Learning to Be an Art Show Artist

My first art show in a church lobby in 2010.

My very first “art show” was in 2010 at a church in St. Louis which was showcasing christian artists. The large church foyer was filled with folding tables and each vendor was assigned one as their space. I had these old doors that I painted bright green and hinged together to be able to hang a couple pieces of art on them. It was a very simple set-up, but I was over the moon to have been asked to participate!

SIU Christmas Craft Fair in 2010. A friend’s daughter sitting next to me.

My second show was at the SIU Craft Show in Carbondale, IL. This was a three day show and I was so excited. To my original decor, I added a second set of green doors for a grand total of four doors. I was so proud of my awesome set-up! This was the first show I realized that every artist desperately needs to have some sort of cart with wheels. The load-in was a long way from where you could unload your vehicle, and we had to carry everything up a steep hill, into the student center, around to the elevators and then finally up to my booth location on the second floor. Carrying armfuls of supplies in, one at a time, was excruciating. Lesson learned! A dolly was required for any future shows I hoped to participate in.

Every single show from then on was a huge learning experience. Through trial and error, my set-up process has become much more efficient. If you’re thinking of selling your art at in-person shows maybe this will help you skip some of the painful learning steps I had to take. Otherwise, maybe it will just give you, as an art show attendee, some more appreciation for the level of work and preparation that goes into every single artist’s set-up.

To this point I had only done a few indoor shows, and was starting to gain some confidence. I felt that the next step was for me to apply for some outdoor events. Little did I know that the switch from indoors to outdoors was going to be another huge learning experience! I started without a tent, but quickly learned that that the unpredictability of the weather made a tent a necessity. Truthfully, most art shows of any quality require tents, but those were not the level of shows I was doing at that time.

We finally managed to get the tent set up in our driveway. This thing had a million different parts, but she was fantastic!

Unbeknownst to me, my aunt in New York (who was herself a very accomplished artist), had been following my path into the art world through my mom. She gave me her art show tent that she wasn’t using anymore! This was a huge gift, worth several thousands of dollars, and it set me up as a “professional” artist. My parents brought it home from New York with some instructions on how to put it together, and the whole family came down for a weekend to try and learn how to set it up. After many trials we finally got it done.

This fancy tent meant I didn’t have to use my green doors anymore. I now had real tent sides that could support my paintings. I was on my way to having a professional set up! At every single show, for the first several years, I was keeping my eyes open and watching more experienced artists to see how they did their weights, money, signage, price tags, lights and so on. I kept adding more and more things to my show packing list.

There have been so many lessons, but learning to be a traveling art show artist has been a wonderful and challenging experience, Even though I have been going to shows for over ten years now, I still learn something new from almost every event.