"fool me once, won't fool me again" - GWB (a former POTUS I used to despise that I am now romantic for)
As an artist who's only recently 'come out', I was over the moon to showcase at an event that had ties to Art Basel (allegedly). We now know that's very much not the case. I was naive and ignored red flags, unfortunately losing a substantial amount of money - from the registration, to purchasing display structures, spending 3 weeks creating all new pieces, paying for my own content to be boosted on social media to raise awareness of the event and of course an entire day spent in a gymnasium instead of one of the other markets or working at one of my two jobs.
This was a tough, costly and embarrassing lesson to learn, but being in it with morenseasonedn artists takes the sting out a bit. Confronting the event organizer and becoming persona non grata allowed me to find my voice. They blocked us all but I'm proud to share they went as far as erasing any evidence I was even in the show 🏆
It was fate I happened to set up next to a few amazing vendors who also happened have a background in marketing as I do! It was the genesis of our decision to band together and mobilize, organize and take a stand.
