What you need to know about bidding in the Art Show

The Art Show Bidding Rules and signup form are now available for downloading on the Art Show page! Save yourself some time by printing and filling out the signup form (the last page of the file) and bringing it with you to the Art Show. More importantly, save yourself some grief by reading over the rules and learning how things work ahead of time! By signing up for a bidder number, you acknowledge that you understand and will abide by the rules.

The most exciting and hectic time at the Art Show is when written bidding closes. It can be frustrating if you get beaten out for a piece of artwork you were bidding on, and we want to give you as much of a chance as possible to bid on the artwork you want, but we do have to close out the show and get ready for the voice auction.

By understanding what happens when written bidding closes (at 6 pm Saturday for the Mature Gallery, and noon Sunday for the General Gallery), you'll give yourself an advantage. Here's how it works:

When the written bidding closes, crew members will form a "moving wall" starting at the back of a section and moving forward, closing bidding by artist (not by piece, not by panel, not by bay). The closeout path is shown on the Art Show map handout and poster, available at the con. Closeout is done per artist in a bay: if there are 3 artists in a bay, there will be 3 closeouts in the bay; if one artist takes up the entire bay, the entire bay closes at once; and if an artist occupies more than one bay, each of their bays closes separately.

We move quickly, so when the "wall" gets to an artist you want to bid on, do your bidding before the auctioneer declares the artist "closed." We will not close an artist while bidding is going on, but if there is no bidding, it will close quickly, so don't be timid -- if you want to bid, bid! We can't wait for someone to make up their mind at the last second. We want you to get your chance to bid, but do it quickly!

You will be allowed to defend your bids, but you may not block anyone else from bidding on any piece -- the auctioneer and Art Show crew will see that it doesn't happen. If you are not actively guarding your bids, we ask that you clear the aisles at least 10 minutes before the show closes. There are a lot of people in the area, and we need to move them out as quickly as possible when closeout begins. If you are just having a conversation with someone, please take it outside the Art Show.

All this allows you to defend bids in more than one section. The Art Show crew follows close behind the "wall," marking final bids to ensure that if you're the last bid, you are the last bid. Once the "wall" passes a point, no one except Art Show crew are allowed beyond it.

(Thanks to Glen Wooten for help in composing this explanation.)