The NAIA’s Advocacy Work for Art Fair Artists

Last February there was a loud outcry from participating artists at the Coconut Grove Arts Festival when the Miami Herald published an article stating that the artists were earning thousands of dollars (sorry, the exact figure has escaped me). Artists were so upset over this misrepresentation that the National Association for Independent Artists developed a survey that they distributed to as many artists as they could locate that had participated in the Coconut Grove Art Festival in the last several years.

After all the gathered information had been compiled it was forwarded to the Board of Directors of the CGAF. The information was presented at a meeting and positive changes are being made!

Kudos to the NAIA for this effective work in behalf of exhibiting artists.

Read the whole story, see the survey and the CGAF response at: www.naia_artists.org.

The Coconut Grove Report

From a friend of mine:

We just returned from our 28th and last Grove, the demographics have change, a lot, ….. Our customers from the past no longer exist, I don’t know where they went but I know they don’t come to the grove anymore.

You probably won’t believe this but we only did $785 for the three days, that was three sales all from out of state and it only cost us about $1600 to make it. That’s down 90% from last year.

Many artist sold nothing, best in show had no sales. There were a few who did well but on the whole most didn’t. The show was so commercial in favor of the Grove Assoc., you wouldn’t recognize it anymore, we were gouged for everything. We will never go to Miami for anything, as for as I’m concerned it’s a leper colony, to be avoided. Oh yes, my three sales were before noon on Sat. and that was it.

That’s my story and I stand by it. (name withheld)

And here is what the Miami Herald had to say: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/east/story/424085.html This article is interesting, but even more interesting are the “comments” below it. Be sure to read them to get a fuller picture.

Here is a posting on the NAIA Forum:

Sales at the show were absolutely horrible. I zero’d again, and a huge number of other exhibitors also sold nothing as of a few hours before closing yesterday. There was LOTS of rain Sunday which usually has the largest crowds, and more rain Monday morning. There was little excitement in the air. Way too many people said they could not buy because they were worried their job was disappearing.

Also this weekend the annual Arti Gras Art Festival was held in Jupiter. They had better weather, but not better sales reports.

I read all the Herald stories on the festival. Nowhere did they list the award winners from the Grove. Years back the Herald was a great partner for bringing customers to the festival. A city’s newspaper is an important factor in publicizing an art fair with interesting features.

From the above reports it does not bode well for this event next year.