Last month Kees and I rented a stall at the Museum Market in Amsterdam. We are looking back at a good day: we had friends coming by, we talked to strangers about our art, we loved the market buzz and we learned a few things.
The day before it rained all day and I was dreading Sunday like there was no tomorrow, but likely the weather gods were with us and there wasn’t much rain until the market was nearly over. I guess the month November is maybe not a good month for an open air market, but we really wanted to try it out.
Our stall was located at the corner from the Rijksmuseum and the pond on the large Museum square (Museumplein) which was a really good site because most people coming from the museum or the city centre enter the square in that corner.
Kees received quite some attention for his steel sculptures and he even sold two pieces.
I sold one piece to a friend and noticed that people were much more interested in the figurative artwork of the girls in the neighboring stall than in my abstract pieces. So that is something for me to consider: what will I make and offer next? I want to keep true to myself and make art that I enjoy making, but I also would l like that my pieces find new homes.
Overall it was a day that we enjoyed and we learned a few things that we will do differently next time:
- purchase a backdrop for wind and rain
- bring a large plastic sheet to cover the table for protection
- wear warm shoes
- bring lights for when it turns dark at the end of the day
- make some kind of rack so that my pieces can stand up
There are more art markets in Amsterdam so we will explore these more in the future, but we will wait with another open air market until Spring.
