ART-USA: Artists Take to the Road

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Lyng-Hou Ramirez

MIAMI, Feb 27 1996 (IPS) - Sculptor Joe Pozycinski “follows the harvest” to sell his creations as he tours art festivals throughout the United States: Texas in the spring, the Midwest in summer and Florida during winter.

He and his wife Georgia, a ceramist, are among the growing number of U.S. artists shunning the traditional art galleries and stores to sell their work directly to a wider range of customers at art festivals.

“It’s not easy being a migratory artist,” Pozycinski says. “Like the farmers, we’re at the mercy of the weather.”

But being itinerant workers has become a way of life for hundreds of contemporary young American artists who say they are following in the footsteps of their medieval predecessors and discovering they can support themselves doing the work they enjoy.

One of their most important destinations is South Florida, a growing artistic hub that attracts thousands of patrons each year. Artists have found willing buyers at the numerous winter festivals held in the area.

A major open-air exhibition held last weekend in a historic neighbourhood of southeastern Miami adjoining Biscayne Bay attracted more than 300 artists and artisans from around the country.

“Florida is a very good market,” says prize-winning artist Aaron Maesai. Maesai fled the cold and snow of Chicago three weeks ago to prepare for the 33rd Coconut Grove exhibition – now considered one of the country’s four leading art festivals.

Competition for exhibition space was so fierce this year that there were 1,700 applications for 326 stands. Their prize was 850,000 patrons – including Florida residents and tourists both from the United States and abroad – who spent nearly seven million dollars on art and crafts, according to the festival organizers.

“We come every year because it offers more variety and better prices than the galleries,” said New York attorney Eric Green, who spent his vacation in Miami and bought a glass sculpture for 400 dollars.

Variety is undoubtedly one of the festival’s biggest drawcards. Viewers can admire the whole spectrum of art – watercolours, oils, woodwork, metalwork, glasswork, ceramics, jewelry, clothing, rugs, toys, furs, and unusual works in mixed media.

Coconut Grove director Jane Hart says the annual festival contributes more than 20 million dollars to the regional income, counting such sundries as the sale of more than 55 kinds of food, t-shirts, caps, and posters, along with transportation and lodging for the thousands of visitors. (MORE)

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