Local artists hoping shoppers will spend money on Artists Sunday, after Thanksgiving
SHELBY COUNTY, Ala. (WBMA) — In any given month the United States would normally see millions of people interact with thousands of artists at hundreds of festivals, that has changed since COVID-19.
In 2020, artists have been looking for ways to continue to do what they love for a living and artists Sunday looks to help that.
"It's something I have been doing I guess since I was a little kid," says Lina De Lorenci Johnson, a local artist based out of Chelsea.
What started as a hobby, turned into a career for De Lorenci Johnson.
"Because of the pandemic, it kind of was a good time for me to realize it was time to take this hobby, for many years that was a hobby, to be my full time job," she says.
While she's just starting, for some artists trying to make a living during a pandemic has been difficult.
"Over the months we realized artists aren't making any sales because art fairs, craft festivals, and now holiday fairs... These aren't taking place," says
Christopher Sherman, executive director of Artists Sunday.
That's why Sherman, also a photographer, is hoping his Artists Sunday movement will be even better this year.
It's only been a year since it started, but Artists Sunday aims to make the Sunday after Thanksgiving the most profitable day of the year for artists.
"The goal is for you as a consumer to shop with your local artists, you can do that through the artists that are there locally with you or we have a number of artists on our website that you can shop directly with them as well," says Sherman.
Some of them even plan to offer deals and door busters like on Black Friday.
The Artists Sunday website features artists from our area and around the country, and it's free for artists to participate.
De Lorenci Johnson says she's looking forward to it, and is excited to have an additional place to sell her one of a kind artwork.
"For me as an artist, it has opened my mind maybe more than before to creating new pieces, just because I can dedicate 100%," she says.
Her work, jewelry and paintings, can be found here.
106 festivals across the united states were canceled in September 2020 alone, according to a review of festivals on artfaircalendar.com. Another 60 were cancelled for October and 12 in November, with more cancellations expected.
