The Changing Art Market

While I was hauling in my booth gear for Gaithersburg a I saw a group of older women artists wearing these shirts that seemed to be made of shredded rags very ornately colored and sewn together. I was tempted to ask them what they wearing- maybe as a less rude way of asking them why they were wearing them. I later realized that one of the artists on my floor made these shirts. An artist in the booth next to me also made women's clothing. His work seemed like dated futuristic costumery- maybe something out of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I didn't understand it or see why anyone would like it. But I realized over the course of the festival that he had a loyal clientele. I also observed other women about his age range (baby boomers and older) exclaiming about his work as they passed. I asked him how business was going. He said it was in a long term decline- having peaked in the late 90s. Other old-timers who sold other kinds of work said the same thing.

For someone just starting out on the festival circuit this was discouraging to hear. I had read in one of my art festival guides about certain areas becoming exhausted or worn out for art sales. Gaithersburg is said to be one of these markets. But this is more than simply a problem with specific markets. This phenomenon afflicts the art festival circuit across the nation. I asked a number of the seasoned artists about this and they all gave the same answer- the generations that bought their work are now "full" of art. Not only that but many of them are downsizing their homes as they retire and the last thing they need is more art. They also complained that the younger generations didn't seem to go for their work the way their parents did. Here theories diverged as to why this is. Some said the festival circuit needs fresh blood- a younger generation of artists to be connecting with the younger generations of patrons. Other artists suggested it was a deficiency with "the youth today" and that their parents weren't teaching them to value and patronize the arts. Maybe they're too into their Ipods and other electronic gizmos. Maybe there're too many channels on cable TV now-a-days and that keeps them culturally malnourished.

From what I've seen so far (and I fully concede that I'm still wet behind the ears with the festival circuit) the younger generations are in fact quite interested in art. But I don't think that the work that has been sold by the old-timers for the past of couple of decades always connects with the younger generations of patrons. I wonder if the artists that sell via the circuit are in an insular world. They've cultivated the clientele that likes their work but have otherwise been oblivious to the changing demographics and tastes of the larger society. Maybe these artists have to reinvent themselves every so often or they remain prisoners to the tastes of a particular generation.

I'm not worried about this trend for myself. From my experience so far I sense that I'm on a different trajectory than these artists- that I'm facing a growing clientele rather than a shrinking one. And while the appeal of my work is restricted to the more culturally sophisticated I'm fortunate in that it has no age constraints. It attracts the interest of members of every age group from toddlers to retirees. But this is a serious problem for some of the established artists. I'm not sure what they will do- or what they can do. Hopefully they will find a way to adapt.