Let’s fix what’s broken

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boulderbrook productions
po box 990
naples,fl 34106
239-293-9448
boulderbrookproductions@gmail.com

Lately I have been hearing that many art festivals and promoters are actually cashing your booth fee payments and not giving you any reasonable period of time to ask for a refund. Many artists apply to several shows on a date to ensure that they have an option. This is very understandable, but what I have been hearing is if the artist is fortunate to be accepted into all the shows that they apply to on a weekend, they are not able to get their funds back from the events that they can not do. If an artist cancels after a certain time it is understandable that they will not receive all of their funds back, if it is really late they should understand, and do, that they may have forfeited all of their funds.

For events to corner you into participating because they have your money and won’t give it back is a very shady business practice. You should not tolerate it.

Read our Refund Policy and see if you agree with it, let us know if you think there are some things we can do to make it better.

boulderbrook believes this is nonsense and is a policy that artists should not permit. All art festivals should give you notice that you have been accepted and they will deposit your fee in x number of days. If you contact them they should gladly return your payment up to that date. They also should have a few week period of time for you to ask for a refund after the checks are deposited. How else can they expect you to develop a schedule and how can they keep your funds when you notify them and ask for it back at a reasonable time.

When art festivals were established back in the sixties they were begun as vehicles to bring artwork and the people that created it to locations all over. The festivals were developed to expose people to the talented artists and give the artists a method of presenting their work directly to the festival patron. The early festivals were steeped in integrity and they were designed to be noble events. As time went by the flourishing of the events gave artists tremendous opportunity to reach countless clients and the art lovers. Then came the propagation of events everywhere, the events lost their focus and became income generators. Private promoters stepped in and turned the events into massive and constant events to turn a profit. Multiple events in the same locations week after week watered down the market and low quality events started to rub off on the high quality events. Events suffered and the quality of festivals and the work being displayed fell.

Today there are festivals every weekend all over the country and many are promoted as art festivals but they are in fact just festivals, some have very little concern for the art, The system has been on a downward spiral for the past decade. Events have grown too large and are occurring to frequently. Are there really enough artists to fill 300 participant shows at three locations each week? Is it fair for a promoter to have so many artists competing for fewer dollars. When is enough enough? With so many artists in one show there is a definite fall off of quality, and because of that shows have turned a blind eye to buy/sell and mass produced pieces. There are a number of shows that we have visited where the displays are full of reproductions and there isn’t an original in sight in the majority of the displays. The public has been confused and misled. Serious patrons are turning away. The rules are no longer enforced and the artists are suffering while the events are generating more and more revenue for the promoters who look at the artists as dollars not as their clients.

When an art festival or an art festival promoter no longer cares about the art, these events just become events. There is no art festival without the most important asset, the artist.

boulderbrook productions believes that it is time to do something about it. At the art festivals that Richard Sullivan produces we hope that we can be fair to everyone and help creative people succeed. We are developing a series of events that will have a maximum number of participants, 150 maximum, but we hope to build many that are limited to 65-95 participants. We believe that these numbers make it easier to handle artists parking, patron parking, set-up, and logistics. We believe that these numbers will mean that we can target art buyers who are interested in art rather than advertise the shows to the masses. We wish to create events that are the proper size and scale for the locations and communities where they are held. Who cares if 50,000 people walk through an art festival if they are there just as a diversion. We want our shows to bring you qualified art lovers, people you can talk to and speak to rather than just show to. We associate all of our events with local art-based and community-not-for profits where we help bring exposure and much needed income to these organizations. Our association with these organization ties our events to the community. We become obligated, responsible, fund raisers for worthwhile programs in every community,

Bigger does not necessarily mean better, more does not always equate to greater success. There is a civilized way to operate an art festival where it is beneficial to everyone, much like they were operated back in the beginning and we intend to do so and keep them that way.

By the end of 2008 we hope to have added two-three more events where quality matters, where artists are treated with respect and as the focal point of the events. At boulderbrook we have one guiding principle; if it is better for the artists do it, if it is not, don’t.