Seattle Entertainment Dance Music Artists and More- Hips For Hire

Frequently Asked Questions 

How can I make a difference?

Ever notice how a beautiful puzzle looks wrong even if only one piece in 3000 is missing? I knew that my goal was to define what my piece of the puzzle in the art and healing arts world was and to supply that piece.

 

That moment came in 2009 after a year of performance with a dance company.  I decided I wanted to continue performances but network other artists with various venues with larger visions in mind beyond local private corporate parties and self-promotion. What would happen if organizations had a reputable company who matched talented artists with a variety of programs needed, from hospitals doing fundraisers, clinics needing occasional workshop instructors , or big corporations needing celebratory event planning? What if they had people to go to who could advise them on everything from food as art, walking art, and performance-oriented fundraisers?

 

As I watched a portion of the Michael Jackson memorial on television, the message was clear: MJ believed in making the world a better place through music and dance. Similarly, I believe we beautify the world through our art, and we help celebrate the best of life by providing movement and music for all occasions.

 

What you can do is determine your piece in this intricate puzzle. Are you a giver? A performance artist? A support person? A event planner?  Do you have design or tech skills that someone else needs? Do you have social connections that could help others do what they do, only better? 

 

What is entailed in registering myself with Hips for Hire as a performance artist or group?

Our Board and the founder will take a look at your qualifications. We are looking for experienced performance artists who may not have a strong fan base and do not have the means to marketing themselves effectively. By accepting placement on our directory, you give us the ability to market for you. Unlike other expensive fee-for-list directories, the artists and the organizations/clients register for free until March 1, 2010. After that date, we will be opening our registry to artists of all kinds with a reasonably priced pay-as-you-go format that will make it easy for artists to register themselves in an attractive way, while using our search engine optimization to get your art the attention it deserves. 

 

We will suggest various charitable causes to support, but we're going to let YOU have a part in voting on which causes the collective will support. Regardless, we support both short-term and long-term commitments as artists representing these causes. Ever watch the Miss America Scholarship Pageant? Every contestant has a platform she represents during the year of her reign. By registering, you can be assured that dollars will be designated towards these causes. 

 

While you negotiate your own fee for service, Hips for Hire charges an administrative fee (10% - 15%) to the hiring organization or client, allowing us to pay our employee(s), maintain the website, pay for ads on the Internet, and cover any fees associated with getting you hired. You can buffer that cost into what you charge the customer, ensuring that you are paid fairly. 

 

Unlike a talent agency, we don't ask you to pay for expensive classes, workshops, or photoshoots for promotional materials. However, we do ask for quality photos and/or video, and if you don't have access to these or funds, we will do our best to get you reasonably priced professional photos and video of your work through referrals. The practice of your talent is up to you. We can also provide coaching services to help you maximize what you do have to help you market yourself more effectively. 

 

Hips for Hire reserves the right to remove artists from our listing for any breach of oral or written contract, or breach of the spirit of collaboration that it represents. Coming soon: read and download agreement for registration. 

 

I am a client and I want to hire one of the performance artists. What do I do?

Leave your contact info  on the "Contact Us" page and call 206-769-5740. Write the name of the performance artist you are interested in hiring in the comments section. We will call you back and get the details of your interests and help you determine if the artist is the correct match for your event. Depending on the complexity of your event and the services you need from us, we will assess an administrative fee on a range no higher than 15%. 

 

Please do not contact the artists directly and attempt to hire them after seeing their listing on our website. Artists registered with Hips for Hire who accept illegitimate offers for hire will be removed from our listing; so will you and/or your organization. The only way a collaboration works is if everyone sees how working together helps one another. After our new website design, there will be a more streamlined way to hire these artists directly through our registry. 

 

The burden of cost is being placed on the hiring organization. Are you doing anything else to address this?

Absolutely. When I conceived of this idea, I asked many people what they thought about assessing an administrative fee. The range is reasonable. Yet some organizations have tight budgets regarding the arts because of the economy. Hips for Hire now has more than one employee involved, lining us up for asking for assistance in the form of financial grants. Solo artists often have difficulty receiving grants as individuals, but groups often have a better chance at grant distribution for their potential for achievement. 

 

We are also setting ourselves to becoming a non-profit entity at some point. Until then, we will continue to ask people to give generously and donate at any of our promotional events. We believe that when people like something, they are willing to pay a little extra to keep it going. 

 

It all smacks of a type of hippie socialism to me. 

Can't argue with that. 

What I can say is that much of what you're reading here has been influenced by the Founder's experience with the Bohemian lifestyle and the collaborative spirit found in Black Rock City, NV at the annual Burning Man Festival. Sustaining oneself in the extremes of the desert while creating beautiful art in a collaborate space has much to teach us about adapting in the harsh economic climate of urban life. 

 

Is there a blog associated with the website? I'd like to talk to other artists involved in this project.

Yes, go to our social networking blog, http://www.hipsforhire.ning.com. Anyone can post a profile on this site, ask questions, post a blog, attach photos, and tell us about your work. We also have a Facebook Fan club page under "Hips for Hire for Facebook". 

 

I like the idea of Hips for Hire, but I'm not an artist nor am I a client needing to hire artists. How can I get involved?

We will undoubtedly need your help in various capacities. Any project of this magnitude needs lots of hands, eyes, and hearts to make it work. Please blog about this project, invite friends to our network, and come to our events. Lend a hand, a skill, donate, and cheer us on. We welcome your support and your feedback. If you can't think of anything you can give, leave us a good bottle of wine or a six-pack of beer. 

 

I have been trying to get hired as a performance artist but it's so hard. How can I change my story? 

As a helping professional in the healing arts and a performing artist, I have experienced and heard the stories of countless others who wish to use their art form - once hobbies or interests - to change the world, only to find that potential jobs were often randomly assigned to less than professional people. 

I tell my clients all the time, "If you don't like the story, change the story. Re-write the ending and throw out the old script." We can't change history (e.g. Madoff ponzi schemes or poor lending strategies), but we can change the way artists and organizations are appropriately matched so that everyone involved wins. We can remove the greedy middle man. We can use social networking to help us with promotion.

To market yourself, you have a few choices. If you have money, you hire a manager who does the promotion work for you. You hire someone to create a dynamic website. You hire a blogger to talk about you everywhere. You cut an album, a DVD, or whatever else to sell your product. And you produce shows and concerts, which are also expensive and involve a certain amount of risk if you don't know how large of a fanbase you can attract. 

 

If you have a more limited budget, you can look for online directories who do some of the work for you, such as Partypop.com. Anyone who can afford it can purchase a paid listing in your category. Clients look for you and find your hiring info on the directory. Your listing has as much chance to be seen as any other of the listings in your category. The more you pay, the less "buried" you are in the listing, and there is no limit to the number of listings per category.

 

The newest trend is social networking. When MySpace.com and Facebook.com created their social networking sites, they went from 0 to over 40 million users within a few months. Using applications such as AdSense ads with Google or site ads, people are able to steer more traffic to their sites. Sites such as Ted.com, Youtube.com, and Ning.com have additional features, related ad space, and community sharing features that allow the user to share their latest find with their friends and colleagues. By adding three friends, you've often added 1000 because of the number of people in each of those three connections. Fanbases grow more quickly. 

 

HipsforHire.com uses social networking to help get the word out about you. It also targets large companies and clients interested in supporting good causes, so artists have the opportunity to not only show off their work but to participate in causes that make a difference here and abroad. In the coming months of operation, we will have social network pages on all the major social networking sites. We will then follow up our press release with press kits to companies and potential clients so they know where to turn when they need artists to help them reach their promotion goals. 

 

One major difference between HipsforHire.com and other directories is that we are not an open directory right now. We will become one after March 1, 2010. Currently,  we screen our artists and limit the number of artists per category so that you can be seen. We also specifically look for artists who are not being promoted elsewhere with an expensive website or a production team. This allows newer artists to have an equal chance at being selected and promoted free of charge.

 

Once we open the registry, the playing field is evened between those with more experience and those with less. By pooling resources, any one who is innovative, productive, and focused on their art has the same opportunities as other artists to be noticed. We hope to provide better ways for each artist to see what "works" and to make adjustments that help them get hired quickly and frequently.