The ninth-annual Questa Art Tour this past summer was the most successful ever. Our new executive director, Sierra Hedberg, obtained increased grant funding that allowed for more advertising. We used this additional funding to target some demographics that we felt would lead to more sales for our local artists plus increased visits to our village by non-residents. This paid off handsomely, with sales for the event totalling almost $40,000 and with roughly 890 individual guests in attendance!
We saw increased numbers of visitors traveling up from Santa Fe and Albuquerque, and closer to home, more visitors from Seco, Hondo, and north Taos who had received our direct-mail postcards.
Many of these newcomers reported how much they loved seeing the local skill and craftsmanship at the restored San Antonio de Padua church, an exhibition stop on the tour. (Thank you to Flavio Cisneros who served as docent all weekend!)
In case you’re curious, we discovered that the art tour attendees identified as roughly 79 percent Anglo and 20 percent Hispanic, with a handful of Asian or African American guests.
To get down to specifics, sales of more fine art larger scale works like paintings were purchased by customers this year, whereas previous summers more affordably priced cards and crafts won out… though local crafters have a great opportunity to make up sales at the upcoming Alumbra Christmas Market! See more info in the sidebar..
See the bar graph below that illustrates the sales per artist, and discover where all those visitors came from on the pie chart. In this month of thanks-giving, we are grateful for our local staff and volunteers and all of our neighbors and local businesses who showed such support.
For more information on the Ceramic Cafe, please reach out by email to questacreativecouncil@gmail.com or (575) 586-5658
Vendors wanted:
Attention artists & crafts-people!
ALUMBRA CHRISTMAS MARKET
December 14
Held indoors at the Questa VFW.
Saturday December 14, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Spaces available: 24 vendors locations available.
For more information and to download an application: www.QuestaCreative.org
Ceramic Cafe
Every Thursday: 5 to 9 p.m.
Ends November 21
Facilitated by Anna Feunning,
a fun and encouraging presence.
Worth checking in even if you only have an hour to spare and materials are supplied.
Donations welcome. Don’t delay – only three remaining weeks left in November!
