How to do an event
WE ARE NO LONGER ACCEPTING ANY EVENT REQUESTS OR PROPOSALS
All inquiries must be sent to meetmeat@yeswecannibal.org
Important Documents (PDFs)
- YWC Gallery Floor-plan
- YWC Statement on protecting our space from enabling harm and sexual misconduct
- YWC Sound System
Read these Basics first
- October 2024 Yes We Cannibal is leaving our spot on Government St in early 2025. As of Fall 2024, we are beginning to phase out musical events. We strongly encourage you to connect with WONDERGROUND BR opened by our dear pal CINDY WONDERFUL as a potential spot for larger events and especially musical ones. They are best reached on Instagram.
- In order to do an event at YWC, you may be asked to sign an Artists Agreement depending on how you plan to use the gallery. The purpose of this agreement is to make sure that both YWC and the artist/performer/etc agree about terms of use. Based on several years of experience, we are not able to work with anyone who refuses to sign this agreement.
- As of 2023, we get several inquiries a week about doing something at YWC. Our ethos is that we try to say yes unless there’s a good reason not to, including schedule conflicts, or the unavailability of someone from YWC to run sound.
- We do not host: local rock shows, singer-songwriters, business or merch popups, or “parties”. For most local rock shows, we suggest that you contact Mid-City Ballroom, The Hostel BR, and/or Psychic Spice Booking.
- Our curatorial focus is contemporary art that is in dialogue with the larger contemporary art world.
- Our musical curatorial focus is experimental music including artists making free music and “jazz.” We also like to do hip hop events.
- We like to work with artists and performers directly.
- We are generally not the right place for people trying to start businesses, artist management companies, or host events built around selling things.
- YWC does not charge door. We do, encourage you to solicit donations using both a QR code for Venmo, CashApp, etc, as well as cash donations. If you’re a musical performer, you can also sell merchandise. Please don’t use the phrase “suggested donation” – all our fliers for touring musicians say “Tour Support Gifts Strongly Encouraged #ArtIsLabor.” You are welcome to include $10 or $15 on the flier, just understand it’s a “gift” and not a ticket.
- For musical events, we very strongly encourage you to have someone posted at the door with the fishbowl we use for cash donations and the foam-core placard with a Venmo QR code and approach each person coming in about making a donation. Most people will happily do so if they can.
- For musical events, please bring a roughly 5-6″ square QR code printout for Venmo or CashApp that can be taped to our donation request sign.
- We do welcome business sponsorship for touring performers. We are grateful to locals like The Radio Bar and Capital City Records and Bengal Glass who have done this before. We ask that you approach other businesses about this kind of sponsorship and be sure to include their logo on all promo materials if they agree to do so.
- We are primarily a gallery and we personally curate all of our longer exhibitions, mostly with mid-career artists. We are periodically open to shorter art events based on a strong proposal. We don’t typically respond (due to time constraints) to notes from individual artists who just ask – “how can I show there?”
- The fastest way to get a response is to come to an event and talk to us directly. Second best is to email us. The third best (and admittedly most likely to get lost in the mix) is to message us on Instagram.
- If you want to do a music event, the most effective way to make it happen is put together a bill and send that list to us, including Bandcamp, Soundcloud, or other streaming links.
- The ability to do a music event at any given time is always dependent on what is happening in the gallery at that time.
- Most importantly – we depend on people who make use of YWC as a free space to act as ambassadors for our Patreon. We depend on Patreon subscribers to do this project and we strongly request that you spread the word to anyone you know who may be able to become a subscriber.
The most effective proposals include a good description of who you are, what you want to do, and specific dates you have in mind. Proposals that get our name wrong, don’t seem familiar with what Yes We Cannibal does, or seem to be sent by people who’ve never been here are rarely effective.
General Planning
- Press: If you do an event at YWC, advance notice and planning helps very much. We send a press release to about 35 publications on the 10th of the month before events take place. For instance, for events happening in April, a press release goes out on March 10th.We will happily promote you on our social media and include you on our paper calendars but the best-attended events are heavily promoted by the people showing work or performing. If you have organized your own bill, please make a flier and get it to us at your earliest convenience.
- Parking: it is imperative that no-one park on the East side of 16th Street. If you are in charge of an event, you must make sure this rule is followed carefully to respect our neighbors
Art Exhibitions
- Gallery Shows: We depend on all exhibiting artists to be responsible for spackling and painting after deinstalling.
- Gallery Lights: Please do not hang anything off the ceiling lighting system.
- Gallery Sitting: We also ask that artists take responsibility for gallery hours whenever possible, either themselves or through friends and volunteers.
- Retrieving Work After Show:. Please do not plan to leave work behind for later pickup except under exceptional circumstances and never without prior arrangement
- Documentation: Artists are responsible for arranging their own documentation and submitting it to us for our website archive. Please send documentation to meetmeat@yeswecannibal.org.
Music Events
- Technical Specs: We use a 12 track analogue mixer (Samson TM500 12 Channel 250 watt) that is output into a very simple USB interface which then runs to two powered speakers (Yamaha DBR12 1,000W 12 inch). We have a single subwoofer as well as many cables and mics, on hand including a wireless mic set. Please be sure to let us know in advance what your outputs into the board are and if you are intending to record from the board – we have a direct digital line from our USB interface to an desktop mac to record into Adobe Audition and we’re happy to help when possible.
- Soundcheck: Our gallery is basically a box with concrete floors, two big windows and lightly insulated walls. However, a lot of work has been put into sound-treating it successfully. Professional composer Austin Franklin helped us to map the sound-waves in the gallery and create two properly placed sound panels. We also have two moving blankets sewn into marine fabric as window curtains, and an area rug for drums. Well-practiced musicians are always very good at understanding how to adjust their output to the room. Newer musicians do well when they budget some extra time to adjust their practice levels to the room. If they do, they can get a great sound so we strongly encourage musical performers to prioritize sound-checking and adjusting their levels to get the sound they want. If you find yourself wanting a big fancy board or are a gear-head, odds are we are not a great fit for you.
Lodging
- Room: We have a small artists quarters in our private back area. It’s small and rough but has a nice bed.
- Availability: If there is no visual artist currently in residence, this space is open to touring musicians. Please note it’s a full sized bed that sleeps two people who get along well. We also have a very nice blowup mattress. If there is no visual artist or musician in residence and you ware coming from NOLA or elsewhere out of town, we are usually happy to put you up for the night.
This page will be updated over time. Please reach out with any questions to meetmeat@yeswecannibal.org
Last update: March 1, 2024