Art Show Directors -- How we instruct the jury

You are voting on a scale of 1 to 7, with 1 being “good heavens, no, absolutely not” and 7 being your highest vote for “wow, I wish I could create work like that.”  (Please see below for some guidelines on scoring.) The average score needed to call applicants to the Object Jury will be 5 or higher.   PLEASE DO NOT USE THE NUMBER 4!!!    If you give anything a score of 4, I will hunt you down and make you change it.  Don’t make me.

 

Please keep in mind the objective of this group as you view these images and prepare for the object jury in November at Piedmont Craftsmen’s Fair. The Standards Committee searches for new exhibiting members whose body of work, whether one of a kind or production, traditional or contemporary, shows excellence and creativity in concept, design and technique.  

  • Design – is the work creative in concept and/or composed well (i.e. marriage of materials, color, form, line)?
  • Craftsmanship – is the work well-crafted and does it meet an acceptable standard? 
  • Artistic Expression – does the body of work suggest a cohesive statement? 
  • Originality – is the work unlike anyone else’s that you know of?

 

Again, thank you for your time and energy.  I look forward to following your scoring and comments.

 

Scoring guidelines:

Remember, you are scoring on a scale of 1 to 7.  It’s not a simple up or down vote.  Allow for shades of gray.  Use your 1 and 7 votes fairly.  One way to look at it: use 1 (low score) or 7 (high score) only if the work makes you gasp, either in horror or with pleasure.

 

Another way to look at it:  (credit to one of our exhibiting members for coming up with these descriptions several years ago)

 

1 point--These objects should not be seen in public unless your 6 year old made them.
2 points--Maybe these objects would be at home in a street fair.
3 points--Good ideas poorly executed, or lousy ideas well executed.
4 points-- HA!!!! GOTCHA!! There is no 4.  Get off the fence.  Either you’re for it or against it.

5 points—Promising work that is probably worthwhile, but can only be scored completely if seen first-hand
6 points-- Good ideas and strong execution, unique interesting work.
7 points—I am overcome with a mix of pleasure, covetousness and envy.  Damn, I wish I could say I had done that.

Deb Britton, Piedmont Craftsmen Fair and Membership Services, PiedmontCraftsmen.org

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I hope some other shows will chime in. Please post your responses in the comments below. 

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Comments

  • This is directed to Joan and any other show directors that collect comments from the jurors and give them to the artists. I've had a number of artists contact me about comments they received from the same show. Uninteresting work, weird, low level of craftsmanship, don't like the color. These are some of the unhelpful, unconstructive comments given to artists who were rejected. They appear to be a juror's personal opinion that has nothing to do with the competence of the art or artist or being able to learn and improve from the feedback. I should also say that one the artists that received these comments has regularly gotten into shows like Cherry Creek, St Louis, and Fort Worth, three of the top shows in the country.

    Larry Berman
    http://BermanGraphics.com
    412-401-8100

  • I can attest to Joan's helpfulness when I was not accepted to Leeper Park.  She let me know not only what was not up to par, but gave me some suggestions as to how to improve.

  • and I thank you, Joan, for this information. Every show is different and the more shows that share their information is helpful. One of the charms and challenges of this business is the lack of uniformity in just about all aspects. Most shows, like yours, seem to develop a system that works best for them in choosing their exhibitors. That wide scoring ability for Leeper Park really helps sort out and it sounds like there is pretty much a committee approach for the final choices. Is that correct?

  • I oversee the applications for the Leeper Park art fair in South Bend IN. We have 7 jurors, with expertise in various media. They score each applicant on 4 criteria: Originality, Overall Craftsmanship, Difficulty and Presentation. (Booth) They give each category a score of 1-10, and are encouraged to add any comments, positive or negative. The average score for each applicant pretty well determines accept, WL or reject, with any comments helpful in sorting out tie scores. Rejected applicants are given the opportunity to see their scores and any comments, and many of them do ask for them. (That's my job, to give them their scores and try to be as helpful as possible.) 

  • Thank you Connie for making this topic so clear for all of us.

  • Thanks, Alli, for this comment. It is useful for artists following this forum, especially people new to the business. There is a lot of focus on the large shows that get upwards of 500 applications, yet the basis of entry into the art fair business is often smaller events like yours. Many artists who are doing the larger festivals fill in other dates with smaller shows to keep the cash flowing. We always applied for the big shows but always had a list of smaller shows for back up when we weren't accepted at the others, or if they were relatively local we would keep them in our schedule for the reliability and also because we could build a dependable clientele and very friendly weekend with old friends set up nearby and show directors we knew on a personal level.

  •  I and a couple or three others "jury" a very small art/craft show in Michigan every summer. We have a strict set of rules pertaining to the art and craft allowed in, and that's about the extent of what we "jury". We don't jury creativity. We don't jury skill or "goodness" or conformity. We look at the criteria in our rules--no buy/sell, must be original work created by the artist, the artist must be present in their booth for the entire day, the booth must have at least a neat look to it and be able to withstand the vagaries of Midwest weather. If we get a lot of participants in the same discipline--ceramics or jewelry, for instance--that's fine. It makes for a great marketplace for folks who may come looking for that very thing. We don't discriminate at all by choice of media.

    As a result, our exhibitors are self-jurying. If they do well at the event, they apply again next year and we welcome them. If they don't, they take themselves out. 

    I guess to sum it up, I would have to say that the organization to which I belong and which sponsors our show is not trying to portray itself as exclusive or prestigious or anything but local artists appealing to a local market with hand-made art. These conditions allow us to maintain a smaller show without the need to worry about jurying out excess participants. If we ever get to the point where our show is a huge operation we would probably have to rethink this. Which would be unfortunate.

  • Thanks very much to the art fair directors who are taking the time to explain how they direct their juries.  To me sitting beside my computer waiting for the results to be posted, it seems as if the application disappears into a black void, who knows what goes on! :)

  • From Maureen Riley of the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, the Original

    Click here are the jury directions: How%20the%20Jury%20Works%20--AA.pdf

    And here is her commentary on their jury process:

    In addition, I give instructions to the jurors before they start, reiterating the above and adding more detail.  We encourage jurors to use the full range of scores…including 1’s and 7’s, as we need the full breadth of scoring in order to not end up with too many people scoring the same. We discourage the use of 4’s.

     

    On occasion we will have a juror who will score everyone low and won’t give anyone’s work a 7.  We also see jurors who score high and would never give someone a 1.  That is why we average the scores of the 5 jurors and assign a single score to the application.  One person’s score can’t outweigh the majority. 

     

    As you can see above, our jury process allows for a discussion round and because we can see everyone’s scores in real time on the administration computer, we call out applications where there is a wide range of scores.  We ask the jurors to discuss the application, i.e, why did some of you score it high, why some low.  As a result of this discussion, a juror may change their score (either up or down!) or it may stay the same….with widely different opinions about the work.  Additionally, sometimes a “1” can simply mean that the juror doesn’t think the work belongs in our show.

     

    I hope this is helpful.

     

    Mo

    Maureen Riley
    Executive Director

    Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, the Original

  • This is from an email from Kathleen Hughes of the La Quinta Arts Festival:

    La Quinta Arts Festival’s 2018 Jury Process consisted of four to five Jury Members depending on category utilizing a combination of Art Professionals and Peer Artists, who independently scored your media. Each of the Jury Members is extremely knowledgeable in your media and is selected to jury only one category of art. For example in the media of Jewelry the two professionals were a professor from Gem Institute of America and a buyer for Tiffany’s. The three peer artists are previous award winners or Artist Advisors and are evaluating your booth display, overall quality of work and to create a balance of jewelry styles in the show. Lastly it is most important to ensure the jewelry is not buy/sell.  One of the benefits of jurying online is that the juror is able to review their scores and can spend up to three days evaluating the category of art they have been assigned. It is based on scores from 1 (being low) to 7 (being high). Jury members are changed each year as we realize judging is subjective.

     

    Hope this is what you were seeking!

    Kathleen Hughes
    Events Manager

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