Should I give this client a song & dance, or the truth?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I was looking for a place to hang my work; somewhere to get it out of the studio until the art festival season starts in the spring. I’m still fairly new to this area, so I looked for guidence in the local arts & entertainment rag and compiled a short list of cafes, public spaces and coffee joints that display the work of local artists.

The first place I emailed said, “We looked at your website and we LOOOOVE your work! Come see us Saturday at 2:00 and we’ll talk about giving you a show!”

I actually live out near the beaches and this artsy 'lil coffee joint was much closer in to the city, a place I usually avoid unless I have to. I had my wife drive me over, as she’s more experienced with navigating in the city core. We got there a little early and decided to drive around the area.

Yow! What a nasty goddamn area! It was deep in the heart of scenic Crackton; street after street of condemned houses, boarded up businesses, graffiti and urban decay. Apparently the place was in the early stages of gentrification; here and there were a few beautiful old properties that had been restored, but those were few and far between. The coffeehouse where I was supposed to be was the only commercial place on the block, and it stood out like a diamond in a bowl of sewage. Seriously, I couldn’t image opening a business other than a methodone clinic in the area.

I told the missus to just leave. I hate to break appointments, especially when the other party seems to be a nice person, but this area just sent out a “bad vibe”*. I still feel like an asshole, though.

I’m a little discriminating about where I hang my work. There is no way I’d hang my stuff in a neighborhood where I wouldn’t let me wife and kid sit in an idling car, a neighborhood where I wouldn’t walk in broad daylight. I’m just not that hard up for a show date (not yet, anyway).

I’m not sure how to handle the ‘bowing out’, the ‘thanks, but no thanks’ portion of the situation. Should I make up an excuse (I had a flat tire, my kid was sick so I had to take him to the walk-in clinic, God came to me in a dream and advised me not to go…)? Should I be honest but polite? Should I blow the cat off completely and just pretend the whole thing never happened?

What do you guys think?
*please forgive the use of bullshit, hippy-dippy nomenclature.

2

You should have gone in and told them to their face. Otherwise, yeah tell them the truth. A more intrepid artist than you may come along and be one of the forerunners of that area’s rennaissance and become known for help setting the style of that particular scene while you find a more rarefied yuppie neighborhood for your work.

3

Why not tell them the truth? “I’d love to accept your offer but I really don’t want to set foot in that neighborhood again, so no thanks.”

Worst thing that could happen is they think you’re a wimp.

4

Too late to ask for advice, because you’ve already given them the “song & dance” by breaking an appointment just because you didn’t like the look of the neighborhood.

5

Yep.

You should have walked in, and had a serious discussion with them about their clientele, the neighborhood, gentrification, etc. That would have provided you with the opening to say that you don’t think your art fits their clientele, or that given how far the cafe is from your usual haunts you don’t think it fits your plan. Although, ideally, you’d have researched all of that before you contacted them to ask if you could hang your art in their cafe, I suppose better late than never.

But I vote for honesty, even if belated.

6

You sound like my dad, who’s never set foot in any of my homes I’ve had in the city because he thinks he’ll get mugged or carjacked. Never mind I (female) live here - all the time - and my mom lived here too when she was young. One of the nicest neighborhoods in Chicago.

You should give kudos to the coffee shop for being one of the brave, ambitious hopefuls who are giving the neighborhood a chance to gentrify. You should give them some idea of why you skipped the appointment, maybe it would explain other skipped appointments by people too chicken to explain the same reason you skipped yours! I’m sure you’re not the only one.

7

THAT is excellent advice. Maybe they could also demonstrate that, appearances aside, it is a good neighborhood that they’ve found worthwhile to stay in. But even if not, you will have at least tried to correct a now damaged situation. (You now have a reputation as “the guy who stood us up”, and remember, they probably know owners of other venues that could display your work.)

8

My impression exactly. A coffeeshop in “Crackton”? Come on. Arty neighborhoods tend to be a bit on the run-down side, in my experience, but not to that level. If the OP is discriminating about where he hangs his work (fair enough), he should research the galleries he submits his work to beforehand. Anyhow, I’m not sure what the OP can do to save face at this point. You broke an appointment with someone who was excited about your work willing to give you a show. If I were the owner of the cafe, I’d be pretty pissed. I would just blow it off at this point and chalk it up to a lesson learned.

9

Yeah, I read the OP and thought he was kidding at first. Some of the really cool non-chain coffee houses I know of in the Minneapolis area–the ones you go to if you like atmosphere and art, and that have name recognition outside of the immediate neighborhood–are in the rougher neighborhoods that are going through revitalization. Stick to the suburbs, and all you find are generic Starbucks and Caribou Coffees that I would never think to go to if I wanted atmosphere and art.

I’m getting a chuckle out of this thread, because I think there is a chance the OP just snubbed a place that other artists are dying to get into. :slight_smile: And yeah, it’s way too late to fix it at this point.

10

When I tell people what neighborhood I live in, I get a lot of, “Really? You feel safe there? Why would anyone live THERE?” kind of responses. I have never felt anything other than safe in my neighborhood and my rent is really low. I am looking to move in a few months and I am hoping to find another place on this same block because it is that awesome. The fear some people have of “lower class” neighborhoods means they miss out on a lot of opportunities. If you really wouldn’t have felt safe there (you heard gunshots or saw rival gangs having a knife fight or something) then you probably made the right choice. If you just felt like there weren’t enough manicured lawns for your taste you probably missed out on a wonderful opportunity and should try to make amends as soon as possible.

11

I don’t really understand the other responses to this thread. You can do whatever you want. You don’t owe the guy anything. You may want to make sure he’s not some art scene bigwig before you snub him though or you may get a reputation for being flakey. Snubbing him would also run the risk that he’s friends with art scene bigwigs, which may be difficult to determine.

The bottom line is you can do whatever you want–never call him back, lie, fake your death, go back and be honest, whatever–and you should make your decision on the basis of you estimation of the best course of action for you, not on what someone else thinks is “the right thing to do.”

12

Sure. That’s rather self-evident, though, isn’t it? I assume the OP is still trying to figure out what the possible outcomes of blowing the guy completely off are, or what the possible gains are in trying to make amends, hence a call out to others to hear various perspectives on the situation and weigh them for himself and decide, in the end, what course of action makes most sense to him. Otherwise, why ever ask for advice? Plus this also presupposes one has a philosophy of always acting in one’s self interest, but that’s a topic for another thread.

13

It’s not so much my personal safety that’s an issue; I’m only going to be there for setting up, taking down, and the opening night reception.

My big issue is “is this a good enough venue for my work?” Does this place attract the right clientele? Is this a place for 20-something hipsters who think it’s an expression of coolness to hang out at a coffeehouse on the “bad” side of the tracks? Is there any real possility to make some money?

Despite being romanticized by most of the public, art is a business. Granted, the old man loves his job, but I still have bills to pay.

14

The questions you pose in your latest post are perfectly valid questions that you should have asked when you kept your original appointment. As it is, you are guilty of judging a book by the cover, and have poisoned the well for any professional arrangments with this potential client.

15

Captain Obvious rides to the rescue!

Of course he can do whatever he wants. That’s a given. People can do whatever they want in many social situations, even when it makes them appear like assholes to the rest of the world. Social etiquette is not, in most cases, backed up by law, nor is it generally punished by official sanctions. But the rules of etiquette exist because people have some sense of what is the right thing and the wrong thing to do in particular situations.

I don’t understand what you mean when you say that you don’t understand the other responses in the thread. I mean, the OP asked for advice about what he should do in this situation, and people gave their opinions based on their sense of right and wrong, on their sense of social etiquette. It’s no different from any one of hundreds of other threads we’ve had in IMHO on this board.

And, as a final observation, i thought a libertarian type like yourself might see some sort of obligation for a free individual to abide by the verbal contracts he makes, especially when the other party has gone out of their way to offer something of value, and when breaking the appointment inconveniences that party.

What does this have to do with the topic of your thread? No-one here has said that you’re obligated to hang your art in the guy’s place.

In fact, this post makes your OP even more difficult to understand. I mean, surely one good way to determine what sort of clientele the place attracts is to go into the place and talk to the fucking owner, just like you agreed to do in the first place. Ask him who goes there; ask him whether his clientele have the sort of money or the sort of connections that might benefit your art career. Sit in the place for an afternoon and an evening, and see for yourself who goes there.

You have no obligation to hang your artwork in the guy’s place, but you’re the one who sent the initial email, and you also seemed extremely excited when you heard back from him. He went out of his way to respond to your overture, and when you saw the state of the neighborhood you didn’t even have the decency to keep the appointment you made with him. That’s what this is about, not whether or not this is the right venue.

16

Look, there’s probably a 90% chance that your observation of the neighborhood has told you all that you need to know about the clientele and whether your art will sell in that location. But, as smart as everyone on this board is, none of us is in a position to tell you whether you made the right decision in walking away. Only further questioning of the owner will tell you that – and that’s what you asked us in the OP, whether you should have talked to the owner, and we’ve all said yes (well, except for the responses that sidestepped the issue by remarking that we’re all free to do whatever we choose, which doesn’t really help).

So, yes, I still think you should have spoken to the owner and asked perfectly valid questions. And, like I said, 90% chance the answers you’d get would validate your decision to walk away. But there’s always that 10%…

17

Do you have that much business that you can turn away a potential venue? “Is this a good enough venue for my work” sounds pretty darned snobby to me. Unless you’re established and have other places asking you to exhibit, to blow off one place seems condescending.

StG

18

Makes sense to me : if his art is exhibited in a venue where nobody will buy it, it won’t be available for another place. It’s better to wait for better opportunity if he doesn’t think he will sell anything.

I’m assuming here what I usually see : paintings, pictures, etc… exhibited in a venue for one or two months.

19

As for what to do now, if you blew of the appointment without calling then they’ve probably written you off as a flake. If they haven’t emailed to ask “Gosh, did we give you the wrong date?” then they’ve most certainly filed you under “flake”. They already know their coffeehouse is in a sketch neighborhood, they don’t need to hear it from some flake from the suburbs who’s never even been inside their store. So I wouldn’t bother with the “honest answer” in this particular instance. Just MHO.

20

An artist? No way!

The OP isn’t just missing appointments, he’s perpetuating stereotypes. :slight_smile: