Historic Cocoa Village Fall Art and Craft Festival: JCS’s first ever art and craft fair!

Last weekend (Oct 21 – 22) was the first time I ever participated in an art fair. A local artist, who makes her living selling artwork at street fairs around the country, encouraged me to give it a try.

I was apprehensive about doing a street fair because a substantial fee is required to apply and again to reserve the booth when you are accepted. It simply meant that I would have to sell a sculpture to make my money back and I didn’t know how likely that would be at a street fair.

However, two things changed my mind. First, I saw a great way to promote my studio locally. Second, many art fairs are juried and award cash prizes. Also if you think about it, Miami Basel is essentially a giant street fair but on a much larger and fancier scale.

My friend offered a lot of advice on the type of shows to apply for, how to set up my booth, and what to expect when I get there. I also did a lot of research online and was lucky enough to purchase a really nice commercial tent from another friend of mine who has also made his living selling sculptures at art fairs.

After several months of planning, preparation, and construction I was ready to go. I had my tent with weights, custom color backdrops, my body of work including four large scale sculptures and a few small sculptures, three custom tables I built to display the small sculptures (also for sale), my Botanic’s Stationary Cards, and 100 business cards and 200 price sheets.

Saturday was great! I sold a piece, some stationary cards, and handed out lots of my promotional materials.

Sunday was not as great; the wind really picked up and I packed up my delicate pieces, which was a good portion of my work. I was really stressing out about the smaller pieces falling over and breaking. My stationary cards and promo materials were flying everywhere! The tent next to me hand a clothing rack fall over and take down a bystander! The weather was not making it easy. But it ended up calming down in the afternoon and I had the opportunity to talk to tons of fun people!

By the end of the weekend I had sold a few pieces, and handed out every last promotional piece of paper that I brought with me! I would say that was a success. So the moral of the story is that while daunting at first, the art fair was a chance to really exercise my sales skills, gain feedback from the public, and promote myself to my town! Thanks Cocoa Village!