It’s Not an Art Fair if There’s No Drama
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Nova’s “fashion train,” which had volunteer models in garments from local boutiques lurching through CTA cars during a joyride around the Loop, was one of Knibbe’s responsibilities. In the weeks following the fair, he says, people were “screaming at me because they’re owed money or their checks have bounced, and [Workman’s] bad business is on my name.” Fashion-train curator Sarah Ponder, who says she had one check bounce, and City Soles owner Scott Starbuck, who says over five hundred dollars’ worth of footwear he loaned to the show came back damaged, confirmed they’d been attempting to contact Workman for several weeks in order to collect expenses or reimbursement, but he hadn’t returned calls. (Last week, the day after I called Workman to ask about the situation, he got in touch with Ponder and delivered a check to Starbuck.)
Workman, who’s been in Miami working on the show he’ll be doing there in December under the name Bridge Art Fair, admits to having a “few little cash flow problems, like every small organization does,” but says he took care of them. As for the delay in dealing with Ponder, Starbuck, and others, he was “just trying to figure out what’s the right thing to do.” Holding Nova at Lakeview’s City Suites Hotel worked “really well,” he says (though he couldn’t provide a specific attendance figure), but next year he might do without the hassle and expense of extra programming like the fashion train. He says Knibbe is a “disgruntled worker trying to get a pound of flesh.” Knibbe says Workman paid him what he was owed last weekend, and he’s now ready to move on.
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Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photos/Yvette Marie Dostatni.
