About Out of Order aka Free-Hung Benefit - the Artguy has always loved the concept of this particular show/exhibit/benefit, Out of Order 2008! The entire process is kind of cool, you get 24 hours on a first come first hang basis, most anyone can hang a piece, and best of all, it benefits Maryland Art Place, which does alot for the art scene in Baltimore. It's a silent auction, the commission split is 50/50 and if you've got decent piece at a decent price it will probably sell, cool! After the show, the MAP crew is quick to inform you of a sale or not, and if you made a sale a check gets to you pretty quick along with the name of the buyer, not bad.
It's a Benefit! - This year, the Free-Hung Benefit Reception was Friday evening, April 11. Arriving we thought was "early" (8:30ish), it was already packed, so let the party begin. Art was everywhere, hung 2 to 3 rows high, if you're familiar with the space, you know that was a ton of art work on exhibit. As far as the Artguy could tell, pieces were priced from $30 to a whopping $5000 with most in $200 - $600 range. The highest bid on a single piece was in the $1000 range, so good art will sell. the Artguy did know a few of the exhibitng artists, the prices of their pieces, in general was not padded, there were 1 or 2 that did pad their prices almost double. Is this right, I don't think so, not if you take into account Out of Order was a BENEFIT. *Question should be, should an artist be allowed hang pieces with starting/minimum bids over $1000, IMHO, yes and no...
The biggest complaint the Artguy heard was the food or lack thereof. One could not describe what was served as food as, "lots of food", as per postcard/invitation, in fact it can be more accurately described as snacks, e.g. chips, candy bars etc etc etc., get over it, so what, there's a reason for everything, we just don't know what it is yet. Rumor has it, there was real food earlier but was taken away before MAP filled up, who knows, the Artguy had a great time anyway. What people could not complain about was the OPEN BEER and WINE Bar, the guys that manned this station were quick, courteous and quenched ones thirst a bottle or cup at a time! Just fantastic...
Do Your Part - *You know, MAP skipped the Out of Order show for a couple of years, citing doing special exhibits during the 25th Year Anniversary of MAP, or something along those lines. Personally, the Artguy heard that MAP was not overly happy about the show, "just feeding a bunch of artists". If this is true, I can see their point, what good comes out of displaying a piece of art in excess of $800 when you know it's a BENEFIT, what are the chances someone will walk in and bid on that piece? If this piece were in a higher end space in Baltimore, would it even sell? Hard questions and answers, but there is a solution. Why doesn't MAP charge a hanging fee for art exceeding an $800 minimum bid, something like $50 should do or just don't allow pieces with starting bids that high. You cannot tell me, as an artist, that every single piece you make will be over $800, if you just want to see it up on a wall, why not hang it in your living room and invite a bunch of friends over for a party, that's pretty simple and you won't be using up precious resources or wall space...
Yeah, I know a couple of artists that actually doubled their minimum bid from what they normally would sell the piece for, that's as wrong as an artist with a $5000 piece. C'mon, this is a BENEFIT, kiss 50% of your selling price goodbye, it's for a good cause. If you can't part with it, don't hang it, leave it at home, bring something else. Or you can just join MAP and get a free ticket to the event and not worry about the other 50%...
True, True, True - artists aren't cheap (ok, some of pretty cheap), just usually starving but guys and gals, I'd like to see Out of Order go on and on and on. We all have to do our part, there's a reason they call it a "BENEFIT", think about and I hope to see you next time!
by the Artguy - "if I knew better, I'd be just like you..."
