As someone getting ready to showcase their own work for the first time, I thought it would be great to see how other artists manage their booth at an art fair. So this past weekend I attended the Superfine! Art Fair in Fort Mason and walked away with a few observations that will help me prepare for my upcoming show. I thought I’d share this as it may help with your planning if you decide to showcase your work in the future. 

Lesson 1: Flyers, Business Cards, and Video

I’ve been using my website and social media as my business card lately. So if I came across someone and they were interested in my work I would direct them to one of these locations. However upon attending the art fair I saw that not only did the artists have their social accounts on display but many of them had put together business cards as well. Some even had flyers made which featured the work they currently had on display. 

This makes a lot of sense because there are so many people walking through the art fair with their attention being grabbed by each new booth ahead. As people walked through each display of artwork many people did not take out their phones to pull up that artist's social and instead most would grab one of their business cards and move on. The people that did stop to appreciate the art and talk to the artist were often given marketing materials by the artist and the artist pushed their social. The more you can make an impression and develop fans of your work the greater chance of that person becoming a future buyer of your work so it makes sense to share as much as possible without being too pushy. Also by giving them something physical that they can take with them allows them to further leave an impression after they have visited your booth.

Some artists even went beyond this simple marketing and had videos showcasing how they made their work such as one artist which did some incredible fine pen imagery. Seeing the video did make me stop longer at the booth and look at her pieces with more appreciation. As a photographer I’m not sure a video on my process would be as interesting, but possibly I could use a similar technique to showcase my site or go through other imagery that I have. I don’t think I'll have something like this for my first showing but it’s good to think about for the future.  

Lesson 2: Sign up Sheet

With almost every booth I saw that they had some sort of sign up sheet. Some people had iPads but most of them had simple pen and paper. This was used to build up a mailing list so the artist could stay in touch with those more interested in their work. I think this is great as it provides you with a list of people you can reach out to directly as you create new pieces of work and as they are already committing to hearing from you there is a higher potential they will become a collector of your work over time. 

This is not something I saw when I visited galleries but I can see how the artist is there working their booth a connection can be made with the people visiting. I don’t know much about email marketing but I plan to spend a bit of time learning how to setup some simple email updates when I add new content to my site. 

Lesson 3: Price Ranges

Looking at the different exhibitions most of the artists had a range of work across a variety of price points. This made sense as it allows people to become collectors of your work at a price point that fits their budget. 

For example, most artists typically had one or two large framed pieces representing the top price of their collection, then a set of medium priced framed pieces, and finally lower cost work as prints without frames. 

When it comes to prints I’ve been told it’s good to have different prints then the framed pieces you’re showing so you can spur people to buy your framed work, however at the event I saw a lot of people carrying prints of the work they had on display. I don’t think either one is right or wrong but something I may want to test out. 

In Summary: 

Most of these observations are things I planned todo for my first showing except I did not think of having a sign up sheet or even consider a video. I’m looking forward to sharing my work in person and getting a chance to talk to people about my work once it’s up. Now I just need to bite the bullet and make some more prints! 

If you would like to check out Superfine! Art Fair events you can check them out here and the artists that were on display.