LAA Spring Art Show 2012: Day 1
Today was the first day of the Livermore Art Association’s (LAA’s) Spring Art Show , the largest art show of the LAA year! It was an amazing success, especially when less-than-optimal weather was factored in. Once again, the teamwork that has been shown by LAA members all week long manifested itself in the actual “performance,” the first day of this year’s Spring Show!
And TOMORROW (Sunday, April 1) is the second and LAST day of this year’s show…. No foolin’! 😉
I mentioned the weather. I knew from forecasts and radar that at about the time that the show was to start… 10 AM… a strong storm front would pass through Livermore, with heavy winds and rain. After the front passed, there were a a few hours of clearing, followed by scattered showers. The meteorologists called it pretty well – except that the scattered showers included some strong storm cells, some with hail! 
Heck, you would think weather like that might slow down traffic to even an INDOOR show like this one – no way! There was a pretty constant stream of visitors all day, and people were buying art! I STRONGLY suspect that even MORE people were “scouting the show” before coming back on Sunday to make their purchases.
One thing that not all customers of art realize is that, in commercial galleries, the GALLERY owner takes 50-60% of the sale price, so the artists have to ask higher prices, because most of the money goes to the gallery, rather than the artist. LAA’s percentage is MUCH less, so that most of the purchase price actually goes to the artists, and customers save a great deal, because the asking price is much less!
Tonight, from 7-9 PM, I passed out awards to the prizewinners at the reception, which featured live music by RM Jazz. Livermore’s Mayor, John Marchand (a good man and friend of the arts), announced the city’s “Special Award” winners, whose works will hang in City Hall for one month. In addition, my co-chair, the incredibly versatile Angela Johal, announced gift certificate-winning volunteers whose names were pulled from a basket by two young girls who volunteered.
The reception was a really nice party, and it looked like a lot of people had a lot of fun! I had a lot of fun, too, because handing out awards and signing checks for artists are two of my favorite aspects of the president’s job! I performed several other enjoyable jobs today: connecting a customer and artist for a commissioned work, connecting a sculptor with a woman who would like art lessons in clay for her daughters, and emailing the photographer whose work took first place this year that his award-winning piece had been SOLD!
Soooooo… what is happening tomorrow? First off, the WEATHER is supposed to be MUCH BETTER – partly sunny with temperatures in the 60’s! I fully expect EVEN MORE people to attend the show than attended today.
If you are close to Livermore in northern California, come to the Spring Art Show at The Barn on Pacific Avenue on Sunday. No, it does not LOOK like a barn (THAT little fact confuses a LOT of people)! You can just follow the signs that I will set out first thing in the morning! The corrugated steel building is more like a quonset hut than an eastern barn, and it was built in 1922 and served on the first rodeo grounds in Livermore. Yes, I live in a “town” (80,000+ people) with an annual rodeo, the “world’s fastest.”
I hope to see you at The Barn!
-Bill at
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