St Louis Mock Jury Results
http://e2.ma/webview/kz75g/ba2804adcc5ac62176ea31ffaf292cfe
Last year they were individual videos by medium on Youtube. This year they are PDF files by medium. I think the PDF files are more useful because they show the five images and artist statements. Artists were able to ask questions which are also answered beneath the jurors comments. And you can download and print the PDF files to study them.
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100
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Replies
Yesterday, I mentioned that some of the best info any director every gave out was the statistics on the percentage of an artist getting into the St Louis if they applied once, twice, etc. up to 6 years. Here is the link to those stats:
http://www.artfairinsiders.com/profiles/blogs/artist-applicant-stat...
I had stopped applying to St Louis because I wasn't getting in. When I saw these statistics, specifically, if I applied 6 times I had better than a 50-50 chance of getting in. I liked those odds and it is the reason why I applied this year and will continue to apply to all the top shows. As luck would have it, the acceptances went out today and I am in St Louis. Needless to say, I am ecstatic. This would not have been possible if I hadn't applied.
Cindy, I am one that was confused. I thought the mock jury images were taken from the actual application images. I take back everything I said.
Could you address one thing that I brought up? In the application, you specifically mentioned that the images had to represent the real price points that one would be showing at St Louis. Often that would result in an image/work that could be construed as not continuous with the other images. It wouldn't just be a smaller piece, to get something in a lower price point. It would have much less detail to justify less labor involved to charge less money for a piece. Or, would you prefer that artists doing St Louis only have nicer one of kind pieces? I myself would prefer to have only one of a kind work.
Btw, one of the best pieces of advice any director has ever mentioned was when you posted the percentages of people getting into your show if they applied 1 year, 2 years in a row, up to 6 years. The chances of getting into a show, at least once, was 66% I believe if an artist applied 6 years in a row. That is an invaluable piece of information. It means that if an artist wants to do a show, that person should keep applying. Once an artist gets in, who knows what could happen. Maybe that person wins an award and starts to get in regularly. I think the most important acceptance is the first one. Then when you show up, have work that not only justifies the judges choice, but, knocks them dead with some great work. I got that same advice from a judge who often juries the many international exhibitions. Keep applying until people get familiar with your work. It pays off in the long run.
Barry, first of all thank you for mentioning your thoughts on the info graphic. Many people thought we were crazy to put that out there. We wanted to be able to tell a story on our applicant pool.
On the price point issue…what we are trying to find out is what are people planning on selling at the festival.
In the past few years, some of the images of the work were not representative of what we were seeing at the fair (not all applications). Some artists were showing four beautiful well design, well crafted pieces in their images, and we could see the same high quality style of work in the booth image yet showed up with little that resembled their jury images. Some artists would list a price range from very low to a very high price($10-$10,000). The jury images pieces were priced in the high range, nothing in the low or middle range. We would have no idea of what was going to be at the fair at their lower price range.
We understand, the need to have price points. We just wanted to be comfortable in what we were going to see at the festival.
I hope this make sense to you. Thank you for taking time to ask the question.
Please feel free to call me if you ever have any questions. I can be reached directly at 314-863-4485.
Since your show stipulates NO REPRODUCTIONS, Cindy, how can an artist create something original to offer for $10? Did you really have that many artists saying that on their applications, or was it just a handful? Must have been a photog offering limited edition coasters or something or a potter offering chopstick rests or napkin rings. I'm not beeing cheeky or disrespectful. I'm perplexed at how any artist will think about how to make something that cheap or even close to it since it most likely will not be very artful. It certainly won't help raise the quality of your show, which is what it seems your statement above addresses. We've not applied to Saint Louis since your show doesn't allow repros. We're high end 2d. Sometimes we have something small we'll offer for $600, but more often our prices start at $1,250 and go up to $4,000 with some bigger more complicated works priced higher. I hand craft all of our picture frames and gild some of them with 23k gold leaf. We just can't survive coming to a show that doesn't allow us to reach the price point many other mediums can low ball with. We did Winter Park this year since that show has such a large awards package--and we won one. I congratulated my neighbors on their high sales of stuff, the photog selling plenty at $35 and the potter who grossed over 10K with goodies priced from $40 to $200. We failed to find a new customer, though. We might benefit from being at Winter Park some other way or in the future. I never rule out the possibilities. Your show on zapplication doesn't break down the awards, so we wouldn't even know what we might be eligible for and hope to get if we did apply and get accepted.
That's the strange part of this art fair business, I know. I'm no newbie. But I've seldom ever wanted to apply to a show that doesn't allow repros, because I'm gonna suffer if I go to them since I'm not thinking of ways to make an inexpensive line to compete with the lesser expensive mediums. No one's gonna buy our original high-end art as gifts for someone else. They're only gonna buy it for themselves and we'll be lucky to find one or two at St. Louis who will. If I could offer signed limited edition repros, I'd find a dozen or two, and the quality of your show wouldn't suffer. I'd just possibly take away some of the sales from the low end sellers. I'd still bring all of our framed originals.
My approach to this biz might be all wrong. But it is what it is. I'm always thinking about how I can link a show like yours to shows that allow us to sell repros. I've just not figured out the St. Louis angle. Maybe it's because I'm certain I could fry an egg on the pavement there in early September and that idea scares me a little. I'm originally from Little Rock, so I know the territory.
Yes it was a mock jury, with jurors who were past jurors(2) for the Saint Louis Art Fair. The images in the pdf were the images of the individuals that applied to the mock jury not The Saint Louis Art Fair Jury which took place the weekend of April 10-14(last). We do this as a learning experience. We got thru everyone images. So everyone was included. If the jurors didnt say anything, they didnt have anything to add.
Barry, you did not apply to the mock jury, so I am confused on your statements.
Cindy Lerick
Executive Director
314-863-4485
I viewed the pdf file because a friend of mine went to the mock jury and called me to tell me how strong my images looked during the presentation. Unfortunately, they only posted a sampling of the artists shown. I was hoping to get some comments. I was dieing to find out if they considered my images to show two bodies of work because I make vessels and teapots. Of course, to me and the good potters out there, the two forms are compatible and consistent. Both are classic clay forms that are thrown on the potters wheel.
I was not happy with the jurors comments. They used words like "great" and "amazing" in their descriptions. I'm surprised they didn't use "awesome" in describing the work. I can see that the judges knowledge of clay was, as usual, slightly underwhelming. I think a show of this quality should have more knowledgeable judges. On the other hand, this allows for the chance that anyone could get into a show. Another thing that disturbed me was that the application specifically called for a sampling of all the work and all the price points. Everyone who did that was chastised for not having continuity in their work.
Also, the comments would lead one to believe that they were talking about the quality of the images and not the quality of the work itself. Here's a novel thought: Ignore the image quality and concentrate on the work itself.
Hi Barry, The Cotton South addresses exactly the issue you've highlighted above. During the application period for a local exhibition, we received images of paintings which were stunning, only to be let down when the paintings arrived. Our board disqualified the artist because of the discrepancy. Not a pleasant situation... and one we hope our image policy will help address. T
To address what Barry said.
First of all it was a mock jury, not necessarily mock jurors though. Their job was to say something about the images, or at least critique them so the artists could learn from the experience. When I say their job, it was based on the instructions given by the show director.
The show director might have told them to ignore image quality and focus on the art. But I know for a fact that jurors will take image quality into consideration because it's impossible to ignore something that degrades the perception of the art.
There was a good chance that if you weren't there, and because of time constraints, only one set of your images made it to the jurors. I think the PDF files had all the images shown to the jurors that day.
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100
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