E91 Transcript
Most makers have a complicated relationship with the idea of doing a show. Some have done a few and are trying to figure out if they're worth the effort. Some have had one go sideways and are wondering whether to try again. Some haven't done one yet and the whole thing feels like more than they can take on right now. And some are actively building their show roster right now and making real decisions about what stays in and what comes out.
This episode is for all of you. Because the question underneath all of those situations is the same one. How do you know which show is worth your time, your money, and your energy - if any?
There is a framework I use for that. And today I want to help you build one for yourself.
Now I want to make sure we're all on the same page going in.
I am not saying everyone should do shows. They’re not for everyone. They’re not appropriate for every maker or every kind of work or every season of a practice. And they’re absolutely not necessary for building a serious creative practice or a viable business around your work. Plenty of makers do very well without them entirely.
But they can be a very viable and rewarding part of a successful practice and business.
So, if shows are not part of your plan - that is a completely legitimate choice, and this episode is not here to talk you out of that.
However, I do want to say this. The framework I'm about to walk you through is transferable. Even if you have decided that shows are not for you, the questions I'm going to ask about how to evaluate a show are the same questions worth asking about any placement decision. A gallery. A pop-up. A collaborative event. An online marketplace. Anywhere you're considering putting your work in front of buyers - the framework applies.
So, stay with me even if the show part isn't yours.
Now. I do want to say something about excuses. Because there is a very fine line between a genuine reason not to do a show and an excuse dressed up as one. And it’s extremely easy to confuse the two - especially when the excuse is comfortable and the real reason would require admitting some fear underneath.
Too old. My mother did shows well into her seventies and we have a clay artist who participates in the guild shows who is 82. Age may not be the variable you think it is.
Too hard. The local boy scout troop needs merit badges and helping a show set up is a golden opportunity. The logistics of a show are learnable. Hard is not the same as impossible.
I'd have to buy too much stuff. Maybe. But the use-what-you-have approach works more often than people expect. Most of the display infrastructure you actually need can be assembled gradually and amortized across many shows. My first show- a couple of borrowed cards table and a set of black sheets. The first show does not require perfection.
I'm not saying any of this to dismiss real obstacles. Real obstacles exist and they should be respected. But a genuine reason not to do a show is specific and it’s honest. An excuse is vague and comfortable. And knowing the difference is your job, not mine.
Let me reframe something before we get into the questions because I think most people view shows through the wrong lens entirely.
The default frame is this: a show is a sales event. You go, you sell things, you come home, you count the money, you decide if it was worth it based on whether the sales covered the costs. Pass or fail. Worth it or not.
That frame is not wrong entirely. But it is incomplete in a way that leads to bad decisions.
A show is not just a sales event. Depending on which show, which audience, and where you are in your practice, it might be a visibility event. A relationship building event. A seed planting event. A community event. A testing ground for new work or new price points or a new set-up. And sometimes - yes - a direct revenue event. Often, it's several of those things at once, but not in equal measure.
I'll give you a concrete example from my own experience. I’ve said this before, but after one of my shows I had a mother reach out online and purchase a piece for her daughter as a gift. The daughter had seen the piece at the show and loved it. The mother had taken one of my cards and then bought it as a gift weeks later. That sales didn’t happen AT the show. But that sale would not have happened without the show. It happened because the work was visible and findable later. That show planted a seed. The online presence harvested it.
I've also had people join my classes because they saw my work at a show. They discovered me as an instructor through a show. They saw the work and said, “I want to be able to do that. I want to learn from her.”
Neither of those is a same-day sale. Both of them are the show doing its ‘visibility’ job.
Once you know what role a show is meant to play in your practice the criteria for evaluating it changes. And the definition of success changes with it.
One more thing before I forget. I recommend giving any show at least two to three tries before you write it off. There are too many variables outside your control - weather, competing events, foot traffic fluctuations, time of year - that can skew the financial results of any single showing. If a show runs in multiple seasons, try different ones before you decide. Give it a fair sample before you make a final call.
Okay, let’s get into the meat of this whole episode. I’m going to go through the questions I ask whenever I am considering another show or event. I have a free download for you that has all of these in it. I’ll put the link in the show notes, or you can go to virginialeighstudio.com/showframework.
Okay - Question one: who does this venue already serve?
Not who attends the show. Who is the venue's primary audience in its normal life?
A museum attracts people who value original art and have the means and inclination to engage with it. A cultural center in an affluent neighborhood attracts people with disposable income and aesthetic sensibility. A rodeo ground attracts a specific demographic that may or may not overlap with people who buy handmade fiber art. These are different pools and knowing which one you're fishing in before you pay the booth fee matters enormously.
Now there is a nuance worth adding. Some venues are rental venues - meaning the space itself doesn't have a primary audience of its own. When an organization rents an event hall, or an open park space, or even the rodeo grounds during the off season, to run a show the research target shifts a little. Not entirely, but a little. It's the sponsoring organization you also need to understand. Who are their members? Who do they market to? What is their mission and their community? That's the audience pool you need to consider.
But the location still matters as a secondary factor. The neighborhood around a venue can draw walk-in traffic independent of who was specifically invited. A show in an affluent arts-adjacent neighborhood will attract different walk-in traffic than a show in a strip mall parking lot even if the sponsoring organization is the same. Both factors - the organization and the location - are worth researching.
Who comes here when it's not a show? Who does the sponsoring organization serve? Is the neighborhood likely to produce walk-in traffic from the right buyer for my work?
My own examples. The museum - affluent neighborhood, proximity to one of the most exclusive shopping centers in Dallas, an existing audience of people who engage with art. Right pool. The marketing failure was the problem, not the audience. The Bathhouse Cultural Center - an arts and culture focused institution with its own committed audience. Worth trying. The Denton festival on the rodeo grounds - I'm going to scout it this week before I apply because I genuinely don't know yet whether this particular event draws a different crowd than the venue's usual one. I'll know more after an hour there than I could learn from any amount of research.
Question two: Who is actually doing the marketing and what does that look like specifically?
This is the question I skipped before my second museum show. It is now non-negotiable before any commitment I make.
Not just "is there marketing." Specifically, who is doing it, to whom, through what channels, reaching what people and how many people.
The museum show taught me this lesson directly and expensively. No public advertising. No printed collateral. The show was invisible to the audience it needed to reach.
What you want to know before you commit: are they emailing their membership and how large is that list? Are they running paid advertising and in what geographic radius? Is there printed collateral - postcards, flyers, posters - and who is distributing them? Are community partners involved? What was the actual foot traffic at the last iteration of this specific show - not the venue's general traffic, this show specifically?
Question three: what is the show's track record under its current leadership?
Historical success is not the same as current trajectory.
The museum show was a massive success under one coordinator. She built something that worked. She retired, gave them all her notes, and they chose not to follow them. New information I've received since indicates they may have no intention of changing their approach. A show that was magnificent under one person's leadership and has quietly declined since is a different show than it appears on paper. More research will be done here.
Here’s what to look for: how long has the current organizer been running this show? Were they involved when it was at its best? Is there any indication they seek and use feedback from participating artists? Do they have genuine institutional knowledge of what made the show work or are they operating from assumptions?
This one is harder to research in advance than the others. But asking participating artists - which we'll get to in question five - will surface it.
Question four: what price point has this audience demonstrated they will pay?
Not what you want to charge. What this specific audience has shown up and actually paid for work at previous iterations of this show.
General craft fairs typically attract buyers looking to spend under fifty dollars. Fine arts festivals attract collectors willing to invest in original work at significant price points. Guild shows have mixed audiences that often require product category separation - which is something I now do deliberately. My higher end fiber art in its own space where I am present to speak directly with the audience. More accessible sewn goods at a separate shared table in the larger communal space. Different price points, different buyers, different conversations. Keeping them separate protects the perceived value of the higher-end work and serves the buyer for each category more directly.
Try to find out what moved at this show last year. What price points were actually working? What does the demographic of buyers who purchased look like? Again - the scouting visit and artist conversations will tell you more than any application description. The guild does give me a report after each show, and I know that those who had their own tent fared better than those in the shared space. I know the tolerated price points in the shared space are much lower than in the private tents.
Question five: can you go see it as a visitor before you apply as an artist?
This is standard practice for me. Not optional when at all possible.
Here is what I actually do when I scout a show. The first walk through is general - overall visual impression, energy of the crowd, density of foot traffic, how the show is laid out, whether it feels alive or sleepy.
The second pass is where the real research happens. I'm looking at product selection across the show - what categories of work are represented and at what price points. I'm watching customer posture - are people carrying bags out of tents or are they walking past displays from ten feet away without stopping? Bags being carried means buying is happening. People admiring from a distance means browsing without committing. Those are very different shows.
And I talk to artists. Not a quick hello - a real conversation. I'm genuinely curious about their work and their experience and that curiosity opens doors. I ask how long they've been doing this show, what they think of it, whether they find it worthwhile beyond just the financial return, how it compares to other shows they've done. Artists who have been doing a show for three or four years and keep coming back are telling you something. An artist who says they'd come back next year if accepted? That tells you everything you need to know. Artists who are there for the first time and already seem uncertain are telling you something else.
An hour at the show as a visitor can tell you a lot more if you’re willing to go in for information, not just the shopping.
Question six: what role does this show play in your overall ecosystem?
Every show in your roster should have a clear answer to this question before you commit.
A Direct revenue show - you expect to cover costs and come home with profit. These are the anchor shows, the ones with proven track records and the right audience at the right price point. These are probably going to be the ones that you’ve been in a few times and have an overall good experience with. The Guild show serves this purpose for me.
A Visibility show - the primary value is being seen by the right people. Seeds get planted that germinate later on down the line, at the next show, or through word of mouth. The Hanukkah story. The returning visitor. Those are visibility shows doing their job even when the direct revenue doesn't reflect it.
A Community show – again, the Guild show for me. Being a visible part of your artistic community has value that extends well beyond any single transaction. Relationships. Peer recognition. Being known as someone who shows up consistently. And I'll add something here - bringing my sewn goods to a well-marketed Guild show has dramatically increased exposure for my sewing program and brought revenue through indirect channels I couldn't have predicted in advance. The ecosystem effects aren't always obvious until they show up.
A Testing show - trying new work, new price points, new display approaches in a lower-stakes environment before committing to a higher investment show.
Knowing which role a show is meant to play before you do it changes what success looks like. A visibility show that produces modest direct revenue is not a failed show if it did what you sent it to do.
Question seven: what does total commitment actually cost?
Not just the booth fee. The complete picture.
You’ve got Time cost: the application process, preparation and inventory management, travel, setup, the show itself, breakdown, and physical recovery afterward.
You’ve got Money: booth fee, jury fee if applicable, display equipment amortized across all the shows you'll use it for, product inventory, travel, food, any help you bring in.
You’ve got Opportunity cost: what else could that time and money produce? This is the hardest to calculate and the most important to at least consider realistically.
And then there is the cost most people forget to put on the other side of the ledger. The cost of not doing it.
Saying no to a show because of the initial investment is a decision with real consequences. An initial loss, then break even, then who knows - is a legitimate business trajectory. Most people abandon it at the initial loss phase and never find out what the who knows could have been. That cost - the opportunity never taken, the audience never reached, the seeds never planted - is just as expensive as the booth fee, maybe even more. It just doesn't show up on a receipt.
The worksheet that accompanies this episode walks through all of this. Get it at virginialeighstudio.com/showframework. I’ll link it in the show notes. Fill it out for every show or event you're evaluating. It’s free to download.
Once you have the framework the next step is thinking about your show roster as something you actively manage rather than something you accumulate by default.
And it needs to be managed within your total practice or business footprint - not in isolation.
How does doing a show affect inventory in your other sales channels? If you have pieces in a gallery, an online shop, a booth at an antique mall, a corner of a local shop, a listing on a Google doc that you link share to - how does that inventory interact with what you bring to a show? Can those other channels help market the show before it happens? Can the show drive traffic back to those channels afterward? How do they work together rather than compete with each other?
For me this is a real and ongoing consideration. I have an online shop. I have pieces currently hanging in a gallery that are still available for sale. What I bring to a show has to be considered within that larger picture. The show is one part of a connected whole.
Shows earn their place in the roster. And they can lose it as well.
Truth be told, the museum show is currently on probation. I said publicly after the July show that I intended to go back. But the new information about the change in coordinator has changed that picture. What’s happening now might be an organizational problem and it's a legitimate reason to reconsider. The final call will be made once the call for entries comes out and we see what we’re working with. Changing your mind when the information changes is not inconsistency. It's how good decisions actually work.
The Bathhouse Cultural Center is a new addition based on a trusted recommendation and strong institutional marketing. Worth trying.
The Guild show is an anchor. Community value, consistent audience, product category separation now in place.
Denton festival - pending the scouting visit in the next couple weeks.
That's a living roster. Things go in. Things come out. Things go on probation. Things get promoted from scouting to applying. It gets reviewed and adjusted as the information changes.
Coming back to the makers who haven't done a show yet and find the whole idea slightly overwhelming.
The framework is the solution to that feeling. When you have seven specific questions to answer it stops being this big, vague frightening thing and becomes a series of solvable problems. You either have good answers to the questions, or you don't. If you do - the show is probably worth trying. If you don't - you go find the answers or you pass on this one for now until you do. Maybe you’ll find something else that’s a better fit.
I get the vulnerability piece. I really do. You will put your work in front of strangers who might walk right past it. Yes, that is exposing. The makers who keep showing up are the ones who learned to separate that response from their own worth. Most often, the lack of response is not about your work. It’s about whatever is happening in their lives right now. One slow show is data not a verdict. We covered that in episode 86 - go back and listen if you haven't.
The first show teaches you things no amount of preparation can. Your display will be slightly off. Your product mix will need adjusting. You'll forget something. All of that is completely normal and completely fixable. The only way to learn it is to do it. And once you’ve done it, you never have to do it ‘for the first time’ ever again.
Start small. Lower booth fee. Lower pressure. A show where the stakes of getting it wrong are manageable. Use the framework to pick it. Go do it. You’ll know more after one show than you do right now regardless of how the financials land.
Remember, a show is not just a sales event. It's a decision that has so many more roles to play. And like every decision it deserves a clear framework rather than a gut feeling masquerading as strategy.
Seven questions. Who does the venue serve. Who is marketing it and how. What is the track record under current leadership. What price points does this audience support. Have you seen it as a visitor. What role does it play in your ecosystem. And what does total commitment actually cost - including the cost of not doing it.
Get the worksheet. Use it every time. Build a roster you manage deliberately rather than one you accumulate by accident.
And if you're not doing shows at all - check those excuses. A genuine reason is specific. An excuse is comfortable. You know the difference when you look at it.
I'll see you right here next week.
