Etsy takes over art domain, art festival numbers drop all artist want to sell on Etsy and Paddle8, Art Auction Site, Sees Growth

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COLUMBIA — The 57th annual Art in the Park festival will take place this weekend
at Stephens Lake Park, but the number of exhibitors and attendees at the festiva
l has declined in recent years.

"All over the country, festival numbers are dwindling," said Diana Moxon,
director of the Columbia Art League, which sponsors Art in the Park. "A lo
t of artists are going to Etsy; they're looking for where they can maximize
their profits. We lose artists to that online business model."

In a 2013 survey of Etsy sellers, 55 percent said they started their Etsy
shops because of the flexibility they offer.

Jennifer Johansson has participated in Art in the Park and has owned an
Etsy shop since 2008. She said she recognizes that art festivals are
becoming obsolete but mourns their decline.

"I sell so much more when people see my work," Johansson said. "I do
way more in a weekend at a show than I do in a year on Etsy. But it's
getting harder to make any money at a fair. For a long time I thought
that was because of the recession, but now I don't know. Art is still
a hard sell for some people."

Art in the Park normally receives upward of 200 entries, but this year
the festival only received about 170, Moxon said.

Johansson said she is looking for other options to sell her art. She
plans to create a website on Squarespace but labels herself as a
people person who enjoys selling her products face-to-face.


"I enjoy the social aspect of selling in person," Johansson said.
"That's lost on Etsy. Not to mention a major problem with Etsy as a
seller — a customer can so easily be taken from your shop to someone
else's in a matter of clicks. All of the suggestions, the boxes on the
side, they distract. That's the Internet."

Columbia resident Sharon Fischer has had an Etsy shop since 2009 and
has also sold her crocheted afghans at art festivals. Fischer used to
sell three to five afghans a year, but since joining Etsy, she has sold 146.

"As a seller, art festivals are burdensome," Fischer said. "It makes
for a long weekend. On Etsy someone sends me an email, and all I have
to do is pull the item off the shelf, go to the post office and I'm done."

Fischer has sold her products to customers in numerous states and
countries, including Alaska and France.

"The reach on the Internet is just phenomenal," Fischer said. "At
art festivals you have to haul it all there and back. Using the

Internet, you've got the world at your feet, and people can find you."

Johansson said Etsy provides another advantage festivals cannot: analytics.

"On Etsy I can see whether people are coming from Pinterest, Facebook,
etc.," Johansson said. "It helps me figure out where customers are
coming from, what they want, what works."

Moxon said Art in the Park has something for everyone, but for the
festival to continue, people need to buy the art.

Supervising editors are Katherine Reed and Allison Wrabel.
-----------------------------------------
PASDDLE 8

It’s still an open question whether high-end art buying on the Internet will
take off. But one online auction site, Paddle8, says it is enjoying a bit
of a breakthrough. Its highest price points are rising, regularly breaking
$100,000, according to Kate Brambilla, a senior director of business development.
And as both buyers and consignors become more comfortable with the Web, the
site is seeing a rising trend of single-owner sales — those where a single
collector is willing to consign a group of works to the auction house for
sale at once.

Paddle8 is selling 72 works from the collection of the Swiss-based collector
Bibi Gritti, until June 15. It features 10 works valued at more than $100,000.

“Four years in, and this is a natural progression for us,” Ms. Brambilla said.


She said consignors like that a virtual auction can be arranged at relatively
short notice: Sellers don’t have to follow the fixed auction timetables of the
traditional auction houses.

Ms. Gritti, who said she had previously never bought or sold any art through
the web, said the online house was more willing to put its efforts behind
selling all her offerings, including those at lower prices, and not just
cherry-picking the best ones. “They could also bring the collection to auction
in a fraction of the time,” she said.

Paddle8 held a single-owner auction in December — from the collection of
the arts patron Christophe de Menil — and has sales coming up from the
collection of the gallerist Tim Nye, in July, and from the retail entrepreneur
Andy Spade, in the fall.