Heather
Elizabeth, a New Orleans artist, returned three months after Hurricane
Katrina, anxious to be home but unsure how she’d piece together
a living.
For years she’d gotten by as a tour guide for visitors then
plentiful in the French Quarter while selling her art on the side.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” Elizabeth said. “I
was sitting there crying to my mom and I said, ‘What am I gonna
do? How am I gonna make a living?’"
Elizabeth decided to commit full-time to her artistry: jewelry,
nightlights, belt buckles and various accoutrements with New Orleans
themes she peddles at art markets.
More than two years later, Elizabeth’s success exceeds her
expectations. Although she declined to reveal her annual earnings,
Elizabeth said she is making more than enough money to survive.
“It has been the most rewarding experience of my entire life,”
she said. “It really has just been amazing.”
Outside of the 60-plus hours she spends each week plying her trade,
Elizabeth attributes her success to the art markets in the metro
area. Seventy percent of her sales are made at these venues, she
said, with most of the remainder coming from her Web site, hedesigns.com.
“Without the art markets,” she said, “I wouldn’t
be able to do this for a living. I guess I’d be a secretary
or something.”
Metropolitan New Orleans is home to at least five art markets held
on a monthly or near-monthly basis on top of those held at fairs
and festivals throughout the year.
The markets offer a venue for artists to sell their wares and gain
exposure without the overhead required to rent exhibition space
or the fees commanded by a gallery.
Galleries exact as much as a 50 percent commission per work of art
sold, which can run into thousands of dollars. At the markets, vendors
pay only a monthly fee of $50 to $75 to participate.
Blake Vonder Haar, president of the New Orleans Conservation Guild,
founded the Bywater Art Market in May 2002. It was the only monthly
art market in the city at the time.
The first Bywater Art Market attracted 11 of Vonder Haar’s
artist friends. Six months later, the number of vendors had swelled
to 125, forcing the market’s move from the backyard of Vonder
Haar’s office to nearby Markey Park. She expects overall Bywater
art sales to top $1 million by June.
Gene Meneray is director of the arts business program for the nonprofit
Arts Council of New Orleans, which in June took over the Arts Market
of New Orleans, previously known as the Mid-City Art Market.
Meneray said the local art market growth over the years has been
interesting.
“All of a sudden it wasn’t just galleries pitching very
high-concept art to a small minority of the population,” Meneray
said. “You had these markets and fairs and festivals pitching
to a larger audience,” buyers who “may not be art aficionados,
but they want something well-made and beautiful.”
As many as two-thirds of Arts Market of New Orleans vendors make
their living almost exclusively by selling at art markets, Meneray
said. Some aren’t just scraping by.
“We have artists who make more than $100,000 a year doing these
markets,” Meneray said. “And that’s not just one
or two (artists), it’s a good number.”
New Orleans artist Darrin Butler, a painter and woodworker, said
he recently sold a $12,000 piece by agreeing to reduce the asking
price $2,000. Had his art been in a gallery, he said, he wouldn’t
have been able to make such a deal.
Butler described the democratic approach traditionally favored by
market organizers, allowing the artist who just recently picked
up a paintbrush to exhibit alongside more established peers, as
a turnoff for some. But he said the stigma once attached to art
markets as a place for less serious artisans has begun to fade as
artists make more money from them and market admissions standards
tightened.
The Bywater market, for example, turns down 70 percent of applicants
based on a juried selection process, Vonder Haar said. The Arts
Market of New Orleans has adopted a similar peer-review system.
Butler said some gallery owners have started to worry the outdoor
venues might cut into their profits. But Jonathan Ferrera of Jonathan
Ferrera Gallery on Julia Street said he’s not worried about
competition from art markets.
“I would say if anything what it does is create more of a dynamic
overall art market for the city,” Ferrera said. “There
are a lot more artists than there are galleries. There’s always
going to be less opportunity in the gallery setting.”•
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