The Plaza Art Fair thread exposes the failures of the jury system. I would like to know how a theoretical $40 jury fee for three images of work and one of booth is actually spent. That $10 per image pays for a 2 second look by how many jurors? What is so sacred about this 2 second viewing? Don't we artist deserve a better deal for $10 per image? Sounds to me like someone is collecting a lot of money for a rushed job that produces unsatisfactory results. This wouldn't be acceptable in our studios so why do we accept it from jurors?
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I agree that jury fees are a rip-off. I sit on the jury of a fairly big (to be unnamed) show, and I am proud of how that jury operates. There are exhibiting artists from various media on the it so that they each can recognize if something is fishy about an entrant in their medium. There is a lot of discussion about artists on the bubble, and much agonizing over the final selections, because they want the show to be as strong and well balanced as possible. However, the most we all get from the many hours spent are maybe a free lunch and the satisfaction of a job well done. I know that there are a few costs involved in processing the applications, but most of the current $25 jury fee goes to pad the budget of the whole fair. I have tried to pursuade the Director to lower the jury fee but got nowhere. The money in hand is just too attractive. BTW, one year hoping to be helpful I made up a score card to be mailed to the rejected artists and just got a lot of flak from them. Comments like "you don't know what you are looking at, none of you know squat about real art...etc. etc." We never did that agin!
Nope. we're not getting our money's worth. It would be extremely useful if some feedback was given as to how the scoring went. OTOH, if decent quantified feedback was given and your work was in the bottom 25%, there wouldn't be much point in reapplying for some of those shows.
A local major show changed their judging criteria several years ago to include "sellabilty" as one of their factors and one artist present overheard the directions given to the judges to select "typical art fair type of work, and not something that looked like it should be in a gallery". Several directors later, that line is disavowed by the show. All I know is that I was in that show for around 12 years, and when they first started giving scores I found myself ranked 2nd or 3rd from the bottom of a field of almost 70 photographers. It was another 11 years or so before I reapplied to that show. I sat through the judging of that show last year, and I came in a bit better but still nowhere near enough to get in. I probably won't send them a jurying fee again.
Sam, I listened to this podcast as well and am going to give it a second run too. The process you and the podcast describe is what jurying should be like, but unfortunately from the results, many don't do it this way. I don't know the process the promoters of the resort area shows I do in Colorado use but they seem to get the job done - variety, quality, and no production work or buy/sell. Recently I looked up the websites of leatherworkers who get into top shows. No production techniques are to be used, but this one website described their process as using dies for cutting the parts after a piece was designed. Hey folks "clicker cut parts" is a mass production technique and you don't have expensive cutting dies made for one- of-a-kind or limited editions.
Richard - you just hit on pet peeve #2, not sure how to change it, but no, we are not getting our money's worth. Very few shows even respond with info on jury scores, etc, when you inquire, it drives me nuts. A few shows (such as Art in the High Desert) offer jury feedback for an extra fee, but I've found it too generic to help us for the following year.
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I agree that jury fees are a rip-off. I sit on the jury of a fairly big (to be unnamed) show, and I am proud of how that jury operates. There are exhibiting artists from various media on the it so that they each can recognize if something is fishy about an entrant in their medium. There is a lot of discussion about artists on the bubble, and much agonizing over the final selections, because they want the show to be as strong and well balanced as possible. However, the most we all get from the many hours spent are maybe a free lunch and the satisfaction of a job well done. I know that there are a few costs involved in processing the applications, but most of the current $25 jury fee goes to pad the budget of the whole fair. I have tried to pursuade the Director to lower the jury fee but got nowhere. The money in hand is just too attractive. BTW, one year hoping to be helpful I made up a score card to be mailed to the rejected artists and just got a lot of flak from them. Comments like "you don't know what you are looking at, none of you know squat about real art...etc. etc." We never did that agin!
Nope. we're not getting our money's worth. It would be extremely useful if some feedback was given as to how the scoring went. OTOH, if decent quantified feedback was given and your work was in the bottom 25%, there wouldn't be much point in reapplying for some of those shows.
A local major show changed their judging criteria several years ago to include "sellabilty" as one of their factors and one artist present overheard the directions given to the judges to select "typical art fair type of work, and not something that looked like it should be in a gallery". Several directors later, that line is disavowed by the show. All I know is that I was in that show for around 12 years, and when they first started giving scores I found myself ranked 2nd or 3rd from the bottom of a field of almost 70 photographers. It was another 11 years or so before I reapplied to that show. I sat through the judging of that show last year, and I came in a bit better but still nowhere near enough to get in. I probably won't send them a jurying fee again.
Richard - you just hit on pet peeve #2, not sure how to change it, but no, we are not getting our money's worth. Very few shows even respond with info on jury scores, etc, when you inquire, it drives me nuts. A few shows (such as Art in the High Desert) offer jury feedback for an extra fee, but I've found it too generic to help us for the following year.