The 2020 Sunshine Coast Art Crawl was a success despite its pandemic-driven limitations, according to artists at an online post-mortem meeting for the Oct. 23-25 event.
There were 98 venues this year compared to a total of 186 in 2019, Linda Williams, of the Coast Cultural Alliance (CCA), reminded attendees at the Nov. 1 gathering on Zoom. Williams said she had thus far received sales and attendance figures from 79 venues, so all final numbers for this year would be higher.
The number of studio visits that had been tabulated as of Nov. 1 was 10,272. “That’s down 79 per cent from last year, where there were 49,900,” said Williams. “For the sales, what I’ve got so far is $164,199. That’s only down 63 per cent. So, you can see that the number of people compared to sales, it’s a good relation. Last year, there were $451,000 in sales.”
To help reassure artists and their visitors, and to meet provincial government health guidelines, the CCA decided that drop-in venues this year had to be separate from living quarters and have their own entrances, and artists had to ensure safe-distancing. The CCA also decided to limit advertising that would attract visitors from off-Coast. Those restrictions and overall pandemic concerns were the primary reasons cited by venue operators who opted out this year.
The limitations proved to have a silver lining. Some artists who attended the Nov.1 meeting agreed that limiting numbers meant they had more time to interact with visitors. Among them was Sechelt mixed-media artist Jan Jensen. “Just having four people at a time in my space was much more relaxing,” said Jensen. “Before, I might have 10 people all come at the same time, and it gets kind of crazy. So, I personally enjoyed this year a whole lot more.”
Many, like the Earls Cove photographer who goes by the single name Troch, also said business was surprisingly good. “This year was better than the last couple years combined for me,” she said. “The numbers of guests were way down, but sales were actually higher,” Troch said. “Expect the unexpected in 2020, that’s all I can say.”
