The 2011 Minneapolis Indie Xpo will be partially curated. Thirty of our tables will be sold by a group of ten volunteers who will take responsibility for three tables each. Whereas most tables at the show will be sold on a first-come first-served basis until they are gone, these curators will have six months (March – August) in which to sell their tables to independent comic creators they admire. Any table unsold by the curator at the end of six months will be released to wait listers in September.

Curator applications will be accepted in January and our ten curators will be announced in February. Curators must attend a short informational meeting in February (in-person preferred but other arrangements will be made if necessary). Curators will be encouraged to attend public planning meetings throughout the year and provide input that will guide the direction of the 2011 show.

Curators will be listed in our program and on our website.

Curators will be given a private URL and password which their selected cartoonists will use to register for the 2011 show. Curators are allowed to sell tables to themselves, but not to auction or re-sell tables. Curated tables will cost just as much as regular tables. Once a curator’s tables are purchased by an exhibitor, those tables will be managed by the Director and all communications about that table and the show must be conducted through the Director. A curator has fulfilled their purpose once all their tables have been sold (three full tables, six half-tables, or a mixture of each equivalent to three full tables).

Curators must be Minnesota residents. The ideal curator will have a passion for comics, be an active member of the global comics community and harbor an interest in the health and diversity of the Minneapolis Indie Xpo.

The curator’s primary job is to seek and court new talent for MIX. The curator position is temporary and unfunded. MIX will provide curators with information about the festival and access to application forms for their selected exhibitors. Their efforts will be largely self-directed after the informational meeting in February.

Curators will sell to creators only, not dealers. Some exceptions to this rule may exist. Please ask the Director if you have questions.

The idea for this style of curation arose last year when, after our tables sold out rather quickly, a number of people approached me asking if we had room for so-and-so who was their very best friend who they were really looking forward to hosting at a show in Minneapolis, for once. Local creators were clearly ready to offer hospitality to out-of-town creators who failed to register on time, for whatever reason. The idea of a partially curated show arose out of that.

With all the fuss lately about curated comics shows, it seemed important for me to address this issue on behalf of MIX.

Our history and goals are much different than other shows, please realize. We couldn’t all possibly be running the same show and we wouldn’t want to. MIX admires and respects alternate methods of organization, totally. Keep yourself afloat and do what’s right by you and your primary audience and I’d say you’re doing a great job with this comics festival thing.

MIX aspires, certainly, to be a destination for indie cartoonists and fans. We made an impressive splash our first year and we hope to build on that momentum in year two. To improve in 2011, we’ll move our dates, expand to two days, and introduce partial curation to our model.

I believe partial curation will benefit our local comics fans, potentially exposing them to new work. Also, we want to provide a healthy, enjoyable atmosphere for cartoonists to display and sell their work among friends. Giving people in our local community the tools to bring in and connect with those friends is a responsibility for us as much as anything else.

We’re about creating sales, fans and friendships for creators — and a lifelong love of comics for attendees. Partial curation, for us, clearly falls within those goals and responsibilities.

I hope this experiment is successful and that this can be the model for MIX, in some form, for many years to come. Half curated to encourage fresh interest in our show, half open to invite curious or supportive creators who don’t need a nudge to learn about, and get excited for, MIX.

I sincerely hope you’ll make it to our 2011 show!

Minneapolis Indie Xpo
November 5-6, 2011
The Soap Factory, Minneapolis, MN

– Sarah Morean, Director