The modern art festival world offers artists more opportunities than ever before. Unfortunately, it has also created more opportunities for scammers. Every year artists lose money, personal information, and even inventory because someone sounded professional, used a familiar festival name, or created a convincing social media account. The difficult part is that scams rarely look…

There are only a few things in life more powerful than weather. One is a toddler with a permanent marker. Another is a group text among artists at 5:12 a.m. asking whether the show is “still happening” because there is a cloud visible on the horizon (or god forbid on Apple Weather). Festival weather has…

Rejection is part of the juried art festival world, and no matter how experienced an artist becomes, it never feels good. You open the email, scan for congratulations, and when it is not there, the reaction is immediate. The disappointment is real and it deserves to be acknowledged. What matters most is what happens next.…

There is a quiet, unspoken moment at every art festival directors conference when a room full of otherwise composed, highly competent adults begins to look like people who have collectively just stepped on the same rake. This year (2026), in Lubbock, that moment arrived right after coffee, when the conversation turned to a deceptively simple…

When you’re selling artwork in person and accepting payments on-site, the convenience of mobile payment systems is great—but so are the fraud risks. Below is an updated overview of relevant threats (including credit card fraud, charge-back schemes and “cash back”-type manipulations) followed by five actionable strategies you can implement at your booth to protect yourself…

For many artists, talking about the price of their work is one of the most uncomfortable parts of the creative business. There’s a familiar internal tug-of-war: you want your art to be accessible, yet it also reflects hours of labor, years of experience, and materials that aren’t free. Too often, this discomfort leads to apologetic…

One of the most important yet misunderstood aspects of running an art business is pricing. For many artists, it feels like a guessing game—part emotion, part hope, and often, too much compromise. But pricing shouldn’t be arbitrary. It should reflect your time, training, materials, and the reality that you are a working professional. Artists deserve…

For experienced festival artists, the cycle of the art show season often becomes second nature — from applications and booth planning to engaging with patrons and wrapping up on Sunday evening. Yet amid this routine lies one of the most valuable tools for long-term success: live, unfiltered audience feedback. Over the course of a weekend,…

As someone who works closely with artists — producing shows, serving on jury panels, and attending art shows as a patron — I’m often part of conversations around artistic voice. What does that really mean? How important is it? And how does it translate — to a jury reviewing applications or to a patron stepping…