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Metal Artists Report Top Sales in 2002
Full-
and Part-Time Artists Report Smaller Percentage of Revenues Coming from Wholesale
Shows
This is the third year that the staff of The Craft Report has conducted an Insight Survey. And if you think you know everything there is to know in the crafts market — better read on.
By following the magazine’s Insight section month by month, readers see the gross sales among full-time artists in various media. The graphs this month compare artists in each medium side by side giving an overview of the crafts field as a whole.
What may not have been so obvious as the months rolled by is the slight downward trend in percentage of revenues from wholesale shows.
Full-time artists report that 23 percent of their sales in 2002 were at wholesale shows, down from 28 percent in this category in 2001. Full-time artists report their greatest single source of income came from retail shows, 43 percent in 2002 versus 31 percent in 2001.
The percentage of income from wholesale shows as reported by part-time artists also dropped slightly, from 7 percent in 2001 to 5 percent in 2002.However, the percentage of sales for part-time artists at retail shows was considerably less than those in 2001, dropping from 54 percent of their total income to only 37 percent in 2002. Part-time artists appear to have gone directly to galleries in 2002 to sell their work, reporting 32 percent of their income in this category versus only 10 percent in 2001.
The results of the Insight Survey show other consistencies between the past two years, as well as a few notable changes:
• Jewelry artists, leading sellers for the past two years, were topped by metal artists in 2002 who reported average sales of $107,994 per artist.
• Both full- and part-time artists again reported that the smallest portion of their total gross annual sales came from the Internet. Full-time artists reported gross annual sales of $317,137, for an average of $1,428 per artist. Part- time artists, only 36 percent of whom reported selling through a Web site or online gallery, reported gross annual sales of $42,260 from the Internet, for an average of $198 per artist.
• Retail shows were again the source of the highest reported gross annual sales among both part-time and full-time respondents. Full-time artists reported more than $8.15 million in gross annual sales from retail shows. Part-time artists reported approximately $980,000 in total retail sales.
• In this year’s survey, 222 full-time artists reported just over $19 million in total gross annual sales.
• The average for gross annual sales among the 222 full-time artists was $86,117.
• 213 part-time artists reported gross annual sales totaling approximately $2.64 million in 2002.
• Average for gross annual sales among the 213 part-time artists was $12,414.The Crafts Report introduced statistics to its Insight section in 1999 to provide a look at income levels among artists working in various media and provide craft artists with an idea of where they stand among their peers in income and business practices.
2003 INSIGHT SURVEY Insight’s effectiveness is based on artists’ participation. Please take the time to fill out the 2003 Insight Survey by the deadline for your medium. Readers can fill out the Insight survey online HERE.
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DECEMBER 2002: TABLE OF CONTENTS
