From my mailbox:
Hi Connie,
I work on the arts festivals for _____ ____ on ___ _____. We have a show in the fall, where we try to attract more fine artists, and we provide judging and cash awards. We have one unique very talented artist who has attended for the last several years. She has won the top prize every year for the past several years. Some of our return artists have begun grumbling that she always wins, and propose that there should be a “time out” policy. I think this is probably a good idea, but don’t know how to phrase it.Do you have any suggestions, or know of other shows that have this policy that we could refer to? The show is in September but would like to begin to advertise it now. Thanks for any help!
What do you think? Do you have any suggestions for this show director?
Comments
Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival is a purchase.....$10,000!
Connie,
Two that I can think of offhand are Amish Acres and Allentown, I know there are others, I think several of the Florida shows and after 40 years memory is not as good.
timothy, I agree with you completely!
I personally have no issues with repeat winners as long as the jury process is fair. It very often is not. Each juror should visit each booth (in their category), introduce themselves if possible, and actually look at the work for a reasonable amount of time. You cannot fairly evaluate work on a fly by from 20 feet away. This has gotten to be a big problem (IMHO), and it's very discouraging to see several shows begin to give awards based upon slide submissions, or even preselect award candidates based on slides. If shows cannot commit to fair jury processes, they should reduce booth fees and eliminate prize money.
If Wally doesn't answer the question, I can name a few in Florida. They are the shows that have permanent collections.
It shouldn't matter if the person has never won the award or has won it 10 years in a row. If you pay the booth fee, you should have an equal chance of winning. For those people who are grumbling, work harder, improve the quality of your work and earn the award. To the show director, the most important thing is sales. Work on bringing higher sales, more and better customers. This will attract better artists and the competition will be at a higher level. Then, other people will win the award.
It is discouraging to see the same award winner year after year, even after you have "upped your art and display" to what you feel is award quality work. I've seen judges in one particular show stand in the middle of the aisle, look down the roll of booths, make a few notes on their clip board and walk away. Some judges just seemed to be biased towards one particular art medium or another and don't really check out the work of each artist. At another show, winners are given either free show space or half off to return. Only @half of them returned to do the show again.
I like that idea, Wallace, as long as the winning art work gets fair price.
We do a certain show where they say that the best of show winner is also a purchase award. If you are not willing to sell the work for the Best of show amount you are not eligible.
Have noticed in the past that some artist enter the same art work in show after show and collect awards all year long at various shows. I would like to see all Best of show awards be purchase awards. It would be hard to make category awards also purchase awards , but it is somewhat tiring to see awards go to the same art work win in show after show. We do not mind an artist winning if they are showing different art work.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next