Get Maximum Mileage
from a Studio Tour Map

he studio map brochure is probably the cheapest and best advertising an artist can do,” says Chris Foss, president of the Great River Guild of Artisans in Missouri. Along with Foss, craft artists around the country have been realizing the value of studio tours as a marketing tool.

From a one-person studio show to a statewide event like the Vermont Craft Council’s tour with 230 artists, organizers agree that the route to a successful tour is a well-designed map. “We’ve found that people and maps are individuals,” says potter Ellen Shankin of 16 Hands in Floyd, Va. “Some people can look at a map and totally understand it. Others can’t.”

Potter Terri Gregory, who has been contributing to Vermont Craft Council’s map since 1997, agrees that the biggest challenge is ensuring the map can be understood. “Clarity and ease of reading are vital,” she says. “If we have several artists in one area, we enlarge that area on the map. If a studio is located on a back road, we’ll only include the road if it doesn’t make the map look muddled.”

The map created for the Vermont Craft Council measures 18x36 inches when opened. One side features the entire state and includes ads and two index listings — one by number and the other by last name. The other side is densely printed with each artist’s name, address, phone number, and directions.

Covered Bridge Artisans in Hunterdon County, N.J., recently increased the size of their full-color postcard to 11x6 inches. It’s enabled the five-member group to include larger photos of their work, and a larger map, as well as photos of work from the seven guest artists who show at an area church. To keep the card uncluttered, only two phone numbers are included.

At each studio is a blown-up map that lists all the artists’ names, locations and telephone numbers. Because they’re in a rural area, and the tour takes place in two towns about 25 miles apart, 16 Hands includes the mileage distances from point to point, not just from one studio to the next. Their map is an 8.5x11-inch page in their 11x17-inch brochure.

In Oregon, the Portland Open Studios Tour map measures 14x22 inches and comes with a 16-month calendar. One side of the map lists artists on the west side of the city; the other side, those on the east side of Portland. A smaller map is on the first page of the calendar and identifies artists by number. This number is cross-referenced to the maps as well as to specific directions on how to get to that particular studio.

Designing The Map

Producing a map that is uncluttered, easily understood and includes only a limited number of roads can be a lengthy and ongoing process with several revisions as artists are added and bypasses and highways are built around the area. It’s a good idea, say organizers, to have as many people as possible look at the map before it’s printed to ensure it’s easily understood.

Because their eight artists are in towns and cities in and around Allentown plus adjacent rural Berks County, Pa., Hidden Treasures Artisans Studio Tour includes two graphic maps on one panel of their tri-fold brochure. On the inside of the brochure along with write-ups about the artists, are black-and-white photos of each building. The photos make it easier to identify the studios, says ceramic artist and tour participant Delanna Hornbeck.

New Mexico’s El Rito Studio Tour map has undergone only four design changes since the first tour in 1987. Their most recent map has arrows and mileage notations directing visitors along the tour route to 17 studios on three roads in and around the village.

However you design a map, include arrows, posters, banners, even balloons along the route to direct visitors to artists’ studios, say organizers. Have a consistent look, urges Jane Simpson of Friends of the Dublin Art Colony in New Hampshire. “We have signs made by a sign maker and each of the 50 participating artists are given a sign with a number to place in front of their studios.”

Offset The Printing Costs With Sponsors

Five years ago, Off The Beaten Path began its studio tours in Tennessee’s Cannon and Dekalb counties with support from Cannon County Arts Center. The second year they got six business sponsors. Nearly 26 businesses sponsored the tour last year. “I think we’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg with sponsors,” says Louis Colombarini.

Shankin admits 16 Hands felt uncomfortable approaching businesses to help sponsor the costs of the map, but then, she says, “The local hardware store and three local restaurants told us they hired extra people on our tour days. They were happy to assist us.”

Other groups are also happy to collaborate with local businesses. A dining and lodging guide is part of the Fall Art Tour’s map in Wisconsin, which includes artists along a 60-mile route between Mineral Point, Dodgeville, Spring Green, and Bariboo. The Vermont Craft Council has had Cabot Creamery as a sponsor from the beginning and sells ad space on the map.

Covered Bridge Artisans reduced the costs per artist by adding guest artists. To cover printing fees for their holiday tour map, Craft Artists of Southern Tennessee, a regional chapter of the Tennessee Association of Craft Artists, charges one fee for members and a higher fee for non-members. Murfreesboro Craft Artists Studio Tour, also in Tennessee, funds their printing and ad costs with artist and sponsor fees. Sponsors’ logos appear on their map and on all print ads.

Wider Distribution = More Visitors

In addition to mailing the map/brochures, the first year Fall Art Tour had its maps available at the tour headquarters (one artist’s studio) in each community. “We realized very quickly that it made more sense to have them available at every studio,” says tour participant Diana Johnston.

To keep costs down, Off The Beaten Path mails their glossy brochures to past patrons, and uses a 3x9-inch handout to distribute at craft shows and at area businesses and includes it in bank statements the month prior to the event.

An economic development grant from the state of Missouri helps fund the printing and distribution of 150,000 tourism brochures that include the Great River Road Guild of Professional Artisans’ studio map in the Missouri towns of Clarksville, Hannibal and Louisiana. The brochure is distributed in hotels and restaurants in Chicago, St. Louis, and along the Interstate 70 corridor in Kansas and Missouri. Distribution is handled through the Hannibal Convention and Visitors Bureau. “Even if we didn’t have assistance from the state, we’d contract with the visitors bureau or a professional distribution company to place our brochures,” says Foss. “The studio map … brings people around. They show up at our studios with dog-eared maps.”

Loretta Radeschi is a Pennsylvania-based free-lance writer.