EnemySound - Booking

Booking a show or organizing an event

In response to a growing number of requests for staging of events at the Enemy space, we have elected to publicly formalize and clarify our procedures for granting and refusing particular events. This will likely seem stiffer or more rigorous than many other venues, but we hope that this will help provide an overall more positive experience for everyone involved.

We currently have no intention of elaborating particular aesthetic criteria by which proposed events will be evaluated. A negative decision on a particular event in no way conveys a judgment of the caliber of work. Rather, we might feel that a show is not appropriate for our venue, or for our current mood. Or that it might not fit into a particular month's calendar of events. We do have some general areas of interest; these are detailed in the About page.

Our goal is to host three or four events each month. The co-proprietors meet once a month, typically on the first Sunday, to discuss and all proposed events. Obviously, it is very helpful to plan events well in advance, so contacting us early enhances the likelihood that we can put on your show. However, we've also been guilty ourselves of last-minute panics, so don't feel like you can't contact us at the last minute. Worst case scenario, we might be able to point you toward someone who can help. Or there's nothing we can do.

As a rule of thumb, and in order to allow sufficient time for publicizing an event, we suggest contacting us at least two full months in advance of our meetings. In other words, if you are looking for a show in March of 2009, talk to us prior to December 31 of 2008. If you're looking for April of 2009, contact us by January 31st of 2009. You get the idea. We will notify everyone of our decisions by the end of week following the meeting.

In order to assist us in our decision process, you should be prepared to provide us IN ADVANCE with the following:

A professional CD or a CD-R, cassette, or LP if working with music basically, some form of physical media
If working in another medium, please provide us with a couple paragraphs describing your proposed event. Sample materials (jpegs, DVDs, etc.) are appropriate as well.
An at-minimum two paragraph bio of participants in the event. This will help us publicize the event.
If you have any special technical requirements (video projection, sound system), please specify these as well.
If your event includes other artists (e.g. other musicians, other exhibitors, etc.), samples of works and bios should be available as well. PLEASE NOTE our strong preference for musical events to include only three, or occasionally four, performers.
It is also helpful if you have a specific date or range of dates in mind.

Our preference is to communicate directly with artists, and not to deal with promoters. Obviously, this distinction can get pretty fuzzy in practice, but we believe we can provide a basic criterion. If you are not involved in an artistic capacity in an event, and you expect to make some money off of it, we are not interested. Nothing against the business model – we just prefer to keep things more face-to-face.

Financial policies, and other rules about shows

Enemy can never and will never offer a guarantee for an event. We wish we could, especially for out-of-town artists. However, as a small artist-run organization, we are just as impoverished as you. Our general policy is to suggest a donation of $5 for entry again, however, we realize that much of our constituency is composed of poor artists with little more money than us. So we also don't turn people away for financial reasons, although we will attempt to bleed attendees for whatever is in their pockets. Which means that the amount of money available is necessarily unpredictable, and guarantees are impractical.

As a general policy, we take 25% of donations although in cases of meager attendance, we typically distribute all the money to the artists. In the event, however, that special equipment is required for an event, we may negotiate a different arrangement to cover rental or depreciation costs.

Whatever income accrues to Enemy never enriches the curators instead, it is reinvested in the space. Construction projects, repainting, insurance, and improvement and maintenance of equipment are primarily financed out of our own paychecks. Our only hope is to offset to some minimal degree the costs incurred to operate the venue. The primary goal is always to provide the best environment we can for performances and exhibitions, and whatever resources we acquire are dedicated to that purpose.