Cash me outside.
It’s almost the end of May and this is my first blog post of the year. One of my resolutions was to post more, so obviously—we’re right on track.
I had the usual health and wellness goals too, plus some art resolutions, but there’s one in particular that I’m actually excited about: I’m determined to do an art booth this year. Like, a real booth at a market, fair, or festival-type situation.
Here in Vancouver, we’ve got a small gallery system—but honestly? It’s 100% old white lady art for old white ladies. Landscapes, still lifes, and acrylic pours. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but the market is flooded. That’s pretty much all we’ve got right now.
Back in 2007 or so, Vancouver had a rockin’ little art scene. Space was still cheap, and there was a good balance between contemporary work, fun little art collectives, and the more traditional galleries. These days, First Friday art walks feel kinda sleepy. Lots of grey hair. Not a ton of young energy. Nothing really drawing folks downtown.
So yeah—I’m frustrated by the circuit. And I think I’m just gonna go around it.
Step one? Test the waters. The demographics around here have shifted a lot over the past few years. Is there a market for contemporary art? A booth feels like the perfect way to find out.
Last summer, I entered a couple paintings in the Vancouver Arts & Music Festival—and I actually won an award! So this year, I applied for a booth spot at the 2025 Festival—and got accepted. Since the moment I got that email, I’ve been planning. This is my first time doing any kind of booth setup, so I’m learning everything from scratch.
The first thing I did was raid YouTube for info and set a budget. My total budget is $3,000—not bad for a small business start-up. YouTube was super helpful; there are several art-centric channels that deal with booths, art fairs, and tent setups. The tent itself was reasonably cheap (under $300), but you can’t really hang art on the soft tent walls, so you have to buy proper display walls, then bungee balls, crossbars to keep everything tight, lights, folding tables, etc.—that alone ate up almost a third of my budget.
Inventory is the trickiest part. I’m working with ChatGPT to help figure it out (shout-out, Nova), and luckily I’ve got a bit of sales data from past pop-ups and web sales. That should help me determine which pieces are more popular and how to order accordingly. I really want to make my art accessible, so I’ll be offering stuff at every price point—from $2 stickers to $2,500 originals.
I’m planning to feature three different series: Dead Poets Society, The Old Gods, and the debut of a new series called Hood Neighbors. I’m dedicating one wall of my tent to each series. I’ll be offering stickers, framed and unframed prints, and originals. I’m also planning to photograph and upload every original I have in stock to my web store. All the stickers, prints, and other items I’ll be selling at the booth will be available online too. That way, if I sell out of a specific print, I can point people to the site.
It’s all very exciting, and I’m really looking forward to getting my art in front of so many eyes. I’ll keep you posted on how things are going throughout the summer.
