Gold Coast Art Fair — Local services in Chicago

Amdur Productions is disorganized & falsely advertises events. I was also harassed by fellow “artist” while owner Amy did nothing.

LOW ATTENDANCE Gold Coast Art Fair fraudulently advertised as “one of the most well attended art fests in Chicago” & “Gold Coast Art Fair…draws hundreds of thousands of art enthusiasts” Attendance was VERY low confirmed w/video, both days, at 1P, for over a minute w/no one walking by. Amdur’s photog did a great job tho of running to booths w/a few people in them to give the impression of a heavily attended event.

ZERO ROI Amdur earned $125,450 for booth fees at $675 each + tens of thousands more for double booth fees of $1,095, app fees $35 each, sponsors, food/bar. Artist ROI is calculated by booth fee of 10% of expected gross revenue. Overall GC should have generated total artist revenue of $1,302,750. Each of us should have made $6,750 for event w/allegedly hundreds of thousands of attendees. REALITY I didn’t even make $200. No typo! I know for a fact this was also the case w/several artists.

HARASSED BY FELLOW JEWELER I watched from outside my booth as fellow jeweler, Richard Gaston, whom I had zero interaction prior to this, come into my booth Sat, went to a case of 14K gold emerald, sapphire & tourmaline necklaces & audibly scoffed, smirked, shook his head & walked out laughing. I watched him walk back to his booth. Sun at 8:27AM before most staff, security & artists arrived, he came back. He tried small talk but I wanted nothing to do w/him. I saw you yesterday making fun of my jewelry & it was shameful. His reply? “Can I give you a bit of advice?” “No thank you”. He spewed nonstop insults & said I was “an ugly woman” w/a “black heart”. I repeatedly asked him to leave. He refused to leave so I recorded him. His insults continued. There was zero ER contact info provided. An email to Caitlin wasn’t answered until the next evening. Amy didn’t come to see me until 2 hours later. She dismissed me. Refused to even give me 1 minute of her time. Refused to watch the video. Repeatedly interrupted me because she had to leave for a “security check” w/her staff. He was allowed to stay where he just glared at me the rest of the day. When I & several other artists started to pack up to leave hours before the show ended because it was such a colossal waste of time, effort, energy & money, Joan/Joanne? was quickly alerted. She then came over to reprimand us & take my picture to “tell Caitlin”.

NO HOTEL ROOM DISCOUNT I started emailing Klyn 6 wks before GC for advertised discounted hotel info. He ignored every email & even ignored his boss Caitlin when she emailed him. 1 ½ days before GC he finally replied “Sorry for the delay, the building is in charge of this hotel & I do not have any contact information for them. I did not create this block. I recommend booking out of the block.”

NO JURY/OWNER AMY GIVES AWARDS TO FAVORITES A quick analysis from social media shows the same artists winning awards, some literally back-to-back shows. Amy & Caitlin were the only two who came into my booth for less than 30 seconds. The only thing Amy commented on, repeatedly both days, were the dresses I wore & never my jewelry, which she never even looked at. One less than 30 second booth visit by the owner who doesn’t ask about the custom dyed silk to hand-knot semiprecious gems is an insult. Show me & every artist the respect we deserve.

Magnificent Mile Art Fair also falsely advertised. $850 booth fee falsely advertised ON Michigan Ave & in the plaza & sidewalks only to discover my booth was on a side street not visible from the plaza. I & several others were just stuck at the end.

MOVING FORWARD Over promises & under delivers. To date, zero follow up to artists requesting anonymous Survey Monkey feedback like # of people in our booths, # of customers added to our email database, gross revenue each day, would we this event again, why or why not, what they can do better next time. If you don’t have any of this valuable artist info you can’t justify...

Some interesting art, but completely put off by the ticketing policies. $15 and no re-entry. Spent less than an hour in the show, made a couple purchases, saw about a third and had to leave. I’ll have to buy another ticket if I want to come back later today. Also website says kids under 12 are free but they were charging families for preschool aged kids at the...

Normally a great art fair but this year (2023) it was spoiled by a metal detector, a bag check, and a pugnacious guard yelling at people to take everything out of their pockets. I appreciate what they're trying to keep out but it completely ruined the environment. Put your money back in your pocket and attend any of the other numerous summer art fairs held...