competitor. However, the rest of the shows in the top 10 were remarkably close to one another, reflecting a healthy competitiveness that was present throughout the entire 200 Best. On the Classic & Contemporary Crafts list, the #1 show was the clear winner, but the runner-up made some strides from last year, closing in on its rival slightly. (Hint: The two events also placed one and two, respectively, last year.)