Greetings!
Thanks to everyone for all your hard work to put on the 2009 MN Tile festival.  It was another great year and there are many topics to discuss. In the past we usually put the MN Tile Festival recap in newsletter but it is a subject all in itself. Below is all the satistics from this years show and comparisons to other years. If you have questions, ideas, or concerns please contact the HTA and we will be happy to get back to you. Check out the day of pictures at the MN Tile Festival page on the HTA website. Click here
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The 2009 MN Tile Festival Review
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The 8th Annual Minnesota Tile Festival is now in the record books the 2009 tile festival attendance was 765 which was down from last year about 16% from 916 last year. We never like to see attendance go down only but compared to other years many artists said it kept pace with sales based on the surveys of the artists and many people felt attendance was up probably because two bus loads of people showed up filling the aisles. We made many improvements and lots of great comments from both attendees and participants. Full stats are below.
Thank you to all of
our artists for participating and showing the community
the amazing
variety and selection of handmade tile, mosaics and tile art available. Tierneys Tile, Swan Tile, Inc, Felice Amato, Tile By KT, North
Prairie Tile, Clay Squared, Martha Enzler , Carter Holiday, SoMi
Tileworks, Mercury Mosaics, Miriam Shuros, Bon Ton Designs, Margy Jean
Balwierz, Stephanie Kaczrowski, Barbara Schmidt, Five Wings Studio,
MargyJean Balwierz, Untapped Resources, David Aichinger Tile, Christine
Nelson Design, Blue Marble Clayworks, Ri Creation's, Earth Wood and
Fire, A Turkish Affair, Dean Tile, Tile Restoration Center, Clay Earth
Studios, Twin Cities Bungalow Club, Lea-Way Designs, Sharra Frank and
West Interiors.
So many patrons made comments that this show is amazing and they are so surprised at the diversity of work and styles. People also comment on how they love the setting at the American Swedish Institute. Everyone participating should be proud at how much they are advancing the development of tile design and art.
Thanks to the American Swedish Institute and Karin Krull the ASI representatives and the countless volunteers. Karin planned the event with Josh Blanc, Sabra Walfold, Nick and Rosie Heile. They coordinated all the ASI volunteers as well as the staff Alix Hoff, Deloris Anderson, Donna Pierson, George Swanson, Gerry Anderson, Greta Jaeger, Harlan Widholm, JoAnn Swanson, Lizzie Anderson and Sylvia Myren
THE NUMBERS
Years
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
attendance 700
796 892
650
706
823
916
765
postcards mailed
na 4500
2500 4000 4000 3500 2500 3200
blank postcards na na na 156 70 51 84 68
postcards w/address na na 214 50 21 86 36
29
blue sky guide coupons
-
-
-
-
8
15
15
21
HTA
Members free pass - -
1 9
3
4
5
7
Website
$1 off coupons
- -
-
-
31 83
94 108
full price
-
-
358
403
NA
492
437 296
ASI Members
NA NA
NA
NA NA
NA
54
52
Art Adventure pass na 26
Children under 12
NA
na
na
NA NA
12
32
21
new members na na
na
9
1
8
0
1
commemorative tiles 1 25 0 10 16^
Website anylitics
ceramicsartsdaily.org 151
MN Public Radio Clicks clicks na 42
Facebook 35
Tile Heritage 24
Twin Cities Bungalow Club 13
One time boost
National tile conference attendees 97
Income
Ticket sales 20% of total attendance $623 $483
Vendor booth fees $4890
ASI Sponsorship " " " " " " " $1000
silent auction
- - $594
$675 $814 -
$416
$441 $352*
Commemorative tiles $349 $437
Expenses
Chair and table rental $445 $541
Banners $400 $400
postcards $400 $283
Mailing Postcards $654 $575
MPR streaming for one month $600 $600
MPR radio ads 10 paid for $2000
Blue Sky Guide $250 $275
Facebook NA*
Coordinators $900
Supplies $250
* not finished collecting
- did not do
na - not available
^ -includes sales of all of the commemorative tiles
" same each year
The attendance numbers does not include artists, volunteers or staff.
Here is where the tile festival notices were posted: Star Tribune calendar, Twin Cities Bungalow Club, Ceramics Daily, American Swedish Institute e newsletter, Tile Magazine website, Tile Heritage Foundation website, Yelp, ASI e mail blast, HTA website, many of the HTA member's websites, there were probably more but this is what we know of.
Paid advertising -MPR 16 radio ads, MPR streaming for a month (140,000 downloads) Tile Directory (full page ad) , postcards(10,000), Blue Sky Guide (coupons), Midwest Art Fair. Ceramics Monthly and Ceramics Industry
We did a trade sponsorship with MPR where they gave us an additional six spots on the radio. for a total of 22 complete ads. A note that they go the ad wrong and gave us an additional 6 ads for the mistake. We can't always count on that but it was nice of them to give us the extra exposure.
The HTA website had a 3317 hits up 43% from the same one month period of time from last year the amount of hits from last year For the whole year we have had great improvement. Much of that came from our collaboration with the Potters Council and their amazing Ceramics Daily e- newsletter.
14,927
Visits Previous: 11,916 (+25.27%)
52,857
Pageviews Previous: 35,512 (+48.84%) If you do not see a stat here and are curious about something please contact the HTA and we will try to answer your questions. Annalists so farThere are some interesting numbers to review. The website numbers continue to rise and we have a tracking from the MPR radio streaming ad campaign is getting some results. The one that strikes me most is the $1 off coupons the post card mailing return is heading in a downward trend. The cost of printing a postcard is minimal at $278 a year for 10,000 but mailing of 3200 cards at the cost $575. We will probably not do a mailing next year but continue to have postcards available for artists to hand out at arts festivals, gallery show etc. The banner we got this year will be able to be used more than once so we will not have that expense next year. |
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Thanks to our HTA Volunteers
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Thanks to all of our volunteers! You did an amazing job. We could not do it with out all of there help. They ran the silent auction, gave artists bathroom breaks, helped load and unload artists booths, set up the tables in the lower level, gave directions, and helped fill in the gaps where needed. Super thanks to Cathy Bryson , Jim Swan, Joanne Hendricks, Lori Petersen, Layl McDill, Daycia McDill, Sandy Griffin, Marcia Glancy and Tom Labandz.
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2009 PR
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Thanks to Sabra
Walfold and Josh Blanc for there work on the PR this year. We got into many new
places most notably was with a half page spot in the SAMA newsletter, a nice spot in the Star Tribune and the Twin Cities Bungalow Club. Lots of effort was put into promoting on social networks like Facebook, Yelp, and Linked In. In the stats from the Google Anlyitics we saw that Facebook had the most return on our PR campaign with 42 hits from the ad.
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Thanks Nick and Rosie
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Last but not least super thanks to Nick and Rosie Heille  the tile festival
coordinators. This was there last year as the coordinators as they are
retiring from this project to move on to new adventures. They have
accomplished a lot in the past four years.  The big improvement they
made this year was an exit survey which gave us a glimpse of how people
liked the show and where they came from as well as how much people were
buying. Here were the questions in the survey 1. Your home zip codeThe results 45 zip codes were recorded. 9 were out of state, one was out of the country (Sweden) of course. 2. How did you hear about the Tile Festival: Circle all that apply1 - radio 6- internet 4 - e mail 10 - postcard 3 - newspaper 15 - friend 9 - signs 1 - blue sky guide 1 - member ----- 50 total people surveyed. They did an average of 10 surveys per hour. 3. Did you buy from Vendors(s) todayYes: total spent, range to within =/- 10% people in this price range Amount Spent\ $52.50 average spent based on 50 people surveyed. Low $5 High $600 15 people said they enjoyed day: unable to find anything to buy. 19 People said they will do follow up with vendor |
Next Meeting October 14th
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Next meeting will be at Clay Squared to Infinity. 34 13th Ave NE Minneapolis, MN 55413 612-781-6409 www.claysquared.com for directions When - October 14th Time - 6 pm to 8 pm Pot Luck Agenda Review of MN Tile Festival - this will be a review of where we want this event to go if we want to change venues and how artists are seeing where the event going. If you have opinions this is the meeting you should attend. Second to last days to submit for the 2009 Directory. Click here to get ad rates |
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We are looking for venues to have meetings for 2008 and 2009. If you would like to host a meeting please contact the HTA to set one up. info@handmadetileassociation.org
Sincerely,
Josh Blanc
Handmade Tile Association.LLC |
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Thanks to all of our sponsors
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Miss out on the Commemorative Tile?
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Special thanks to Karin Kraemer of Duluth Pottery for making our 5th
Annual Commemorative
tile. We sold over half of the 25 and we expect to sell the rest over the
next year. If you wanted one please contact us and we will get one out
to you.
We still one some left if you would like to purchase one. Stop in at the HTA office or call and 612-781-6409
or email
We are looking for an artist to make the 2011 and 2012. commemorative tile. Interested. Earn two years of volunteer credit and make $200. Interested please contact Josh.
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Thanks to the Potters Council
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The Potters Council had a wonderful tile conference that coincided with the MN Tile Festival. They bussed in 97 participants and it made the tile festival fill up with lots of tile enthusiast who were purchasing tiles. The HTA believe this influx of participants is where the perception that many artists thought we had even better attendance than last year. We are happy to here that sales kept pace for many of the artists as well as introducing great tile art to a national crowd.
Special thanks to Carolyn Dorr for all here work on the National Tile Conference.
A larger overview of the tile conference will be in the next newsletter.
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Speaker
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Thanks to Christine Nelson AKBD our Guest Speaker, National Kitchen and Bath Award winning kitchen designer
she gave a presentation on "using color when working with tiles" went over very well and this year we were able to to hire Mark Ehlen an architectural photographer to film the presentation as well as getting some photos. We will post it on Facebook and you can watch the whole presentation!
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Tile Tour
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Twin Cities Tile Tour
Saturday
October 25, 2009
9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Deadline to sign up October 16th
As
part of the tour participants will go to the SoMi Tileworks Studio for
a hands-on tile making experience. You will learn about the studio's
tile
production methods and have the opportunity to make a bas-relief tile
of your
very own. The tiles will be fired and
glazed and mailed to you approximately two weeks following the tour
day.
A box-lunch will be furnished
for each participant. The cost of the
Tile Tour will be $135. HTA members receive 10% off. To register,
please call Norma Hanlon,
SoMi Tileworks 612-824-3325. Payment can be made by check or credit
card. Visa, Mastercard, American Express
and Discover cards can be accepted.
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Tile Gallery Show opening this Saturday
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Circus Ceramic Sculptures by Felice Amato
Opening October 3rd
Where: Mill District Gallery
When:Saturday, October 3
from 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Keep enjoying the tile explosion and join Felice and her family with her newest work.
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HTA directory advertising info
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Advertising with
The Handmade Tile Association in 2010
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Deadline October 15th
Ad rates start as low as $99 Contact the HTA today 
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