Forum

I recently attended an art show that I had had great success with years ago but an annual family vacation prevented me from attending the past few years.     I had asked a few other artists how the show was doing before I applied and they said they were not returning because the show had gone down hill.    All three said that a jury process was occuring the day of the show... meaning you would stand in line for 10 or 15 minutes while a person who had not applied paid cash and looked around for their favorite spot to fill at the show,  meanwhile the artist waiting had applied early and not been given a choice of spots and although there were three people seated at the check-in table they would only work with one artist at a time.   In one case the artist in line on Saturday was a jeweler and the person being added at the last minute was a jeweler too... but instead of doing original work  the last minute artist just strung beads.  

Even though the show had great weather this past weekend and there were good crowds sales were sluggish.  The lady next to me said down by 1/3 from last year.  For me my sales were down to a total of 1/3 of what I made the last time I did the show.

I wanted to get some feedback from other artists about this practice and the impact it has over the long run on the quality of a show to help give show coordinators who often are not artists themselves an idea of how this jury process might help fill holes in the short run but erode the quality of the show in the long run.    What are your thoughts regarding this practice?