How to find the best art fairs and craft shows for jewelry designers?

I get this question a lot -- and we go in to depth on the topic (plus dozens of others) on our website at www.jewelersresource.com.

But here's a quick primer:

ArtFairSourcebook.com is a great resource for finding detailed, ratings and information on events. 

The Harris List lists far fewer than ArtFair Sourcebook but they concentrate on the "top rated" events.

Some of the best craft fairs for fine jewelry are:
Smithsonian Craft Show
Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft
Crafts America shows
Paradise City fairs
The Long’s Park Art & Craft Festival
Sausalito Art Festival

But if you're work isn't of the "top 1% in the country level" then you should cast a wider net than those events. There are plenty more that are good. Search the web for your competitors and see where they exhibit.

On our site we have compiled lists of exhibitors for most of the top shows -- and in most cases we have a few years worth of data so you can compare and evaluate a show based on historical data. Not sure that exists anywhere else (just one of the many reasons why our subscription site has hundreds of members!).

The February 2009 Issue of AmericanSTYLE magazine (AmericanStyle magazine is the nation's premier arts lifestyle magazine for art lovers, collectors and travelers)  has a 2009 Guide to Fairs and Festivals -- so you can read about the year's worth of great fairs.

The magazines you should read are:
AmericanSTYLE
American Craft
Metalsmith (if you use metal)

If you work with beads then Ornament magazine is the tops of that market and then there is Jewelry Artist (was Lapidary Journal mag) and Art Jewelry magazines.

There are countless bead magazines -- but these seem to address more of the hobbyist than professional.

Most importantly you have to find craft fairs that match your work. If your work is middle-range then don't waste your time (and entry fees) applying to the premier shows -- unless that's the direction you want your business to grow in to in the future. You don't want to be the highest-end work at the show, either. You want a good match.

Lastly, Zapplication.org is a great online tool that many different art fairs and craft shows use to do their entry forms online. So you sign on and then upload your latest jurying images in your own account. Then you search their database of events and apply to as many as you'd like using the images you've uploaded. Makes it easy to keep applying to events since the first half of the work has already been done. And using Zapp you can discover new events to apply to and they keep emailing you deadline alerts for all the events in their system, too.

Again, knowing who does which shows is invaluable -- helps you quickly decide if a show is right for you if it has all -- or none -- of your peers.

All of these shows are retail events --- meaning you'll be selling to consumers. The only 3 wholesale craft trade shows to sell to craft retailers (galleries) are the Buyer's Market of American Craft in Philadelphia, the American Craft Show in Baltimore and our own, little precious event called globalDESIGN.

Comments

[Connie Mettler]

Hi Cindy,

I just found your very useful site. In addition to the above sources for art fairs, you might add ArtFairCalendar.com, a nationwide listing of the best art fairs in the country. I established this site to bring patrons to art fairs (can you believe there is no other site with this as its' mission?) but artists seem to like it too.

Also, I have a new site: www.artfairinsiders.com, a social networking site for art fair artists that I'll be your readers would find fun and useful.

Good work!