Tina Rausa
Managing Director
A message from the Managing Director
This is my second season as Managing Director of the Craft Shows at Chautauqua and I am excited about all of the new developments. I appreciate all the positive feed back that we have received regarding last years shows and am grateful for all of the constructive criticism that was offered. It has all been very helpful as we move forward in 2010 with the continued goal of improving our service to both participants and the public.
Posted — July 16, 2010
OPEN LETTER
Dear Exhibitors and Patrons,
Preparations for the August Craft Show are underway and we want to thank all of our July participants for an enormously successful July Craft Show.
Thank you to all of those who filled out Exhibitor’s Feed Back Forms. Your feedback is enormously important in helping us to further our goal of consistently improving the quality or our shows for both exhibitors and the public.
63 out of 72 reports were handed back. Out of the 63 reports the average amount of sales was $3,126 with a High of $8000 and a Low of $500.
Rest assured that wherever possible we will address the issues expressed on your feedback forms. Unfortunately some issues such as set up the day before and sales before noon on Sundays are out of our control due to restrictions place on us by Chautauqua Institution.
We are also delighted with the success of our advertising campaign this year and with the articles that covered the event.
http://www.observertoday.com July 10, 2010 “Crafts Alliance”
http://www.ciweb.org/the-chautauquan-daily-archives/july-2010/ July 7, 2010
http://www.thevillagerny.com/archive The Lakeside Edition July 8th, 2010
Once again thank you for your contribution to Our July 2010 Craft Show.
Posted — March 20, 2010
TENTATIVE 2011 CRAFT SHOW DATES
July 8-10 & August 12-14
Application window: Saturday, January 1 through Sunday, February 27. We think that placing the deadline for completion of the application on a weekend will make it easier for folks to comply without interrupting studio time. Once again this timetable will allow us to notify applicants of their status by the middle of March.
Posted — March 15, 2010
HOTEL ROOMS RESERVED FOR 2010 SEASON
A small block of hotel rooms have been reserved at Chautauqua Suites. A discount off of the regular rate is offered to Craft Show Participants who book by June 1. This lovely venue for lodging is extremely convenient to the craft show venue and has the added benefit of a fine restaurant on the premises. A list of additional lodging sites will be provided with the notification letters.
Posted — March 15, 2010
2010 CRAFT SHOW PARTICIPANTS SELECTED
This year our selection panel consisted of three highly qualified individuals. One is recently retired from a career managing the museum store for an important museum. She currently lives in Portland, Oregon. Another, a professional jeweler from West Virginia, exhibits widely in significant craft shows. The third, hailing from Massachusetts, is an award wining fiber artist. Together this group represents over 100 years of experience in the world of contemporary craft art. Each of these reviewers did their work at home, another benefit of Slide Room. We use the information thus provided to constitute the Craft Shows. It is the intent of the Crafts Alliance to vary the selection panel from year to year. Thus, applicants who were not included this year are encouraged to re-apply for the next season.
Posted — March 7, 2010
NEW DEVELOPMENTS
A significant change this year has been our employment of Slide Room.com to manage the application materials. Ninety percent of the applicants found the service to be simple and easy to use. We successfully assisted all of the rest to make it through. Slide Room management has urged us to recommend that applicants contact them directly for assistance since they have technicians at the ready for that purpose. From the management side of the process we have found the service to be extremely useful in handling all of the information, a vast improvement over what we were doing before.
To promote the Craft Shows this season, we have purchased a half page ad in the Chautauqua Vacationlands Visitors Guide. 125,000 copies have been printed. We are very pleased with the ad prepared by our designer, Kyle Morrissey.
We have always found word of mouth to be the most successful method of advertising. When we polled the '09 participants we learned that all of the new ones had been encouraged to apply by folks who knew the show. In addition to print advertising for the public, I have begun visiting the area Rotory Clubs to give presentations about the Craft Alliance and its Craft Shows at Chautauqua. We hope that this will be a very effective way to spread the word about our gem of a show.