Chicon 2000

Art Show

Rev. 24-Aug-2000
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Todd Cameron Hamilton, artshow@chicon.org

See Also:

Disasters in Technology

Due to a hardware failure, our Art Show director has lost most of his email from the last few months. If you have emailed Todd about something, you should email him again with what you discussed, to make sure you don't get lost in the shuffle.

Art Auction Schedule

Art Auctions will be held in the Live Stage area in Riverside Center, adjacent to the Art Show. The current schedule for the auctions is:

Saturday 2-4 PM
Sunday 12-2 PM
Sunday 4 PM - until everything has been auctioned.

Latest from the Art Show

Because we were later than usual getting information out about the Chicon 2000 Art Show, we'll be accepting mail-in reservations for space until Monday, 28-Aug-2000. Sending in your reservation earlier is still better, since we're purchasing new panels to hang the artwork on and we may have trouble getting more panels on short notice if there's a sudden flood of reservations at the last minute.

To accommodate those artists who are unable -- for some reason -- to make a reservation in advance, we plan to purchase enough panels to allow for limited walk-ins, up until the entire physical space of the Art Show is full. We don't recommend coming as a walk-in, because there's no guarantee that there will be space, but we'll do what we can to get you in.

Finally -- and we're all banging our heads against the wall with frustration about this -- Todd's e-mail client is periodically dropping some of the e-mails that you send him. It will be replaced by Tuesday, 01-Aug-2000, but if you've sent Todd e-mail recently and haven't received a reply after waiting a week, please try e-mailing him again. We apologize for the inconvenience. It *will* be fixed.

Chicon 2000 Art Show Rules

The Chicon 2000 Art Show shall take place in the City of Chicago at the World Science Fiction Convention and shall be held in the Hyatt Regency Chicago Hotel in Riverside Center (formerly known as Wacker Hall).

The Chicon 2000 Art Show will not be a juried show. All space will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis and all space shall be considered allocated or reserved only upon the payment check clearing the bank.

Artists who purchase space in the Chicon 2000 Art Show are entitled to exhibit whatever artwork pleases them as long as they hold clear title to the artwork and it does not infringe upon the copyrights of others or violate the local laws concerning public decency. The art show staff and particularly the art show director will make the final decision on whether any piece of art violates these caveats.

While we encourage people to use the print shop for the sale of multiple images we will not forbid anyone from selling prints of their own work on the panels paid for by them. Prints, either in the print shop or on panels, will be prominently labeled as being prints with an appropriate bid sheet or tag.

Having said that, let's get down to brass tacks.

Commissions:

Chicon 2000 will charge a 10% commission on all sales in the Art Show and Print Shop. We expect that a goodly part of that commission will defray bank charges, since we'll be accepting Visa and MasterCard in addition to cash and checks.

Tables:

Tables in the Chicon 2000 Art Show are only available for the display of three-dimensional work. These tables measure two and one-half feet by six feet, for a total of 15 square feet each. The tables will be draped with industry and fire marshal accepted fire retardant covers which may not be removed or replaced by the artist so that we remain in compliance with Cook County Fire Codes. The purchase of table space shall cost $40.00 per table. Any jewelry or small items should be put in glass top cases or be secured by some other mechanism by the artist. Such cases must be brought in completely assembled or must be able to be assembled without using tools so that we do not violate the Hyatt's union contracts. While we are providing fannish security during the day and professional security after hours, Chicon cannot be held responsible for the loss or damage of any items not sufficiently secured by the artist.

Panels:

The Panels in the Chicon 2000 Art Show will be constructed from commercial gridwall. Each four-foot wide by seven-foot high panel shall cost $50.00 and can be purchased either separately or in combinations of multiple panels. The configuration of the panels shall be in what is commonly referred to as a U-shaped "bay", with each bay consisting of (4) four-foot wide by seven-foot tall panels assembled with an eight-foot section in the back and two projecting four-foot sections on the sides. Art shall be hung on the steel grids of the panels with standard hooks and clips. If other materials are desired the artist must provide them. It is permissible to hang prints on panels but in the long run it is much cheaper for the artist to put them into the print shop.

$$$$:

Summary of Art Show rates:

Panels and Tables can be paid for by sending a letter listing your space requirements along with a check, payable to Chicon 2000, drawn in U.S. dollars on a U.S. bank to:

Todd Cameron Hamilton
Chicon Art Show
1220 S. Westnedge
Kalamazoo MI  49008
artshow@chicon.org

Your request will be logged and a confirmation will be sent. The check will then be forwarded to the corporate account in Chicago. Your space is not officially confirmed until the check clears the bank.

Space cannot be purchased at the convention and we will stop accepting reservations on 15-Aug-2000.

Electrical and lighting:

Tables and panels are not equipped with electrical or light set-ups. Wacker Hall has very ample lighting with high ceilings; however, if it is desirable for an artist to have additional lighting. An electrical set-up can be ordered in advance only from the hotel and the union at our cost of $125.00 per set up. We know it is expensive but that is what we are being charged. It would be even more expensive if you ordered it at the con.

Print Shop:

There will be a limited amount of space for a Print Shop where artists can conveniently sell multiple copies of their work. The Print Shop space will be available on a first-come, first-served basis and cannot be reserved ahead of time. The fee for placing prints in the Print Show is $0.50 for each copy of a print.

Mailed-In-Art:

Although it is preferable for an artist or an agent thereof to attend and hand-carry art to the convention, the art can be mailed in to the convention if an artist or agent cannot attend. Arrangements for mailing in art can be made by contacting:

Todd Cameron Hamilton
Chicon Art Show
1220 S. Westnedge
Kalamazoo MI  49008
artshow@chicon.org
All mailed-in art must have return postage (including such insurance as you deem wise) as well as appropriate reusable shipping containers.

Auctions:

The infamous Dr. Robert Passovoy is in charge of the auctions and they will be held in the "Midwestern style." We expect that they will be a source of entertainment in their own right. The Chicon 2000 Art Show is currently planning to hold a single auction on Saturday, with two auctions on Sunday of the convention. Any auction except the final Sunday auction may be canceled depending on the number of pieces that are available for auction at that time.

Payment:

We will accept cash, check, Visa, and MasterCard in payment for the artwork. All purchases are subject to Illinois Sales Tax to be paid by the purchaser. All payments to the artists shall be made after the convention within a period of one month. It is essential that artists use their legal names and addresses when checking in their art as checks to fannish names tend not to cash too well.

Quick Sales and After-Show sales:

Artwork on display at Chicon 2000 will only be sold by means of the auction or the highest written bid in the case where there are not enough bids to go to auction. We will not be selling art by quick-sale or by after-show sales. If someone wishes to purchase a piece of work without going through the auction process we will be happy to put the potential purchaser and the artist in contact with each other so that they may work out the details privately. The only exception to this is the Print Shop where items will have a set price and will not go to auction.

Security:

The Chicon 2000 Art Show will take every reasonable precaution to ensure the safety of the artwork displayed in the art show. We will be providing an extremely experienced fannish security force during the day and professional security during the off hours. Riverside Center can (and will) be locked up at night. The guards will be armed and the Hyatt's own security cameras will be active during the duration of the convention.

A digital photo documenting your exhibit will be taken and kept on file for the duration of the convention. At the end of the convention the digital photo will be destroyed or loaded onto disk and handed to the artist for his own use.

Check In:

Check-in for the art show is preferably scheduled for Thursday morning of the convention. We do, however, believe in being flexible and, if an artist is not able to attend until Friday or Saturday, we will of course accommodate them with a later check in. Check-in, Check-out, and Auction tracking will be facilitated by the latest state of the art hand-held radio-linked computers along with a custom, thoroughly beta-tested computer program.

Check-Out:

Check-out of the Art Show will be Monday morning and afternoon. Artist check-out will be separate from Purchaser check-out. A thorough itemized receipt of all sales will be generated for the artists and purchasers. Checks will not be issued at the convention. Checks will be issued from the Chicon 2000 corporate account within 30 days of the end of the convention.

These are the procedures for the Chicon 2000 Art Show.
And may ghod have mercy on our souls.

The Deathly Silence from the Dealers' Room and Art Show

(information from Progress Report 6)
Bill Roper, exhibits@chicon.org

No, your local post office hasn't eaten your mailing -- at least, yet! In fact, with any reasonable luck, you'll be seeing Dealers' Room acceptance letters and Art Show rules before you receive this Progress Report. But, given the unreasonableness of our luck so far, let me explain the delay.

The Dealers' Room and Art Show are located in the soon-to-be-renamed Wacker Hall. Subsequent to our signing our hotel contract with the Hyatt, the hotel signed a contract giving a particular contractor exclusive rights as the decorator for Wacker Hall.

"Ok," you say. "That's no problem. We don't need decorations. We need tables, and chairs, and hangings for the Art Show."

Unfortunately, tables and chairs are what the decorator supplies. And this particular decorator has some interesting ideas about pricing. We're in the process of negotiations to get the prices down to what we consider a more reasonable level, because we don't think that it's reasonable for us to pass along to our dealers and artists the sort of pricing that we've seen so far. We have some ideas and the Hyatt is working with us, so we anticipate that we'll be able to keep prices to you in line with recent domestic Worldcons.

But until we know what our final costs are going to be, we just aren't able to set our prices, and until we set our prices, we can't send out the mailings that tell you what they are.

We apologize for the delay and hope that -- by the time that you're reading this -- the problems have been solved. But, in any case, we think you deserve an honest explanation of the problem. Thanks for your patience.

Todd Cameron Hamilton, artshow@chicon.org

The Chicon Art Show is going to be a mix of something old and something new. You will of course see the old traditional stand-bys that we have come to know and love from World Con art shows mixed in with some new ideas and technologies that will hopefully streamline the paperwork and make standing in line for hours a thing of the past.

We will again be located in Lower Wacker Hall as we were for the previous two Chicons only this time we will also have the auctions there as well, so that we do not need to transport the art any farther than we can fling a badger.

The entire art show, from the paperwork to the security and auctions, is being handled this time around by one large group so that we can avoid some of the communication problems that have plagued shows in the past. All of the Senior Art Show staff for Chicon has at least 15 years of experience with art shows including 4 veteran artists and one former ASFA president.

A mass mailing will be sent out in October with detailed information on the cost and sizes of panels and tables. You can of course contact us at the Chicon Web Site in order to make sure that you are on the mailing list if your address is different from the one that is listed with our data base or if you are not in any of the myriad other lists we have collated for this purpose...or if you would just like us to send the information to a friend.

We are currently planning on having 4 auctions during the duration of the convention and our chief auctioneer is of course Dr. Bob and his band of renouned.

If necessary, you may also send me a snail mail at:

Todd Cameron Hamilton
(Chicon Art Show)
1220 South Westnedge
Kalamazoo, MI 49008

We look forward to seeing you there and admiring your art.

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