[ST] Art Show debrief report

[David D'Antonio]

I have a lot of information to pass along to the next person  
(assuming it isn't me) to run Art Show in addition to what is in this  
report. Feel free to ask questions and if I remember any more, I'll  
pass it along.

Arisia Department Head Report

Name of Area? Art Show Director

What you did? Ran the Art Show.

The Art Show this year went well, judging by comments from both  
artists and guests. We had 73 Artists and sold 64 panels and 29  
tables. In addition, we had a fabulous Student Art Contest (detailed  
elsewhere) and a piece (and prints) from next year's Artist GoH. We  
had no incidents and lots of people came. Despite some glitches, the  
Artist GoH appeared to have a great time overall.

What went right?

Merv led the setup and teardown crews and they did a great job  
setting up and tearing down; Marrus was able to start setting up her  
art at 9:30am Friday. The IECFASC (Incredible East Coast Floaring Art  
Show Crew) was invaluable in both running the show and fixing  
problems due to my oversubscription of pre-function space. Having the  
bag check on 16 worked very well as did the express elevator. Putting  
both Marrus and the Student Art in pre-function worked well to draw  
people's attention to them. Having Print Shop and Bidder Number right  
next to the elevators and next to bag check work quite well since it  
clearly separated the front office from the show.

We had two sleepers and that worked as there was no way one person  
could hear both screamers (we checked). Quick Sale was very popular  
as were the docent tours. Having staff-only hours allowed most of the  
DivHead level and above staff to see the show and have a docent tour,  
to boot. The hotel manager did manage to prevent hotel personal from  
just wandering through in the wee hours and we were able to store  
pipe carts and pegboard carriers in the kitchen area without a  
problem. Staff Den was able to send us up lunch on Sunday despite  
last minute changes. Feeding the setup crew worked well; they enjoyed  
the food and the break. It was nice of Krista, I believe, to send the  
left-overs from the GoH dinner up to us.

Being able to pack up on Sunday allowed Logistics to move everything  
out of 16 with minimal disruption of the rest of the con; it was all  
back in storage by Sunday night, I believe. I think this made  
Monday's load-out easier.

Checking cell phones actually went very well; most people were  
understanding.

What went wrong?

Most of what went wrong was due to my inexperience with the position.  
More prep work should have been done; I showed up at con without some  
necessary forms already filled out; one of the Crew had to do it  
before we opened. I didn't set up time for the ConChair and the other  
GoHs to do their award selections. Lack of proper labeling of the  
totes delayed Marrus's setup and unnecessarily burdened Ops. Marrus  
was late in finishing her setup and so the show opened about 1/2 hour  
late. The hotel never did manage to unlock the fire door next to the  
elevators; this caused people to not be able to get in at times so we  
took to propping it open during the day.

The temperature on 16 was quite unpredictable; it was too hot with a  
lot of people in the show and the sun coming in but it was too cold  
out in the front office. Closing the curtains helped the former but  
then it got very cold at night. It took an entire day to unlock the  
bathrooms and my "all access" key to 16 quit working Friday. As  
mentioned above, I had oversubscribed pre-function trying to do too  
much with too little space; fortunately, the Crew was able to work  
around this and fit Sales into the area without having to move the  
bay. Only one piece went into auction and by the time this was  
noticed, I had sent the auctioneer away. No one voice bid on the  
piece, anyway.

In general, I needed more people; while the VL did send people, most  
of the Crew and I rarely left 16. As a result there was no  
opportunity to train new Crew. There was a large miscommunication  
with Marrus about when she should pack up and if she could sell her  
art after the show closed; this was smoothed over but shouldn't have  
happened. Getting the elevators locked out was often time-consuming  
and I was late in getting them unlocked on Saturday as Marrus wanted  
to get into the show before it officially opened and I didn't know  
this. I never did get my show information into Zambia.

The lunch on Sunday had some issues that took several of us off 16 to  
resolve. We didn't get any other food from Staff Den most likely due  
to lack of volunteers to deliver it. Feeding the setup crew ran into  
a big snag as the key to BU I was given didn't work and it took quite  
some time to get one that did; meanwhile the GoH leftovers went to  
the Ballroom first and then up to BU where they sat in the hallway  
until we could get a key.

Several of the forms need updating (I have a list) and we need better  
explanations of Quick Sale. The rules about after-show sales need to  
be clearer, too. Radios didn't work well getting from 16 to Ops and  
the house phone on 16 often couldn't reach Ops (I'd call the  
operator, she'd transfer the call but it would just ring and ring).  
As stated above hotel people did come onto 16 at various times in the  
wee hours, thus disturbing the sleepers. In one case, a hotel  
employee couldn't get to 16 because of the elevator lockout so she  
use the stairs and disabled the screamer! The hotel led "tours" of  
Charles View to folks thinking about booking the space while we were  
doing setup and slinging pipe and pegboards around. I asked them not  
to do so and was told 1 more tour was coming in Friday; in fact about  
4 tours came through.

One artist didn't pick up her art until well past closing and several  
bidders didn't pick up their winnings; I was able to track down some  
of them while still at con but others still need to be found. Due to  
this, there was overlap between the teardown crew and the IEDFASC  
which caused friction and made packing up more difficult. One mail-in  
artist's stuff never arrived and I'm still not sure if she sent it or  
not. Many artists ignored the deadline and were asking for space  
right up until 2 days before the con; while I could accommodate most  
of this, it was disruptive.

Due to the food situation, I and others on the Crew didn't eat enough  
and that contributed to the crankiness. Apparently, two elevators  
were offline during the peak 10-Noon Sunday rush.

What should be done differently next year?

Have more volunteers. Do more prep work so that all necessary forms  
are done before arriving at con and all GoHs and the ConChair are  
appropriately scheduled. Allow on-line registration; while it was  
suggest this year, it wasn't mentioned in the artist letter so I  
declined. Either bring in snack-type food and soda or have runners to  
get it from Staff Den. Have a better space plan for pre-function; the  
way the IECFASC set up Sales worked well.

Deal with temperature better; either have a schedule for the drapes  
or get the hotel's climate control better adjusted. Make the rules  
about Quick Sale clearer. Redo forms that are out-of-date.

What sort of schedule/timeline did you use?

Dr. Karen provided a good timeline.

Are the any changes you'd make to the schedule for next year?

I wouldn't change the hours; I don't think extending the show would  
really be worth the disruption.

Vendors you used?

Staples for duping forms. Christmas Tree Shops for the butterflies.  
UPS and the post office for mailing art back. Excel and Word for  
mailings and the master reservation spreadsheet

Experiments to try next year?

Integrate better with Climbing Mt. Arisia. Perhaps panels along the  
windows both to block light and to allow more panel space; this will  
depend a lot on structural integrity, though. Have an apprentice  
program; recruit volunteers and assign them to a Crew member for  
training. Bring back the Art Show Reception in some form. Perhaps a  
docent tour that starts in the lobby and can commandeer an elevator.

Any comments about the rest of the con (other divisions, hotel, ...)?

I didn't see much of the rest of the con. :-( Hotel division was very  
helpful as was Ops for the most part; someone did get up to 16 with  
CEs, for example. I believe Staff Den did the best they could but we  
had needed more food. Pubs was gracious about getting my newsletter  
info in, despite the 4 drafts I sent them. Sign Shop was quite  
helpful; we had all the signage we needed and putting signs down on 1  
and 2 about where the Art Show was helped.


--
DDA
Art Show Director, Arisia '08

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