Artists at the recent Ann Arbor Art Fair are reporting lower attendance and sales this year, due to the wildfire smoke that persisted throughout the event.
Karen Bauer is the executive director of the Guild of Artists and Artisans and the Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair. She says artists were undeterred by the poor outdoor conditions with 98% deciding to stay for all three days.
She says the wildfire smoke made for a highly unusual art fair with significantly fewer visitors browsing artist booths during the first two days.
“We all send out surveys to our artists, so we will get some hard numbers from them in the next few weeks of how they did overall. But I would say a lot of them right now are reporting between 10% and 30% down over a normal year.”
Bauer says she was pleased to see many in the community come out in support of artists during the event’s final day, helping to cushion the financial blow caused by this year’s weather.
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