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by Deborah Gilbert
ew York City has always been a mecca for artists, albeit a highly competitive one. It offers artists virtually unlimited opportunities to bypass the gallery system and take their work directly to the people. New York is unlike any other animal, and selling your art and craft on the street, while a romantic notion to some, is hard, hard work. You need street smarts, nerves of steel and the ability to deal with all sorts of people.
he city used to have a lottery-based permit system that randomly assigned permits to qualified artists who applied to display and sell their work around the city’s parks (including in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on fashionable Fifth Avenue). This system offered those artists great security as well as peace of mind, which is rare for street artists. Many artists and craftspeople found the permit-protected spaces to be a lucrative venue.
Then a group of individuals sued the city over its issuing of permits. They claimed that permits infringed on their First Amendment right to display their art, and in August of 2001, the judge ruled in their favor. The decision abolished the permits and ruled that anyone had a right to display and sell any two-dimensional art and sculpture (whether they made it themselves or not) without a permit. So the crafts that were permitted under the permit system were now outlawed because the plaintiffs designed the lawsuit to protect only two-dimensional art and sculpture.
The downside to the repeal of the permits has been that many formerly lucrative venues, as well as the streets themselves, have now been over-run with “picture mafias”; a New York street term for entities selling manufactured pictures/reproductions — some illegally duplicated — in violation of copyright laws.
Despite all this, some craftspeople still find success in “street selling.” In fact, many artists who regularly display on the street will rattle off a list of celebrities who have bought their work. Artists have also been “discovered” by art directors and foundations getting themselves big commissions and even offers of grants.
olleen O’Neill, a Connecticut resident, says she’s found a niche in taking her work to market, literally: setting up next to the Union Square Farmer’s Market. Her non-functional raku pottery is sculptural enough to be legal under the lawsuit guidelines.
O’Neill has shown her work successfully in art festivals around the country for over 12 years, but several years ago, for health reasons, she needed to take an almost two-year hiatus. When it was time to go back, having to pay all those up-front booth fees required by festivals was prohibitive. So she started making occasional trips into New York to sell her work on the street to make some quick cash. “The biggest benefit is I can go when I want to go without having to put out any money for a space,” says O’Neill, “and it’s a more relaxed thing than shows. I can display whatever work I want and I can get rid of ‘seconds.’ And I don’t have to go when the weather is bad.”
O’Neill, like many other artists, admits that without permits, the disorder of the streets can be problematic when exhibitors get territorial. “It can get ugly.” But the good outweighs the bad for this artist who loves to people watch and experience the city while making some sales.
nn Liv Young, a native of North Carolina, is another artisan who has made the New York streets her own. A dancer and choreographer as well, her creations — funky, one-of-a-kind fashion accessories made from recycled fabrics and notions — have been funding her dance company (which bears her name) for the last four years. She’d seen artists selling their work in Soho, and thought she’d give it a try. “It turned out to be a good thing,” she says.
Setting up along lower Fifth Avenue, Young has attracted much attention and many commissions and orders from shops. One recent commission: 20 princess dresses for a little girl’s birthday party. Her work is also in three boutiques in Japan because the owners saw her work on the street.
era Battemarco is a jewelry artisan who used to participate in the permit program to show her work in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Unfortunately, jewelry is one craft that is no longer legal because of the lawsuit. Jewelers who display their work out on the street can be subject to hefty fines of as much as $1,000. Although she misses the Met and the great atmosphere that existed before the permits were abolished, Battemarco is not deterred. Since 1998, she has shown her one-of-a-kind pieces, made with precious and semi-precious stones, at one of New York’s upscale flea markets run by GreenFlea — an organization started in 1985 to raise money for I.S. 44 and P.S. 87 on Columbus Avenue and 76th Street. Since that time, it has raised over four million dollars for these two public schools. The market is so well-known around the world that it’s garnered Battemarco sales from clients from Greece, Germany, England, France, Australia and Japan, to name a few.
“My first time out, I made just $27 but was happier than if I’d made a thousand. I just enjoyed it so much,” says Battemarco. When you’re displaying your work on the sidewalks of New York, the whole world parades by in front of you, and often, they stop to buy.
Deborah Gilbert is a New Yorker, and a writer; as well as fine art and commercial photographer, who specializes in hand painted black & white photography.