PRESS: January 5, 2010

Art on the Square -- No. 1 again

Despite storm damage, annual Belleville show had $7,103 per artist

BY Laura Girresch - courtesy Belleville News-Democrat

BELLEVILLE -- Art on the Square, the city's annual art show, has for the second time been ranked the No. 1 show in the nation.

Art Fair SourceBook ranks art shows around the nation based on artist-submitted sales figures. The Belleville show is at the top with $7,103 in sales per artist at last year's show, after booth fees and other costs taken off the top.

Patty Gregory, the show's founding executive director, announced the news at a City Council meeting Monday evening. She said 600 people and 40 committees put together last year's event, which was completely volunteer-run. Click here to find out more!

"I think that really speaks to the quality of life in our community," she said. "That people are willing to put in this much time and effort into an all-volunteer event."

The runner-up art shows for 2009 are the St. Louis Art Fair at No. 2 and the Long's Park Art and Craft Festival in Lancaster, Pa., at No. 3.

Art on the Square has risen steadily through the ranks of top shows -- from No. 43 in 2002, its first year, to somewhere in the top five for the past four years. It earned the No. 1 spot in 2007.

Organizers and city leaders were pleased with the ranking, particularly because of the recession and because artists lost about an hour and a half's worth of potential sales when a rain storm shut down the show early on its first night. Four artists' tents either blew over or broke during the storm.

Also for last year's show, the event received the No. 4 ranking for sales of contemporary crafts. Co-director John Rule said he was impressed that Belleville's show was ranked near the highly respected Smithsonian Institution and Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Greg Lawler, the publisher of the Oregon-based SourceBook, said Art on the Square is the smallest show on the top-10 list. He thinks its success is due to the high level of promotion and advertising of the event and to the organizers' efforts to pre-sell art all year long. Last year, the show's organizers got $70,000 worth of pre-show purchasing commitments.

Lawler said artists also gave Belleville "A's" and "A-pluses" for every aspect of the show, except judging and ease of parking.

"I wish every show was run like that show," Lawler said. "Artists would have a much easier time making a living if they were."

This year's show is scheduled for May 14-16.