Ann Arbor Craft Shows Have a Loyal Following on Both Sides of the Displays

here could not have been better weather for a craft fair than the clear skies and moderate breezes gracing the four days of this year’s summer shows in Ann Arbor, Mich. The tent-covered booths of five shows — the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair the Original, The Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair, the State Street Area Art Fair, the South University Art Fair and the King’s Chosen Art Fair — were spread over a dozen streets in downtown Ann Arbor and the campus of the University of Michigan.

This year, the Original Art Fair, which started as two blocks of artists in 1960, moved from its 40-year location on South University Street to the campus diagonal, while the 4-year-old South University Art Fair, previously called the Art Fair Village, expanded and took over the Original show’s former site. Many artists worried that their longstanding customers would not be able to find them. “It was a year of big changes for Ann Arbor,” says Mark Orr, in the South University Fair this year and in Ann Arbor shows for the past eight years. “Next year will be very telling.”

Gael and Howard Silverblatt, in business fulltime since 1974 and exhibiting in the Original Art Fair for eight years, have already decided they like the change. “We, and 100 percent of the customers we asked, greatly prefer the new location for the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair,” they report.

The Ann Arbor Street Art Fair the Original, one of five shows in the area, moved to a new location this year.

Full of work with top prices and artists with top credentials, it’s an honor just to have your work accepted for exhibit in any Ann Arbor show. One example is the booth of fiber artist Jeffrey Weiss in the South University Art Fair where a sign indicated that Weiss, like many of the artists we surveyed, has exhibited in the highly regarded Smithsonian Craft Show.

In the King’s Chosen Art Fair, prices for the beveled glass cabinets of Patti and Bob Stern started at $2,200. The Sterns, in business fulltime for 10 years, reported that they recently sold every cabinet they displayed at a New York show to one buyer, a jeweler with a home in the Berkshires.

Mike Baum, a full-time potter for 23 years and in the Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair sponsored by the Michigan Guild for much of that time, likes to display his pieces in sets and says he has many return buyers at Ann Arbor.

Baum, who has a fine arts degree from the University of Cincinnati, studied with potter Byron Temple at the Penland School in North Carolina and also apprenticed at potteries in England and Ireland.

And Nicario Jimenez, who calls himself an artist of the Andes, has been exhibiting fulltime in the United States for six years and five years in the Original Ann Arbor show. Examples of Jimenez’ work, which retails for up to $25,000, are in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian and in the San Francisco Museum of Art.

With artists like these among more than 1,200 official exhibitors, and several hundred more unregistered vendors lining sidewalks and filling empty lots, the Ann Arbor Summer Fairs are almost more than the eye can take in.

And that, in a nutshell, is the number one complaint of the artists we met and surveyed at these shows. Wayne Farra, a jewelry artist for 30-plus years, believes the Ann Arbor shows are being ruined by greed. “There are way too many artists,” says Farra who has been in the Michigan Guild’s show for two years. “The buying population is aging and they do not want to go through 300 to 400 booths in the hot summer … their feet hurt.”

Twenty-five-year Guild show veteran Jim Lauer agrees with the newcomer. “There are just too many artists in town [at once],” says Lauer whose Ann Arbor sales were down 33 percent this year. “I have made a good living but last year was my first down year ever and I plan on retiring in three years.”

All the artists responding to our survey reported that their sales covered what they paid out in costs to travel to and exhibit in the show — although a few said they barely broke even and one first-year exhibitor reports, “We made back our costs, but not much else.”

Artists also report concerns about the continuing quality of the work in the shows in the more crowded venue. Vaughn L. Smith, a potter for 20 years, believes fewer artists will return because the shows are not producing the financial reward of former years. “As people drop out, the field will become less competitive,” he says. “I only hope it’s the quality that survives [because right now] the price ranges that sell best are the lower and the upper.” Smith, in the State Street Fair for the third year, says his sales were “up slightly” over 2002.

Ginny Herzog, whose architectural collages are found in corporate boardrooms and upscale hotels, has been doing the State Street Fair for all 20 of her years as an artist. “Many of the top artists are encountering poor sales and will not return,” Herzog says, “so the quality of the art being exhibited will surely decline.”

Despite the perceptions of some artists, our survey showed that 53 percent of artists returning to the fairs reported they did better in 2003 than in previous years. They also commented on why. “I had a great show in Ann Arbor,” says Roxy Wells who has been doing the State Street Art Fair for nine years and says her average sale this year was $300 to $500. “I have a strong customer base in Ann Arbor and send out cards to my mailing list.”

Jewelry artist Bonnie Blandford, in business fulltime for 27 years and exhibiting in the State Street show for 20 years, also uses a mailing list for reminders. Blandford says 46 of her 107 sales during the show were repeat customers. “I feel sorry for the first-time exhibitors,” she says.

Sculptor Donna McCarthy-Jensen, who says she sold all but four of her pieces this year, has been exhibiting in the Guild show for “many years” and says her sales increase every year. “I use a mailing list of previous customers and have a very loyal following,” she says.

And clay artist Jack Turner attributed his sales, up $2,300 over 2002, simply to better business planning. “Our sales will be even higher next year,” says Turner, who designs hand-painted, one-of-a-kind porcelain jewelry and ornaments, “because we have made the effort to figure out what’s going on in Ann Arbor, especially with the public and our work.”

Better sales or not, Turner is not alone in expecting to be in Ann Arbor next summer. Despite variable revenues and a tighter sales arena, almost every artist we talked to says they will return if they are accepted. As evidenced by the story accompanying this article, Ann Arbor’s reputation and mystique is hard to shake once you’ve participated.

Cheri Platter, a full-time potter and painter for 24 years, has been exhibiting in the Guild’s Ann Arbor Fair for 10 years. “It took me nine years just to get juried in,” Platter says, “and I have to re-jury every three years, but I plan to be here next year.”

The Rug Lady, Susan Cobb, a full-time artist for 13 years and doing the State Street fair for about 10 years, says the Ann Arbor shows have everything an artist could want. “Ann Arbor is still number one in my book,” Cobb says. “Though some years it is not the highest in sales, it draws people from all over the U.S. and Canada, so the exposure is tremendous. I have sold to movie stars, rock stars, TV personalities — all through Ann Arbor [contacts].”

Ultimately, it’s simply making a living as an artist that fulfills Cobb and other art fair veterans. “Whatever money I make at an art show, even if it is not as much as I wanted to make,” Cobb concludes, “it is more than I had before I got there.”

Mary E. Petzak is editor of The Crafts Report.