Arisia Post #1 - Being an Art Show Slave

[jim_p]

This was the first Arisia where I was staff. I was working the art show because (a) it's a good match for my current line of work, (b) wren13 is a friend and a customer, and she was in charge of the art show

I wanted to get there Thursday night to help with setup, but I had some customer projects that were fighting me. Just as well, setup went pretty quickly and they were done and out of there by 10PM.

I ended up spending pretty much the whole con working the show... only got to one panel (an art-track panel at that: Hiding the Body) and I only had about half an hour to sweep through the dealer's room. For reasons I don't need to discuss here, wren13 decided that the art show would not make use of volunteers, and so everything was handled by art show staff... which made us very busy little beavers indeed.

I did make it to a couple of parties, though... hammercock and turtleduck's Office Space party on Friday, rmd and kjc007's party on Saturday, plus some other random party-hopping. Never managed to find or score invites to any closed parties though... I definitely need to get out more. I didn't even hear about the Skanks In Space kerfuffle until after the con...

wren13 decreed that only those who attended Art Show Boot Camp (basically a briefing on procedures) would be allowed to do checkins and checkouts, and this was to be held at 9AM on Friday. Tells you just how much I like her that I dragged myself into Cambridge at that hour... After the briefing I received an official Art Show Staff ribbon along with a lovely purple Art Show Slave ribbon. I enjoyed being wren13's slave for the weekend :)

After clearing out excess setup stuff from the room it was on to my main task, which was to assist turtleduck in hanging mail-in art. (wren13 specifically wanted me to do this because she wanted someone who knows how to hang art on this task). Let's just say that artists are boundless in their creativity when it comes to misunderstanding instructions or messing up the paperwork. One artist submitted "ten assorted bookmarks" and "seven assorted prints" to the Print Shop (hello, the idea of Print Shop is to handle multiple copies of the same item!). Another artist had half a panel and submitted a hanging diagram with the works arranged horizontally. Half-panels are vertical. This was a case of "toss the diagaram and use your judgment". Another artist was impeccable with the diagram -- enclosed was a photograph of the works laid out on a floor with 12" tiles, so there was no doubt how to arrange them for a 4'x4' space. The paperwork, however, listed each copy of print-shop prints individually (All copies of the same print are supposed to be listed as a single line-item, with quantity filled in as appropriate).

After hanging the mail-in art I switched hats and became an agent, hanging Tamara's art and getting another staffer to sign off on it. (Tamara couldn't make the con because she was in school). Because she was so busy she just picked six pieces in a hurry. At the last minute I threw in one more that was hanging in my shop.

The rest of the show I spent just being generally useful... helping out an artist here and there, doing print shop and quick sale checkout when there was a crowd, handing out bidder numnbers, just generally learning and doing on the fly.

(Let me weigh in at this point on hotel layout issues. I fully understand the constraints faced in site selection and hotel logistics. However, we all know how cons and elevators get along. Any con that requires the use of the elevators to get to major con functions is in serious need of a rethink. I don't know about the dealer's room, but I'm sure art show attendance suffered because it was impossible to just "drop in" due to the vertical traffic bottleneck. I do give Ops major credit for taking steps (elevator hosts, passenger limits) to keep the darned things running throughout the con, but that's the best of a pretty bad situation. I don't know if there's anything we can do about this, but it sucked anyway...)

Saturday afternoon disaster struck. An artist found one of her jewelry pieces on her table damaged and missing parts. Both she and wren13 were understandably very upset. I and a couple other staffers were reassigned to be "walking security" for the show. As I made the rounds I looked over each display carefully when I noticed an empty space where another small piece should be. After double-checking with other staffers, it became clear that another piece had gone AWOL. At this point wren13 was furious, again understandably so. She called in con security, shut down the art show, and searched all visitors as they left. Once the scene was clear the art show staff separated into teams of two and re-inventoried the show from top to bottom. Final tally: two pieces AWOL and one damaged. All the pieces were small, easily-pocketable table items. Finally we re-opened the show with much tighter security: art show staff stationed along all sight-lines and an armed Cambridge cop on the premesis. Aside from the occasional admonition not to touch the artwork (except for one "please-touch" display) there was no further incident during show hours.

There was a scare Saturday night that I was not a part of , so I won't comment on it at all... no need repeating hearsay. Suffice it to say that nothing else was missing or damaged.

Remember that "extra" art piece that I threw in at the last minute for Tamara? As I was wandering the show Sunday morning I saw a big red "SOLD" on it! Someone had bought it on Quick Sale! Yaaay! Then I turn around and see that another one of her pieces won a ribbon! Double yaaay!! After the auction a friend and fellow artist bought that piece on Quick Sale. This turned out to be one of the best cons Tam's ever missed....

Sunday afternoon was Friday in reverse... taking down and boxing up unsold mail-in art. This artist was by far the most successful... I only had three little pieces of hers to box up. Breakdown went incredibly fast (Crash was in charge, say no more :) ). Since I was crashing with Tam in Back Bay, I decided to pass on the dead dog party and instead go back and celebrate a good con and the end of her school session with her.

All in all a pretty cool time... got to see bunches of people both at the art show and parties. Next year, if I volunteer, I'll have to manage my time better so I can get to at least a couple of panels...

Oh, and just for the record: wren13, You. Rock. Bigtime. :)

Comments

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

It's a pity that people feel the need to damage/steal items in an art show. Were the stolen pieces of estimated high value (i.e. over $50) or low value? Who takes the loss in those cases? the artist or the con?

[jim-p.livejournal.com]

The pieces involved were very small and, I believe, in the <$50 category, though I don't remember exactly. I have no idea who takes the loss...

[quietann.livejournal.com]

I *think* I overheard Ben saying that Arisia would cut a check to the person(s) whose art was damaged/stolen. I'm not sure what price would be used, minimum bid or after-show price. He's writing a lot of the checks, so he would know. It might have been a different matter if the art had been really expensive (but really expensive pieces are usually bigger and sturdier...)