Anyone who appreciates fine craft art already knows to make an annual pilgrimage to the Berkshire Arts Festival that has taken place at Ski Butternut every July 4th weekend since 1981 (this year’s dates are July 1,2 and 3) where the work of some 150 hand-picked exhibitors—jewelers, fashion designers, ceramicists, art glass makers, fine artists, sculptors, furniture makers, and more—can be found.
But not everyone knows Richard and Joanna Rothbard of American Art Marketing, the couple who created this show and have run it for 22 years now. Impresarios of highly successful crafts shows across the country, the Rothbards have a special connection to the Berkshires. They own An American Craftsman, which has had a retail outlet in the Berkshires since 1981. Their Stockbridge store operated from 1981 to 2020; the Lenox store opened in 2017, and they briefly ran a third location on the Stockbridge Road in Great Barrington. And now, they are adding three new Berkshire shows to their summer schedule, all at the town park in the center of Lee, Mass. These shows in Lee will take place Memorial Day weekend, the last weekend in August and Labor Day weekend. Each of these shows in Lee will feature a revolving array of 25-35 fine craft artists. And another show is planned for the October 1st and 2nd on the grounds of Shakespeare & Co. in Lenox.
Richard Rothbard is the more public face of the couple, although Joanna has been his partner and support since 1976 when she applied for a job at his first gallery on 29th Street and 3rd Avenue in Manhattan, and they married in 1977. And she seems to have enjoyed riding the rollercoaster of Richard’s entrepreneurial adventures while maintaining remarkable equanimity.
Richard grew up in Lawrence, Long Island, where, he says, the competition was fierce, and the results were pretty much all that mattered. So, how did a kid from Long Island, who caught the theater bug while earning a degree in finance at Hofstra University and spent many years as an actor (mostly he had a long run in the role of Boy in The Fantasticks on off-Broadway) end up producing fine crafts shows in the Berkshires? As you can imagine, it was not a straight line, but the journey makes for a good story. And it also shows the kind of risks and rewards that come with a career as an entrepreneur in the highly competitive world of arts marketing.
As Richard tells it, he left the theater because he fell in love with a dining table. “It was one that my aunt acquired from George Nakashima. Nakashima worked miracles with wood and, at age 27, I became a woodworker.” Starting in the 1960s, he was building furniture. By 1967, he had the first of several stores in Manhattan where he and other artisans were selling their work. Richard is now known for the intricate puzzle boxes he makes himself under the rubric of “Boxology.” And how he started making the boxes is also a story. He had moved his woodworking equipment into the basement of the store on 29th and 3rd (where he also met Joanna). One day a man from California came in carrying logs of cedar. He had heard that Richard had a band saw. Could he use it to make some boxes? Richard watched and then studied and learned, and within a couple of years he was making highly polished wooden boxes and developed a reputation as an early band saw box artist.
He started selling his work at shows around the country and in 1979 he was accepted as an exhibitor at the premiere show in the country, put on by the American Craft Council (ACC) at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds in Rhinebeck, N.Y. But, despite his acceptance, he knew many talented artists who had been rejected by the ACC, and he heard their grumbling.
So, the next year, in 1980, he rented the parking lot across the street from the Fairgrounds and put on a show that he called “Rejects”. “The show was enormously successful,” says Rothbard, “and it launched my career.” He had 50 exhibitors who were not afraid to break away from the ACC. Some 1,000 buyers walked across the street to his show. The next year, “Rejects” had 150 artists, and by 1982 there were 300. In 1984, the ACC moved its show to the Big E in West Springfield, and Richard moved in next door with about 80 exhibitors under tents. Three years later his tents housed 300 exhibitors. A few years later, the ACC moved its show to Columbus, Ohio and Richard stopped following them around.
By then, the Rothbards were already in the Berkshires. The connection to the Berkshires began in Richard’s childhood; he went to summer camp here and always wanted to come back. They also felt there was a market for fine craft art in the Berkshires. So, the success of the first “Rejects” show in 1980 encouraged them to expand to Ski Butternut in 1981. They also opened a store in Stockbridge at the same time. As luck would have it, as they drove into Stockbridge to do some pre-show work, an antique business was vacating a store. The Rothbards were intrigued. The landlord happened to be there, and they rented it on the spot. And they occupied that store until early 2020. In 2017, they bought a building in Lenox where they were able to establish a much larger store and expand the variety of their merchandise.
Over the years, the Rothbards have seen great changes in the craft art market. In 1980, some 25,000 would come to the ACC show in Rhinebeck with cash, and the artists could make a very good living doing shows. At the same time, there were other prestigious venues. Both the Philadelphia Museum and the Smithsonian held annual crafts shows. The American Craft Museum occupied a sizeable building on the same block as the Museum of Modern Art. These shows no longer exist. People have moved away from using the word “crafts.” For example , when the Museum moved into the former Huntington Hartford Museum at Columbus Circle, it rebranded itself as the Museum of Art & Design.
There are still lots of well-established shows, but other factors have helped make the business more difficult. The universe of artists who will do shows is shrinking. “You used to be able to put up shows with some predictability. Artists who would normally get into their vans and drive six hours, or even a day or two, to be in a show are now hesitating. The cost of gas is discouraging them.” And many artists don’t want to take the risk to rent a booth. For example, the Rothbards observe, there are many artists in the Berkshires who won’t do shows because they are fearful about laying out that initial investment.
“The challenge of doing a show,” says Rothbard, “is that it has to be an instant success. It’s like opening a new business in a minute. It’s a pop-up. People either come or they don’t, and you don’t have a chance to grow it over weeks or months.” The success of a show depends on the preparation. You have to get the right mix of artists, and you have to generate attendance through the right mix of promotion and advertising. “As far as I know,” Rothbard continues, “we are one of the very few promoters who are starting new shows.”
The Rothbards have built a solid reputation by taking care of their exhibitors and bringing in the buyers. “Our model is unique because we have an ongoing organization with shows and retail outlets and now a growing online business. We are even planning to open a new store in Manhattan on Lexington Avenue at 63rd Street. We also have been careful to keep our costs to artists reasonable and affordable. We are an organization that a good artist can look to for opportunities, where they can actually participate. And we work hard to bring in the crowds. When we first came to Butternut, we networked like crazy among other businesses and also among the hotels and inns. On our very first day, we had 2000 people. It was a great success, and we’ve done well every year since.”
They have enjoyed operating in the Berkshires. The business community here has been collegial and supportive. And there is a lot of interest in art among both residents and visitors. “But,”concludes Rothbard, “it continues to be a challenge. For a show to be a success, people need to come and artists need to sell. The artists come when they have faith in the people who are promoting the show, but, even then, no one will come if it’s too far or too costly.”
