This is Kathy Coons writing, not Don. I am standing on my soapbox!
We were at the Smoky Hill River Festival in Salina, KS last weekend. As bored artists are wont to do, conversations ensued. The favorite topic is of course, "Why can't I get into shows anymore?" Well, the conjecture seemed to revolve around, "It's Zapplications fault!" There is a rumor (I call it a conspiracy theory) that Zapp offers shows the opportunity to have Zapp jury the show for them. They pay extra for this service and that the bigger shows do this, i.e. Cherry Creek, St. Louis, etc...This presents a very real chance for unfair bias, or vendetta's against certain artists or styles. This is why established artists are not getting accepted into shows that they routinely or at least occasionally used to be invited to.
Does anyone have any solid evidence for this? And why would a show do this? More importantly, Why would Zapp risk their reputation by doing this? I guess it could cut down on the promoters expenses by not finding, bringing in jurors, housing and feeding them. But it seems like the shows would want to change up jurors every year, and have a choice in who picked their shows.
I can imagine that this "jury" would get really tired of seeing the same images, over and over. They would be inclined to say, "Seen it, been there, done that, rejected."
So, if this is the case, do we need to get a new body of work images as well as a new booth slide every year! It is quite a challenge to come up with a new set of jury quality work, have the pieces professionally photographed and go to the expense of framing them. And then finding a place and appropriate light to set up your entire display, set it up, photograph it, tear it all down, pack it up again. Hey folks, many of us are retirement age. This is a lot to ask of a greying population of artists!
Why do the applications rarely tell artists who the jurors are? I think that is a fair question. Why would a traditional painter apply to a show with only contemporary museum quality jurors? I would think shows would want one experienced art fair artist on their jury. Don't they realize that the reason shows are in business is to provide the public and the artists a chance to meet and buy art goods for their home? Most people want a good mix of art to choose from. Not all Realism or Nonobjective art.
So, has anyone else heard of this?? Anyone have any proof?? If it's not true, then we should quit speculating. If it is true we should be uproarious with our hearty disapproval.
