Sunshine Artist Magazine has announced the release of its 2023 200 Best, ranking the most profitable art and craft festivals in the country based on artists’ reported sales in 2022.
The Carrollton Center for the Arts/Carrollton Artists Guild’s Arts Festival of Carrollton, (October 14 – 15 this year), ranked No. 14 in the Fine Art and Design Show category.
“It is an honor to be selected by the Sunshine Artists as one of the top 200 Arts Festivals in the country,” said Center for the Arts Manager Tim Chapman.
Artists cast their votes from February through April to nominate their highest money-making shows from 2022. The ballot asked artists to list the 10 most profitable art and/or craft shows they exhibited at during the previous year, indicate their level of gross sales at each event and note whether they considered themselves fine artists or craftspeople for each event. The results were tabulated using a weighted scale based on four sales levels to ensure all events competed against each other fairly.
“All of us on the festival committee are thrilled the arts festival has been voted onto the national Best 200 list,” said festival organizer Don McWhorter. “There are thousands of shows and festivals out there. The voters were our participating artists. We thank the artists for their hard work and creativity in making their wonderful art or fine craft. Receiving their votes to this level is humbling.”
The focus is solely on artists’ show revenue, because that is the most objective indicator of a show’s future success. Subjective attributes, such as artist treatment, amenities, attendance levels, management, and overall quality, can impact sales but are harder to gauge.
“I believe our unparalleled hospitality and attention to artists’ details also contributes to their enthusiasm for our festival,” McWhorter said. “I think this reflects the efforts of the dedicated festival managers – some of whom have been with the festival since the beginning 20 years ago, the Arts Festival Committee, The Artist Guild of Carrollton, the enthusiastic support of the City of Carrollton and this incredible community of art supporters.”
Launched in 1993, Sunshine Artist’s 200 Best is split into two categories: Fine Art and Design for events that focus on unique, fine-art pieces and Classic and Contemporary Craft for events that focus on traditional or modern craft and production work.
Information about all the shows that made this year’s 200 Best list is available in Sunshine Artist’s August/September 2023 issue, as well as online at https://sunshineartist.com/200-best.
