The Future of Art Shows

As many of you know, Covid was a wrecking ball for art shows. Some of my favorite, regular shows that I participated in yearly were closed down for two years, some even three. Most art shows are city events and the government kept harsh restrictions in place on these types of events the longest. It was a difficult time for many artists including myself.

Art shows are a tremendous amount of work. Weeks are spent prepping for the show, most shows require travel, so packing the van full of art and driving to the destination, then a day is spent setting up your booth, then running the show for 2-3 days, then tearing down the booth and finally driving home. It was a labor of love and I enjoyed many aspects of the trade. Watching customers walk into my booth with a look of surprise on their face, since that weren’t used to seeing the silly in fine art form, I would then wait patiently for their smile to slowly spread across their face which usually turned into soft chuckles, fun conversations and more often than not they became new customers. I miss those times.

Obviously, I was forced to step aside from art shows during that time. I filled my time by attempting to sell my artwork on Etsy and also working part-time as a photographer for hire. It wasn’t all bad since I had been traveling and doing art shows for over twenty years at that point. It provided a mandatory but welcome break. But where does that leave me now?

I sold my art show van, the majority of my art booth set up along with my canvas printer after the Covid disaster. Not that I needed to, it was just all of those things were getting long in the tooth and it felt like the right time to part ways. So at this point it time, I am undecided if I will return to doing art shows. My main focus now is finding a printer who can reproduce my work to the same standards which I did. My plan is to reopen my online store and get back to offering my art on canvas for customers once I find the right printer.

After that I will consider if it is worth retuning to art shows.