TRADING ATCs FACE-to-FACE
Trading cards is essential to the ATC idea. If you don’t want to trade cards, you should not make ATCs.
Face-to-face trading sessions are typically informal gatherings, with refreshments served. Participants may bring a few cards to trade, or many. A trading session (ts) often starts with someone asking “Did you bring cards to trade?” That leads to conversation between partcipants while cards are passed back and forth until a deal is struck.
While ATCs are usually traded one for one, some cards may be worth more. You can also “trade forward,” which means trading a card you received in an earlier session.
In all, face-to-face trading sessions are intended to be enjoyable, educational, and supportive. From beginners to experienced traders, everyone is welcome.
TRADING ATCs over the INTERNET
ATCs are just one of many types of "art swaps" that happen through the Internet today. People also trade altered books, art journals, mail art, zines, tags, and other forms of art art ephemera over the Net.
If you're interested in participating in an online ATC swap, there is no shortage of places to find trading partners. A recent search on "Google" using the phrase "atc swap" netted over 43,000 hits. There are a number of blogs, forums, and discussion groups dedicated to ATCs including the Artist Trading Cards’ Journal on Live Journal and the Artist Trading Cards Group on Yahoo! to name just two. Check out several places before giving one a try!
If you join a group that has been trading a while, search postings in their archives to find out things like how successful previous swaps have been, who seems to participate and host swaps, and so on. It's easy to get excited about trading cards with other ATC enthusiasts from around the world; however, keep in mind there are certain risks involved such as sending out cards but not getting cards in return or being unhappy with the quality of the cards you get back.
ATC swaps come in many forms and may follow different rules. In its simplist form, a ATC swap works something like this: You create an ATC, send it via snail mail to a swap host or hostess who collects all the cards sent in, shuffles them or picks cards randomly, and then mails them back out to their new owners. This is typically a 1-for-1 trade and usually involves paying a nominal fee up front to defer mailing costs.
Some swaps involve groups of 4-5 participants (or more). You sign up for the group and send out 4-5 cards to a swap host or hostness and get back one from each member of your group. Its up to the host/hostess of the swap to determine the theme (if there is to be one) of the swap, the deadline for sending cards, and the number of cards to be sent in.
Once you've participated in a swap or two, you may decide to host your own ATC swap. Before taking on this challenge, read 10 Mail Art Tips on Hosting an Artist Trading Card Exchange: How to Be a Good Mail Art Host or Hostess by Pam Gaulin (Dec 2006).
MAKING & TRADING ATCs in the CLASSROOM
Many art teachers use ATCs in the classroom as a basis for art lessons (on design, art history, or some other theme) and as a way to motivate students to make their own original art and interact with their peers in class. Either way, the results are the same: Students generally get excited about making and trading ATCs and often come in to work on their cards during their lunch hour or gladly take blank cards to work on at home.
Trading ATCs seems to come naturally to kids who have grown up trading Pokémon cards, Yu-Gi-Oh cards, and the like. While you may want to establish some guidelines or procedures before a trading session begins in your classroom, the best trades are those that occur spontaneously between students as a result of their interest in each other's cards. Remember that the point of the trading session is to encourage interaction and talk about the art that has been made. Teachers report that this is exactly what happens when students are left to trade cards on their own in class.
Still, you may decide to structure the trading session to ensure that each student gets to trade his or her ATC(s) with someone else. This can be done by placing all the cards in a hat or bowl and then having each student pick out a card randomly (other than their own). You can also have students make 4-5 cards and then trade them with other students sitting at their table, so that each student gets 4-5 new cards in return. Another way to structure an ATC swap in your classroom is to act as the host/hostess (just like on the Net) and have all the students turn in a card to you. You can decide how the cards will be redistributed to their new owners.
TRADING ATCs BETWEEN CLASSROOMS
Interested in arranging a ATC swap with another school? If so, we've set up a group on Art Education 2.0 for just that purpose. To get things started, you need to first register on the site to get a username and password (it's free!). Once your registration has been accepted (it usually takes a day or two) you can post a message in the "ATC Swaps " (on the Groups page) expressing your interest in a trade with another school OR you can respond to any similiar request by another teacher. In either case, consider the following questions when setting up a swap:
- Will there be a theme for the swap?
- How many students do you have who will participate? How many are at the other school? How will you deal with unequal numbers? (e.g., have some students make extra cards?)
- When do the cards need to be mailed? How will they be sent? (snail mail, fed-ex, etc.,?)
- Who will act as host/hostness and make sure that the swap actually takes place?
- Do you have the other teacher's contact information (email address, school address, phone number)? Does s/he have your contact information?
- How (often) will you report to each other regarding the progress of students on their cards and when they will be mailed?
