Jeff Condon's paintings at the Krasl Art Fair - a beautiful July day on the shores of Lake Michigan
Sun setting over the Bluff in St. Joe in February
On Friday morning (February 4) I was in St. Joe, MI, to assist in the jurying of the 50th Annual Krasl Art Fair on the Bluff along with four other jurors that included veteran artist Jerry Berta and art professionals associated with the Krasl Art Center. Director Sara Shambarger has been on the job here for 16 years and knows how to run a jury and is very explicit about following all the rules. She uses Zapplication and insures that there is a comfortable setting and enough technical equipment so that every applicant gets a fair chance. We all had laptops linked to a Mac Mini and the images were projected on five screens. (These details are included because I don't want Nels bugging me about set up, etc.) ;)
It is hard to jury into this show because approximately 50% of it is filled with pre-juried artists, chosen by the judges from the previous summer's street jurying. This information is spelled out in the prospectus. 95 artists will be returning leaving approximately 120 openings for the 2011 show. Because of their date (smack in the middle of the biggest art fair weekend of the year) they also have a wait list of 100+, to insure a good looking show in case some of the applicants choose to go to Madison, Cain Park, Plymouth or State College.
There were 861 applications, 157 more than last year. Sara said she thought it was because she did more outreach, advertising for artists to apply. I think it was partly that but more than likely because of the great word-of-mouth from artists who were happy with their sales in 2010, plus these good reviews here "Krasl Art Fair", "Back to the Future" by Barry Bernstein and "Krasl Art Fair on the Bluff" by Leo Charette surely didn't hurt.
So, how did it go? Very smoothly.
For each category we were first shown the invited artists images. Then there was a preview of the total category and then we did the scoring round. For each application the description was read. There was hardly any discussion, it was very serious. In fact, we were asked to keep any communication to a minimum. We could ask questions.
Here are some stats to give you some kind of idea of what kind of competition the various categories have. The smallest number of applicants is in the Printmaking/Graphics category with 8 applicants. The largest category is jewelry, broken into jewelry non-precious and jewelry precious, for a total of 176 applicants for the nine spaces available in this category (remember there are invited artists and in jewelry 10 are returning). 100 photographers applied for 12 spaces. There were two categories in fiber - wearable and decorative, for a total of 62 applicants. There is space for 9 artists in fiber art. Wood had some beautiful entries, but only 8 out of the 50 applicants will be invited to participate.
(Full disclosure here - in the year's when we were doing shows (1978-2006) we applied to this show several times and were never accepted).
What did I think of the quality? Overall there were very few substandard applications. By that I mean, images ill-prepared, out of focus, propped up on chairs, groups of images gathered on table tops or clearly from people who don't understand about the business. A few questionable booth shots where they seemed like an after thought by the artist, but 90% were "ready for primetime" in that they were well exposed, showed a theme and a body of work that had clearly been carefully chosen for the presentation.
Tips for applicants? Just what everyone always says, do fine work, choose your best images, get everything in on time, complete the application, make your booth shot pristine. The first image is the most important because we all read left to right. Right?
The jury returns in July and does a street jurying for the following year's invitations. I am looking forward to being there then and hopefully will be seeing you.
Comments
Thanks, Margaret. I really appreciate your kind words, makes it worthwhile to get up in the morning.
Mixed Media 2D, there is room for around 18 artists in this category. 9 are returning from 2010, there were 68 applicants this year, leaving approximately 9 openings...Not sure when the results are going out, a few weeks from now I believe. Check for that info on Zapp.
yep, that is another thread
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