Taking the turtle on the road

[Martin Dewgarita]

Martin Dewgarita is in some rough planning stages of hitting the road again. This time a little more business focused with disc golf as a side focus.

The purple turtle is mandabear's art gallery business in it's third year in Stockholm, WI. Which is doing amazing business in season. But off season we need to make something happen. The thought train right now is pop-up shop - the traveling art gallery for the months of Jan - Feb - March.

Ideally we set up a route that we will travel for years to come. We will stop in a city for a week at a time, then move on to the next.

So I come here looking for information. We came up with a very rough itinerary, which includes mostly the modest, and a journey into the Southwest. Places like, Iowa City, Columbia MO, bowling Green KY, ashville or Greensboro, Peoria, Grand rapids Michigan.

For example, we did Green Bay WI in the beginning of March this year. There was a coffee shop that we could rent the back area in, and it was very successful. We need more success like this.

Pop-up locations? Little coffee shops with a back area to set up in? Empty spaces for rent? Artsy areas? Inexpensive? Do these locations get traffic in the winter months? Inexpensive lodging?

Just in the planning stages. Just getting my thoughts flowing. Seeing what ideas might come from the wild twisted hive mind that is dgcr. Thanks.

 

[Alexplz]

Up here in the PNW we are mighty amicable to folk artists. And coffee joints with little nooks for shelves n' such? Fugetabout it.

Sounds like it would be a bit of a journey, but something to consider.

 

[Martin Dewgarita]

Up here in the PNW we are mighty amicable to folk artists. And coffee joints with little nooks for shelves n' such? Fugetabout it.

Sounds like it would be a bit of a journey, but something to consider.

Pnw did come up in our napkin scribbling business meeting this morning.. but was fairly quickly dismissed when we considered making the drive pulling a trailer...

Speaking of trailers, if anybody has a lead on a cheap enclosed trailer, we are in the market.

 

[Martin Dewgarita]

And to keep it even more disc golf related I would have a small corner dedicated to disc golf, lots of handmade minis, and a few various discs for sale..

 

[trout_smith]

In Grand Rapids, MI, look up the "Easttown" neighborhood. You may find some of the smaller shops that you could work with. Also in Michigan, Ann Arbor is a very artsy college town.

 

[Mocheez]

Come to Cedarburg, WI for any of the seasonal festivals - Strawberry Fest, Wine and Harvest, Winter Fest. They draw a huge crowd and have a lot of art vendors. Also, the fireman hold a giant flea market 4 times a year - Maxwell Street Days. I am sure other cities across the mid-west do something similar.

 

[pmay5]

Asheville is very artsy.
Sorry, no coffee shops to recommend.

 

[InnocentCrook]

Pnw did come up in our napkin scribbling business meeting this morning.. but was fairly quickly dismissed when we considered making the drive pulling a trailer...

Speaking of trailers, if anybody has a lead on a cheap enclosed trailer, we are in the market.

What size are you looking for?

 

[BrotherDave]

What about vending at bigger dg tourneys?

https://www.dgcoursereview.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3298723&postcount=79

There's a lot of people in Greensboro that would probably be art customers but I don't know where you could set up other than maybe around UNCG on Tate St or Spring Garden St, etc. My best guess would be to coordinate with some festivals or something.

 

[Martin Dewgarita]

What size are you looking for?

6x12 looks like it would fit our needs. Maybe a little bigger if the price was right. Maybe a little smaller of we had to be thrifty

 

[BuiltTooLong]

you could try Monk's Kaffee pub in Dubuque, Iowa. This would be on your way to, or in lieu of, Iowa City. Seems to fit all the criteria you are searching for.

 

[Martin Dewgarita]

Well. It's real. We're doing it. Our itinerary looks nothing like noted in the first post - Mankato, MN to Milwaukee to Madison to eagle River, WI to Hudson to Green Bay to Milwaukee again. Today we bought a trailer, tomorrow we hit the road.

 

[zontar]

I would look into Lincoln, Nebraska. good art scene, especially first friday, Parrish building. I'm an outsider (30 years older) who is pretty cynical of the scene, but there's actually a lot of cool stuff happening here. way more talent than I have! mess around and you'll find some decent DG here as well...

 

[DanJon]

If you do this again, look into the Wausau, WI area during winter.

Wausau Events does some winter festivals, Downtown River District as well and there's always Badger State Games.

Plus Granite Peak brings in a lot of tourists during winter months.

 

[Dingus]

Pittsburgh art scene is really good. Maybe get a room in a Lawrenceville gallery for a week or two.

 

[zgmc]

Martin, after you hear about this your buddy will want to close down his brick and morter. Its called, The Big Art Ferry, and its a floating gallery. It would travel all along the lake michigan shorline. At certain stops you could have a local artist set up a showing.. It could also have a bed and breakfast aspect to it.. I think it could be a huge hit!

 

[tbird888]

Cincy seems to have a solid maker scene. I know a few breweries in the area host shows somewhat regularly so they'd probably be very open to some fresh blood. We also seem to have a ton of coffee shops in the area.

 

[Riverdog]

So.... no Asheville then???[emoji16]


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[Martin Dewgarita]

So.... no Asheville then???[emoji16]


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Not this time around. Still in the high priority discussion for the future.

 

[Moose33]

If you are back around Atlanta let me know, I still owe you beers.