Friday, May 4, 2012

Artomatic's Bankers' Hours

I love Artomatic. However, we seem to be experiencing a failure to communicate this year.

The first issue involved registration.OK, there were some technical glitches, and as a technologist, I understand those. However, the rationale given for them ("too much traffic") was disingenuous. No biggie, I got registered and I got over that.

The first real communication breakdown I experienced involved the date we were allowed to start working on our installations. During orientation, I was told that we could begin installing on May 3rd (for a May 18th opening). A very short amount of time. My opinion is that a venue like Artomatic should allow installs one month before opening. But OK, I got the message and made plans. However, I later found out that information was bogus. People were allowed to start installing more than one week prior to May 3rd. How did they know? Why was I not informed? I lost more than a week because I have a day job (self employed) and had arranged a lot of deadlines to occur prior to May 3rd -- so there was no way I could regroup and take advantage of the additional week.

OK, that is fine. I planned to get to Artomatic today -- May 4th -- after work and work until midnight or later.  I was literally shocked to find out that the building closed at 10 pm and that artists would have to start cleaning up at 9:30 pm. WTF?  Is this lights out at 5th grade band camp?  What the hell?  OK, I found that out at 6 pm and decided to get done whatever  I could get done. I was working away, jamming to some Pink Floyd when a volunteer came by and said that "because of the Metro" we would have to break down at 8:30 pm and be out by 9:00 pm. So, apparently the Metro was going out of business on a Friday night in DC and we would lose another hour of work. Seriously????

Dear Artomatic -- I love you. I really do. But please realize that some of us work during the day. Some of us cannot get to the building until after 6 pm.  3 hours is not much time to get set up, work, and clean up.  I don't remember what the hours were for the 2009 AOM, but the current set up seems excessively restrictive. I like to work during the night. I work best late at night until the morning. By making me shirk my day job and work banker's hours, I am feeling very frustrated, pressed for time, and disappointed.

Can you give us one night when we can pull an all-nighter?  Can I sign a waiver and pledge to lock up my floor, no matter what time I get done?  Please - I am begging for some flexibility in the hours. Otherwise, I will have to paint my wall black and tack up post-its expressing my frustration.

Here is a quick peek at initial efforts for my wall - which will be all for naught if AOM continues to maintain Disney hours.


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