This weekend was the Alnmouth Arts Festival. Located in a small Northumberland village, it is a bustling event designed for all the family. The organisers did a great job of developing a mixed programme from workshops to storytelling, music to craft and of course a variety of artists. The area punches above its weight in the arts thanks to the success of the Old School Gallery. A venue I’ve mentioned in several of my previous blogs.
Exhibiting at Art Fairs
Gatting yourself prepared for these events is a time consuming task. Especially if you don’t do them very often. The pro’s are easy to spot. They rock up with perfect stand equipment, stock tailored to the expected audience and set up within minutes. The rest of us spend weeks finishing works, making sure everything is packed safely, stocking up on business cards and frantically trying to find packaging and suitable bags.
Unlike other one day arts fairs this one lasts the full weekend. Kicking off on Friday evening as a preview for villagers. This gives everyone an opportunity to test run and importantly is a big thank you for the disruption caused to a very small village.
Being able to set up on the Friday took a lot of angst out of the event and it was a great opportunity to meet and chat with fellow exhibitors.
The Festival
The event was reasonably busy, despite the changing weather. We had a stead flow of visitors to our venue. Some of the other venues seemed busier which may have been down to location – we were in a hall at the far end of the village. But I suspect the main reason the friary attracted more was curiosity to see inside.
Sales were mixed. I sold lots of small items but none of the larger works. Most buyers gravitated to stands selling jewellery, pottery, embroidered textiles and prints. In terms of art landscapes were definitely the winner which is probably down to the fact that overall it was an older, more conservative audience.
That said it was a great couple of days where I got to have lots of conversations about art. Bizarrely my art seemed to attract a fair share of other artists and I found myself talking at different techniques and inspiration with people who also paint
Learnings
Three big things I learnt from the event.
Firstly, abstract is a bit of risk for a lot of people. Many of the pieces that had the most interest and sales were abstracts which were very landscape in look and feel. The more expressive pieces sparked lost of conversations but no sales. The organisers wanted to ensure they had a great variety and in this they were successful, but I’m not sure the audience was ready for some of the less conventional artists.
Secondly, and linked to above, tailor your selection. I took too many large paintings. Whilst these were great for attracting people to the stand, buyers don’t tend to make big purchases at events like these. The reason for that I think is twofold. Firstly the cost, whilst people are attending an arts fair what they buy is still an impulse purchase. Larger paintings need more time and consideration and displaying these on a fair stall is not the right setting. Also on a practical level if they do purchase they then need to carry bulky pieces back up the village to catch a park and ride shuttle bus.
Many potential buyers returned to view a couple of times and took business cards and I’ve certainly seen a spike in web visits so maybe a future sale will happen.
Thirdly take smaller, cheaper works. Whether this is originals on paper, I sold several around the £55 mark, prints or greetings cards. This seems better suited to the audience. We lost count of the number of times people asked if we had cards of the work. Had I had some made I think we would have made a lot more sales.
Overall, if I did an event like this again I would take a very different inventory. Maybe one of two larger paintings to give stand out. Lots of ‘on paper’ pieces around the £50-60 price point and a full selection of cards.