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Welcome back to another year of the Anime Boston Artists' Alley!

There will be some changes to our rules and setup - so please read through everything. We are not responsible for your failure to do so and the consequences that ensue. A Special Message from the Alley Manager is at the bottom of this page.

Quick Facts:

• Table sizes available are [linear] 2 feet, 4 feet, 6 feet, and 8 feet. (There is a maximum of 8 feet per artist/studio. WE ARE CONTINUING to limit the number of full 8 foot spaces we give out this year. Please choose a backup size or you will be passed over.)
• Tablecloths are not provided. You may bring your own to give your table a personal touch.
• Prices can be calculated with a simple formula. $40 for every 2 feet [linear].
  This means that 2 feet = $40, 4 feet = $80, 6 feet = $120, 8 feet = $160.
  This is just the price for space - convention badges are not included.
• Minimum age to participate in the Artists' Alley is 18 years, as of Thursday, April 5, 2012. This includes any assistants and table-shares.
• Electricity is VERY limited and only available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please contact the Alley Manager if you are willing to pay for a power drop in the middle of the room.
• Lighting is definitely adequate for getting around the room and seeing what you are doing under 'normal' circumstances. If you wish to bring additional lighting for your work, please see the note above about the availability of electricity.
• Letter of Intent (Step 1) open date is Saturday, October 22nd, 2011 at an undisclosed time. Rest assured, it will not be before dawn. And no, it is not an actual letter; just a short form with some information to fill out.
• Please Note: The date posted above for the Letter of Intent may be subject to change. If it is, it will only be pushed out later. There are some details we are attempting to iron out before signups start. Any delay will be posted here, on the Anime Boston home page, and on the forums.
• Location is the joined area of Ballrooms B & C on the 3rd floor of the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA.

Please note that reading the Quick Facts above is NOT an adequate replacement for reading the rest of the rules, the FAQ and/or any extra messages the Artists' Alley staff has posted here. Please read through EVERYTHING thoroughly. Thank you!

If you are new to our Artists' Alley, please read the Beginners Guide and sign up for a forum account - you'll find that your fellow artists are generally able and willing to give advice and help you find your way.

The Art Track subdivision of the Artists' Alley will return under the stewardship of Kathy Lawton. The Art Track highlights the work of a few artists each year and also organizes activities for the convention that require preparations made before-con. If this sounds interesting to you, please keep an eye on news about the Art Track! If you'd like to suggest an activity or an artist, please contact Kathy.

Please remember that Artists' Alley and Art Show are two separate divisions. We do, however, share the same space (Ballrooms B and C on the 3rd floor of the Hynes). If you are interested in the Art Show, please contact the Art Show Manager, Chris Durej.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me, Nikki O'Shea Bean - Artists Alley Manager.

A SPECIAL MESSAGE from the Artists' Alley Manager:

I would like to address some concerns about our signup practices - we will be continuing to use the "Letter of Intent" system that we've been using for the past couple of years.

Why, you ask, do we not change it? Because, quite frankly, no matter what system we settle on, things aren't going to get "better". The room isn't going to get any bigger (and I wouldn't want it to get bigger - we are already, in my opinion, too big as it is. Many artists are being overlooked already because people are faced with TOO MANY artists and everyone's work deserves to be seen.)

Every year, more and more people want to get in. This is in part because I try to organize a community-based Artists' Alley. I try to be as communicative as possible and as fair as possible. Because of our sign-up process, we have a diversity our members love and everyone gets a fair chance to get in. As an artist myself, I've always hated being shut out of cons - not because I didn't get there in time, but because I was never given the chance. Everyone deserves a chance to get their break, in my opinion, and this is the fairest sign-up process we could come up with, with the demand that we get.

With more and more people trying to get in, quite simply, we cannot fill the demand. And even if we juried the show, we'd never have enough room for all the artists people would believe deserved to be in it. We only have 144 tables and over 500 people tried to sign up last year. Even if I assigned only 2 feet spaces to everyone (which would be a nightmare for ALL involved) we still might not accommodate everyone who wanted to get in. This means that there are going to be unhappy artists, no matter how we did this. I'm sorry.

And in response to people saying that there is favoritism going on with this system, I'd like to know how you know this? Or if that is so, why quite a few of my personal friends did not get spaces last year? I know it's just a few grumblers, but I have been hearing it over and over, and never directly, so I have been unable to answer those people. So here it is.

Thank you all for your continued interest and good luck! Let's continue to make this a fun and friendly con for all involved!

Nikki O'Shea
Artists' Alley Manager