Artist Alley Hours
| Day | Set Hours | Business Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday | 3pm – 7pm | X |
| Friday | 11am – 1pm | 1pm – 8pm |
| Saturday | 9:30am – 10am | 10am – 7pm |
| Sunday | 9:30am – 10am | 10am – 4pm |
| Take Down | 4pm – 7pm |
General Policies
While in the Alley all convention, federal, state, and local laws, policies, and rules apply. Artists are responsible and required to follow any applicable laws, rules, and policies.
Adult material must be setup and concealed up in a way to prevent minors for seeing it. The acceptability of such setups are the at the discretion of the art department head. Adult material may not be sold to minors, a government issued photo ID should be checked. Failure to comply with these rules may mean removal from the Alley without a refund at the discretion of the Art Department Head, further actions may be taken at the discretion of Anime Detour Leadership. They also may be held accountable under Minnesota and local city/county laws.
Badges may be picked up for artists from the Artist Alley Check-In Area. Instructions will be given in e-mail prior to the convention. All persons inside the Alley must have a badge visible at all times.
No more than 2 people can be present behind a table at any given time. Two chairs will be provided with each table. You may not bring additional chairs to supplement this. There is very limited space behind each table as tables often back up against another set of chairs and tables. Please understand space is extremely limited.
Tables structures, signs, and items may not extend onto another table and must stay within the boundaries of your table. You may not encroach on the space of other tables or more than half the space between you and the table directly behind you. Please respect all boundaries.
Tables should be manned at all times. However if you need a break (example: restroom or pickup food), please leave a note stating the time you will be back. If a significant portion of your table is noted as unmanned or abandoned for a large period of time and you cannot be reached, your table may be packed up. Please inform the Artist Department Staff if you must leave for an extended period of time and we can note it.
All artists must check in by 1pm on Friday. Failure to check in by this time forfeits your table and may be sold to another artist group without a refund, unless prior arrangements are made by contacting the Art Department.
Commissions are between the Artist and the person ordering the commission. Anime Detour and staff cannot assist you in locating either party or mediating disputes.
The communication from Artist Alley pre-con is generally directed only at the person who is signing up for the table. It is their duty to update all members of their group to any important information presented in the e-mails.
Please refrain from yelling, running, obscene language, and other disturbing behavior while inside the Alley. Please be respectful of all other artists and our thousands of guests that may wander through the alley. Anything not permitted by the convention, local/state/federal laws, or the hotel is not allowed in the Alley as well. Please be courteous. Please keep noise to a low level. No music or other loud noises/lights may be used that affect nearby tables.
Tables cost $175 and includes a single registration badge. Artists are responsible to register any helpers or proxies during the convention open-registration time frame.
The following policies for Artist Alley must be followed by all table artists. Anime Detour and their staff are not lawyers nor copyright/trademark owner of items you are likely to draw for art, and thus cannot make judgement calls on this behalf. You must follow all Federal, state, and local laws when creating/selling art, especially fan art.
As a general rule, the following are potentially safe and may be sold:
- Original Character Work
- Commissioned hand drawn works made at the convention
- Individual handmade items that are unique and in the artist’s own style
- Fan art which is clearly made by the artist and not the license holder. Which do not contain trademarked items. Companies must actively defend their trademarks or risk losing them.
As a general rule the following should NOT be sold within the alley:
- Food and beverages of any kind.
- Raffles, Wheels, etc, where a purchase is required or increases chances (due to local laws).
- Copyrighted/Trademarked logos and designs (whether or not they are unique or not).
- Traced, copied, or photoed art of a copyrighted/trademarked source.
- Products you did not create yourself (pre-packaged/bought items) – exception: original designs you created yourself. But not sold in stores.
All judgements are at the discretion of the Art Department Head or Anime Detour Leadership.
If an artist fails to check-in for their table by close of Artist Alley on Friday, the table is considered surrendered with no refund of the price. The table may be sold to another artist/artist-group at the discretion of the Art Department Head. We are reasonable people, if we are notified that you cannot make it on time (for example a plane was delayed) we will keep your table around, but we must know before we make arrangements to sell the table to another artist. Please let us know as soon as possible.
Photography as a general rule is prohibited inside the Artist Alley.
Tables are non-refundable.
Violation of these rules or a the request of a copyright/trademark owner we may at the discretion of Art Department Staff ask to remove offending items or revoke your ability to sell items and ask you leave the Artist Alley. Further actions may be performed at the discretion of the greater Anime Detour Leadership.
Artists are NOT allowed to share a table.
We get far more applications than space for the tables each year. As a result, the selection process is juried first, in which we still always pick more artists than tables. After the jury it will be a lottery from the jury list. 50% of the artists will be local (MN, WI, ND, SD and IA) and the other 50% will be national and international artists.
A single artist or studio is allowed a maximum of one table. You may not bring additional tables to supplement this. The tables are non-movable, to ensure each artist has the appropriate amount of space without encroaching onto others or claiming more space than others. A table may be removed at the discretion of the head of the Art Show if a reasonable reason and plan is agreed upon before the convention. Tables are approximately 6’x30”.
Tables will be assigned by the Artist Alley Staff. Special requests will be entertained, however we cannot guarantee any requests.
We do not allow transferring or selling your table to another artist or artist group under any circumstances.
Anime Detour reserves the right to change these rules at any time. Every effort will be made to update all active and approved Artist Alley members for the current year if these rules change via e-mail.
Being a part of Artist Alley allows us to list your name on our website or in any printed material listing you as an Artist Alley Participant. A link to a website provided may also be listed. If you do not wish for this to occur please contact the artist alley staff via email immediately upon being accepted. We will do everything we can to ensure you will not be listed if that is what you wish, but things may have already gone to print or delay in taking items down. Please be aware.