Art Show

Minicon Art Show

There are several elements to running the Minicon Art Show. These can be broken down into pre-con preparation, at-con management, and post-convention wrap-up. This department requires at least one sub-head, unless the department head intends to spend the entire convention at the Art Show.

Before the Convention

Obviously, if you want to have art in your art show, you must tell artists how to get it there. Minicon has a file that lists contact information for past participants in the show. About 3-4 months before the convention, past participants are contacted with information about the upcoming show's rules, paperwork requirements, and mailing address for mail-in art. If you cannot store mail-in art yourself, you will have to determined who can safely store the art until the convention.

There are electronic verions of prior art show rules and forms available on past years' Minicon websites.

At the Convention

Art Show Setup is usually on the Thursday night prior to the convention. The past several years, Minicon has borrowed display panels from DreamHaven Books. These will need to be picked up in the afternoon. Contact Greg Ketter to arrange pickup and dropoff times. Setup typically takes 2-3 hours with the help of 5-10 volunteers. Artists who help with setup get first choice of where to put their art; the main exception to this is if there is an Artist GoH that year, in which case, the GoH is usually given prominent placement.

The department head and sub-head(s) should coordinate their schedule so that the Art Show is staffed at all times, either by heads or volunteers. If the Art Show is in the same space as the Dealers/Hucksters Room, opening hours will have to be coordinated and synchronized ahead of time.

There is often a voice auction, for items that have 3 or more bids. The rules for this vary from year to year.

Winning bidders typically pick up their items Sunday morning and early afternoon. Tear-down is usually on Sunday afternoon, and again takes about 2 hours with 5-10 volunteers.

After the Convention

Ship unsold mail-in art back to the artists on Monday. Return the display panels to DreamHaven whenever Greg wants them back. Tally up your sales and cashflow information, and report it to the Bookkeeper and/or Treasurer so they can update Minicon's financial info.

Save your documentation, and pass along blank forms, addresses, and other information and supplies to the next convention's department head.

Art Show Timeline

The timeline below gives a different perspective of the above information, including suggestions on when the steps should be accomplished.

Before the convention

[6 months prior] - Identify at least one sub-head.
[4 months] - Determine where mail-in art should be sent to for storage before the convention.
[3 months] - Contact previous Art Show participants. Provide them with overview blurb about the Art Show, rules for participation, and copies of the control sheets.
[1 month] - Coordinate with con chairs and Greg Ketter at DreamHaven to figure out pick-up and drop-off times for the Art Show display panels.

During the convention

[Thursday afternoon] - Pick up the panels as scheduled/arranged
[Thursday evening] - Erect the panels and prepare the tables for Print Shop items. Unpack and hang mail-in art.
[Friday & Saturday] - Set up schedule with sub-head(s) and coordinate with Volunteer Wrangler to ensure coverage for Print Shop sales and general Art Show monitoring. Also balance your sales and cash till(s) at the end of both days, and report the results as preliminary numbers to Treasury.
[Saturday evening] - Collect any art going to voice auction, and conduct the voice auction as scheduled (usually Saturday night).
[Sunday morning] - Continue Print Shop sales. Winning bidders pick up their art. Artists check-out any unsold items.
[Sunday afternoon] - Pack up any unsold mail-in art. Disassemble the display panels and prepare for return to DreamHaven.

After the convention

[As scheduled] - Return the display panels to DreamHaven.
[Monday] - Mail unsold mail-in art back to artists.
[Tuesday] - Prepare sales reports and provide information to Treasury/Bookkeeper so they can write checks to artists for their portion of sales.
[2 weeks post-con] - Mail payments to artists for their portion of sales.
[1 month post-con] - Update the electronic-format file with current info based on forms submitted by participating artists. Have this ready to give to the department head for next year's con.