Over the
last few shows there have been several interesting things I've noticed,
that others shows or artists might find useful.
I was at
the Estes Park Art Market in Colorado over Memorial Day. The
show is in Bond Park, right in "downtown", which has been
undergoing a major renovation. Along the edge of the road
through the park which had been redone they placed large
decorative boulders. Most of the booths were located along this
road. They had very thoughtfully embedded large eyebolts in the
boulders, for tying down tents, since you cannot stake into the
brick pavers. A very good idea! And they also added quad
electrical outlets near each boulder.
Also at Estes Park, I
won what was one of my best awards yet. A woman with two young
girls was visiting the show, and as a lesson for her kids in art
appreciation was having them "judge" the artists. They had made
up there own ribbons before arriving, and then after going
through the whole show presented the ribbons to the artists the
girls liked best. I won their "Good Job" ribbon award! This is
an award I am quite proud of.
This
past weekend I was at Art in the Park in Columbia, Missouri. The
temps were in the mid to high 90s, so everyone was suffering. On
both Saturday and Sunday afternoons the volunteers delivered
frozen washcloths, infused with lemon grass, to each artist to
help them cool down. Just like the wash clothes you get in first
class on an airplane, except frozen instead of hot. That was a
very nice touch!
Finally,
at Columbia you could not drive on the grass, so you had to
dolly everything. But, they had a whole fleet of golf carts and
ATVs, many with large trailers, available during both setup and
breakdown. And enough of them to realistically help everyone who
wanted help. You may have had to wait a few minutes for one to
be available, but it was a major time and back saver, especially
in the brutal heat and humidity.
And
one more thing, nothing to do directly with art shows. Columbia
had the best balloon artist (and I do mean artist)
I have ever seen. He or she used two or three different colored
balloons to create very realistic "sculptures". Here is one of
his or her creations I saw walking by:
This
past weekend I was at Art in the Park in Columbia, Missouri. The
temps were in the mid to high 90s, so everyone was suffering. On
both Saturday and Sunday afternoons the volunteers delivered
frozen washcloths, infused with lemon grass, to each artist to
help them cool down. Just like the wash clothes you get in first
class on an airplane, except frozen instead of hot. That was a
very nice touch!
Finally,
at Columbia you could not drive on the grass, so you had to
dolly everything. But, they had a whole fleet of golf carts and
ATVs, many with large trailers, available during both setup and
breakdown. And enough of them to realistically help everyone who
wanted help. You may have had to wait a few minutes for one to
be available, but it was a major time and back saver, especially
in the brutal heat and humidity. 
And
one more thing, nothing to do directly with art shows. Columbia
had the best balloon artist (and I do mean artist)
I have ever seen. He or she used two or three different colored
balloons to create very realistic "sculptures". Here is one of
his or her creations I saw walking by: