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ARTIST FAQs
Q. How do I get a booth in the Arts Fair at Corvallis Fall Festival?
A. Applications are available for downloading in PDF version from our website February 1 each year, with a May 1 deadline. Jurors review each application and notifications are mailed to everyone by June 1.
Q. What are my chances of getting juried into the festival?
A. Relatively good! We have 170 artist booths. We invite a percentage of artists back who were top sellers, award winners or are local artist guild booths. We usually get 300-400 applicants for the 110-120 open slots.
Q. Why photos instead of slides and/or ZAPP?
A. We are a very small staff who has never relished the idea of filling slide trays, and do not have thousands of dollars to be a part of the ZAPP system. Our old fashioned photo system saves us time and you a big jury fee to pay for more staffing or to be a part of ZAPP.
Q. Who juries?
A. Our jurors are artists, art collectors/buyers, and stakeholders in the festival--10 individuals from the local community.
Q. I've applied a couple of times but have not been able to get in. Why?
A. Arts jurors are subjective by nature. Your artwork may be similar to something one of our invited artists already makes or it just wasn't your year. The director is happy to give feedback on your images/application and holds an annual mini-workshop on getting into festivals from her perspective being a fair/festival artist for 15 years.
Q. How much does a booth cost?
A. If you are accepted, the $100 booth fee holds your space and we also take a 15% commission on your gross sales at the festival.
Q. Can I get a double booth?
A. The majority of our spaces are 10x10s in a circle layout. We do have a few corners and double booths that we charge $140 & $155 respectively; however we only have a few and they typically go to returning artists who ask for them.
Q. Why still a commission on sales when everyone else has gone to flat fees?
A. With relatively low upfront fees we can be a "business incubator" for newer artists as well as attract those professionals who just want to give us a try. We reward our best sellers by not making them jury to return and having one show secured for next year seems to take the sting out of the bigger commission. We feel it is a win-win for artists and for us.
Q. How is my commission spent?
A. Corvallis Fall Festival is a not-for-profit event with the mission to help local arts and crafts thrive, while supporting, enhancing and giving visibility to the community. We take our partnership with our artists quite seriously. We target market to art lovers locally and throughout the region to ensure there is a good crowd of buyers. Our attendance is between 30,000 and 35,000. We try to put on a quality show while keeping our overhead low. Infrastructure for an event such as ours is not cheap, and we continue to try and make improvements so everyone has an enjoyable weekend.
In good years the festival gives back to the community via public art and park improvements, student art awards and other beneficial projects.
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