Art Show

Intro

This Job is in aid of Red_Book1-1 and is not part of a department, A bit about the job...

Why

What is the "reward" for this activity

Goals

What should be achieved

Supplied

What should you expect to be supplied

Resources

Ticketbooth, Dropbox/Google Drive, Website, Twitter.

Deliverable

What should you deliver during/after this task

Task List

You will need:

• A float (for making change when accepting money from artists for hanging; for making change when accepting money for works sold; for paying artists for work sold).
• A cashbox
• A receipt book (all money incoming should be given a receipt)
• Display boards (from AdVans)
• A desk (to write receipts at, for volunteers to sit at, for the people's choice balloting)
• Envelopes (for putting money in to give to artists who have sold works)
• Various random pens, paper, tools, fasteners, etc.

Guide

The Art Show does not usually run for the full length of the convention. We need time for artists to drop off artwork, and time to hang the artwork. If we are giving awards for best art, they need to be resolved before the awards are given -- if this is at the awards ceremony (usually Sunday night), then the art show will need to be wrapped by then.

It needs to be held in a lockable space.

We used to charge a commission on sales. We don't any more. Instead we charge $5 per work to hang. We may charge less for works not for sale. We often charge less for children's works.

Before the con, the art show manager calls for submissions of artwork from the community. For each work, we attempt to collect name, email, work title, work description, whether the work is for sale, minimum price, size, media, and display requirements. This works to a limited extent: there will always be more that come out of the woodwork unannounced at the con. (Sorcha did a lovely call-out in 2014: http://2014.swancon.com.au//content/article/93; including the form linked from that article.)

At the con, a time and place is designated for artists to drop off artworks. If the art show is running for the full convention or almost the full convention, this might be the Thursday night and/or Friday morning. Artists drop off their works and pay the fee. A tag is made for each work, showing artist, artwork name, and with space for up to five bids. If there is a minimum, this is shown. Any artwork that attracts more than five bids will go to auction at the art show closing.

Near the end of the drop-off time (or the following morning) we hang the art. Usually there's an area for children's art.

During the time the art show is open, we have a roster of volunteers. There's a box for people to vote for the "people's choice" award. There's some spare pens for people to fill out ballots and to write bids on art tags.

There are usually two awards: the people's choice and one chosen by Important Persons; usually the guests. These are usually awarded at the awards ceremony or at the closing ceremony. The people's choice should probably be optional preferential (write down the names of as many pieces of art as you like; we'll take the top one as your #1 pick, etc.) since this is the method WASFF/Swancon uses for elections in general. But "write [a fixed finite number] of pieces on your ballot slip" and counting it as first-past-the-post is probably fine too.

At art show closing, buyers can pay for and pick up works; artists can pick up unsold and not-for-sale works; and volunteers can take down works and stack the art display boards in some out-of-the-way place.

Not all works will be picked up immediately; the remainder can be left at the reg desk for collection. The art show manager will likely need to hunt down the last few artists and remind them to pick up their art, or give them their art back.

The art show manager will need to get money to artists who have sold works. If we're taking a commission (we don't, these days), this will need to be calculated and deducted.

We get panels to hang artwork on from AdVans. We just tell them to repeat last year's order and they know what to do. They also have other things such as plinths and lighting. They deliver and pick up.

StephBG wrote software for running the art show a few years ago, which tracks the art and sale price.

Conclusion and Notes

Conclusion

Help

Who do you contact for help, list previous Personnel?