I'm not really certain where this post should go, or if I should even post it at all, but I have been stewing on this for a bit, and feel I have to get it off of my chest for my own peace of mind. I understand that I may be "rocking the boat" here, and could potentially be "blacklisted" so to speak, but I guess I will just have to take that chance.
There are really two issues that I would like to address here, but they are quite closely related.
A couple weeks ago I posted a thread seeking some advice on some Florida show in Feb-Mar. I was told that all the good shows were already closed. Ok. When I posted a list of open shows "that I found on ZAPP" It was brought to my attention that the majority of the shows were Howard Allen shows (which I didn't realize were the same as American Craft Endeavors) I am somewhat new to this :)
I was told to contact Howard Allen to make sure there was still space available in the shows I may be interested in... so I did. I was told they were all open, with the exception of one. For those who may not know, the "deadline" to apply to a Howard Allen show, is the day of the show??? This means that up until the day of the show, you can apply to, and pay jury fees for, a show that you have no chance of getting into. I don't understand how this is ethical, or legal, and goes completely unquestioned.
When I broached this subject in my previous post, I was told not to worry about Howard Allen... he has been in the business a long time, and someone would have called him out already if he was accepting jury fees for a show that was closed. Well, I just applied to, and paid a jury fee for a show that they told me was closed two weeks ago, just to prove a point. Will they refund my money? Doubtful... I will likely fall into their cleverly designed loophole that keeps the whole charade alive... their maintaining of a waitlist.
The need to keep a "waitlist" of qualified candidates on hand in the event of a cancellation, allows them to collect as many applications as possible for any show, whether those applications will ever even be given consideration or not. The best part.... there is no way for anyone to ever know.
Most of what you just read is my own conspiratorial speculation. What you are about to read, are simply my thoughts on a jury review that I attended in the recent past. I have included it with the previous comments because to me they are on the same topic... ensuring that my jury fees are enabling me an opportunity to be considered.
I attended a jury review, at which I was able to sit and observe the process of a jury panel selecting the 130 artists for a show, from over 1000 applications collected. This was a very eye opening, and somewhat disheartening experience. I am sure that all juries operate differently, and I am sure that some are better than others, so please, take what you will from my observations and assessments.
What is the big rush? I understand that 1000 applications is a lot to go through... so why does it have to be done in one day? The panel that I observed viewed all five application photos, by medium category, on a projector for approx. 5 seconds during a "preview" round. Then they viewed again for an average of 15 seconds while the artists 200 character statement was read aloud, at which time each juror individually scored the artist on a scale. That was it... there was no discussion, no deliberation, just a hastily considered number on a scale. Your $20-$50 just bought you 15 seconds of consideration, by a group of people who were just ready to go home, and could make no wrong choice. There was really no reason for those five people to even be in the same room with one another. IMO they could have done the same job, from home, taken several days, or even weeks (since the deadline was a month ago, and the show is in May) and suffered far less fatigue and desensitization over the course of the 1000+ applications.
I understand that I am new to this, and that these things have been done a certain way for a long time, and I can certainly appreciate traditions, but I think that some of these processes truly need to be reassessed. I feel that the business of jury fees and application collecting is being put before adequate artist consideration and promotion of the arts.
Although I have been playing along, with the professional photos, the stressing over the perfect booth shot, the perfectly articulated 200 character statement, and I have gotten into a lot of shows, and even some good shows, I still feel like a $30 "jury" fee should buy everyone who is willing to pay it, proper consideration.
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Howard Allen has a string of followers that do many of his shows. He now charges a jury fee for each show rather than Jury once and get your exhibitor number similar to the Carolina Craftsman system. In my opinion this is an unethical practice for any promoter that does multiple shows. They know your work so why extract an extra $30 fo every show. For this reason I will not do any more Howard Allen shows. Sure there are some good money makers but I feel much better not contributing to their next Caribbean cruse.
Good and thorough post, Kevin.
Regarding Howard Alan (yes, he does advertise with us) I still think there is a disconnect somewhere between what you did and what they did. I am not being an apologist, but it seems contrary to what I know about their business that they would take money for an application fee for a show that is already closed. Did you get a rejection or did you get wait listed? If the latter it begins to make some sense.
Larry has spent countless hours paying attention to the ins and outs of juries and monitors and pixels. I agree with him that a projected jury session gives everyone the best chance at a level playing field. The fee is realistically called an application fee, not a jury fee, because it is supposed to cover the expenses of finding exhibitors for a show.
What are those? The staff that puts together the prospectus for the application. The office space where that work is done. The fees to the service (let's say Zapp) that hosts the applications. The postcards and other advertising that is done to attract artists to apply. The strategy and experience of putting that marketing plan together to find those artists. The staff time to plan the jury process, the scoring, the number of applicants in each category, etc. The search for finding good jurors and the jurors fees. The feeding of said jurors. The facility rental (perhaps) where they hold the jury. The equipment for the jurying, etc., ... this is not a negligible amount of expenses and time.
You might find these podcasts interesting to fill in some of those blanks: Artists, Art Fairs and Zapp and and in particular this one: How Art Fairs Choose their Juries or What Happened to my Jury Fees?
P. S. I just added "tags" to describe this discussion so someone who wants to talk about what happened to the jury fees can find this discussion. If everyone would add descriptive tags to their posts it would make it easy for Kevin to find the other sections on this site where we have discussed this idea.
I have nothing interesting to add though other than shaking my head.
I assume you're referring to the Artisphere jury because of where you live. I was already contacted by a high end painter because their images didn't appear accurate, Almost appearing to take on a color cast when projected. Unfortunately that's the only open jury close enough to where they live, so they don't know if those same images projected the same for the other high end shows they applied to.
Some of the issues you've brought up have been discussed to death over the past ten years since shows requiring digital images for jurying. If you listed to my interview last week, about 95% of the ZAPP shows use monitors and most have their jurors work from home. It's not that those 5% are using outdated methods, actually it's those 5% are using a system that has more pros than cons. The jurors are on site and can ask questions if they desire. Most of the shows that project have open juries so artists can attend and see how their work competes within their medium categories. By seeing their competitors images, they have a better understanding on what they need to do to improve their images and presentation. I've interviewed jurors and artists about the experience of attending or jurying at an open jury, and to a person, they've all said watching the images projected large was a learning experiece. I try to attend at least one open jury a year and discuss how the images look with other artists that attend during the breaks.
For monitor jurying it's just the opposite. It's like throwing money into the air and hoping to hit something. Since it's impractical for shows to provide feedback it's next to impossible to learn from the experience, actually there is no experience. You can tell I'm a big fan of open juries and artists attending them.
What have you learned personally from attending the jury? Has it made you want to tweak your presentation or your images?
As for applying to Howard Alan shows, that's a whole separate topic and I try to warn artists about it all the time.
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100