To say that there were a thousand things to do to get a show of this size up and running is definitely an understatement. At times, I was absolutely sure that there were more than a million things to be taken care of. Just unpacking two hundred boxes and then labeling pots with the name of the maker, price and medium was no small task - and then moving everything out of the exhibit room and painting the walls, floor and pedestals was another huge job.

Fortunately, most of the craftspeople sent the necessary information with their pot ( i.e. price, medium, etc.). Some boxes arrived with teapots in them with no identification. Fortunately, through the process of elimination, we were able to determine whom these teapots belonged to. Five pots were broken in shipment.

They say that if you build it, the people will come - well, it's not quite that easy! We allocated seven thousand dollars for advertising - the ad in a local magazine, which is in most of the hotels in the Piedmont area of North Carolina, was $2,000. Newspaper ads ran in several major newspapers and fortunately a local TV station ( WTVD - Durham ) did a nice segment on their 6 o'clock news.

Eight hours before the show opened, we began to receive telephone calls asking what type of food we were serving, and if we were serving red or white wine at the opening reception. After several calls, I instructed the staff to make up the most exotic list of gourmet foods that they could think of and if they didn't want to do that, to come find me and I would do it. I have zero tolerance for people who come to openings just to eat. The magic hour of 6pm cam and the gallery was filled with several hundred people.

Don Davis spent about 3/4 of the day on Tuesday judging the show, and did an excellent job. Cedar Creek Gallery furnished four Awards of Excellence of $1,000 each. These awards went to:

Bruce Gholson
Kathy Triplett
Bruce MacDonald
Chuck Hindes

We are grateful to the Twinings Tea Co. for furnishing the tea for the show. Also, Art and Betsy Stratemeyer ( art@stratsplace.com ) are to be commended for the many hours that they donated to getting the show photographed and on the web. No one worked any harder than they did and as a result of their efforts, you are able to see this incredible show via the Internet.

Our purpose in hosting the National Teapot show was not to make money. To get a show up of this magnitude cost approximately $20,000. We spent $11,000 on advertising and awards alone. There are some things that are just more important than money, and the Teapot Show is one of them

- Sid Oakley

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© Art & Betsy Stratemeyer

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