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From: Makahla Harapat Date: May 21 05:29 UTC Short link

I have withheld from writing in the forum because I am young, and I have
recently moved away from Las Vegas(hence me feeling like I didn't have much to
stand on). But, now I feel I have to say what's on my mind.

I've grown up with the People's Fair. What made it what it was, was the
character. Nobody cared if they made money! And if they did make any money at
all, it was because there was never much overhead. My mother has sold her
jewelry at the fair for over 10 years. She stopped because of the changes.
Things got cheaper, the Texans with their horrible crap to sell came, and less
people liked it.Vendors who complained are probably not the people that you
should be concerned with.There's alot more vendors I know that wish it was back
to how it used tobe.You should be concerned with the preservation of a great
tradition that's been in place a long time. Your strength is in obtaining that.

I have supported the Arts Council through thick and thin and I've been involved
with almost every aspect of it since I could walk. But, recently it has
forgotten its identity in our little town. It was a place to support the arts
not a bottom line. It's not the tourists who care it's the rest of the
community. PLEASE DON'T FORGET THAT...
Makahla Harapat

--- On Mon, 5/18/09, <email obscured> <email obscured>> wrote:

From: <email obscured> <email obscured>>
Subject: [LV-Issues] A response (re: People's Faire) from the Las Vegas Arts
Council
To: <email obscured>
Date: Monday, May 18, 2009, 4:49 PM

Dear members of the LV Issues list,

As a member of this list, and the only paid employee of the Las Vegas
Arts Council, I have forwarded your concerns to our President, Patrick
Rucker. I am copying in his thoughtful response, below.

Best wishes,
Birdie Jaworski
Arts and Cultural District Coordinator
<email obscured>

/////

Dear Artists and craftspeople,

Many of your People's Faire comments have been forwarded to me. I
must say we know how to raise conversation! I appreciated all these
comments, for it is important that the Arts Council continually
solicit community input. And, your thoughts have caused a great deal
of personal pondering.

The decision to move to two days required many hours of Council
consideration. I think we knew that such a move, while moving the
Faire to a next level, would be controversial for there are some trade
offs with the change which you have alluded to. The increase in booth
costs resulted from the expansion to two days. Curiously enough, it
was largely the vendors themselves that asked for the expansion to
give greater opportunity to interact with the buying public. Back
years ago, when the Faire was sort of "home spun," it was as much a
social event as it was a commercial entity. A great place to come and
spend a quiet day in the shade and listen to some local musicians.
Since the cost for booths was low, there was little or no money for
promotion and advertising...only locally. The gradual expansion to
include regional advertising, etc., was also at vendors' request.
Complaints of poor sales due to local buyers' inability or
unwillingness to purchase big ticket items, began to compound
persistent requests to find a better sales market...and that meant
attracting the tourist trade...those that had the where-with-all to
purchase and the inclination to do so. The impact of this change
quickly averted focus away from the social aspects of the Faire and
onto the commercial. We want to help our vendors, but we continue to
wrestle with finding a better balance between the two extremes.
Unfortunately, while vendors have reported increased sales, regional
advertising for such things as summer guides and print advertising is
expensive and has had a further negative impact on Faire budgets. We
do almost no radio or TV advertising except for PSAs for it is
financially prohibitive. We also do a lot of direct mail, email
announcements as well as WEB promotion to try to keep costs down.
Over the years we have developed a rather extensive contact list and
we use it frequently.

I think the Board understood that by raising prices, we might be
making things more difficult for some vendors, local or otherwise, to
participate. Especially for those local vendors that might want to
sell less expensive, smaller items or crafts. We have hopes that the
extra day's sales will help to offset booth costs. Realistically, the
Faire's extension might be proven more useful for those that sell the
more polished and/or professionally made items; items that would be
more likely to catch the eye of a prosperous buyer. We ponder this
contradiction as well. We have attempted, however, to search out ways
to lessen the financial burden by offering discounts and such, but
overhead persists and we have not found a total solution. Its sort of
a "darn if you do or darn if you don't" kind of frustrating trap.
We would rather accommodate everyone's needs if possible regardless
whether the vendor is selling home made jam or expensive, hand made
jewelry. We would also hope to avoid moving to the extreme solution
whereby vendors would have to be juried into the Faire. Such a
condition, I think, might only further limit some our our local
artists with less marketable crafts from participating in the Faire.
We attempt to keep our primary focus on accessibility and vendor
diversity. To become too exclusive in requirement would create
another whole set of issues and would further alter the shape of the
faire. We are sensitive enough,as it is, to the occasional criticism
that the Arts Council is trying to create another Taos or Santa Fe
event. NO, what we are trying to do is to make a commercially
competitive Las Vegas event where tourists and others come here and
spend their money rather than go to Taos or Santa Fe to do it. I'd
rather our vendors benefited from such an advantage and let Taos and
Santa Fe worry about theirs. We have some very talented craftspeople
and artists in our community. Would be nice if we could maintain a
positive environment and an enjoyable atmosphere for attendees as well
as maintain a strong sellers market for the vendors. Regardless of
where the future leads the Faire, we certainly wish to preserve the
positive social and cultural connection the Faire became known for.
And, it is still a nice way to spend a warm summer afternoon!

I'm going to get personal here for a moment. Someone recently
criticized our Board for been too vested in the profit/loss of the
Faire. No excuses. Yes, we are as vested in the bottom line as we
are to our vendors. We are a Not-For-Profit incorporated entity that
depends on lots of professional and community pro bono volunteers.
What we market is "support of the arts and artists." Currently, we
are both fiscally sound and municipally viable. We strive to maintain
careful and professional fiscal management. And, we do a pretty good
job at that. The Arts Council is also 31 yeas old and we intend to be
around for another 31 years....in some fashion. We are also "lean and
mean." We do a lot with minimum resourses. The Faire, like most of
our projects, has never been a big money maker historically. Last
year, after factoring in all the variables we almost broke even. Of
course, this year's income or loss will affect next year's outcome.
No money, no projects....that is just the way the world turns.

Having said that, I am quite sincere is admitting our need for
community support to make our events happen. This year may very well
be a make or break pivotal year for the Faire. It will require a leap
of faith on everyone's part. If it succeeds, it will because the
community helped to make it so. If, not.....well, we will do what we
can and see what the future holds. I sense from the passion in some
of the comments I have read, that we have some smart people who care
about issues and are not hesitant to speak their mind. Boy, could I
use more of that on our Board! Meaningful discussion always leads to
positive outcomes. Idle chat often remains just that. It is obvious
that many care deeply about the fate of the Faire. So do we. The Faire
is in its 31st year. Perhaps its time for some major changes.
Unfortunately, we are sort of locked into this year's plan, right or
wrong, but we are already gearing up for next year and we need
community input. We need involvement. We need real bodies in our
meetings to help us tackle difficult questions. I would like to
encourage all concerned to become actively involved with the Arts
Council either as Board members or volunteer advisors. I respect your
comments, pro or con...it goes without saying I'd rather have you
working with me face to face for change than merely communicating
through a list serve. I find it rather impersonal and somewhat
abstract. I get terribly charged being around others that are
terribly charged. And, I have no bones about wrapping myself around
creative ideas and trying to make them work through collaboration.
On whatever level you prefer, please do not be hesitant to
communicate. I'm not on your distribution list, but you can always
contact me via email, internet or phone. The office is regularly open
from 10-4 Tu-Thurs and I'm usually around. Let's drink coffee and
meet. I like Travelers.

Thanks and waiting to hear from you,

Patrick Rucker, President
Las Vegas Arts Council
O:505-425-1085
H:505-454-9707
C:505-718-6211
<email obscured>
<email obscured>

Birdie Jaworski
<email obscured>
505-718-6187

Visit my blogs:
http://www.mytinyvegas.com
http://www.birdiejaworski.com

Birdie Jaworski
Las Vegas, Las Vegas
Info about Birdie Jaworski:
http://forums.e-democracy.org/p/7p3hL6wasSbaTyFVu9UdG8

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