You can’t have the EPCOT International Festival of the Arts without the incredible art created by dozens of Disney artists each year. One of the people responsible for gathering these artists is merchandise manager, Aaron Babcock. In our interview below, we talk about the process to commission the art showcased during the festival.
Benji: Well, thanks, Aaron. Art is at the center of the Festival of the Arts (FOTA). What's been nice through the years, it really gives a chance for the artist to shine. We go to Art of Disney throughout the year and see their work, but you have all these different signings and they really get the opportunity to debut new works. Where do you even start as you're looking ahead to the start of the Festival of the Arts, curating your program here?
Aaron: Well, it's ironic that you ask that question, because we are just now already starting for next year. Haven’t even kicked this one off yet and we were already having to start planning out next year. It does take a little bit of time because we don't really have the full year – we have to have everything done and in our warehouse by the beginning of December to make this all work. We don't always make that, but we try. What we do is a full analysis after FOTA of what sold, what the guest feedback was, what the operational feedback was, what our guest verbatims are that we talked to the guests during the festival. To get a really good idea of what they like, what they wanted to see more of. So we send out invitations to about 40 artists for each FOTA, and then we try to select between 35 and 38, because we always have some that have other commitments and can't make it, so kind of like the airlines, we oversell to make sure that we have enough artists. And then, what we ask each one of them to do is give us five or six written concepts of what they want to paint. Then, we systemically go through that and we identify where we have missing topics, missing characters, missing films, too many of some, to kind of make sure that we have a really broad range for the guests. We’ve had a couple of FOTAs where we have way too much of one character and the guests will buy one and they're not buying the other four. With that, we tell the artist, of the pieces that you wanna do, here's what we have said, yeah, go ahead and do these. We don't really direct what they do, we will offer insight as to, “oh, FYI, you wanted to do a princess and you weren't specific, we do not have this princess represented, if you want to do that one.” So we don't really get too much into direction, we let them kind of have that play, because we really wanted to be about their art and their personality coming through, so we let them have that call. And then from there, we're just waiting for them to get the art finalized. That process is usually done by about June. We have concepts done by July, final art done by the end of August, and then we start rolling into the next year, figuring out what we're doing for the next event. But that's kind of the nutshell how it starts in the process that goes through. There's a lot more details, but that's the bulk of it.
Benji: One thing that's been nice over the years is you get to see characters and movies that we don't normally get to see. I mean, I can think of last year, we saw Kingdom Hearts Mickey and we saw A Goofy Movie, in addition to some of the classics that people want to relive. Does this festival allow you to expand what you're able to offer as an art program, because there's just so much focus on it.?
Aaron: Funny you mention that – a little fact that we like to throw out there, we have 114 images that are created for this year's FOTA. And within that we represent 43 different films that fall under the Disney umbrella, so some of that is Star Wars, The Mandalorian, so forth. There are 241 different characters represented this year, and we have 36 different attractions. So yeah, we go much broader here than we do in our normal assortment. The bulk of FOTA really kind of carries us through most of the year. We do offer new pieces every quarter, but the bulk of what we do is developed in this time frame that covers us most of the year. But we try very, very hard to make sure, hey, we don't have this character represented. We do have a lot of artists who mentioned Kingdom Hearts. Yesenia Moises does that, and she loves Kingdom Hearts, so she's doing another Kingdom Hearts piece this year. We had another artist, she said, “I want to do Kingdom Hearts” and I said, “no, no, Yesenia is doing Kingdom Hearts. We don't need two of the same thing. Can you do this instead?” So we try to balance that out, but we do remind people, there are characters again that we like you to look at doing and to look at adding. When I came up with that 241 count, there was a piece that John Nadeau did this year called “The Cathedral,” which is of Notre Dame looking from the other side of the river. So it's kind of like an impressionistic piece of work and at face value, you just looks like Notre Dame, but when you can get close enough to it or if John's there to tell you, he has every character from the film hidden in that painting. So you have to look real closely for Clopin and Frollo and all the gargoyles. They're all there, but you have to know where they are to find them. So that's where to your point, we would not normally do that if it was just true gallery painting, but at FOTA, we can do those kind of things because it's really more a little bit more emphasis on the art side of it, whereas the gallery stuff we normally go to a bit more full on character there.
Benji: One of the things that makes the festival special is that a lot of your artists are doing signings and are there to meet the guests. Do you get feedback from the artists on what it's like to make a direct connection with the guest purchasing their art?
Aaron: This will not come as a surprise to you, but they always say “that's the best part about the festival.” Many of them come back just because they wanna be with our guests. Yes, they love the painting and they love Disney, but it's the guest contact., Ashley Taylor, she still does friendship bracelet trades with so many of the guests. Last year, I think was the first time that we put all of our gallery artists all in either the Morocco / France tent or over by the Japan tent, and they called it the artist compound, because they all got to hang out together, and they said, please do that again next year. We don't wanna be spread out like we were two years ago, we wanna all be in one place. They all have meals together all the time, so they love it. They love talking to the guests. When I was out there last year talking to the guests, that was the one thing by far I heard over and over and over again – we love meeting the artists, we love meeting the artists, keep the artists coming. Yes, they love the art, but for some reason that, to your exact point, that interaction and that connection they're making with the artists is what drives everything from them.
Benji: One thing that is a byproduct of the festival is you have guests who are going to EPCOT, maybe not because of the festival, but they're exposed to the work of Disney artists by nature of visiting. Does the festival open up new guests to maybe think, “oh, you know what? I'd love to have a piece of Disney art in my home, in a way that maybe it's not just the core Disney fan whose house looks like my office with Disney Art everywhere, where someone may go “that's a good point, I'd love to have a representation of something I love in my home.”
Aaron: I can tell you there were two guests that I talked to last year specifically who said, didn't know FOTA was going on, who said “love everything, I bought two pieces.” They may have heard about it, but I don't know that some of them fully register. Now, we have some that camp out waiting for the park to open and get there to get their pieces, but to your point, we have those that are going to EPCOT anyway and they say this is going on and they do get wrapped up in it. One of the things that we think we do a really good job with is the artists, because they're painting their passionate piece, we think that they're also connecting to another guest's memory. And when the guest sees that piece, a lot of times they go, “I don't care what it costs. I gotta have this piece because they captured either my favorite moment, my favorite character, my favorite place.” And that is what we hope happens constantly. That's what we strive for. So each year, when we talk to the artists about next year, we say, okay, let's try to focus on this, let's try to add this moment, try to get more of that heartstring storytelling in, that we're known for, that's our strength. But yes, I do agree with you. I do think there are people who had no intention of buying when they came here. They may not always buy their original painting. They may not even be able to buy the limited edition print, but you know, we do have enough of a different price range that they're able to buy something that as a memory of that that they can capture and take home.
Benii: Is there anything that you're particularly proud of having brought to the festival this year?
Aaron: There are some pieces because of my experiences, like I told you about that cathedral piece, because I was at Notre Dame about a month before it burned. So to see that piece, and I'm going back there next Christmas, that piece to me is a little bit more of an emotional piece. There's also a piece that Josey Tsao did, she was new to the event last year, she's doing another piece this year. She did a piece for Moana, and she had not seen Moana 2 yet when this came out and then she did the concept piece. But it's a piece, and in the far left side of the painting is Moana on her ship in full color, and then behind her are all of her ancestors in that transparent kind of thing, like the grandmother does. There's just something about the whole storyline there, that there are no words spoken, but you know exactly what the story is with that. I don't know how Josie knew to paint that, because she had not seen the movie to know that it was gonna have something like that in it with ancestors. There are also some really fun ones. There is an adorable piece that Martin Su made of little Grogu, and Martin does watercolor with an Asian flair, so it was kind of like a Japanese painting of little Grogu with cherry blossoms around him, and it's super, super cute. Then Kristin Tercek also did a series of pieces, and she's got a very playful art style, of a little baby Chewbacca playing with a little wooden Millennium Falcon. So little cute stories like that do kind of capture heart-stirring moments for me and some great storytelling. I could go on all day about so many of the pieces because they're also great, but those were some of the ones that personally I thought were my favorites.
Benji: You talked about the guest connection and I presume you spend time around the festival? You can't help but go to that festival and just capture that moment where a guest see a piece for maybe a moment that meant something special to them as you mentioned or, you know, a film that maybe they just don't see represented in art as much, or a special memory they have of a parent or child. As someone who's working on the project, I'm sure you see those moments happen all the time, because I see them as a guest. Does that make all this work worth it? Like, how does that affect you?
Aaron: It really does. I've been doing product development for 36 years and I have a million stories of that very same thing. What got me into the role I'm in today – I was a sales host at EPCOT back in 1988, and a little girl walked up to her mom and had little of plush Minnie in a kimono, and she said, “look, mommy, it's my favorite character, and I must have this.” And something about that made me say, I wanna do that, I want to create those memory moments. And here 36 years later, I'm still doing the same thing. So, those are what make all this worth it. Most of us at Disney will tell you, it's one of the hardest jobs in the world, because the expectations are so high. But when you make that connection to the guest, you go, “and that's why we're here. That is why we do what we do, because of the connection that we can make.”
Benji: For guests that are planning on visiting the festival, what’s the best way for them to tackle thinking about adding a piece of art to their collection?
Aaron: I would say two things. One, prepare to be here all day, because there's a lot to see. I would say walk it once just to look at everything, because there's so much to look at, and you want to take it all in, and it does get a little overwhelming at times. And then walk around World Showcase again after you maybe stop somewhere and have something to eat. Then, walk around it again and then you can start looking at your favorites, because they may change from the first time you saw it. What I always would hate is for someone to buy something spur-of-the-moment at the first shot and then go, “oh, I wish I had bought that.” So kind of walk it, get the feeling for it, talk to the artists, find out why they did the piece that they did. But really take a look at all the paintings that are there, and explore, take a look at it, ask around, do you know anybody who's doing this piece? My favorite character is Jimmy Crickett, for example, and find out where that is. Most of our art will be found in the two tents near France and Morocco and Japan, but I represent all the consignment artists as well, such as Thomas Kinkade and Noah, who also have some amazing pieces coming as well.
Benji: Do you have wall space at home? How do you handle all of this? Because it sounds like you must be overwhelmed.
Aaron: I'm gonna be honest, most of the stuff I get for Disney's in my office, not not at home. I have one room in the house that the Disney stuff stays relegated to. But actually, I don't have any art at home hanging on the walls. I have been forbidden from bringing art home, because we already have stuff that we pick up when we travel. But I normally have plenty of it in my office. There's too many things that I do like, so I just learned just not to buy all of it, because I don't have a place to put it all.
Benji: Congratulations on the festival, and I guess it’s not going to be a surprise if this festival returns in 2026, considering you're already working on it.
You can listen to our interview with Aaron in the third episode of our brand-new Laughing Place “On Balance” Podcast, which is now streaming on Spotify, Apple Music or wherever you get your podcasts.
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