Over the last two decades I have written extensively about the phenomenon of gallery art fairs as the new salons of the 21st century, as art magnets where galleries congregate and collectors and curators, and celebrities, and the illuminati go to see and buy art. Furthermore, anecdotal figures from the major fairs seem to confirm that a lot of artwork is being sold by galleries at the fairs. My own experience in doing art fairs for the last 18 years confirms this fact - I have my own positive empirical evidence, albeit with the caveat that fairs still seem to be recovering from the Covidian monster..
There's another "art world" out there of fine art fairs that - because of the curious highbrow attitude of the "high art" cabal - never really gets any attention from the art media, etc.
I’m talking about outdoor art fairs that some of us know well, and many more others think they know well even though they've actually never been to any of the good ones. I am talking about the outdoor art festivals that get ranked as the top ones by Sunshine Artist magazine and others; fairs such as the Cherry Creek Arts Festival in Denver, or the Ann Arbor Arts Festival (actually four separate art fairs that draw over half a million visitors), and of course, the Coconut Grove Arts Festival in Miami, which routinely attracts about 150,000 visitors in the Miami area.
Immediately the clueless “experts” who have never been to one of these top-of-the-line outdoor art festivals will think and imagine what they visualize as an outdoor art market: dried flowers, teddy bears and watercolors of barns.
Don't get me wrong, there are thousands and thousands of these type "art" fairs around as well - but those are NOT the ones that I am talking about.
I am talking about the cream of the Sunshine Artist Top 100 list. These are shows where only original art, not reproductions, are allowed, and photography has very severe rules (must be done by the photographer, limited editions only, signed, archival processes only, etc.). These shows are highly competitive to get in (they're juried), and usually offer quite a lot of money in prizes for the artists. The jurors vary from museum curators, art center managers, art critics, artists (I’ve been a juror myself many times), etc.
I guess I'm saying that there's some curatorial legitimacy to them as well... for the elitists amongst you dear readers.
But the real point to which I am driving here is the mathematics of attendance: thousands.
Locally in our area, there are several of these exceptional fine art outdoor festivals: The Bethesda Row Arts Festival in Bethesda, the Tephra ICA Arts Festival in Reston, and the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival in the Woodmont Triangle area of Bethesda, also attract those numbers of people and are all highly competitive.
Consider the median income in either Bethesda ($185K) or Reston ($135K), and what you get out of it is a lot of people with a lot of disposable income. As a whole, the DMV itself has a median household income of around $100K – one that ranks among the highest among the U.S.'s 25 most populous metro areas.
Art price tags at these local fairs range from $100 to $20,000. As such, there's a somewhat comparable universe of prices to the DC area gallery market, as an example.
And I submit that a lot of the people who attend one of these outdoor fine art festivals do not have the "formation," as a Communist would say, to dare set foot in a white cube gallery... and have probably never heard of Art Base Miami Beach.
Nearly all of these huge and highly successful outdoor arts festivals (as far as I know) only allow individual artists to sell their work at the fairs, and their entry fees are about 1/100th of the entry fees of the “other” art fairs.
Wanna see one? The Bethesda Row Arts Festival, which is the DMV’s largest outdoor fine arts festival, and one of the best in the country, will take place September 7-8. The show will showcase 185 artists in 14 media categories: ceramics, drawing/pastels, fiber/decorative, fiber/wearables, glass, graphics/printmaking, jewelry, metalwork, mixed media 2D, mixed media 3D, oil/acrylic painting, photography/digital art, sculpture, watercolor, and wood. It is located essentially at the intersection of Elm Street and Woodmont Avenue, two blocks from the Bethesda Metro, and there’s a huge public parking garage within the show itself.
Online here: https://www.bethesdarowarts.org
See ya there! I'll be in booth S104!
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