During this week's Art Fair Insiders podcast, Connie Mettler spoke with Stephen King (Des Moines Arts Festival) and Cindy Lerick (Saint Louis Art Fair). Both of these events utilize the ZAPPlication® system to collect and adjudicate their applications. If you missed the podcast, you can find out all about it and how to listen to the recording at: http://www.artfairinsiders.com/profiles/blogs/podcast-5-pm-2-27-art-fair-directors-cindy-lerick-stephen-king
During the podcast a question came up regarding how applications can be sub-sorted within the ZAPP® jury process. Events that license the ZAPP® system can choose to sub-sort applications within each medium category by Application ID#, Date Received, or Last Name. Here's what each of those options means:
Application ID#: A number generated when the application is first started. This number is unique to this application for this specific event and event year. Artists who started applications early in the time the application was open will appear before those who started applications later in the cycle.
Date Received: This option sorts the applications based on the submission time stamp (date and time the application was submitted). Artists who submit applications early on will appear earlier in the slide-show. It is our understanding that most events which utilize ZAPP® use this option so that artists who submit first are given the first look by jurors.
Last Name: This option sorts the applications within a medium category alphabetically (A-Z) by last name. Sorting in this manner does not necessarily mean that jurors can see applicant last names. We believe most events do a blind jury process (meaning artist last names are not visible by the jurors), so for events who might utilize this option, only the jury administrator would know that the applications are sorted in this manner.
Hopefully this information is helpful to you and clears up an unanswered question from this most recent podcast! As a reminder, ZAPP® is a software tool that events can use for their application and jury processes. Events determine their own individual policies regarding deadlines, jury processes, and other related items. The ZAPP® system provides options and tools to help administrators with their event management but ZAPP® does not manage these events nor dictate their show policies.
Artists with questions about an event's policy or jury process should contact the event directly as each show has varied policies and procedures.
Cheers!
Leah, Manager of ZAPP®
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Comments
For the most part, shows using ZAPP only accept applications through ZAPP. Occasionally a new show will take paper applications the first year they use ZAPP, but will drop that as it creates a lot of additional work for them.
Look at my web site for information on formatting images for ZAPP. And remember the formatting is the easy part. The images need to be color corrected and cropped to optimize how they appear to the jurors before the formatting.
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100
Larry,
I am also confused about Zapp. I have never used it because I don't seem to be able to get my pictures to the pixel they want. I am not really computer literate. Does using Zapp give you an edge versus applying directly to the show?
This column is so helpful. I am grateful that it exists.
The application ID# shouldn't be an option for the shows in sorting the applicants for jurying. What it does is allow artists to start the application the first day or early in the time period that the application is open and then complete it at the last minute, knowing their images will appear early in their category. Of the three options, it's the least fair as it gives artists an edge by working the system.
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100
Thanks so much, Leah. This is exactly the info I was looking for and answers questions for me. Don't know about the other guys ;) I've asked this question of several sources in the last year and was never able to get the definitive answer, especially about that application #. As I think about this it seems as though application ID# could be pretty much in line with Date Received. That is, if the artist starts the application, completes it and sends it in then. Right?