FEATURED SHOW REVIEW
April 2007
FLORIDA
January 20-21, Venice-Nokomis Rotary Art Festival, Venice. Contact: Venice-Nokomis Rotary Club, PO Box 1761, Venice, FL 34284; phone 941-468-1254. E-mail: v-nrotaryartfest@comcast.net. Application fee: $30. Space fee: $180-$400. 100% outdoors. Attendance: 15,000 (2006 staff estimate). Admission: $2.
By Joan Tweedell
Indiana Reporter
E-mail: joantweedell@juno.com
Medium: Stoneware, porcelain, pottery, watercolors
The show is put on by the Rotary Club, and all proceeds benefit the organization's many local charities. The group is enthusiastic about their art fair, and its members supply many volunteers and show concern for the artists' success and well-being.
Booths are set up on concrete at the edge of the small airport on the outskirts of Venice. Plenty of signage all over town directed people to the fair this year, and there was also coverage in the local newspaper.
Friday afternoon setup was available, and the site was well secured overnight. The layout featured an elongated pathway in the shape of a "U," with booths on both sides of the path and a stage and food booths across the open end. Live entertainment, a boat show and classic-car shows helped draw in the public.
Setup and teardown were easy; vehicles could be driven to spaces, and all but the largest rigs could park behind the booths. RV parking was also available on site. Booths were about 11 feet wide, with unlimited space behind.
A free buffet dinner, complete with beer and wine, was provided for artists and their partners on Saturday. The dinner was held in a large tent on the fair site and was a nice low-key way to end the day.
The quality of the 112 exhibitors was good, and there was a nice balance between fine art and crafts. The breakdown was as follows: 17 jewelers, 22 painters, 12 clay artists, 10 photographers, 8 sculptors, 8 mixed media artists and 35 miscellaneous crafters.
Saturday had good traffic and moderate sales until the early afternoon. However, Sunday saw less traffic and much lower sales. An exhibitor with a football/baseball-related craft did well and would have done even better if the Michigan State and University 0f Michigan items hadn't sold out early. ("If I had known that they love Michigan here, I would have brought more!" the artist told me.) Another sports-related artist had decent sales, with most of them coming on Sunday, which was the opposite of everyone else I spoke to.
A wood carver had modest sales on Saturday but made much less on Sunday. A jeweler did OK on Saturday but sold half as much on Sunday. Both of them considered this a filler show and said they would be looking for something else next year.
An artist with fabric handbags had slightly below-average sales — not as good as in 2006 but equal to previous years here. As for me, I sold 50 pots, for a profit of about two-and-a-half times the entry fee. Because the show is well run and benefits worthy causes (and because I have a friend in town to stay with), it's worthwhile for me — if just barely.
Editor's note: A secret auditor had a fairly high opinion of the show. The jeweler made $1,700 on average sales of $18-$24 and rated all categories seven or higher.
