Press & Popularity!!

Hello ARTE vendors

PRESS & Popularity
The quiet days of ARTE are over!
I must have received 8 requests from magazines for more information on ARTE, and I would like to thank Jan D'Sa, Tamer and Feroz for their dedicated and unlimited support. Today we have a quarter page feature in 7 Days and next week we will have the article in Gulf News. We will be in the National, Emirates Home, Ahlan and Connector magazine in the near future. We are grateful for all the publicity.

We are so in demand not only by the press but also by potential vendors. Please help us - your products have to fit this profile:
No commercial products
No products bought locally or internationally for the purpose of reselling
ONLY high quality, unique, one of a kind, well made products that resonate ART and / or CRAFT
No products that may clash with what is in the stores in the Dubai Festival City Centre mall complex
Products are Handmade in the UAE.
And know that if we see products that are not clearly fitting the ethos of ARTE, that we as the management reserve the right to ask you to remove those items from your display, or, in some cases pack up and leave, or dis-allow any future participation in the markets.
Also, note that we do NOT refund any registration fees in case of the above.

IF vendors or potential vendors are unsure about their line, please email us and send photographs of your work.

Jewellery & Accessory Stalls
We are inundated with new jewellery stalls, as well as existing vendors branching out into jewellery. Please note that we have reached our quota and that we are getting ready to pick and choose our jewellery and accessory vendors. We will be looking for vendors whose collection strongly presents an identity has a personal style
has a high quality level and shows an interesting and unique approach.
If you are not sure what it is that i mean, email us and we will try to explain again. The space is limited in Festival City, and we expect an increase in vendor tables after the summer leading up to Christmas. We will then only permit those accessory vendors who truly have an in-depth collection of high line quality pieces that are made for quality buyers.


Pricing & Discounts
A bracelet of Dhs 10 still has the following components: design time, making time, time in transport, parking fees, petrol costs, time in the shop, material costs not only in the form of beads, wire and locket but also the tools, the needle, scissors. Do you have a helper assisting you? Then calculate her time too, it would only be fair. Add all of the above together, work out your profit and then tell me if this is a good reflection of who you are. Surely your time and effort and design is worth more than Dhs 10 for a bracelet......? Look at your pricing structure! (A friend of mine in the artisans business, thought she was making a good profit, but when her husband asked her to keep a proper profit & loss spread sheet she sadly realised that she was making a nasty loss by the end of her year. And after years of working, she decided that her time was up and they closed the craft business. She has been a great example to me. Please make ARTE and your work worth your while!)

Discounts - part of our community thrives on it. However a buyer who truly appreciates the uniqueness of your design would not dream of bartering you into the ground and making you feel cheap. I recommend you kindly decline and I encourage you to stick to a fixed pricing policy. If we all do, we will wean out the unappreciative buyers and draw a much better quality visitor to the market.

Customer Quality
We are not a flea market, and we do not wish to draw the interest of those types of buyers to ARTE. Again, if we have to select vendors we will exclude the ones that are selling cheap items and focus on the true artisans who appreciate and respect themselves and their work. In this way we will build the ARTE brand and draw a higher quality clientele to the Market and Soukh.

30th July ARTE Market in Festival City Centre
We continue as is, all facts are as previously stated. Email us on info@arte.ae if you need me to resend last week's facts.

Ramadan ARTE Markets
We will continue during Ramadan, and the Summer Markets in Festival City will finish on September 10.
The timing will be from 6pm till 12pm.
Set up is from 5pm.
All other facts remain the same.

REGISTRATION / PAYMENT
Deadline for payments is Tuesday 6pm to the ART House Dubai Gallery. on Al Wasl Road. Payments done after that date, may be missed and this means that your requirement is not included on the day. Also announce your participation by emailing info@arte.ae.

Personal Promo
Are you on Facebook? I am! Artisans of the Emirates (ARTE) is, and I use both to tell my friends and readers when / where I will be at ARTE with what.
Do you have any images of your work on your Facebook page?
Do you put the ARTE poster on your Facebook page?
Do you promote the ARTE market on your Facebook page?
JUST DO IT - it is a great way to market yourself and let your 100s of friends see that you are a crafter or an artist and that your work is now available for sale!

If you need me to send you the poster again (so that you can print it and hang it, and / or forward it by email to your email address book), or the registration form again, please let me know.

We look forward to seeing you on Friday and beyond, book now….

Kindest regards

The ARTE Team
Miriam Walsh & Helen
www.arte.ae