Shelter Island Art Show and Craft Fair Saturday August 23rd

"The time has come, the walrus said ..." in less than a week Peter and I will be in our first outdoor art festival. The 51st Outdoor Shelter Island Art Show and Craft Fair will be on the school grounds at the junction of Route 114 and School Street on Saturday August 23rd between 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. As you can imagine we are excited and nervous, there are a lot more moving parts to doing this than one would imagine.

Of course, one first must get the tent and learn how to put it up and take it down. First time out of the box it took about 4 hours to get the tent up and about 2 to take it down.
Second time, it took about half that time and that rehearsal included adding tables and basket displays as well as hanging almost all of the art.

We're allowed to start setting up at 6:00 a.m. on the day of the show and must be open for business by no later than 10:00 a.m. We're prohibited from breaking down before 5:00 p.m. and are told that we must be gone by 6:00 p.m. This is going to be a real challenge in organization and logistics. We can park along Route 114 and carry our equipment and art to our location (B14) but we cannot drive on the grass to get closer. We'll erect the tent first and won't want the art left on the grass, so we may have to do some sort of relay, which could be a sticky wicket as we must park in a field at the back of the school property, a significant distance away, while putting up the tent.

Weather is a big question mark which has us on pins and needles. Yesterday Peter saw on Accu-weather that we should have "sprinkles" and winds with gusts up to 39 mph but this morning the report is for "partly sunny", a high of 77℉ and wind gusts of only 11 mph. The organizer for this event says "it doesn't rain when I throw a party" and I'm hoping beyond hope that she's right. Doing this all AND fighting the elements the first time out, will make for some very unhappy campers.

In addition to the venue items mentioned above, we have tablecloths, fans, windex and paper towels, clamps to keep things from flapping or flying, bubble wrap to protect large items purchased and packing tape, shopping bags in three sizes with our sticker on them, sales receipts and our charge card cube and, of course, the iPhone charger, WD40 to keep things sliding together easily, duct tape for holding things together, a ladder, a step stool, chairs and a table, weights to hold the tent down in wind, business cards, pens, and of course our "inventory". We have boxes of matted and bagged photos (8x10, 11x14, 16x20) and we have bins for showing them off. We have S-hooks for hanging our canvases (16x32, 12x48, 12x36, etc.) and framed prints on the mesh panels of the tent, and tools for every situation we can imagine.

I know we'll find something missing but I'm sincerely hoping it won't be people who will be enthusiastic about our art or our sense of humor - I expect we'll need the latter for this very long, exciting day. If you are around the East End of Long Island, we hope you'll stop by to say hello and see what we've pulled together for your pleasure.