My second stop on my Midwest tour brought me to Des Moines, IA. “The Other Art Show” is put on at the state fairgrounds, indoors, where the forecast was much better for the weekend than it was for the downtown show located outside. It stormed every night while I was in town, but the daylight hours turned out pretty nice.

Setup: The setup required hauling your supplies in through specific doors of the building which made the setup time-consuming, but not difficult. The spaces were at least 10′ x 15′ feet deep. Very generous by art show standards and this allowed ample storage behind the booths. Electricity was available for purchase, but I opted not to bring my light system. It would have been nice to have lighting, but I don’t think it hurt my display by not having them. The building was lit well enough to make booths very visible from a distance.

Sales: The show started off with a bang. Heavy foot traffic with lots of customers ready to buy, filled the floor until lunchtime, then things tapered off and never really regained that same momentum for the remainder of the show. I did not have a high number of transactions, but my average transaction was 25% above my normal average. My results were solid, but the show had more potential than it returned. Several other artist, who have done the show previously, stated this was a lower turnout than experienced in previous years.

Teardown: This was like setup, not difficult, just time consuming. Vans were pulling into the building around 6:30 pm, an hour and a half after close if you were willing to wait.

Summary: The promoter, Sue Stookey, is very friendly and professional. She runs a great show with an excellent selection of artists. Many customers seemed to agree, as I overheard many remark about the quality of this show being better than the big downtown show. The big concern for this show seemed to be the drop in foot traffic after Saturday morning.

Art show reviews reflect my personal experiences and sales. I share them because there is often scant information concerning vendors experiences at art show reviews. Please note that your mileage may vary depending on your products, pricing and personality.