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NAIA coconut grove Survey Results responseMay 2008
Dear NAIA Members and artists,
We would first and foremost like to thank you for all the time and effort that was invested in comprising such a thorough survey of the sales numbers for our event. One of the most important goals of the Coconut Grove Art Festival is to bring the best artists available to our event and to provide our visitors an opportunity to enjoy the art, and above all else, purchase and own the highest quality of original art produced. The CGAF is lauded for its wonderful weather, however some times the weather does not cooperate, and your sales are not what you expected. The Board of Directors and staff of this Festival want to make this show as accessible and successful as possible for all our artists. In an effort to keep ourselves better informed of the artists' needs, we are reaching out to a select few of you to get your personal feedback on how we can maintain this Festival as one of the TOP Festivals in the country and one you really look forward to participating in.
In the past we asked our participating artists for an estimated sales number for the weekend, we received a few numbers, from which we were able to assume a sales figure. A few artists informed us that they do not fill in that information because it was not our business to know and others did not fill it in because they were scared that claiming too much would result in an increase in booth fees the following year.
Many of you expressed anger and concern at the statement regarding sales figures that was printed in the Miami Herald. The statement made by Monty Trainer is the same number that we have used since the last time we surveyed our participating artists regarding sales 4 years ago. We arrived at that number by a 33% response to the surveys, of which 60% chose not to answer the question, 20% said it was “not our business to know” and 20% that gave a figure. Taking the information we were given, an educated average was concluded and used in interviews. It was decided to remove the question from our survey because of the lack of response and per the request of some artists. It has been close to impossible to get any accurate numbers from artists, until the NAIA survey. I thank you for doing this and I do not think there would be any other way of having achieved this kind of response. These numbers have been published for 4 years in the Herald. We do understand your frustrations with the decrease in sales numbers and we would have taken the same steps to reconsider our expenses solely from the responses received in our OWN survey results compiled after the Festival.
There were a few points mentioned in the NAIA survey results that are operational and will be addressed accordingly and there were other concerns that did require us to comprise an artist advisory committee to review different options in either lowering booth fees or reallocating expenses. The concerns we would like to address immediately are: sales, booth fees, amenities, quality of work, and Zapplication.
The cost of the booth fee is based on the costs to produce the Festival and provide the artists the space on the city street. The total revenue collected from artists is geared directly toward the cost of the artist's amenities, city fees, impact-fees, and a myriad of services required to put on this Festival. As a non-profit organization, we constantly strive to identify new sources of revenue which will assist with the funding of all the required logistical costs of putting together this major event. As you are aware, sponsorships are a large portion of our revenue. In light of recent economic down-shifts, the sponsorship arena has become even more competitive. That being said, we will continue to work diligently to identify revenue sources to assist in funding the event, however in an effort to directly reduce the cost of the artist's booth fee, we must look at ways to reduce and even eliminate some artist's amenities.
After much consideration and questioning a few past Festival artists, board members and other show directors, the following are a few suggestions that have been made to date:
* Dropping costly amenities that directly affect booth fees, i.e. – dropping the $30 food coupons and give a $30 booth fee reduction.
* Dropping artist award money and reducing the artist’s booth fee by $100 each. We would still give a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place award and jury free entry to the winners.
* Beer Hawkers – Those are sponsor related issues that have been addressed with the sponsors
* Zapplication – At this time, our surveys and our advisory committee has agreed unanimously that this is a great system and we plan to move forward with it for the next years.
* Booth Fee Freeze – an option that was suggested to us was to freeze the booth fee for the next 3 years.
* Parking fees – An effort is being made to work with the City to have the parking fee waived for our artists to park behind the Coconut Grove Convention Center. This parking lot is run by the City and the fee collected does not benefit the Festival.
* Giclees – At this time, we have not come to an agreement on accepting reproductions at our event. We will be increasing the staff that monitors the artists during the Festival and will be much stricter on the consequences if an artist is found selling reproductions during the Festival.
* We will also not allow other vendors to sell reproductions at our Festival.
All of these suggestions are the type of constructive feedback that provides a strong basis for us to move forward in our planning and decision making processes. I give you my assurance that this will be discussed at length with the staff and Board of Directors so that we can make some positive changes moving forward. As we continue to move through this process, please feel free to e-mail me any additional suggestions you may have.
Again, we thank you for your time and for your assistance in making our event a more pleasurable one for the artists and for our patrons.
Regards,
Katrina Gallegos
Artist & Special Events Manager
Coconut Grove Arts Festival
P: 305.447.0401 ext. 27
Festival Dates: February 14, 15, 16 2009
2008 Coconut Grove Survey Results - PDF file
