ConFurence 9 Art Show Information
This year, the art show will again be in the Buena Park Hotel, January 15 (setup only), 16,17,18, 1998. Please make your space reservations early! This will facilitate planning for us, and guarantees that you will have a space for your art in the show. We will still do our best to make sure that everyone’s art has a place, but without early reservations, there are no guarantees.
General Outline:
o Purchase a ConFurence membership. (Attending or supporting, if you are mailing in your art.)
o Reserve your “free” panel, request and pay for any extras you require.
o Receive your artist paperwork package.
o Matte each piece of your art.
o Put artist name and title on each piece of art.
o Fill out a Bid sheet for each piece.
o Fill out your Control Sheet completely.
o If you have someone acting as your Agent, Agent Release Form signed by artist is required.
o After show, check out unsold art.
The ConFurence Art Show is part of ConFurence, the International Anthropomorphic (Furry) Convention / Exposition. We concentrate on animals themes; realistic, comic and cartoon, serious and “funny”. We will accept art of other genres, but “furry” art will sell the most, and will be the vast majority of the art entered in the show. If you have any questions about furry fandom or ConFurence in general, please feel free to contact us.
Artist Registration
Everyone displaying art in the art show must have at least a supporting membership ($15.00). This applies no matter how your art is entered into the show, whether you bring it yourself, send it to us, or have an agent enter it. If you are unable to attend, the safest way to ensure that your art is entered in the show is to mail it to ConFurence. Along with your membership, you are allowed one 4’ x 4’ panel (or 2.5’ x 6’ table) in the show for free; each additional panel (or table) costs $5.00. In addition, ConFurence charges a 10% commission on all art show sales.
NC-17 Section Policy
Anything that does not show explicit sex or violence is acceptable for the main show; anything more ambitious must be placed in the NC-17 section. We understand that the boundaries can be a bit vague, but the purpose is to keep the general show accessible to the majority of the fans. We have found that both the artists and those attending were more comfortable with this arrangement. If you have art that you wish to be placed in the NC-17 section, please add “(NC-17)” to the end of the title of the piece on your registration form, and we will take care of it. We will rely on your discretion for this, but we also reserve the right to move art between the sections as we deem necessary.
Special Handling
If you have a piece which needs special treatment, or is likely to present serious logistical problems with transportation or display, please contact us well in advance. We will do what we can to accommodate your art, but we need enough warning to do so! Note: Please do not send glass!
Art Purchases Can Be Deducted from Your Sales
One thing we will be doing again this year is allowing artists who have sold things to deduct any art purchases they have made from their total take. All you have to do is tell us to go ahead and do it! And you can pay for your next years membership that way too, if you like. Just remember that you can only use money you will actually be receiving for this, which is to say that we can’t be sure what your take is until the art show is closed.
Preparing Your Art for the Show
There are several important things that must be done to prepare art for the show.
1. Label your art. Please put your name and the title of the piece on each and every piece of art you enter. This is crucial, because paperwork can get lost or confused in the rush of getting the show together, and this is the only way we have of positively identifying a piece as yours. We will be verifying this when we register your art for entry into the show—please help us out by having labeled your art beforehand.
2. Matte your art. Un-matted art is so easily damaged that we cannot be responsible for handling or placing it in the show. Have your art matted before you arrive at ConFurence, as there will be no provision for doing so at the show. This includes putting a solid backing behind the art, so that it is more resistant to punctures and tearing. Un-matted art may be rejected if there is a danger of it becoming damaged.
3. Cover your art. Ideally, you should have a transparent cover over the art. The more protection you provide your art, the less chance of it being accidentally damaged. We do our very best to avoid this, but art which is not covered is extremely vulnerable—please help us protect it by mounting and covering it well.
4. Do Your Paperwork Before Arriving. When you reserve your space for the show, we will send you all the necessary materials for completion before your arrival. These include control sheets, bid sheets, agent release forms, and the instructions for filling them out. Please try to let us know how many pieces you will be entering so we can send you enough forms. If you do not have your paperwork filled out when you get to the show, you will not be able to enter your art in the show it is completed.
5. Agents Must Have A Release Form. Anyone acting as an agent for an artist must have a signed release from the artist stating that they are authorized to do so. Without this, we cannot accept art from your agent, nor can we release art to an agent without the form. Please remember to fill out and sign the release form if you are having an agent represent you at the show. We cannot make any exceptions to this rule.
6. Check Out Unsold Art. After the show is finished, any unsold art that remains, as well as any art that you are taking out of the show, must be picked up and checked out. This is to ensure that we know what has happened to all of the art, and so that you receive proper credit. If you do not check your unsold art out with us, then we cannot be responsible for any subsequent problems or questions regarding it.
Art show procedures
Setup for the show will begin on Thursday, Jan. 15 as soon as the room is set up (about mid-afternoon), and will run as late as possible or until all the art on hand is placed. Setup will begin again on Friday morning at 9 AM for those who can’t arrive Thursday.
The art show will officially open at noon on Friday the 16th. On Saturday, the art show will open, along with the convention, at 10 AM, and again, we will endeavor to be there around 9 AM to help set up.
IMPORTANT—The last time to put art in the art show is at 2:00 PM on Saturday. No art will be accepted after this time. Those who failed for any reason to pre-reserve panels will be allowed to find space as they can on Saturday at 12 noon and all pre-reserved panels not claimed by 12 noon on Saturday are open for use by others. Anyone not pre-reserved will be allowed one panel free and any extra panels will be $5.00 each, to be paid at the check-in desk in the art show. Unused pre-reserved panels will be refunded only if you ask at the check-on desk to have it noted on your control sheet.
The art show will be open on Sunday morning (likely from 10 AM until noon, but that is not final) for last-minute bidding, but we will not accept art on Sunday. We will not be doing setup while the show is open, so please help us out by showing up early and getting as much done beforehand as possible. We will continue to accept art for the show all through Friday and up until 2 PM Saturday, but after then, we will not accept any additional art, so plan accordingly.
Bidding procedures are very easy; five bids send a piece to auction; fewer bids and the piece goes to the highest bidder. If a piece gets no bids, it will be returned.
There will be two auctions this year, to try and accommodate those who need to leave early on Sunday, as well as to keep each auction reasonably short. The first auction will be on Saturday night, and the second on Sunday afternoon. The art show will be open for bidding Sunday morning, so the only art which will be released before Sunday afternoon is that which is sold at the Saturday night auction.
Mailing in your art
We most enthusiastically accept mail-in entries for the art show. In fact, we recommend it, if you are unable to attend. Mailing your art to us guarantees that it will be displayed and ready for bidding as soon as the art show opens on Friday. So if you cannot be here in person, Please do not hesitate to send along your art for the show. We know how difficult it can be to get to a convention far from home, so we offer this service as a second option for those who are unable to join us.
The procedures for mail-in art show entries are fairly easy; in addition to the regular preparations (see above), there are a few other things you will need to know.
1. Purchase a supporting membership
2. Reserve your panels (Your paperwork will arrive shortly)
3. Matte each piece. Your art should be ready to hang when it arrives; we cannot be responsible for un-matted or otherwise unprepared art. If you have any special display requirements, please write to us as far in advance as possible; we will do our best to accommodate reasonable requests.
4. Put your name and the title on the back of each piece
5. Create a bid sheet for each piece.
6. Create a control sheet for all pieces. Fill in ALL information and please print clearly.
7. Fill out the agent release form you will receive when you reserve your space in the show. It should be made out for ConFurence as the agent, with the above address. We need this so that we have clearance to act in your behalf to sell your art; please be sure to fill it out, sign it and send it along with the rest of your paperwork.
8. Ship your art to the art show address. Please do not send any art to the ConFurence PO Box!
9. From outside U.S., please pre-declare your art for Customs. If you don’t, it will be held up for an indefinite period while they do it for you, and we will have to charge you the extra cost, which is not cheap. If you have any questions about this, please contact us before sending your art, and we will work out the details.
10. Please have your entry sent as soon as possible. We will accept all entries we receive before Thursday, January 15, but the sooner you get your art to us, the easier it will be on everyone. We strongly recommend sending your art on or before the first week in January; after that, we may not have time to reply to you about its safe arrival. Take into consideration any weather conditions between you and us, as the mail can often be delayed by winter weather conditions. Shipment method is up to you, but be aware that you should allow plenty of time for your shipment to arrive. Even the best delivery services slip sometimes, and the closer it gets to the con, the harder it is for us to deal with art arriving.
11. Please don’t send glass! We absolutely cannot be responsible for receiving or shipping anything mounted with glass! If you have framed art with glass, either remove the glass or replace it with plastic. There is no way to pack glass carefully enough to survive a trip through any of the delivery services.
12. Please provide a current phone number through which you can reliably be reached. This is purely for our internal use, and will not be given out. It is especially important for our mail-in artists to have a way for us to contact them rapidly, as experience shows that problems often reveal themselves uncomfortably close to or during the convention, thus rendering letters futile.
13. Paperwork Corrections Policy: When we receive your art, we may need to redo some of the paperwork in order to stay in compliance with our internal procedures. If we do, we will send back original paperwork, along with a copy of the final paperwork that we retain, and a brief explanation of why this was required.
14. Returning Unsold Art—Once the show is over, we will return whatever art remains. We will begin shipping the first week of February. We normally use UPS, so we recommend that you give us a street address to which they can deliver. If you are outside the US, or give us a PO Box, we will return your art via USPS. We will package your art as securely as we are able, and it will be insured for the value of the total of the minimum bids listed for each piece. It would be greatly appreciated if you could include some help for us on the return postage.
15. Payment: Based on past experience, it takes about 6-8 weeks for us to pay the artists, although we will do our best to make it quicker if at all possible. We would like to be able to pay sooner, but we have to have enough time to process the paperwork, let the checks clear the bank, print ALL the artist’s checks, and mail them..
16. Where to send your art: ConFurence Art Show Where to contact us: ConFurence Art Show
13412 Gilbert St. PO Box 1958
Garden Grove, CA 92844 Garden Grove, CA 92842
Note: if you are sending your art by Mail (US Postal or International Post), you may send it to PO Box 1958. If you are shipping
your art by UPS, FedEx, AirBorne, Purolator, etc., use the 13412 Gilbert St. adddress. Mail early! (bad weather, strikes, etc.)
Email: artshow@confurence.com Telephone: (714) 530-4993 or (800) 234-8237 number is manned most of the time it is usually answered as “Lantana Ltd.”, so don’t be confused, it’s the right one. Just ask for ConFurence!