The Organization of the Artist Alley

I went to the artist alley to look for a friend and few others. There was a sign in front of the artist alley telling one where the respective artist is located. It was great that it had the layout of the alley, but it would have been better if there was also a list of the artists’ names in alphabetical order. The names were listed on the layout as to where the artist was located; however, one has to realize that the letters identifying the sections in the alley do not necessarily correspond to the letters of the artist’s first and/or last name. For example: the person I was looking for had a “K” for the first name and “O” for the last name, but he was in section J. Eventually, I found the name of the person listed, but it would have made more sense to have an alphabetical name list and a corresponding layout of the alley.

Later on, I only realized that the artist alley on the same level as the show floor was just the artists for NYCC. When I saw the phrase “artist alley,” I assumed it was the umbrella phrase for all artists attending the convention, not just those for NYCC. As I went down to the bottom floor to attend a panel, I ended up seeing all these booths and a stage with people dancing on it, which was probably the maid café. I was so busy that day that I did not realize how segregated things were. I ended up wondering the possible reasons.

At least for organizational purposes, here is the one thing that did not make sense to me. If you have one group of artists on the bottom floor, why not put both in the bottom floors, so the top floor is all for the non-artist exhibitors? It probably would have been possible, but during the night of the concert and masquerade, the area that was used for the NYAF 2009 exhibition hall, which happens to be next to the NYCC 2010 panels, was used as the line up area for both events and probably many others. So, even if that idea did come up, the convention would still need a certain amount of space for those lining up to attend the stage events.

If you think about the layout at the convention, the artist alley for NYCC was right above the one for the artists of NYAF. So in a sense, it is organized, but in a different way: all the artists were located at one side of the building near 34th street. As for the NYAF artist alley being below sea level, well, I think from an organizational perspective, the only reason that it was possible was because of the extra space it had in front of the NYAF panel rooms. The other side where the NYCC panels were, did not have a large amount of front space for anything but a NYCC/NYAF information booth. When one walks further down this section, there is a small area; however, it did not look like it would have been big enough for the NYCC artists. Assuming that the panel rooms are built permanently, if the NYAF panel area was identical to the NYCC panel area, then maybe the artists for NYAF would have been on the show floor with the artists of NYCC. However, what would have happened to the maid café? My theory is that the maid café would have had to be at the show floor next to or be part of the Events Stage.

There could be many more reasons for such an organization, however only the event planners of the convention can tell you that. :D If you want to learn about the possible business aspect of the convention, check out Ninja101’s article The Vicious Circle.
© 2011 Linda Thai

Photography by Linda Thai

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